Great topic, I totally did this with TXF a few years ago.
I included all 4 single-only songs from that era (including Virus - yes we know it's from much later on, but it totally fits).
I like all 4 of those songs, I don't care, even I Live My Way.
Virus is a brilliant tune, sadly it's kind of overlooked as it was a single only track.
The way I see it, there are two huge problems with TXF: the production and the running order of the songs.
The sequence of the songs is totally wrong, the boys really messed up this one. It can be greatly improved. It needs to be completely changed.
I always loved all the songs individually, they really all are great compositions, very mature, thoughtful, meaningful pieces of art, with a lot of substance to them, but as a whole album, it just didn't used to click with me. I did enjoy listening to it somewhat, but always felt something was off, completely wrong in fact, with it.
There are too many songs with low key, quiet intros, somber songs, one after the other. And it's way too depressing.
On top of all that, the whole thing is brought down greatly by the extremely poor, pathetic in fact, production. TXF is an absolute masterpiece, a treasure, but by many it gets overlooked by the poor sound, and the poor choice of the running order of the songs.
There's gonna be two main Chapters to this long ass post, bear with me here.
Chapter 1 is gonna detail my efforts to change the running order, Chapter 2 is gonna show the even better, "expanded" version of TXF I eventually came up with.
Chapter 1:
This was my thought process:
-Sign Of, Man On and Lord Of are the 3 best songs on the album for me, so they should be spread out evenly, to keep the vibe up, instead of "getting rid of them" at the start
-the most crucial aspect: how to start the album? Sign Of does work as an opener, but Man On works much better, also they opened live with that one anyway, that was the most obvious choice live
-the ending sucks with 2AM and The Unbeliever; good songs, but it's a poor choice to close the album; I really love 2AM, but it's way too depressing to come so late, TU has some great melodies, but it drags in places, the verse and pre-chorus especially, it's a poor song to close the album
-in my mind, if possible, a Maiden album should always close with the best song on the album, the most epic song; of course I took this idea from their 80s classics: Hallowed, To Tame, Rime, Alex
-with this in mind, TXF should close with the best, most epic song: Sign Of; an absolute, all time masterpiece of a song, a monster of a song (I debated for days whether to keep it as the opener, as it really does work that way too, or put it last, as per the mentioned 80s classics rule; after many days of thinking about it, it was obvious it should be the closer, and Man On the opener)
-so now we had our opener and closer, 2 of the 3 best songs used up already, so Lord Of should come somewhere in the middle, to keep things even, to have a highlight in the middle also
-regarding the rest of the songs left to use, 2AM, Edge Of, Blood On and Look For are the better songs for me, they represent a higher tier than the rest, so they should come later on than the other ones
-the most difficult thing was to decide where The Unbeliever should come, as it's the weakest song on the album for me - after days of experimenting with different sequences, the song didn't work anywhere else but at the beginning, as the second song, to "get rid of it early"
- and actually as a song it does work much better in that place
-unlike many other fans, I do like Look For a lot, and somehow I knew early in my endeavour, that it would work perfectly as the penultimate song, just before Sign Of, so that's done and dusted also
-Fortunes works early as it is, but after it, there needs to be a more "upbeat" song, and not Look For with it's bleak intro, so in comes Judgement Of Heaven
-then can come The Aftermath, and then, obviously, Lord Of, to have it in the middle, it works great
-now we need a strong ending portion to the album, an album should always end with the strongest possible impression, so 2AM can come, a very powerful, emotional song, but then we need to switch up Blood On and Edge Of, both are great but I do think Blood On is a slightly stronger song
-then the already mentioned Look For and the magnificent Sign Of - what a song to close this now brilliant album
And that's it, we have our fabulous, brand new album now.
The soundmix still sucks though.
So the final order looks like this:
01 - Man On The Edge
02 - The Unbeliever
03 - Fortunes Of War
04 - Judgement Of Heaven
05 - The Aftermath
06 - Lord Of The Flies
07 - 2 AM
08 - The Edge Of Darkness
09 - Blood On The World's Hands
10 - Look For The Truth
11 - Sign Of The Cross
I literally spent weeks with this, on-off of course, changing the order in a Winamp playlist, trying to find the best possible scenario.
Now some of you might disagree with my choices of course, that's cool, but to me this is a HUGE improvement. It totally changes the whole vibe of the album, it flows much better. It still keeps it's character, it's still dark and somber, but not so depressing and most importantly, more "bearable".
It's interesting throughout, and you don't want certain songs just to end and move on.
Starting with Man On totally changes everything, and gives it a huge punch, a great start. Then the vibe is kept up with more or less one low key, "boring" song, then a more upbeat one, and they take turns.
If any of you reading this dislike TXF, feel free to try it with this tracklist, hopefully you'll find it an improvement. For me it's a huge one, I'm extremely pleased with my efforts.
It feels almost like a brand new album, one that can be enjoyed much better.
Chapter 2:
So I was very happy with my new TXF, but then I thought: we have those 4 single-only songs, which I all like, perhaps, why the fuck not, we should try and expand the album with them, add them in, see if they fit somewhere. The idea was to make the album even more energetic, and not so low key and lifeless, and those 4 songs are all more upbeat.
So all I needed to do is find a place for each, put each preferably between 2 songs that are slow starters, to improve the vibe even more.
My only self imposed "rule" this time was this: with my previous efforts in Chapter 1, the second half of the album is (deliberately) much stronger than the first, so if possible, all 4 extra songs should come somewhere in the first half.
I knew with the expansion, it's gonna become a double album, so I thought Aftermath would be a cool way to close the first disc. And I wanted to have Virus, a super strong song, just before it, to have the first disc end on a powerful note.
Then I wanted to give the second disc an upbeat, energetic opening, and I went with Judgement Day in that slot (it worked better than Justice Of), just before Lord Of. (Could've kept Lord Of as the opener, but Judgement worked slightly better.) (Great song, and the title always reminds me of one of my favourite films of all time - T2 of course.)
The remaining 2 tracks were a piece of cake to place now.
So below is my final version of TXF.
I call it "
The X Factor (expanded)".
CD1 (44:59)
01 Man On The Edge
02 The Unbeliever
03 Justice Of The Peace
04 Fortunes Of War
05 I Live My Way
06 Judgement Of Heaven
07 Virus
08 The Aftermath
CD2 (43:47)
01 Judgement Day
02 Lord Of The Flies
03 2 A.M.
04 The Edge Of Darkness
05 Blood On The World's Hands
06 Look For The Truth
07 Sign Of The Cross
So in my universe, this is Maiden's very first double album.
(Which I think it was meant to be, they just didn't dare go with it at that time.)
With these new changes, the first portion of the album, CD1, is also super strong now, not just the second half.
And guess what, this way Dave also gets no less that 2 credits on the album now.
I only ever listen to TXF this way now, and I enjoy it immensely. It's my 9th favourite Maiden album now.
I super-strongly feel this is the version of TXF we all were always destined to have.
We just didn't know, but somehow we all felt it in our Infinite Dreams.
Anyway, I actually went ahead and changed filenames, tags, "hardcoded" everything, the new sequence, with the additional tracks, into all my digital copies, this is the only way TXF exists for me now. I'm never going back to the original version. Only my ancient CD has the original order, which I never listen to CDs anyway. I keep that as a souvenir.
Thanks for reading all this bollocks.
Hopefully this will help someone somehow. You might want to try my version, but of course this new, improved, expanded sequence is not set in stone, not iron clad for everyone. Not everyone likes those 4 single-only songs. You might want to remove some, or change something else. For me, it works perfectly, it's actually a pleasure to listen to the album now, I find it very exciting, like a new album. I'm never going back to the old one.
So this was my big adventure I wanted to share with you all regarding TXF.
Now I just wish they re-recorded the whole damn thing, all 15 songs, in a proper studio with a proper producer.
