Sometimes listening to nothing but new music – or music unfamiliar to my ears – can be a drain. I’m constantly trying to create context on the fly, thinking about what works, what doesn’t and where a particular song, album, or artist/band fits within my musical worldview, if at all. What I’m saying is sometimes I want to listen to music for comfort, where there is no greater picture to see, and just wrap myself in a warm blanket of music that simply exists to provide a good time. Enter once again Deep Purple, whose 2020 album Whoosh! took a while to get used it, but now can wash over me like a warm bath, leaving me clean and ready to tackle the next thing. Does it really need to be more than that?

That doesn’t mean Whoosh! is a perfect album, or even a great album. I think I prefer the bread in this Deep Purple sandwich: both last year’s =1 and 2017’s Infinite (probably will review that one next) rock harder and showcase a more adventurous side of the band’s songwriting. But in its harder moments it does work: opener “Throw My Bones” has a solid Steve Morse repeating guitar riff buoyed by Don Airey’s stellar Hammond work. And Airey’s keyboards anchor the lyrically on-the-nose rocker “Drop The Weapon” as well as the even more silly and tongue-in cheek “We’re All The Same In The Dark” which, sure…COULD be about how we’re all the same inside despite our background and preferences, but Ian Gillan being Ian Gillan, I suspect this is geared more to the prurient than the chaste, if you catch me..

But it’s a solid if uninspired trio of tracks, just happy to truck along and make you nod your head along. Things get more creative and satisfying with “Nothing At All” and it’s here Steve Morse gets to really shine with that exquisitely articulated riff, anchored again by Airey. This is more Airey’s album than anyone else, really, and I’ve watched interviews with Morse where he expressed a little frustration at how producer Bob Ezrin would restrain him, ostensibly in service to the “song”. Whoosh! is Ezrin’s third go-round with the band, and I think it’s his presence that gave us what amounts to a bunch of concise songs that have extended openings and closings, with maybe two to two and a half minutes of actual “song” to pad it out. But “Nothing At All” breaks from that mold with some killer solos and a baroque, festive spirit that could have come from vinatge Jethro Tull as much as modern Deep Purple.

I wish I felt the same about the tepid “Step By Step” that aims for ominous but comes off as sleepy, or the truly lackluster boogie of “What The What”. But those are small sins in an otherwise fine album. Particularly fine is the 1-2 punch of “Remission Possible” and “Man Alive” which should have closed the album out (sorry, but I think ending on the 2020 version of “Add The Address” was a huge mistake and lengthens the album for no good reason). At just over a minute and a half “Remission Possible” is a killer instrumental showing how good Morse and Airey are – they light the entire place up with their runs and licks. It also acts as the prelude to “Main Alive” which is perhaps the proggiest song on Whoosh!, and gives the album its name with Gillan’s narration, incidentally also explaining away the superb cover art by Jekyll & Hyde.

Despite the above misgivings, I can admit Whoosh! goes down super easy, even if the lack of any aftertaste finds me wanting for deeper, more meaningful content from the band. I wish Morse was more present in the mix, especially as this turned out to be his swansong with the band, but that’s a small complaint considering the great output he did have with the band.

Anyway, that’s Whoosh!. Enjoy.