Usually, in my relationship with Deep Purple, weaker moments are followed by better ones. While I wasn’t a big fan of the track “Diablo,” the next preview of the album SPLAT! made a much stronger impression on me.
The track “Guilt Trippin’,” which premiered on YouTube exactly at 8:00 PM on Tuesday, June 22, is accompanied by an animated music video, breaking away from the recent pattern of clips depicting the band playing in the studio in various color schemes.
Based on photos and promotional materials, this will not be the final single promoting the album, as a “white single” will likely also appear, featuring the band in white outfits against a white background.
Returning to the track itself: it is the longest composition on the album, though still under five minutes. The piece continues the nervous, fragmented, and linear structure, without a clear division into verses and choruses. A significant portion of the track is also occupied by instrumental sections.
The opening is built on a classically inspired piano motif, which develops into something resembling a flamenco-bolero, only for this romantic atmosphere to be abruptly shattered by a wall of sound, with Gillan in the foreground, screaming in a way he hasn’t done for a long time. The vocalist, who for two decades has consciously avoided such extravagance and vocal acrobatics, seems to have decided: “who cares—I’m over 80, I don’t have to worry about that kind of nonsense.”
It is precisely Gillan’s part that provokes the most controversy here—very much a love-it-or-hate-it situation. Having spent years among Deep Purple fans, I know well that reaching consensus on almost any issue is difficult. The number of line-ups, the band’s longevity, stylistic diversity, and the differing characteristics of musicians who have passed through its ranks make the range of possible interpretations of Deep Purple’s music virtually infinite.
Gillan’s scream seems like a deliberate counterpoint to the lyrical introduction. Until now, I have avoided discussing lyrics, intending to address them in a full album review. Here, however, the lyrical context requires clarification, as it is not immediately apparent from the text alone.
According to Gillan, it is a record of a conversation between God and Darwin, lamenting the recent direction of human evolution. That tension appears to be both present and artistically intentional in the structure of the piece, with a slightly catastrophic element emerging through Gillan’s screaming.
Only later does the riff appear, previously obscured by the vocal part. This also reflects a conceptual shift in the band’s arrangement thinking. Deep Purple—and not only them, especially in the classic era—built songs around interval-based riff repetitions. In recent years, there has been a growing tendency within the band—whether driven by inspiration or by producer Bob Ezrin’s decisions—to move away from classic rock structures based on repeating sequences of riffs, verses, and choruses interspersed with solos. Such a linear and compact construction can be irritating, as it takes longer to “enter” the song, but once you reach its core, the structure may make sense and reflect a deliberate idea.
The musicians consistently emphasize the producer’s influence on the pace of arrangement decisions, which translates into faster workflow and decision-making, regardless of the final result.
The remainder of the track is enveloped in instrumental passages, beginning with a beautiful guitar melody accompanied in the background by Gillan’s somewhat absurd, initially irritating, yet in its own way charming humming. This develops into a guitar–piano exchange of trade offs between the instrumentalists, tinged with a jazz-rock pedigree.
At the end, Ian once again screams at full force, and the whole piece concludes with a coda based on the opening motif, bringing the composition full circle. It is a strong, energetic capsule for fans who appreciate the more experimental direction of Deep Purple’s work.
It must be said that choosing this track as a promotional single is unusual, as it is far from commercial in character. But perhaps the band no longer believes that the charts are their place.
To conclude, I will only add that I have just had the opportunity to listen to the entire album. And believe it or not—do not form your opinion of the album based on the singles, whether you liked them or not, because the album is different. What it is like—I will discuss in the next installment.
