Northwinds is the second solo album by former Deep Purple singer David Coverdale, released by Purple and EMI on 10 March 1978. In Japan, it was released through Purple's Japanese distributor, Polydor. It was produced by former Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover as his second and last appearance producing Coverdale's solo albums prior to the year. Guitarist Micky Moody had contributed to the majority of the album around that time before Coverdale formed Whitesnake on that same year, officially carrying Moody as a band member until 1983. The album received a reissue as a part of a compilation album White Snake/Northwinds in 1988, following a standalone release in 2000 by Eagle Rock Entertainment and Spitfire, and released again as part of a double compilation album now titled as The Early Days in 2003. Northwinds received a reissue in 2024 following its appearance in Into the Light: The Solo Albums boxset, containing all of Coverdale's solo works via Rhino Entertainment under the Whitesnake name.

Background

Originally entitled North Winds, the hard rock album leans more towards blues-based and R&B influenced rock. Coverdale also touched on the genre in his preceding album, White Snake. The original release of Northwinds contained eight tracks, with two more songs added on recent reissues. Four tracks ("Keep On Giving Me Love", "Queen of Hearts", "Only My Soul", "Breakdown") from this album would later be combined with the tracks from the EP Snakebite from his band Whitesnake, to form the album Snakebite. A number of other titles, written by Coverdale, were published at the time, which have yet to be released. The titles include "It Would Be Nice", "Love's a Crazy Game", and "Till the Sun Doesn't Shine Anymore".

Reception

The album received mixed to positive reviews. Bret Adams of AllMusic gave it 3/5 stars, considering it "a huge leap forward in quality from the previous year's White Snake", highlighting "splendid "Time & Again" ... "Only My Soul" offers a rich musical stew" with Coverdale's "ethereal singing" holding "it all together". Richie Unterberger gave 3/5 stars to the 1988 double compilation, concluding "they're mediocre listening, the product of a man uncertain about where to take his music as a solo act, without the rock-hard hard rock support of one of his steady bands". Victor Valdivia writing for PopMatters a 6/10 review about both 70s albums states it is from a pre-late 80s period image when Coverdale "was considered a talented singer with a bluesy voice far more reminiscent of Bad Company's Paul Rodgers than Zep's Robert Plant" and the album sounds "absolutely nothing like Led Zeppelin. Not only is Coverdale's voice much lower and bluesier than it would be in later years, but the music meanders all over the place, from horn-driven funk and R&B, to jazzy piano noodling and a more compact style of hard rock than he would ever try in his career's later incarnations", highlighting tracks "Shame the Devil" and "Give Me Kindness", but also "badly dated" production. Neil Jeffries in 2021 Classic Rock retrospective included the album as 4th out of 20 on a list of Coverdale-Whitesnake's best albums, saying "is a remarkably mature album that can still send shivers down the spine 30 years after it was recorded", praising his singing on "touchingly sparse "Time & Again" or "Only My Soul" has rarely been bettered", concluding that "all in all, Northwinds is the antithesis of Whitesnake's super-slick 1987, but it's a fine demonstration of the breadth of Coverdale's talents".

Release and promotion

Northwinds is set to be reissued on Whitesnake's compilation box-set featuring Coverdale's solo albums titled Into the Light: The Solo Albums by Rhino Entertainment on 25 October 2024 as a multi-disc box set, including remixed and remastered versions of the album.

Track listing

All songs were written by David Coverdale, except where indicated.

Side one

Side two

Bonus tracks on the 2000 CD reissue

On the original LP release, "Northwinds" is the first track and "Keep On Giving Me Love" is the second; on later reissues these are swapped.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes

Charts