release date: Mar. 25, 1972
format: vinyl (TPSA 7504) / cd (2008 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Deep Purple
label: Purple Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: A) 1. "Highway Star" (4 / 5) - 2. "Maybe I'm a Leo" (3 / 5) - 3. "Pictures of Home" (2,5 / 5) - 4. "Never Before" (2,5 / 5) - - B) 1. "Smoke on the Water" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Lazy" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Space Truckin' (3 / 5)
6th studio album by Deep Purple is once again produced by the band, and it's the first album to be released on their own new-founded label Purple Records.
The band continue its grounding in hard rock with strong bonds to the album Deep Purple in Rock (1970) as contrary to the predecessor Fireball (1971) as the band has returned to play more simple and direct heavy rock based on blues rock, which means a move away from the progressive and experimental touches one finds on the '71 album.
Chart wise, the album was even bigger success than the predecessor topping the national albums chart list and reaching the same top position in many countries, and for the first time making a top-10 in the US with a position as number #7 on the Billboard 200, and it's the first (of just two) Deep Purple albums to sell Platinum in the US (the other being Perfect Strangers from 1984).
Machine Head is famous for the band's biggest ever hit "Smoke on the Water". Personally, I have always liked the band's more instrumental and progressive tracks, and "Lazy" is in my mind the perhaps most complex and best track of the album. It's undoubtedly a classic album, but I find that it's a bit uneven. It has 3 great and unforgettable tracks but also its lows are not memorable. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 5 / 5 stars ]
