HOT WAX: Two Deep Purples and a Joy Division / New Order Combo

As you already know if you frequent this website with any regularity, Rhino is smack dab in the middle of its annual Start Your Ear Off Right vinyl reissue campaign, but just because that’s so, it doesn’t mean that we can’t still offer up a few additional vinyl reissues in the midst of all that wonderfulness.

And to prove it, you should be able to find these three LPs in your friendly neighborhood record store and/or through your favorite online music retailer:

•    Deep Purple, IN ROCK: Although it was the band’s fourth album, it was the first to feature the classic lineup of Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover. If you know any song from the LP, then it’s probably “Child in Time,” which is 10+ minutes of awesome.

•    Deep Purple, FIREBALL: The follow-up to IN ROCK, this LP featured the same five musicians, but when looking at the band’s history, it’s arguably more important than the album which preceded it, in that it was their first #1 album. As such, it’s clearly a must-own.

•    Joy Division & New Order, TOTAL: A wonderful compilation which offers up the best work by the band fronted by the late Ian Curtis as well as the best work by the band that rose like a phoenix from the ashes of Joy Division after Curtis’s suicide. The 2-LP reissue offers 18 tracks spread over the course of its four sides, making for a great listen and a helpful education about two of the best bands ever to emerge from Manchester.