Writng for a band’s 20th album that after a 50-year old career it might be the last is a strange feeling. From one point I am thinking that “Now What?!” wasn’t the last one, Thank God! But on the other hand, maybe “The Battle Rages On” should have been…
To be fair with Ian Gillan’s gradual inability to sing listening to the band’s album was for me an ordeal. Especially on the last one it was very disappointing. What if Bob Ezrin was producing and helped the band to achieve a great sound. Still, the songs weren’t good. So, is “Infinite” better? Yes, it is, but obviously it’s not the album someone will remember the mighty Purple for. That was the ‘70s, or even the ‘80s. The songs on “Infinite” are better. In my opinion there is at least one song, “All I Got Is You”, that could be considered a classic of the band’s swansong. The album’s flow is also pretty good and it will make you play the album again and not leave it on the shelve. The cover is one of the best in the history of a band that always had issues in that part and the same goes for the artwork.
In a nutshell this is a honest and decent piece of work that achieves to make a small surprise and perform better than expected maybe. Gillan can’t reach the high notes, that’s a fact, and there are several parts where he isn’t even singing, but reciting, Morse suffers from arthritis, so forget those fancy crazy solos, the other three do what they can, but still the soul of the band is here for one last time even if it’s battered. They didn’t want to call it a day when they were in their prime, or their heyday. Maybe that may backfire in their posthumous fame, but on the other hand they did what they knew and loved best until they were old, like so many others.
