Deep Purple – Rapture of The Deep (Limited Touredition)

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Edel Records
Produced by Michael Bradford

Do special editions after the event annoy anyone else? Now all the Deep Purple fans who bought Rapture of The Deep when it came out over seven months ago have to buy the same CD all over again to get the new bonus tracks. At least the band put their foot down on this occasion and forced the record company to make the release better than they were originally intending.

Rapture of The Deep, the latest album from the English rock legends, was first released back in October last year through German label Edel Records. There was a special edition at the time which came in a nice tin and featured the exclusive bonus track MTV. There was also a special edition in Japan featuring the bonus track Things I Never Said. So, of course, all the Japanese fans rushed out to pirate their version while all the European fans rushed out to buy their version. American fans didn’t have much of a choice, they just got the standard ten-track album.

Now, over half-way through the band’s supporting World tour, Europe gets a special tour edition, which, under pressure from the band and after the resulting release delay to include the additional material, features a second eight-track disc of new and rare tracks. The main album disc includes the previous bonus track MTV, while the second disc includes the previously mentioned Japan bonus track, plus the download-only instrumental track The Well-dressed Guitar, a staple of the Purple live set for a few years, a new version of the album track Clearly Quite Absurd, and five live tracks recorded last year at the Hard Rock Café in London at the release party for the album.

Things don’t really start well for the new disc (there’s no point talking about the first disc, we did that already). The new version of Clearly Quite Absurd is merely a more mellow, piano-led version and isn’t as good as the original, while Japan bonus track Things I Never Said, bizarrely included in recent European set lists, presumably to heighten awareness of this re-release, was left off the main album for a good reason. After this opening brace of weakness however, The Well-Dressed Guitar amply shows off the musical prowess of the band members, guitarist Steve Morse in particular, before the excellent live recordings, exclusive to this release, capture the current Gillan-Glover-Paice-Morse-Airey line-up perfectly. New songs Rapture of The Deep and the remarkably heavy Wrong Man sit neatly alongside new versions of the classics Highway Star, Perfect Strangers and the eternal Smoke On The Water. Not the most inspired selections, but cracking version all the same.

It should come as something of a relief to fans that the band pressured Edel into making this re-release what it is, because initially it was only intended to include Things I Never Said and some of the live songs. This doesn’t excuse the obvious fact that many die-hard fans will now need to purchase a second version of an album they’ve already bought, but it does at least make this additional expenditure less of a kick in the teeth. If you don’t already have this album, and have enjoyed the Steve Morse-era Deep Purple material so far, this is the version of the album to get. If you do already have it, strongly consider this new edition at a sensible price because you’re getting a disc-full of songs you don’t already have, which is certainly worth it.

“ new and rare ”

Tracklist:
CD1 – Money Talks / Girls Like That / Wrong Man / Rapture of The Deep / Clearly Quite Absurd / Don’t Let Go / Back To Back / Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye / Junkyard Blues / Before Time Began
CD2 – Clearly Quite Absurd – New Version / Things I Never Said / The Well-Dressed Guitar / Rapture of The Deep (Live) / Wrong Man (Live) / Highway Star (Live) / Smoke On The Water (Live) / Perfect Strangers (Live)

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Hard Rock, Deep Purple