All Deep Purple Albums Ranked, From Best to Worst
Deep Purple is a deeply conflicting band for most rock music fans. On one hand, you have to say that their music is inescapable, and captures something exquisite about the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of peaceful protest through music, and wondering if you could have a band where all five members had moustaches.
Of course, the answer to that question is yes.
But how much music Deep Purple has made lives on in album form? This article aims to answer that question and try to figure out if this band may be the first example of a singles-only group. We cannot deny the ubiquity of Smoke on the Water, or Burn, or Perfect Strangers.
In contemporary society, we listen to singles more than we listen to records. Oftentimes, artists will not even worry about dropping an album because a single will get on a playlist, and then that is the definition for that artist. But in the ‘60s and ‘70s, you could not survive just being a singles artist because you wouldn’t get that much money from AirPlay but from moving physical album sales.
As we will investigate through this article, a few records sold quite a bit, but everything in the lower tier is under 100,000, with one record, in particular, sales data showing only sold under 1000 albums. This is a band whose career asks more questions than provides answers.
As always, I will break down their albums into three categories, with some taken less seriously than others. I hope this will provide you with a great starting point to investigate this artist while also pointing out pitfalls for you to avoid.
Top Tier
The top tier consists of albums that have sold a large number of records, and have the most popular albums that Deep Purple has ever produced.
“Machine Head” (1972)
The best album by Deep Purple is indisputable. The best album of all time by Deep Purple is Machine Head. Not only from its role in pop culture but in the way that it cemented Deep Purple as a band in the zeitgeist of all ‘60s and ‘70s rock bands. Unfortunately, this band is one of these instrumental groups that started suffering from success — this album marks not only the commercial peak of their 50-year career but also arguably the time they’re most apt at representing in time.
While we have plenty of records to talk about, none captures just how exciting this band was. Unabashed hard-panned guitars, long instrumental sections, virtuosic bass playing that wasn’t just a joke (looking at you, Spinal Tap), and legit proto-prog overdubbed guitars.
We also have the most commercial success in a film coming from this album, with their sound acting as the signifier in the film “We are in the early 70s”. The biggest example of this, an ode to pot-smoking rebellious long-haired hippies, Smoke On The Water was featured in Almost Famous, and similarly, in Dazed and Confused, we have Space Truckin’, as our characters prepare for light-hearted vintage mischief.
“Deep Purple in Rock” (1970)
Arguably the most iconic of their album covers. If you’ve ever looked at records in a small-town thrift store, you’ve seen this image of five guys carved into Mt. Rushmore and thought to yourself. … “Did so many presidents have… moustaches?”
Is there anything more 70s than super shredding guitars coming in straight off the album, to be replaced by semi-religious organ music? A timeless classic that was played on heavy rotation by my father, your father, and all of their brothers.
“Who Do We Think We Are” (1973)
Featuring the enigmatic song, “Woman from Tokyo”, this title track falls alongside the many white-dude bands obsessed with Japan in the mid-70s. It was a strange period, and some great music came out of it, even if it might be just on the edge of being creepy. Were Deep Purple… Weebs? Perhaps.
We know they weren’t basement dwellers because of how incredibly successful and often they were on tour, but we can’t speak to their obsession. We’re obsessed with the music!
“Burn” (1974)
Featuring David Coverdale famously from WHITESNAKE, on vocals on the title track, BURN. Unfortunately for my money, this is the least impactful of all of the Deep Purple Hits. Why is this in the top tier of their albums?
Because I think this marks the real point of their creativity and collective oeuvre For the band. This is the time when the group all coalesced and the backing instruments and the solos and the organ parts are all as interesting and gel together as one another, I just happened to not really like the single very much.
It is additionally disappointing when you realize that from this point on in their career they really only have one more hit album and it’s 10 years later exactly, so we see the band sort of start to shake their foundation and try to figure out what happens next for the group, and floundering trying to find that answer.
“Perfect Strangers” (1984)
Knocking at Your Back Door is a bizarre song that features some unique synthesizers, especially for the time – but today they’re even stranger than back then. I am crazy and willing to completely commit to the aesthetic of synthesized orchestra and rock guitar. Still talking quite a bit about samurai, which supports the theory!
1984 was a hard time to be a rock band because there was another very important band that released a rock album this year. VAN HALEN made perhaps the most iconic album of 1984, called 1984, and all guitarists shook in their lycra leggings after hearing the intro to Hot For Teacher, or the insane key change solo on JUMP!
Also this album, for all the good parts, has a lot of sneaking in melodies from famous songs. This one is no different, Where in the song Under the gun for some reason, they decide the best thing to do is to play the main riff from “Pomp and Circumstance”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t know what that song is, but if you’ve ever been to a high school or university graduation you’ve heard it before why it is in the middle of a rock song, who knows, but the 80s were crazy.
“Shades of Deep Purple” (1968)
While “Hush” was a big hit for the band in 1974, this album has never really done anything for me. The band, if you can pardon a pun, had reached sort of a one-note style that didn’t start to percolate into what would become their eventual classic-rock definitive influence until the 1970s and the early few albums don’t do anything for me. I always compare this to something like Black Sabbath, where we can very easily look at their best and worst albums.
Unlike Black Sabbath, who started at the beginning of their career as good as they would get, almost fully formed as the badasses of rock we know them as with Deep Purple, it took a bit of time for them to really identify and fully charge their sound.
Mid Tier
Not bad, not good. That’s how you’d describe the mid tier. Most of these albums are labeled as mediocre by many. However, you will find a hit single here and there.
“The Book of Taliesyn” (1968)
Our research on the Internet shows that this record has sold 1000 records. I don’t know how that is possible, but if you are reading this, I think you should listen to this album. We gotta juice these numbers.
Every Rock band in the mid-60s had to have a concept album, and often that concept was not as interesting as the things that inspired it. And if you were a rock band, you had to get your inspiration from somewhere. We know Deep Purple is not Irish, but they decided to make this album all about an Irish poet and barred from the 6th century. How relatable!
Taliesyn, an early poet in Brittonic tradition, hailed from Sub-Roman Britain, and traces of his work potentially endure in the Middle Welsh manuscript known as the Book of Taliesin. This distinguished bard, Taliesyn, is thought to have graced the courts of at least three monarchs with his melodic verses.
“Deep Purple” (1969)
Selling under 300,000 records, for an album That is only your third album is nothing to shake a stick at. It’s quite an accomplishment in an error pre-Internet, who knows, maybe if Deep Purple had just gotten lucky with more radio play, we would be talking about them instead of Led Zeppelin.
But we are in a different time, and for all the gravitas and courage it takes to name your album after the name of the band, I don’t think this record is quite as impressive as they wanted it to be. In about three more years they will figure everything out and have their longest run until about 1984 when all the records are good, and then we get a big drop-off.
“Fireball” (1971)
It is a hilarious album cover that is reminiscent of Boston’s early records. Selling 550,000 records is also an incredible feat, But unfortunately, there are no real big hits from any of these records. This album sounds more like a jam band, and some people are super into that.
However, I’m not one of those people who is into that. My time is a bit more valuable than listening to these guys try to figure out their guitar and bass parts in between bong rips and moustache wax.
“Stormbringer” (1974)
Another common thing amongst metal fans is a love of all things sci-fi and fantasy, so when I, a man of a certain age, Read the word Stormbringer it means something completely different. As much as I want to talk about World of Warcraft, and it is kind of a little bit, instead, I have to talk about a very deeply disappointing record. Matched possibly only by the following 11 albums, holy cow they made so many albums.
One of them is called bananas are you kidding? It’s just called bananas.
“Come Taste the Band” (1975)
I don’t want to taste the band, but the 70s were a different time. This record is kind of fun, but maybe not worth explaining how much explaining you have to do when you are trying to show your friends, and they ask what the record is called.
I particularly love his drumming on this album, because there are so many interesting details Tom and I had felt, that we’re kind of unusual for this style and period of drumming.
Low Tier
There’s kind of no getting around it, all of these records are bad. I don’t know who is paying for them, or if the residuals from Smoke on the Water being the first song that every guitar player learned in the 80s pay royalty checks. No one can know for sure.
Not a single record on this lower tier has sold over 100,000 records, most of them not over 50,000 records.
“The House of Blue Light” (1987)
We get it, Deep Purple. Your band is named after a colour, and at a certain point, you run out of ways to make a joke about how many colours it is. But also, maybe you should have just called it “The House of Bud Light” and left it at that.
“S**** and Masters” (1990)
Or This one? What the hell what is this even? Why is it called S**** And Masters? Is it a political statement? Is it an off-color joke made by a 60-year-old man who eats his cereal not with milk, but with coc***** he has mixed with water? Who could have said yes to this?
“The Battle Rages On…” (1993)
I’ve never seen a lot of these before. Not even in the deepest, dank part of my pothead uncle’s record collection have I seen this album cover before, because I would have said aloud, “What the f***”. Does this dragon. Have a dragon for a tail? What is happening in this?
“Purpendicular” (1996)
Released 22 albums, and at least 10 of them are jokes about the colour purple. This one is maybe the worst, lowest quality, obvious choice of a joke title.
“Abandon” (1998)
A pretty cool album cover, with no interesting music found. I swear for one of the songs it sounds like someone left their synthesizer on and then walked out of the studio. I have no way of verifying this, but I don’t think a lot of people were paying attention. Under 10,000 records sold.
“Bananas” (2003)
Woody Allen made a movie about the dictatorship in South America, called Bananas. That was in 1971. That was the worst title for a movie about US national foreign policy, interacting with global markets, and installing shadow governments.
Why on earth would you choose to make an album with the same title, about bananas, but 42 years later? Looks like the guy on the cover is also wondering that same question
“InFinite” (2017)
15 years later, let’s make another record, but only if we all agree to a lame title joke.
Did you know that words are made up of smaller words? No way man, Dad’s just too crazy. Maybe the amassing, Endless infinite, which compromises all things alive and dead could be thought of differently. Maybe it is In Finite. Get it?
No, no one got this record.
“Whoosh!” (2020)
I threw this album on and honestly honestly it isn’t as bad as all the rest of them, and the production quality is actually kind of faithful to the early albums. But at a certain point, you gotta wonder, “Is this dead rock band better than the dead rock band down the street?”
Or have they just been doing it for 60 years?
Practice practice practice.
