"Burn" is the first album introducing the Mark 3 line up with David Coverdale on vocals and Glenn Hughes on bass. The newcomers are doing an excellent job replacing Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. Even though "Burn" does not feature the classic Deep Purple line up it is still a classic Deep Purple album. The main reason is the characteristic sound of Ritchie Blackmore's Fender Stratocaster. Listen to album highlight "Mistreated" and then you know what I am taking about.

The two album openers "Burn" and "Might just take Your Life" are classic Deep Purple tracks containing the Deep Purple trademark: the thick sound of Blackmore's guitar and Jon Lord's keyboards. "Lay Down, Stay Down" has a riff quite similar to "Nobody's Home" from Perfect Strangers. You can easily hear that David Coverdale has his own vocal style, which he later developed in Whitesnake.

A cool thing about this album is the use of 2 singers. Glenn Hughes doubles all the vocals, which is especially visible in "You Fool No One". The best Coverdale/Hughes performance is "Sail Away", which some of the best vocals I ever heard. The album ends with a Jon Lord epic, which is the only weak track on the album

It is always hard to compare the line ups and also to match previous Purple classics like "Machine Head". However I love this Mark 3 version of Deep Purple and "Burn" is almost as good as any record from the Mark 2 line up. This is mainly because the classic Deep Purple sound is intact and David Coverdale is avoiding sounding like an Ian Gillan wannabe. Coverdales voice is different from Gillans and with the support of Hughes they provide their own personal touch to Deep Purple. This album combines classic Deep Purple elements and the cherry on top is the exceptional playing of Ritchie Blackmore. He's smoking on "Burn" (ha ha).

Even though the album was released in 1974 it sounds excellent today. A timeless rock album.

Written by Michael
Thursday, May 30, 2002
Show all reviews by Michael

Ratings

Michael: 8/10

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Comment by Hugo_MSD (Anonymous) - Thursday, September 4, 2003

I fully agreed with the album's review, I'd only add that the title-track is an awesome song, featuring some of the best purple soloing and blackmore/lord instrumental battling ever... Also, the lyrics are clever, adding another level of interest to the song... a great, although slightly misregarded song. I wish they'd played Burn when I saw them here in Porto, Portugal. Still... they ROCKED!

Comment by kaveh mohammadi (Anonymous) - Tuesday, July 20, 2004

its great,belong to the golden age of rock

Comment by Witek (Anonymous) - Sunday, August 8, 2004

Might Just Take Your Life is the worst DP track they were playing live. Burn is "killing" not only because of solos but riff. Mistreated in much better versions live /MADE IN EUROPE, LIVE IN LONDON/, I also like Sail Away and lay Down Stay Down. Anyway Burn is a real classic DP album. Greetings from Poland.

Comment by Empty Uranus (Anonymous) - Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Burn may be one of the very best rock and roll albums of all time. Each song has it's own personality, and the musicianship couldn't be better.

Comment by Erik (Anonymous) - Thursday, January 27, 2005

I would Rate this album with a 9 because of the influence it had has all over this years...

Comment by pavol.g (Anonymous) - Tuesday, March 29, 2005

This is one of the album to Deep PURPLE ever released. It is a fantastic album.

Comment by Saini (Anonymous) - Thursday, November 23, 2006

Great album cover and tracks. David Coverdale has great vocals.

Comment by ThraX (Member) - Sunday, October 28, 2007

View Profile Comments: 135 Ratings: 0 David Coverdale is such an amazing vocalist , and yes this album has a timeless quality to it.....8.5/10 Posted by ThraX Sunday, October 28, 2007