The Time Machine

How good is The Time Machine on a scale of 1-10?


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Since Maiden stopped releasing best of albums Janick decided to release a best of song. Quite creative in a way. The title even tells us we are taking a journey through Maiden's discography. We get stuff from The X Factor all the way to The Book of Souls, and it's bloody great for the most part. Nice song.
 
Man, Janick is such a great writer. "The Time Machine" is incredibly derivative of his previous work with the band, but everything is presented in a new way to make it feel like we've never heard it before. The intro is straight-up "The Talisman", yet with more and more listens I don't even hear the similarities all that much anymore. What the intro lyrics have to do with the rest of the song no one knows; Steve got a little too cryptic for his own good here, but that's alright. The gloriousness of this fucking song makes up for whatever the fuck he's doing lyrically.

Okay, to be fair, these lyrics are actually really good. "Have I ever told you about my time machine?" is a great intro line. "Stand among the steeples, stand upon the walls," is a killer image. "Open your heart and I'll open your soul," is another awesome one. There's a lot of killer lyrics in this thing. The only issue is that Steve said like four times he was gonna tell us about his journeys and then never does, preferring to stay in the abstract. But I almost admire that impish approach, it feels like an eccentric scientist who keeps whetting our appetites with his tales and then instead of actually telling us about them, he brings us to them in his fucking time machine.

And that's what Janick does with this song. The change-up after the second chorus is where our journey really begins, in a passage that's a sped-up version of "The Book of Souls", yet again, sounds brand new because of the presentation. The keys have this soaring feel to them, and the boys even throw in a fucking jig that makes me want to keep up and jump around. I really hope they stick with the idea to play the full album live, because god do I wanna hear all these songs come to life in the live arena. This song sounds like it was built for the stage.

I also love the way the chorus changes in the different contexts it's in. It's always folksy, but feels more like a wink in the first section compared to its full-blown anthemic eruption in part two. Given certain reviews talked it up a lot, I was really underwhelmed by the chorus when I first heard the song, but it really is so good that it continued to grow on me to where I now love the hell out of it.

After the third chorus we're also treated to a great solo section. H plays some leads as the music under him feels like a proggy whirling of motors as the time machine gets ready to take us to new sights. Two of our stops appear when Dave and Janick hit us with a couple of great solos, both of them incredibly delivered in a piece that reminds me of "Ghost of the Navigator". Then we get another verse and chorus before the song steps off of the gas, the time machine winds down, and all falls to silence as we leave the old scientist's den with another outro that has nothing to do with the rest of the song but also works in the way that only Maiden can make these things work.

This song is a fucking powerhouse. Yet another triumph in an album full of them. If at first listen this one seems to feel like shit we've already heard before, further spins help embrace that to the point where everything feels natural and fresh. But it's also nice to get nods to the past. Regardless, "The Time Machine" is a fucking BANGER and among my favorites from the whole damn album. If we ended things here we'd already have a killer record, but luckily there's still a second CD to go. Maiden deliver, again, and again, and again. I gave them my heart and they opened my soul. 10/10
 
Janick recycles the openings of “The Talisman” and “The Book Of Souls” yet again for this song. Bruce’s soft vocal works nicely here. This eventually cuts into a folk-infused rhythm for the verse, which has a nice melody but some odd vocal harmonies. This breaks into a nice melodic chorus.

Another round of verse and chorus with a nice vocal crescendo, then a quick breakdown leads into a by-the-numbers guitar lead over the usual gallop to drive a great verse 2. Another heavy but folky interlude leads back to the chorus, then a chunky riff underpins some electric noodling before breaking into a strong pair of solos. Another round of verse 2 and the chorus leads to a more subdued interlude and a brief reprise of the opening vocal to end the song.

While there is certainly some post-consumer recycled content in this song, large swaths of it are great, and the final product feels like more than the sum of its parts. I think I can comfortably round this one up to an 8/10.
 
This is a good song beginning to end and at certain points it's glorious (in my opinion) but on some subconscious level I'm left feeling a bit frustrated that for a song at 7:10 I didn't get enough of my favorite part.

I have no problems with the acoustic intro buildup - The Talisman is brilliant, I enjoy the intro to Lost in Lost World, and Hell on Earth is challenging HBTN for my favorite IM song.

Having said that, I LOVE the parts of this song from 1:10 - 3:00 (according to the youtube version). (verse? chorus? not sure) I don't understand why they never circled back to that? I can just imagine the live audience reaction to that section would be a thrill.
 
6:16 - 6:35 is my favourite part. I wish it would be a little longer.
Just based on your post I went back and listened to the song again with a particular focus on that section, my reaction:
  • I agree, I wish that section repeated with perhaps a bit of subtle embellishment (I'm thinking The Great Unknown as a basis of comparison).
  • I wish the song ended there. I'm guessing they felt that they needed to wrap up the narrative with the additional vocals, however from a musical perspective I felt that section would have made a more satisfying closer.
 
Having said that, I LOVE the parts of this song from 1:10 - 3:00 (according to the youtube version). (verse? chorus? not sure) I don't understand why they never circled back to that? I can just imagine the live audience reaction to that section would be a thrill.
It seems Steve prefers to have more instrumental parts in his longer songs and rarely goes back to the first verses - especially since TBOS album.
6:16 - 6:35 is my favourite part. I wish it would be a little longer.
One of my favorite parts of the album too along with the short melody at the start of the outro of DOTC (I wish it was longer). I think its length is perfect though. Nicko also adds a lot to this part.
Just based on your post I went back and listened to the song again with a particular focus on that section, my reaction:
  • I agree, I wish that section repeated with perhaps a bit of subtle embellishment (I'm thinking The Great Unknown as a basis of comparison).
  • I wish the song ended there. I'm guessing they felt that they needed to wrap up the narrative with the additional vocals, however from a musical perspective I felt that section would have made a more satisfying closer.
They easily could have done that, but I guess they wanted the ending of TGU to be unique.
Normally I would agree that the song should have ended there, but I think they wanted the song to come ''full circle'' with the outro, given the title of the song. And it's really fitting. On the other hand, I wish the melody of the intro was different.

Every outro in the album serves its purpose great (especially the ones in the title track, Stratego, TWOTW, LIALW, Parchment and Hell On Earth), but for me the not so good ones are in Darkest Hour, DOTC and especially DOFP.
 
The lyrics of this song are really strange, especially for Steve. Maybe the song was written last for the album and he wanted a different approach to them. The album is full of great lyrics and this song has some great lines too. Strange but interesting approach to the lyrics imo.

If I have to somehow explain them:
I think the narrator doesn't want to tell his stories because they are an ''Eerie collection'' of memories filled with darkness (''darkness is there'').
Travelling through time has made him aware of the worst things in our histroy, but he is not a preacher and another reason is because - ''You cannot imagine what I've seen and done''. The key word is ''done''. Things that should never be said again. His travels were only full of darkness and sins (''Sleep with a light that is dark to my eyes'', ''Father and sons give me all of your lies'') and this was the truth (''The brutal truth, that is never a lie''). That's why we also have such a line - ''I have seen the gods cry, howling in the wind''. ''I have no disgrace'' refers to the narrator's sins. The narrator could well be in hell - as we can imagine from the lyrics of the intro. Also - ''wedded to danger, betrothed to despair''. Was the time machine invented there? (''Wrought with no anger, wrought with no fear, ''Hidden in silence, below barren waste''). But ''no anger'' and ''silence'' in hell? He is there though - ''Follow me now to a place we begin''. ''Full moon is out, as you look to the sky'' serves as penance in a way, and the full moon offers an opportunity to sit in the fullness of your life (spiritual meaning). But could this all be a dream? ''Does it really matter, it's all in the mind'', ''Confusion hunger, am I still awake?'' - this is so typical of Steve's lyrics. You just need to - ''Open your heart and I'll open your soul''... ''Even in quieter moments I know'' also adds to this line.

I hope that makes sense. I just wanted to show the ''deeper meaning'' of Steve's lyrics, and that's something I'll always admire. There is usually more beneath the surface.
 
Re-listened.

I enjoy it more than I used to, but I still think that it feels like it lacks something. The switch to the solo section is too abrupt and I didn't feel the need for the repetition of the intro.
 
"Have I ever told you about my time machine?" is one of the most delightfully goofy lyrics in the Maiden catalog. This song really goes places. From the typical Gers acoustic intro to the almost folky choruses to the classic Maiden melodies of the instrumental section. It's one of the more unpredictable songs on the album. My only real complaint is that the acoustic intro is a little too close to Talisman/The Legacy. It feels like Gers/Harris perfected that formula around those two songs and they've kinda been repeating themselves since. One thing I liked about Book of Souls (the song) is that the acoustic intro was just that, a short intro before getting into the full song. On The Time Machine, it feels a little too familiar before getting into the really interesting content of the song. What happens after, though, is immense. 9.
 
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