NOW What?!, the 19th studio album from Deep Purple, reached Gold Status in Germany, Russia, Czech Republic and Poland, not to mention the fact the band has made a very much deserved return to the British Top-20 for the first time in 20 years. To celebrate the success of the album and the support of one of the greatest fan bases known in rock history, NOW What?! will be released on January 21st, 2014 as a Golden Deluxe Edition. [MSRP $20.98 2CD, $59.98 Boxed set] The boxed set will be available exclusively via Amazon.
NOW What?! Gold Edition 2CD, packaged in a luxurious gold cover, will also include two bonus songs on disc 1 (a stunning cover of Jerry Lee Lewis’ It’ll Be Me, and the rare B-side First Sign Of Madness, previously only available digitally and on the CD single Vincent Price), and an extra live disc. The bonus disc consists of over 70 minutes of unreleased live music recorded during the summer shows (The NOW What?! Live Tapes).
The live recordings show a band that still love to improvise like only few others can, changing the classic songs all the time and challenging themselves. Still, that magic sound is there, as if time could do nothing against it. In an era when live albums are too often not much more than a studio exercise, one cannot help admiring the musicianship and the groove coming out of the speakers, especially considering that the record shows exactly what came out of the amplifiers on those nights. Great care has been paid to present this extra disc in a stunning hi-fi quality, still preserving its authenticity.
The studio album and this exceptional live album are sold together with the inclusion of a brand new booklet to support the second disc, with notes by Ian Gillan.
The NOW What?! Boxed Set includes The NOW What?! Live Tapes, a DVD with a 20-minute interview, NOW What?! The Singles (All The Time In The World, Vincent Price, Above And Beyond,), exclusive t-shirt (large), exclusive poster, and collectible sticker.
The NOW What?! track listing:
CD1
1. A Simple Song
2 . Weirdistan
3. Out Of Hand
4 . Hell To Pay
5 . BodyLine
6 . Above and Beyond
7. Blood From A Stone
8 . Uncommon Man
9. Après Vous
10. All The Time in The World
11. Vincent Price
Bonus Tracks
12. It’ll Be Me
13. First Sign Of Madness
CD2
The NOW WHAT?! Live Tapes
1. Strange Kind Of Woman (Live in Rome)
2. Hard Loving Man (Live in Aalborg)
3. Vincent Price (Live in Aalborg)
4. Contact Lost (Live in Aalborg)
5. All The Time in The World (Live in Milan)
6. No One Came (Live in Gaevle)
7. BodyLine (Live in Rome)
8. Perfect Strangers (Live in Gaevle)
9. Above And Beyond (Live in Milan)
10. Lazy (Live in Gaevle)
11. Black Night (Live in Rome)
12. Smoke On The Water (Live in Rome)
10 Responses
I am glad the guys in DP are selling some CDs in this “free music” era. But I can think of a dozen DP CSs I’d buy before this one, especially if you include the live stuff. I thought “Hell to Pay” was pretty weak. “Vincent Price” was a little better, but still – nowhere’s near the classic stuff. 30 years ago this release would be an Ian Gillan solo project with no Blackmore or Lord. That’s kind of like Halford without KK or Glenn. But they need to make money . I haven’t heard Eddie’s take on this release. I know he hasn’t been the biggest fan of the latest incarnation.
I meant CDs I’d buy!
Like most, being a big Blackmore fan – its hard to appreciate anything after him. This release was better than I thought it would be. But again like you the Blackmore stuff eclipses anything else this band does. I give Ian Gillain a tonne of credit for keeping DP going and somewhat relevant after all these years. I saw them about 5 or 6 years ago and just kept thinking how much I wanted Richie on stage. Its not fair to the other guys in the band to think that way. But for me, he is ‘the’ guitarist for DP.
Blackmore’s the man. The amount of success he had with Rainbow was impressive. He had hits with three different vocalists and too many line-ups to keep track of.
Yup, and his stuff in Rainbow was even better than his stuff in DP – IMO. Eddie, don’t you somewhat close to him? Couldn’t you rent a centaur and ride it to his place while playing a lute and see if you can get him to plug his guitar back in and at least revisit some Rainbow stuff?
LL Cool J Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame. 1972 Deep Purple hitting the deck hard at Madison Square Garden not. God help us all. Deep Purple & Scorpions east of France are just massive in popularity, incredible.
Very good CD by a great band…much more diverse than that turd of a release by black sabbath….my advice is to crank up Now What when you listen to it. The album sold well everywhere across the world, except here in the US where DP has turned its back. It did chart somewhere just outside 100. Love the song Weirdistan and Roger’s thumping bass.
Great addition for true deep purple fans
Yes. Remember “true fans” gobble everything their bands produce hook, line and sinker. It’s kind of like football. The true fans of the team should be out there supporting their players/team in 5 degree weather when their team is 1-14. Have fun with that.
You true fans keep supporting DP – which in my opinion is only DP in name. Ask someone 30 years ago if you could have a Deep Purple without Jon Lord or Ritchie Blackmore. Crazy thought. It’s like Blackmore having Joe Lynn Turner and Roger Glover and calling it DP. Morse shouldn’t be up there. I’d have more respect if they’d hired Yngwie.
A great album by a great band. The singles released from the album weren’t the best songs from the album IMO. There are much better songs on the album. Hell to Pay and Vincent Price are two of the weaker songs on the album.
You people that keep crying about Blackmore need to give it up. Steve Morse is the best player for this band and Blackmore isn’t coming back. Don Airey is the best keyboard player for this band and John Lord RIP isn’t coming back either.
It is too bad that they aren’t bigger in America. People here just like to listen to shitty Nickelback and Kid Rock I guess.