The Thin Line Between Love and Hate

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How good is The Thin Line Between Love and Hate on a scale of 1-10?

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I absolutely love this song, from Bruce's soaring vocals to the incredible instrumental bit at the end. A fantastic way to end a great comeback album.
 
The "I will hope..." part is one of my favourite parts in any Maiden song ever. Possibly Bruce's best singing in Maiden. The part from 6:19 to 7:28 is also spectacular. The rest of the song is quite boring though. Still a good song, but I wish the last song on the album would have been better.

7/10
 
I think one of the things I like the most about the song is how they managed to blend the strong UFO influences (Michael Schenker era; Queen of the Deep off Phenomenon comes to mind) with Maiden unique features.
 
The 1st half of the song ranges from mediocre to good, the 2nd half of the song (starting when they return to the intro riff) is absolutely phenomenal. In fact, the 2nd half of the song is so phenomenal that it makes the 1st half extremely joyful building a great amount of anticipation.

To conclude, I f***ing love this song. I'm lost these days on what my top 10 Maiden songs are, but I'm thinking this might be #3 on that list. 12/10. (Extra credit for Bruce's vocals).
 
10/10

The Thin Line Between Love and Hate is a masterpiece. It is an odd song for Maiden with some melodic choices and vocal layering (including full harmonies on the verses) that are quite unusual, but end up working perfectly. Dave Murray wrote this song and it is his single greatest contribution to the band’s catalogue as a writer. Not only did he write the music and some of the lyrics, which relate nicely to Dream of Mirrors and introduce the concept of “grey areas” in life, but Dave plays every single guitar lead and solo on the song. His fluidity and tone make the changes in the song completely seamless. Bruce sounds absolutely triumphant on the vocal bridge. When everything breaks down towards the end, it is Murray’s spectacular tone and melody that gives the song that extra touch of heart. Bruce lets loose with everything he’s got, wailing into the void. I firmly believe that his single line at the end of the song is Bruce’s best recorded vocal ever. It is a godlike performance and rallying cry for the future of Iron Maiden.
 
Wow, this song is a lot better than I remembered it. You can tell they just got out of the Blaze years, it's feels like an X Factor song only with Bruce singing. I don't care much for the second half of the song, but I'm willing to overlook it because the first half is great. 8/10.
 
It took some time for this song to grow on me, but once it did, never dropped. I don't think it pairs up with Maiden's best, not even in this album ("Dream of Mirrors" and "The Nomad" are better), but it's still very strong. Bruce's singing is top notch here, stands out when he yells the title around the 6:00 mark. Excellent choice for a closing track and a terrific offering from Mister Murray. Speaking of whom, I do think there is too much from him here. All solos are his, and I would have liked to see a little more variation there. Overall, I have to give this one a high 9.
 
A very strange song, an 8 minute closer that is not a proper epic. The end result is pretty good though, as the song is interesting and less repetitive than several tracks on this album. Bruce’s vocals are absolutely top notch too. 9/10
 
My third three. This song just drags on and on and on... I'm not huge on the lyrics, but they're still good, the melody doesn't do it for me, and I don't like Bruce singing the title. Doesn't do anything to me, pretty forgettable... Maybe one day it'll click with me, for now it seems like I hate this song the most here :(
 
An OK opening riff leads into a peppier verse riff, then...WTF is this? The doubled vocal on the verse sounds terrible, and the phrasing sucks too. The pre-chorus is a little better, but the phrasing continues to be awful. Thankfully, the chorus is epic and great, and the solo that follows is also strong.

More shitty verse and marginally less shitty pre-chorus, and then we get a sloppy Janick special before returning to the great chorus. An extended interlude follows, with some nice harmonic interplay and a strong solo that gives way to a much softer section. Bruce sounds outstanding singing the title lyric.

Another extended interlude follows with some great solos, eventually returning to the softer section where Bruce delivers an even more outstanding version of the title lyric. Speechless.

How do you rate a song with such a rancid verse and pre-chorus, but such a stunning second half? The good parts are so good that I can't in good conscience give the song less than a 6/10.
 
Fock me it's very decent actually, that is without the vocals. The multi tracking is so BAD and sometimes put for just one word or vowel, phrasing is pretty bad as well, and the lyrics while pretty nice could definitely use more rhyming, I wouldn't care in other songs but on a song with such a clear emphasis on vocals over the other instruments it bothers me when I'm expecting something nice and instead it reads like a speech and not a song.

Second thing is that it sounds way too compressed, even for BNW it sounds so artificial in a song talking about human nature? Makes the lyrics sound dishonest and bullshit, it only fits in the context of BNW (the story).

It's very proggy, which makes it sound longer than the 2 longer songs on the album (Dream of Mirrors and Nomad), nothing against long songs but I have a lot against extending bad songs.

However, I take back what I said 3 weeks ago about the melody, it's rather memorable. And the second half with the acoustic guitar I think is the high point of this song, it's very pleasant.

It's at least -4 for the vocal multi-tracking (which ruins great vocals) and phrasing, -1 for bring so compressed, and another 1 for dragging it 4 minutes longer than it should without actually doing so.


So probably 4 is the correct score for it, fits because both this song and it's partner in 4 Different World ruin otherwise flawless (not perfect!) albums.
 
The second half of the song is one of Maiden's finest moments and utterly beautiful, but I'd still be on board if just for the first half. Really awesome, despite some weird phrasing.
 
Jer said:
An OK opening riff leads into a peppier verse riff, then...WTF is this? The doubled vocal on the verse sounds terrible, and the phrasing sucks too. The pre-chorus is a little better, but the phrasing continues to be awful. Thankfully, the chorus is epic and great, and the solo that follows is also strong.

More shitty verse and marginally less shitty pre-chorus, and then we get a sloppy Janick special before returning to the great chorus. An extended interlude follows, with some nice harmonic interplay and a strong solo that gives way to a much softer section. Bruce sounds outstanding singing the title lyric.

Another extended interlude follows with some great solos, eventually returning to the softer section where Bruce delivers an even more outstanding version of the title lyric. Speechless.

How do you rate a song with such a rancid verse and pre-chorus, but such a stunning second half? The good parts are so good that I can't in good conscience give the song less than a 6/10.
Click to expand...

What is the sloppy Janick special you can hear? If I am not mistaken, all solos are Dave's...
 
GhostofCain said:
What is the sloppy Janick special you can hear? If I am not mistaken, all solos are Dave's...
Click to expand...
You're probably right -- I can usually tell Janick and Dave apart based on tone and skill, but after Janick joined, Dave started getting sloppier and I apparently started mixing them up occasionally.
 
A really great opening moves into a really great verse. Despite the weird phrasing, I love it a lot. The first chorus is great too, but the soaring second chorus steals the show. After the verses and choruses end, we enter a really, really good instrumental bit, winding down for a nice performance of Bruce's as he sings the title, then get another great instrumental piece before the title is repeated again. This song is beautiful. It's awesome and the best thing on the album that isn't "Out of the Silent Planet". 10
 
The guitar melody in 6:45-6:56 and 7:07-7:18 is fucking amazing. Seriously, who comes up with stuff like that and how can it possibly sound so good?
 
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