"Coming Home" is up first. A classic "Purple" track, it sounds like the musical equivalent of a 747 soaring through the skies. A tale of the hardships of the road, Purple sound tired after years of constant touring, still having a lot of energy, but winding down. Great song, and very loud. "Lady Luck" explores musical ideas from their "Burn" era further. Bluesy, but funky at the same time, the recently deceased Jon Lord adds nice touches of synthesizers to his very thick keyboard and organ sound. Bass work by Glenn Hughes is amazing and very funky, and Bolin shines on the six-string, great musicianship on this track. "Gettin Tighter" is the highlight of the album. A song about band dynamics and musicianship, Purple were definitely a very tight unit at this point. Glenn Hughes' vocals are top notch, and more soulful and sweet than David Coverdale's bluesy howl. It's nice to see Hughes taking the lead vocal, as this did not happen enough on Deep Purple albums. Great song.
"Dealer" concerns the band's increasing problems with drug dealers pushing their wares to the band. Very bluesy, it is actual quite similar to songs found on early "Whitesnake" albums. However, Bolin is a total beast on the guitar: not as technical as "Richie Blackmore", but just as enjoyable to listen to. Bolin added an American element to a very European band, he added a bluesy grit and rawness that was missing until that point. The very bass-heavy "I Need Love" is next. Showing the growing influence of funk on the band, Jon Lord adds a "Clavinet" sound that nicely accompanies an almost "slap" bass. Effects are all over the song, especially the low-end. They sound somewhat cheesy and dated, but don't detract from the overall sound. A cool 70s jam-like song. "Drifter" takes the band into much more American-sounding territory than ever before. Sounding somewhat like Steppenwolf, a very heavy blues riff drives along white-hot guitar licks from Bolin. "Love Child" is another favorite of mine off the album. The bass, guitars, and organs play a very thick and viscous blue-metal riff that is catchy as hell. A weird synthesizer breakdown happens at the end of the song. Not a big fan of this section, it shows the direction the band probably would have taken had it continued, very electronics-heavy. Not a bad song, but not essential.
The strangest song on the album is next. The jazzy and soulful "This Time Around" is very Stevie Wonder sounding. Showing Hughes amazing vocals, I love his singing, but I am not a huge fan of the jazzy piano and rubbery synth-like bass. Curious-sounding, but not a good direction for this band. "Owed to G" continues the basic structure of "This Time Around", but adds more guitars and feels more jammy. I pretty much always skip this one, not a big fan. "You Keep Moving" reminds me of "What's Going on Here?" from "Burn". I especially like the bass-line, and it really shows that Glenn Hughes is underrated as a bass player. The songs a bit too bloated and long for me. Not bad, but nothing truly amazing about this track.
"Come Taste the Band" is a very good album. Tommy Bolin was a great addition to the band, and easily made up for the massive hole left by Richie Blackmore leaving. It's a shame that the band imploded and Tommy Bolin would die before another album could be released. Oh, what could have been. But for now, listen to what was...Deep Purple Mark IV.
Rating-8.5/10
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