Tag: deep purple

holiday 2025 - a small batch of vinyl records and a box set laying on my futon. We got some Eater, Henry Cow, Albert King, Patti Smith, Art Blakey with Thelonius Monk, and Fugees
Miscellany

Holiday Pickups, Sonic Addictions, & Looking Ahead

Happy New Year. I started writing this yesterday, but that’s indicative of how 2025 went, generally. It’s been a year, in other words, one I’d rather forget. Except for the music, that is. Pretty soon I’ll kick off all the various end-of-year lists, but before fully shoving 2025’s ass out the door I wanted to take a few minutes and look back over some of my discoveries, addictions, and other music-related highlights of the year. It’s also been a hot minute since I did one of those “What I got over the holiday/break/vacation” deals, so we’ll start with the incoming holiday music (pictured in the header) and move on to my other predilections and penchants when it came to music in 2025.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 65: Missing Sun

It’s official: on Thursday we unpacked our son in his dorm room, said our goodbyes, and became empty nesters. One of the biggest gifts I could give him (besides paying for college) was letting him pick the tunes on the trip up, and so a portion of the playlist this week are the tunes he asked for to calm his nerves. The other songs are the ones I used to calm my nerves, and to help get through the emotional rollercoaster of missing his presence. Which means not a lot of commentary this week, hopefully things will get back to some semblance of normality for the next one.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 61: Crawling Back

I’m starting to feel a little more solid. Maybe that’s the effect of two weeks on this medication, or the fact I’ve gotten at least seven hours of sleep the past two nights, or that I took a day off work. Probably a combination of all the above, plus a generous dose of Deep Purple. I have no idea why, but they’ve been a salve these past few weeks when it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on anything. I promise the playlist has other stuff besides them, though.

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deep purple - whoosh!
CD

Deep Purple: Whoosh! (2020)

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?

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 45: I Am Your AI DJ…

I’m rushing this one out because I’m about to leave for vacation and just want to shut the world out. So I went over to Apple Music and saw they had a “Station For You”. Station for me? AI algorithms it is. Let’s see what the machine powers think I want to hear at 3:30am because I can’t sleep due to crippling anxiety over every minute detail of getting to the airport, getting through security, getting on the plane, getting to my designation, getting through Customs and finding a way to my hotel. Maybe I’ll edit this later once I’m in a saner frame of mind…

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deep purple - machine head
Vinyl

Deep Purple: Machine Head (1972)

I know I’ve gone on record on multiple occasions citing my distaste for those people who think the only “real” Deep Purple was when Ritchie Blackmore was in the band, especially when considered against the man’s output for the past 30 or so years. What probably wasn’t as clear is that I still do consider his output – both in Deep Purple and other bands (well, really just early Rainbow) – as pretty damn great. He’s just not the sole reason to love Deep Purple, who have proved again and again that even with a rotating cast of guitar players they are capable of creating propulsive, lasting rock and roll. But just to reinforce the point that yeah, I dig Blackmore-led Purple, why not spend a few words on their biggest album, Machine Head?

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