I just got the new 20th Anniversary Remix of Deep Purple's 2005 album Rapture of the Deep yesterday, so this is a long ramble about my thoughts and feelings towards it and the original. In the picture above is my original copy - the Special Tour Edition metal tin on the left. On the right is the new 2025 remix.
Rapture of the Deep is an album I've always liked a fair amount, but was never a favourite Purple record for me. It's one of those albums that has a bunch of songs I love and will listen to fairly regularly in playlists, but rarely in full. Yet whenever I do decide to listen to it in full, I almost always thoroughly enjoy it from near enough beginning to end. It was probably a 7/10 when I first got hold of it maybe 16 or 17 years ago (I'm pretty sure I was in college at the time, so a few years after it's original 2005 release). When I last reviewed it in 2020, I gave it a 7.8/10. It's easily an 8 for me now! Great album then, but I'll still admit that it's not one of my absolute favourites. I'm a Purple fanatic, and they just have so many great records. Anyhow, I think one of the reasons Rapture has never really been a go-to album for me is the fact the Bob Ezrin-produced albums that came after (Now What?!, Infinite, Whoosh! and =1... maybe not the covers album Turning to Crime though) kind of overshadow it for me. I just think they're superior albums in terms of songwriting overall. But like I said, I do still really like Rapture, and having this new remix is a nice thing to add to my collection.
I must admit however, when Roger Glover announced this thing in June (pretty sure it was June?), I was a little surprised. I never had a problem with Michael Bradford's original production job. I always thought it was a warm-sounding album with a lot of low-end. Absolutely nothing to really moan about or pick holes with. But Roger stated with the remix that "It's a new album now to me", so clearly the band were never that happy about the original! Until the remix was announced, I'd never actually realised that the band were without a record label after 2003's Bananas, and that their album sales were dropping during that period. Makes perfect sense of course - the early/mid-2000s were when iPods and MP3s were kicking off, and people were starting to download music on a regular basis and CD sales were on the decline. Who else remembers LimeWire?! Deep Purple were effectively uncertain if making albums was even worth it anymore at the time, and wouldn't record another studio album for 8 years. So I guess the decision to remix Rapture of the Deep may have some sort of deep, personal meaning for Roger and that the decision to do so was not necessarily driven by how the original mix sounded.
I will say that the new remix does still sound superior overall, to my ears at least. Not to the point where there's a massively noticeable difference as such, because like I said, I like the original mix too. But play a song like the heavy, groove-laden 'Wrong Man' from either version back-to-back, and you can hear Don Airey's organs cutting through the mix more in the 20th Anniversary Rapture. The upbeat rocker 'Things I Never Said' also feels more energetic than it used to now, somehow - and that's good! Also, the underrated ballad 'Clearly Quite Absurd' has a crystal-clear tone now. The original sounds a bit murky in comparison, but of course, I had to play it directly after the new remix to really notice. Generally speaking, absolutely nothing here sounds worse than what the original offered, and that's all that really matters at the end of the day. Even if I liked the OG mix, I cannot deny that Rapture 2025 is the superior product sonically. Phil Aston gives a very good review; he states that Ian Gillan's vocals have been elevated now. And he's right - again, listen to a track like 'Clearly Quite Absurd' and you likely will notice new-found strength of Gillan's vocal performance here. The new release also mixes up the order of the tracklisting - again, I never felt that the 2005 version flowed poorly, but actually putting 'MTV' - originally a bonus track - half way through the album now adds a lot more to the record.
So really, even though I was initially surprised by the fact the band had decided to remix Rapture of the Deep of all albums, now that it's actually out and I own a copy myself, it does make sense. Despite the fact I still like the sound of the old version, there's no denying that the spit n' polish of the 20th Anniversary remix has only improved it further. I sometimes had to hear certain tracks from Rapture 2005 to really notice the difference, but whatever. The thing I like most about Rapture 2025 however, is the fact it's only made me appreciate many of these tracks even more. The incredible title track has only gotten, erm, more incredible now! A highlight of the entire Steve Morse era for me personally. I also never realised just how much I love 'Things I Never Said' and 'Clearly Quite Absurd'. Both are classics of 21st century Purple. Like I said at the start of this post, the album's an 8/10 for me. The original an 8, the remix maybe an 8.3? Still not as good as any of the Bob Ezrin-produced records (bar Turning to Crime), but a great album nonetheless. Also nice is the packaging. The remix comes in digipak format, with a textured feel and new colour artwork. In the booklet is an essay from Geoff Barton with some added insight from Roger Glover.
The last thing I want to say is that I really hope Roger Glover goes back and looks at remixing 1998's Abandon and 2003's Bananas next. Not because I have any issue with the way they sound (in fact, Abandon is one of the ballsiest Purple albums ever), mostly because both have been out of print for a long time now, and both are unavailable to stream on Spotify - at least in the UK. I just want to see these albums readily available again. I still have my CD copies of course, but it'd be nice to be able to listen to Abandon via Spotify whenever I go to the gym. Even YouTube has taken down uploads of the album! Some of the songs on that album - 'Any Fule Kno That', 'Almost Human', 'Seventh Heaven', 'Fingers to the Bone' etc. - are fucking awesome if I say so myself. As for Bananas, well, that one has always been my least favourite of the Morse-era - but it still has plenty of standout moments. A remix of both these albums would still be a cool novelty, and I'm sure other Purple fanatics would be on board too. Oh, and if anyone in Judas Priest is reading this (which they won't be), please do the same with Jugulator and Demolition!
