Martin Popoff | New DEEP PURPLE song "Arrogant Boy" review: their finest instrumental passage ever?

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Martin Popoff from The Contrarians here.

[00:00:01]Just wanted to put in a quick impression of the new Deep Purple single "Arrogant Boy".

[00:00:06]Um so they put up a video on YouTube and I guess it's on Spotify as well, but I checked it out on YouTube. And um you know, the video is the same sort of aesthetic as the stuff we were getting from Equals One with that sort of white background and the guys there you know, doing their thing. Not moving as quick as usual. Ian's there with a you know, the slightly longer hair.

[00:00:27]Um not moving around very much, but singing just fine on this song. And I've I've been saying this all along. These These old guys are there's no reason why why you know, they they can't do a great job on the records. And we know Ian sings sing great live as well. But no, he he sounds great on here. He's hitting some kind of higher notes. Great great lyrics as well. Great enunciation and cool flashy lyrics, storytelling lyrics.

[00:00:51]Um so we know that Ian um you know, made those comments about this album being a heavy album. And this song plays that out. This is almost like a speed metal or thrash metal riff for them.

[00:01:04]Um you know, it's I it's a little more up-tempo. I mean it is definitely heavy.

[00:01:08]You can hear you know, a heaviness of writing. Now, over to the production end it's still that really interesting bubbly specific trademark Bob Ezrin sound that we're getting. So again, Deep Purple even though you know, if you looked at all these songs and applied a super heavy production to them, all of these recent records would actually sound quite heavy. But um they are trying to give everybody their parts. You know, keyboards is an important part of this sound all as are a very specific kind of vibrant analog drum sound, right? So you are getting that here. So you've got that. You've got that riff. So the riff that goes with the verse. They're into it pretty quick on here. Sounds amazing. A different and again, a little more up-tempo, a little more energetic than most of the riffs. A little more, you know, between the eyes heavy metal, right? Um then it's got the uh the other cool Deep Purple trope or or a cool Deep Purple trope where they uh they descend into the uh the whole Lady Double Dealer Hard Lovin' Woman sort of riff. So, that's a little part of it as well. Um so, you got the verse and you've got that thing. Now, the really impressive thing that happens with this song is this has got to be one of the greatest uh extended progressive, super interesting break sections that the band has ever put together. I mean, they're famous for that. They're famous all the way back to uh boy, is there one? There probably is one even on In Rock. But, we But, we think of Highway Star when we think of uh you know, the dueling uh you know, keyboard solo with a guitar solo type thing. So, this totally has that, but it has so much more. I I believe it starts like pretty much at around the 1-minute mark. So, the whole length of this song is 3:19.

[00:02:51]Wow, they pack in a lot of living in this thing. Um but there's a whole middle section that's probably about half the song um where Oh, yeah, that was another cool thing in here. Um where where there's a there's a Ian Gillan double-tracked vocal. You get like, you know, in the video an Ian here singing to an Ian here, and you get them both at the same time. That's kind of cool. Um but, yeah, you get this modulation up.

[00:03:13]Uh first, you get this really interesting um and and complex and melodic and sophisticated old billy part, you know? So, you get this smooth riding, you know, it's all going at this full speed thing. Um and then and then we're into this thing. Um you get you get kind of a clean guitar from Clement uh Simon McBride, and then also um you get this precise arpeggiated very, you know, fast, fluid, uh meticulous playing from Don. And it's almost like he's mirroring um the cleanness of the guitar that you get here. I mean, as I say, Bob Ezrin is recording this band in a very specific way, and uh there's not a lot of distortion. There's a little bit of noise, a little bit of crackle, but not distortion on on these players, right?

[00:03:59]Um So yeah, you've you've got you've got this back and forth. You've got this psychedelic freakout section. You've got something that sounds like Emerson, Lake and Palmer. You've got a halftime section.

[00:04:12]And you get a lot of this interplay between Simon and Don. So you got a bunch of different little parts. I didn't count them all, but probably, you know, in a song that's 3:19 with a break section that's maybe 1 and 1/2 minutes of this thing. You know, they they must have they must have gone through seven or eight different movements in there.

[00:04:30]Um which is really cool. So yeah, this feels like it's almost like the most work they've put into a song.

[00:04:37]And they've they've been very ambitious over these last albums. I mean, these last albums have all been so good.

[00:04:42]Woosh, you know, equals one, all of them, right? Um But but for a song this short and and like I say, for that break section, I don't think I've heard a better Deep Purple break section than that. And of course, the rest of the song is is really cool as well. So So there you go.

[00:05:00]That's the first single. The album isn't out for quite a while, but they are obviously you know, at the top of their game. I've been saying this all along.

[00:05:07]Like this has got to be the number one band now because I think Cheap Trick has fallen off for me. Maybe even King's X has fallen off for me a little bit. And they really are not making a lot of records, but Cheap Trick's kind of been disappointing me lately. Motorhead was good right to the end, but that's now long in the past. I think it's over 10 years ago now. Um but Deep Purple is is doing better than Uriah Heep even, I'd say. Deep Purple are the number one band of an old band making a whole lot of their best music like right now.

[00:05:39]So I I'm looking forward to this album, but yeah, check out this song and just just wage your way through the you know, just wind your way up the yellow brick road of that break section and just look at all the cool places they go before they return. I can't believe the song is that short because it is just very cool and very direct. There you go. Deep Purple Arrogant Boy.

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