album and the band in their home country was generally negative. Despite being presented as a "polished commercial group" in their radio appearances, Deep Purple's stage excesses and success in the US did not make a good impression on British audiences. The Deviants frontman and later journalist Mick Farren described Deep Purple's music as "a slow and pompous din, somewhere between bad Tchaikovsky and a B-52 taking off on a bombing run". They were also criticised for being too American and the "poor man's Vanilla Fudge". As Brian Connolly of Sweet recalled, "they were so out of place that you really felt sorry for them." By contrast, in the US the band was often introduced as "the English Vanilla Fudge" and massive radio coverage of their songs granted success for both the album and tour. Ian Paice said of their success in the US versus their lack of it back home, "We have been given proper exposure over there. The Americans really know how to push records." Decades later, modern critical reviews of the album are generally positive. Bruce Eder of AllMusic considers Shades of Deep Purple, despite some flaws, "a hell of an album" and praises the "infectious ... spirit of fun" of the disc, which has "much more of a '60s feel than we're accustomed to hearing from this band". Blogcritics contributor David Bowling states that Shades of Deep Purple "was a creative and very good debut album", which combines "psychedelic music with hard rock and early progressive rock into a pleasant but disjointed whole". PopMatters review of the three albums of the Mk. I line-up considers them "both respectable and consistent", although Evans' voice is "perhaps more suited to heavy pop rather than heavy rock". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff described this early incarnation of Deep Purple as a "hard psych band", more committed to the music than other contemporaries and already capable of creating "a noise that definitetly foretold of things to come." In an Observer Music Monthly Greatest British Albums poll, keyboard player Rick Wakeman chose Shades of Deep Purple as his favourite British record of all time. Track listing All credits adapted from the original releases. Personnel Deep Purple Rod Evans – lead vocals Ritchie Blackmore – guitars Jon Lord – organ, backing vocals Nick Simper – bass, backing vocals Ian Paice – drums Production Derek Lawrence – producer, mixing Barry Ainsworth – engineer Les