There were many incarnations of Deep Purple due to numerous personnel
changes throughout the years. This is the album where the most popular
lineup from Deep Purple got back together to record another album. It
was the same lineup as the 1972 album Machine Head. It's a tossup as
to which of the two is the better album. Machine Head had "Highway
Star" and Perfect Strangers had "Knocking at Your Back Door".
Machine
Head had "Smoke on the Water" but Perfect Stranger's title track was
great too! Oh what to do! I know, Buy both, because that's what I did.
The real tiebreaker was the fact that after deep Purple broke up,
Ritchie Blackmore became a better guitar player. So when they
reunited, he had some chops he didn't have before that. I would also
recommend Deepest Purple (1980) for someone who just wants a sample of
Purple before they'd go and buy a non-compilation CD. |