Stranger in a Strange Land

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How good is Stranger in a Strange Land on a scale of 1-10?

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This used to be my least favorite song on SiT. I've no clue why. It's awesome. The solo is very overrated but it's still great. The narrative here is tremendous. 10/10.
 
A nice bass groove is joined by a cool descending guitar lead with nice melodic breaks. This leads into a great atmospheric verse and pre-chorus with an equally great performance by Bruce. Another round of verse and pre-chorus and we break into a soaring, catchy chorus.

Once more through the verse and pre-chorus and we switch over to a great ascending bridge before returning to the chorus. This gives way to a superb gentle solo with excellent bass accompaniment that builds into a fantastic heavier solo (with the band yelling "hey!" before the transition). This falls back to the bridge before returning to the chorus, which repeats and fades out to end the song.

This is an excellent song throughout, but the chorus doesn't quite knock it out of the park. 9/10.
 
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Besides the awesome solo, the thing that gets me every single time when listening to this song is the lines "What became of the man that started
All are gone and their souls departed"
 
Troodon'sTooth said:
Besides the awesome solo, the thing that gets me every single time when listening to this song is the lines "What became of the man that started
All are gone and their souls departed"
Click to expand...

Jer said:
This is an excellent song throughout, but the chorus doesn't quite knock it out of the park. 9/10.
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You two pretty much summed up my thoughts about the song! It's a brilliant one indeed. I still haven't quite given up hope for them playing it in the future... I mean, once again, I do not expect that to happen, but it's not completely out of this world. It's relatively simple to do and now when Icarus is finally dusted off, Stranger remains as the last single from the golden years they haven't touched live with the current line-up, if you don't count the five shows in 1999 here. Bruce is not the biggest fan of the album, yes, but I've understood that he is relatively fond of Wasted Years and I guess he likes this one too. I'd like to think SIASL could play the role of Chilren of the Damned from TBOS tour on the next album tour set.

Yes, I know it's just wishful thinking and probably never gonna happen anyway, but of all the songs people throw into these speculations... well, speculating with SIASL is not that terrible crime against realism. :D
 
A decent bass intro moves into a really icy song that details the story of an explorer desperately fighting to stay alive and failing. The verses and first pre-chorus are good, but the second pre-chorus and actual chorus are weaker affairs. The solo is good but not quite mindblowing, and despite what basically everyone else says, there's at least two others on the album I prefer to it (CSIT and ATG). It also utilizes a fade-out, quite rare for a Maiden song. Overall, this is good, but lacking in some spots. 7
 
Superb bass intro, great futuristic riff and thunderous drums from Nicko. Not so strong verses, but the chorus is good. The guitar licks throughout the song are also great. The little bass solo from Steve before Adrian's solo is majestic. And the real highlight of the song is the solo from Adrian, which is one of his bests. If I'm not mistaken this is one of the two Maiden songs that fade out at the end (the other is ''The Prophecy'').

8/10
 
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The bass intro is like a more mature “Wrathchild”, but then the guitar comes in with an icy chill and woah we’re in a new dimension. The utilizations of guitar and the lack thereof in the verse brings to life the images of the arctic explorer in Adrian’s lyrics. By itself, this would be a great single, both fun and tainted in a frigid darkness, but then H lays down potentially his best solo to date. It took me years to get this solo, but man, I love the way the quieter bit is like a prelude to the heavier part. It’s so good and elevates this song perfectly. Excellent song overall. 9/10
 
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