Deep Purple’s 21st studio album, Whoosh!, gets its release today.
The band’s longtime bassist, Roger Glover, tells ABC Audio that although the album was written and recorded last year, many of the songs’ themes seem particularly relevant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“[I]t’s kind of uncanny how some of the lyrics on the album seem to be about what we’re going through now,” he maintains. “Notably, the extinction of mankind. I mean, that’s quite a possibility at this moment. We don’t know.”
One such track is the sprawling, dramatic “Man Alive,” which Glover describes as a “cinematic piece.”
“It’s the one track on the album where we have real strings,” he notes. “[I]t’s a very contemplative. And, of course, the subject matter, dealing with possible human extinction, demands that kind of reflective quality.”
Other topical songs on Whoosh! include “Drop the Weapon” — a commentary on gun violence — and “Throw My Bones” and “Nothing at All,” which reflect on global warming and how man is polluting the planet.
Regarding the latter tune, Glover says, “[T]he lyrics speak about time, really. Mother Nature has a way of succeeding. We will not be around forever, but Mother Nature will, and it’s a lovely [lighthearted] way of putting it.”
Deep Purple also revisits its early history on Whoosh! by including a new version of “And the Address,” an instrumental that kicked off the band’s 1968 debut album.
“[Producer] Bob Ezrin suggested we use that, [as] there’s a sort of a feeling that this could be our last album,” Glover explains. “We never know what the last album is going to be, but just in case, Bob thought it was a kind of neat little closing of the circle.”
