Deep Purple-"Fireball" (1971)

Inexplicably Deep Purple had not reached number one in the British Islands with their fantastic "In Rock", reaching only a fourth place, not so in the United States where they would reach the top, however with their next album "Fireball" if they would achieve it immediately.
Recorded with the classic line-up (Blackmore, Paice, Lord, Glover and singer Ian Gillan), it is the second album after the aforementioned "In Rock" where Deep Purple sounds like Deep Purple, their first three works are no more than interesting collections of versions quite obvious but very close to pop.
"Fireball" was always weighed down by being right in the middle of his two great masterpieces "In Rock" and "Machine Head" and among the great songs that compose it, only two have gone down to posterity; "The Mule" and "Strange Kind of Woman".
No one doubts that the level is somewhat lower than the two albums mentioned, but even so it has an enviable stylistic richness.
Apotheosis songs like "Fireball", the hypnotic and brilliant "Demon's Eye" or the psychedelic "Fools" show that he is almost at the height of his best works.