Adrian's Solo Discography Ranked - The Complete List

Forostar said:
Jer, don't you find that these Urchin songs stick out for their melodic quality?

Animals
Countdown
My Lady
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I think "Countdown" is a good song, as I described above. "My Lady" is pretty good, but its chorus sounds like a pre-chorus, which is weird. And I didn't really care for "Animals" much, aside from the verse and the solo.
Forostar said:
Also, I'm surprised you had not listened to Urchin before. For someone who is so long into Adrian. Why is that? The stuff has been on YouTube for years.
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I hadn't really sought it out, I guess. Sounds like I wasn't missing all that much. :huh:
 
On an Urchin related note, Adrian's publishing company gave some tracks to the Spanish heavy metal band Obús for them to choose one to cover. Need Somebody turned into Alguien, featured in their 1984 album El que más.

 
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GhostofCain said:
On an Urchin related note, Adrian's publishing company gave some tracks to the Spanish heavy metal band Obús for them to choose one to cover. Need Somebody turned into Alguien, featured in their 1984 album El que más.
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That's pretty funny...
 
Psycho Motel - State of Mind

Very heavy album, with a modern sound and influences from that era (90s grunge) and older (Sabbath, Hendrix). I like Solli as a singer and Adrian plays some tasty guitar riffs and solos. He also adds some nice backing vocals here and there. Gary Leideman and Mike Sturgis provide a solid rhythm backbone to the songs.
  1. "Sins Of Your Father" - 8/10
  2. "World's On Fire" - 7/10
  3. "Psycho Motel" - 9/10
  4. "Western Shore" - 7/10
  5. "Rage" - 7/10
  6. "Killing Time" - 8/10
  7. "Time Is A Hunter" - 8/10
  8. "Money to Burn" - 7/10
  9. "City of Light" - 7/10
  10. "Excuse Me" - 8/10
  11. "Last Goodbye" - 7/10
  12. "(Can't) Wait" - 6/10
 
Psycho Motel - Welcome to the World

Very heavy album, even heavier than State of Mind, but with a much better production and, in my humble opinion, better songs. Andy Makin is the singer here and he does a great job, with a dark voice (his singing on Rain in particular, is outstanding). Adrian's playing is superb and the rhythm section fits the songs like a glove. The guest spot from Dave Murray was something that made many of us in 1997 wonder if Adrian and him would play together again (something that thankfully happened in 1999!) and Scott Gorham also plays a great solo. Out of the 2 Psycho Motel albums, this is my favourite.

  1. "The Last Chain" - 8/10
  2. "A Quarter to Heaven" - 8/10
  3. "Rain" - 9/10
  4. "Believe" - 8/10
  5. "With You Again" - 9/10
  6. "Into the Black" - 8/10
  7. "No Loss To Me" - 7/10
  8. "Underground" - 9/10
  9. "Welcome to the World" - 8/10
  10. "Something Real" - 9/10
  11. "Innocence" - 8/10
  12. "I'm Alive" - 9/10
  13. "Hypocrisy" - 8/10
 
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The kind of argument between Foro and Diesel is what actually puts me off rating songs and participating in this. As much as I love Adrian's work, I see absolutely no point in assigning arbitrary numbers to songs. How can you know for example that when I give a 7 to a song I actually don't like it better than someone who gave it a 9? Maybe my criteria are different than theirs. Also, it's funny, if not downright stupid, to argue about the quality of songs in attempted objective terms, as if there really was objectivity when it came to that. I love Machine Men and I don't think it's among the weaker ones on Chemical Wedding, and it's among the few songs I don't skip on the album. Because I skip a lot of those. But I'd never start convincing people that they are underrating it and urge them to give it a higher mark. Why? How does that even matter? And to whom?
 
Ariana said:
The kind of argument between Foro and Diesel is what actually puts me off rating songs and participating in this. [...] I'd never start convincing people that they are underrating it and urge them to give it a higher mark. Why? How does that even matter? And to whom?
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Diesel was very much on record elsewhere as considering every song on The Chemical Wedding to be a 10/10, so it was strange to see him suddenly giving songs from that album lower marks. Foro was just questioning why.

If you don't want to openly discuss your ratings, you're always welcome to just vote and contribute to the final rankings...
 
That's quite the opposite of what I said. It's not about not wanting to discus the ratings, it's the ratings themselves that I find kind of... useless. In fact, I like discussing songs, I just don't like putting them in boxes. But that's just my opinion and I just wanted to put it out there. Carry on! :ok:
 
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On topic:
Sorry for not having voted yet, I'm trying to find the time to have a good listen to everything. Hopefully I can add a few comments to the songs when reviewing them, but if the polls aren't gonna stay open for much longer, I'll just make sure to at least vote :)
 
A.S.A.P. - Silver and Gold

Good melodic album, although at times it is too keyboard heavy for my taste. I do not think the sound of the album has aged that well - it sounds dated. That being said, I quite like Adrian's voice, which reminds me of Bryan Adams, and there are some pretty good songs with stellar guitar solos.

  1. "The Lion" - 7/10
  2. "Silver and Gold" - 8/10
  3. "Down the Wire" - 6/10
  4. "You Could Be A King" - 7/10
  5. "After the Storm" - 7/10
  6. "Misunderstood" - 6/10
  7. "Kid Gone Astray" - 6/10
  8. "Fallen Heroes" - 7/10
  9. "Wishing Your Life Away" - 6/10
  10. "Blood on the Ocean" - 6/10
  • "Blood Brothers" - 7/10
  • "Fighting Man" - 7/10
  • "When She's Gone" - 8/10
  • "School Days" - 6/10
 
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Primal Rock Rebellion - Awoken Broken

Fantastic album, my favourite of all Adrian-led albums. The sound is heavy and modern, the songwriting is inventive and varied, the playing is great, the videos were really good... What is not to like? Although I am not a fan of cookie monster type vocals, the combination of aggressive and more melodic singing from Mikee Goodman fits the material like a glove. The album features several great songs, but if I had to choose just two, I would go with the wonderful "Tortured Tone" (what a thought-provoking ode to depression) and the folkie "Mirror and the Moon".

  1. "No Friendly Neighbour" - 9/10
  2. "No Place Like Home" - 9/10
  3. "I See Lights" - 8/10
  4. "Bright As A Fire" - 8/10
  5. "Savage World" - 7/10
  6. "Tortured Tone" - 10/10
  7. "White Sheet Robes" - 8/10
  8. "As Tears Come Falling From The Sky" - 5/10
  9. "Awoken Broken" - 8/10
  10. "Search for Bliss" - 8/10
  11. "Snake Ladders" - 9/10
  12. "Mirror and the Moon" - 10/10
Primal Rock Rebellion bonus tracks:
  • "Scientist" - 8/10
  • "Mooncusser" - 5/10
 
The Urchin material is a bit hit and miss. It is unfair to judge the production of the tracks, as most of them were not recorded under the conditions of later material and have only been released as collector editions featuring their different demos. Some nice 1970s hard rock songs among the material with beautiful harmonised parts (e.g. "Lifetime") and some stuff that Maiden fans would recognise ("Life in the City", "Countdown")

Urchin - High Roller
  • "Keeping It Mellow" - 7/10.
  • "Life In The City" - 7/10.
  • "Watch Me Walk Away" - 6/10.
  • "Countdown" - 7/10.
  • "Lifetime" - 7/10
  • "The Late Show" - 5/10
  • "My Lady" - 6/10
  • "Animals" - 5/10
Urchin - Get Up and Get Out

  • "Madman" - 6/10.
  • "Need Somebody" - 7/10
  • "Get Up And Get Out" - 6/10
  • "Little Girl" - 5/10
  • "Countdown (Alternate Version)" - 6/10
  • "Lifetime" - 7/10
  • "Don't Ask Me" - 5/10
  • "Suicide" - 6/10
Urchin - Black Leather Fantasy
  • "Black Leather Fantasy" - 6/10
  • "Rock 'N' Roll Woman" - 6/10

Urchin - She's a Roller
  • "She's A Roller" - 7/10
  • "Long Time No Woman" - 7/10
 
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Limited releases with The Untouchables

Nice, but it would be even nicer if Adrian released all the material they recorded back in 1993.
  • "City of Dreams" - 7/10
 
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Honestly, I'm not such a fan of Adrian's solo work. ASAP is too mellow, while PRR is too agressive for my taste. The only record he did outside Maiden that I like is Welcome to the World. Not just because of the great vocalist (where is that guy now, anyway? He is Welsh, or something like that?) Also, there are some great guitar parts on that record I'd never heard before from H...
Anyway, no matter what I think about his solo work generally, I think his (and Bruce's also) departure from the band had to be made back in the day. Two of them managed to express themselves outside Maiden, so when they came back they brought some creativity which was obviously missing, judging by the Virtual XI and general feel (to me) that Steve "fell asleep" in the 70's and tried to revive that period through the band's music in the 90's.
 
Bruce Dickinson collaborations

After hearing the songs he co-wrote with Bruce for the first time in 1997, I remember thinking "Wouldn't it be great if these two guys could be in Maiden again?"

Perhaps Adrian's songs are not the stronger off Accident of Birth or The Chemical Wedding, but that is because the majority of the material written by others for those albums is fantastic.
  • "Road to Hell" - 8/10
  • "Welcome to the Pit" - 8/10
  • "The Ghost of Cain" - 9/10
  • "Killing Floor" - 8/10
  • "Machine Men" - 8/10
  • "Return of the King" - 9/10
Michael Kiske & Kai Hansen collaborations

It would have been great to get more collaborations between Adrian, Hansen and Kiske.
  • "The Calling" - 8/10
  • "New Horizons" - 8/10
 
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