Deep Purple's first album since last year's departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist/composer Roger Glover is a passable but disappointing effort. On Burn, new lead singer David Coverdale sounds suitably histrionic, like Free's brilliant Paul Rodgers (rumored to have been Purple's first replacement choice). But the new material is largely drab and ordinary, without the runaway locomotive power of the group's best work.

The title track is a notable exception, attractively energetic, with appropriately speedy instrumental breaks. And "Sail Away" is a Free-like mesmerizer. "Mistreated" again sounds like that lamentedly extinct group, but is flaccidly lengthy (7:25).

They fill out the LP with the relentlessly mediocre single "Might Just Take Your Life," the stodgy blues-rocker "What's Goin' On Here," the commonplace Cream-like funk riffs and harmonies of "You Fool No One," and with a tedious Moog/bolero instrumental retread applying the coup de grace. Much of the LP is skillfully wrought and likable, and the new line-up has potential. But the Gillan/Glover spark that created "Highway Star" and other memorable Purple smokers is regrettably absent.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.