Top 10 Best Deep Purple Albums

Best hard rock of its time, best Purple album. All great tracks played by one of the tightest bands in its day. This album stands up today and was where I found my musical adventure. Love this album. It will always be in my top ten best records ever.

No words to define this classic album. Just listen to Highway Star, Lazy, Space Truckin', Smoke on the Water, and Pictures of Home.

They had their most popular songs on this album. But I like almost equal songs from all albums, so I really can't choose.

Deep Purple In Rock is, to my mind, a more worthwhile album than Machine Head. I mean, Machine Head is great, don't get me wrong, but In Rock just has better material. I absolutely love every song on there, and Speed King, Child In Time, Flight of the Rat, and others are some of the best Deep Purple songs out there.

In Rock also has an incredibly raw sound that an album like Machine Head doesn't capture. In Rock is certainly one of the most important pieces in heavy metal history. Also, the songs on In Rock are not overplayed like Smoke on the Water and Highway Star. Both are good songs, it's just that we've heard them a million times! Play something else!

I think every band member is just top-notch here, with Ian Gillan screaming his lungs out, Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord kicking out some of the most epic riffs and solos ever, and Ian Paice just flying all over his kit. So, yeah. Deep Purple In Rock is the greatest Deep Purple album.

This album is not as popular as Machine Head or In Rock because most of the songs on this album were not played live.

Under the Gun and Nobody's Home are undoubtedly underrated.

The mix is better, the songs are more memorable, and the soundscape and oozing riffs are more thought through. I first held Fireball and Machine Head high. Nowadays, this album wins.

Mark II reunion album. Great album! Perfect Strangers and Knocking at Your Back Door are great tracks.

There are two things keeping this from being number one in my opinion: First, A200 kinda stinks. Second, it's too short. As it is, here's my top 5:

1. In Rock
2. Burn
3. Machine Head
4. Fireball
5. Perfect Strangers

Loved this one and thought that "Sail Away" was one of Purple's best ever. One of their better albums.

"Burn," "Mistreated," "Sail Away," and the "A" 200 instrumental make this album another classic.

Their best album. I've never understood why it's hated so much by not only the press but the band itself. Mark II is the quintessential Deep Purple.

Great album. I noticed one song isn't mentioned very often, but you really should give Fools a listen. Great stuff.

Another hidden jewel filled with great music. Fireball, Strange Kind of Woman, and Demon's Eye stand out.

By far the best Deep Purple album of them all because it captures their best songs live, which is how Purple were meant to be enjoyed. Remember, they were a live band.

Easily the best. Best versions of each song, better energy, more aggressive sound. Best version of Smoke on the Water and Highway Star as well.

I already voted for In Rock. I wasn't looking for live albums, but this one and Live at Leeds rule the live rock album category.

Not their best, but it is better than Fireball. Plus, Who Do We Think We Are should be higher than the third and first albums. Nonetheless, Deep Purple rocks and is one of the greatest bands out there.

Very underrated album, full of great tracks. Stormbringer, Lady Double Dealer, and Soldier of Fortune stand out.

One of the best records ever made. Better sound quality than earlier and later Purple records.

I partly disagree with the person who said, "Pop sound of the 80s is the only drawback." This album has three metal songs on it, but I guess nobody paid attention to them. As usual, the softest and poppiest songs become most popular because most people like them (Call of the Wild). Then, from one or two songs, people make conclusions about the whole album, which isn't correct.

This is an extremely underrated album. It should definitely be in the top ten. It has that awesome metal shred attitude and really blows you away.

Crucial album. Total bang on the money material. It just demonstrates there is no substitute for talent. Some great moments on here, with a new twist on the Purple sound.

Well-crafted songs and great production. DP play to their enormous strengths, and the album is a breath of fresh air after several albums of bad breath.

Not quite a Machine Head, but probably joint second along with Perfect Strangers and In Rock.

Hard to follow a great album like Machine Head, but if you're looking for more great MKII, then don't count this one out. Each song is definitely different from the last while there seems to be a distinct style running throughout the record. Highlights include Place in Line, Rat Bat Blue, and Woman from Tokyo. Also, the unreleased song Painted Horse is fantastic.

Love this album. Things were unraveling for the band when this album was produced, yet they managed to put together an extraordinary mix of some lesser-known numbers. I love the groove that Place in Line exhibits. Great blues/rock. Gotta be my favorite!

Definitely their most consistent album. Machine Head, In Rock, and Burn might be better collections of songs, but this album works much better as an album. Also, the individual musicians' performances are excellent. This album is a band at its peak. The fact that the band stayed on this peak for the next three albums only proves how great of a band Deep Purple really are.

This is my favorite Deep Purple album. I know it might be an uncommon opinion, but my favorite of Deep Purple is Mark I mainly because I'm a psychedelic rock guy. I find this era of Deep Purple very underrated. This album and the rest of Mark I is mainly a combination of psychedelic rock and early prog rock. Very good.

A great album with some excellent rock songs. Saw the tour in Copenhagen in 1991. Fantastic concert featuring at least four songs from the album. Blistering playing by Blackmore.

To me, the special songs from this album are The Cut Runs Deep, Fortuneteller, King of Dreams, and Love Conquers All.

Exquisite riffs and melodies.

Doesn't sound like other DP albums, but with three fantastic songs - "Breakfast in Bed," "Fire in the Basement," and "Wicked Ways" - this is a true hard rock classic album.

Their very first album showed a lot of potential, including songs like Hush, Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad, and great covers like Help and Hey Joe.

I'm 71. This album is full of blues, which I've loved all my life. This album competes with Joplin's Kosmic Blues.

Haven't tried the full album yet but heard some songs, and they were good.

Purple have always been a stellar live act. With that said, they also produce great studio fare. My lists change often in my head. Sometimes Purpendicular is number one in my opinion.

One thing that time has shown, though, is what a fantastic album Come Taste the Band was and is. Very underrated at the time because of Blackmore fever. A shame that drugs and other factors destroyed this lineup.

Come on, 18th? Should be in the top ten. It has great tracks like Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming, Loosen My Strings, The Aviator, A Touch Away, and Rosa's Cantina.

While not your traditional Purple, this album is great in its own right. Had it been released under a different name, the critics would have fawned over it.

Getting Tighter, Lady Luck, Coming Home, This Time Around/Owed to G...brilliant. Really a shame that the name of the band and then substance abuse by Bolin and Hughes on the tour killed any chance of it being thought of so highly during its day. This album is still fresh sounding today.

We're talking the great Tommy Bolin here, folks! How about showing a little respect? No other guitarist in history could play convincing prog rock/psych with Zephyr, lightning-fast fluid riffs with Cobham and Mouzon, as well as record two seminal solo albums. Not to mention more than ably replacing Blackmore in Purple and Walsh in the James Gang. All this by the age of 25. Oh yeah, he could sing too!

I have noticed this album is kinda softer compared to other albums of Deep Purple.

I don't think it should be so low on the list.

They can still create great, listenable rock music. Even the ballads are good.

I voted for In Rock - best album by anyone, ever, full stop. Fireball would be #2. Ian's singing on Fools is amazing. Machine Head, brilliant as it might be, is too clean and lacking in edginess to top those two and for me has two pretty ropey tracks - you know the ones I mean - something you could never accuse In Rock of.

But I can't believe Rapture of the Deep is so low on this list. OK, there are some fillers, but there are also some great tracks and some outstanding instrumental passages. Though they are very different, I'd be hard-pressed to choose between it and Now What?! to take to my desert island.

To my mind, it is a vastly better album than Bananas, which I simply couldn't get into, though I know many would disagree. Do give it a listen. Program out tracks 2, 3, 6, and 7 (and the last few annoying, unnecessary seconds if that were possible) and you have a 1970s-length album of depth, color, and virtuosity. Mind you, I'd love to hear Bob Ezrin remix/remaster it.

Another early Deep Purple record. Kentucky Woman is great, but Exposition/We Can Work It Out is a personal favorite of mine because it really reveals Deep Purple's musical genius.

Listen, Learn, Read On: 7/10
Wring That Neck: 9/10
Kentucky Woman: 7.5/10
Exposition: 7/10
We Can Work It Out: 3/10
Shield: 9/10
Anthem: 8/10
River Deep, Mountain High: 5/10

I appreciate their idea of pairing classical music with rock/metal. Thirty years later, Metallica did something similar with S&M and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Best versions of MKIII songs. Stormbringer and Lady Double Dealer live versions are ten times better than the studio ones. Much too short set list. We really miss Smoke on the Water and The Gypsy from the same tour... and Might Just Take Your Life and Lay Down Stay Down from the Burn tour.

Absolutely! This should not be at the bottom and certainly not at the top. Coming on the heels of Burn and Stormbringer, this is the Made in Japan of Mark III and should be respected as such.

This one should not be at the bottom of the list. Coverdale and Hughes are in great form. Check the live version of Stormbringer!