Perfect Strangers is the eleventh studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, released on 29 October 1984. It was the most successful album recorded by the re-formed 'Mark II' line-up.[4]
It was the first Deep Purple studio album in nine years. Perfect Strangers is also the first album with the Mk II line-up in eleven years, the last being Who Do We Think We Are (1973). Its nine-year gap from Come Taste the Band (1975) marks the longest between two studio albums from the band to date. Ritchie Blackmore and Roger Glover arrived from Rainbow, Ian Gillan from Black Sabbath, Jon Lord from Whitesnake, and Ian Paice from Gary Moore's backing band. Just one song in the reformed Deep Purple’s new repertoire, "Nobody’s Home", would be credited to all five band members. Gillan and Glover attempted to return matters to the all-for-one composition credits of the Mk II lineup's 1970–73 recordings, but Blackmore held firm. It was not until Blackmore permanently left the group in 1993 that the issue was finally resolved.[5]
The CD and cassette versions of the album contained the extra track "Not Responsible" (which contains the lyric "I've got no ticket, but I'm gonna take a fucking ride", making it one of the few Deep Purple tracks to feature profanity). The album was remastered and reissued on 22 June 1999 with the bonus instrumental track "Son of Alerik". The latter had previously been available as a B-side on the single "Perfect Strangers" in 1984.
The album was a commercial success, reaching #5 in the UK charts and #17 on the Billboard 200 in the US. Perfect Strangers was only the third Deep Purple studio album to be certified platinum in the United States, following Machine Head (1972) & Burn.[6] The tour was so successful that the band had to book many additional dates to the U.S. arena tour, as tickets sold out very quickly. Their U.S. tour in 1985 out-grossed every artist that year except Bruce Springsteen.[7]
The album received mixed reviews. Deborah Frost of Rolling Stone in a contemporary review remarked that, with the exception of the two singles, "The material consists of hastily knocked-off jams" and wondered if the release was just made "to cash in on the current heavy-metal craze." But she also stated, "Blackmore's Strat has such a great roar that you're willing to just let it reverberate in your eardrums for a bit. And it's nice to hear Jon Lord's unsynthesized organ squalls, Ian Paice's electrifying drumming, Ian Gillan's howls and whispers and Roger Glover's solid bass lines once again," although, "Instead of Glover, an outside producer might have forced the band to tighten up its licks and arrangements."[10]
Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised this comeback album which "only nods to the '70s" and concentrates "on songcraft rather than technical display," placing Deep Purple as "a reference point of a genre in metal without categorization."[8]
"A great moment in time," suggested Glover, "but, as an album, it doesn't quite hang together."[11] The rest of the band all maintained positive feelings towards the album in subsequent years.
"Son of Alerik" had appeared in an edited form on the 7" B-side of the "Perfect Strangers" single, or in full on the 12" "Perfect Strangers" single and the European version of the compilation Knocking at Your Back Door: The Best of Deep Purple in the 80's.
^Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN978-951-1-21053-5.
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