Deep Purple’s 23rd studio album, =1 (Equals 1), got its release on Friday, July 19. The 13-track collection is a follow-up to the British hard-rock legends’ 2021 covers project Turning to Crime, and is the band’s the first album of new original songs since Whoosh! in 2020.
=1 is Deep Purple’s fifth consecutive album to be produced by lauded studio whiz Bob Ezrin, whose collaborative relationship with the band began with Now What?! in 2013.
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As explained in an early press release, the new album’s title “symbolizes the idea that in a world growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one.”
Founding Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice recently chatted with American Songwriter about =1.
Paice explained that the concept for the album’s title came from frontman Ian Gillan, who also is responsible for writing the majority of the lyrics.