release date: Jul. 1971
format: vinyl (SHVL 793) / digital (2008 remaster)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,63]
producer: Deep Purple
label: Harvest Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: A) 1. "Fireball" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "No No No" (4 / 5) - 3*. "Demon's Eye" (4 / 5) - 4. "Anyone's Daughter" (4 / 5) - - B) 1. "The Mule" (5 / 5) - 2. "Fools" (4 / 5) - 3. "No One Came" (3,5 / 5)
*(On the org. US and Canadian release the track is replaced by "Strange Kind of a Woman")
5th studio album by Deep Purple produced by the band. The album had its first release on Warner Bros. in the US and Canada Jul. '71, which was followed by its European release on Harvest Records (sublabel of EMI) Sep. 71 following the same recipe by releasing in the US first.
With Deep Purple in Rock (1970) the band had taken a remarkable stand and positioned itself as one of the most original and hard rockin' bands of the early '70s but with this they extent their repertoire to embrace an experimental hard rock style they unfortunately abandoned after this.
With this Deep Purple made its first number #1 charting album in the UK, which it copied in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Germany, and critics were delighted about the album.
I received a bag of vinyl albums including eight Deep Purple albums by my older brother when he moved out of our family home at some point back in the late 1970s when I was 13. The album was one of several Deep Purple albums that he gave me on that occasion but this one has always been my favourite by the band. Even in '78, I think this had a modern sound, and I really like the production side of it. To me, the title track and the instrumental "The Mule" are the album's true highlights but really, it doesn't contain fillers or mediocre tracks.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]
1971 Favourite releases: 1. Deep Purple "Fireball" - 2. Joni Mitchell "Blue" - 3. T. Rex "Electric Warrior"
