Coming Home

How good is Coming Home on a scale of 1-10?

  • Total voters
    12
9/10. Brings tears to my eyes. Sometimes I seek this out when I am flying, to close my eyes and imagine what Bruce feels when Ed Force One touches down in Heathrow or Gatwick. For a moment, he puts me in the captain's chair beside him. That's real magic.
 
9/10

Coming Home is another semi-power ballad, similar to Out of the Shadows from AMOLAD. Bruce delivers a powerful and emotive vocal and some truly heartfelt lyrics. He sings from the cockpit of Ed Force One, relating his feelings on returning from a lengthy tour and finally being able to rest. Dave and Adrian's solos are simply perfect, easy, melodic, and very bluesy. It's a really strong song, especially for Bruce.
 
My first reaction was "NOOOOOOO - another tawdry ballad to serve as a stopgap until the next epic".

I generally don't like it when bands do any variation of the "the road is so hard and I can't wait to go home" topic. For me, it's a way that musician's "break the fourth wall" and therefore detracts from my musical immersion. I was glad that Maiden stayed away from this subject (or cloaked it in storytelling) for so long. Having said that, they handled it better than most as they don't fully go down that road - I liked that it was from Bruce's aviator perspective and I could relate to it from a traveler's POV.

Musically, the song is fairly "stock". Nothing really that exciting other than Bruce's delivery and some good soloing from Dave and H. I'd rather listen to OOTS.
 
soundwave said:
My first reaction was "NOOOOOOO - another tawdry ballad to serve as a stopgap until the next epic".

I generally don't like it when bands do any variation of the "the road is so hard and I can't wait to go home" topic. For me, it's a way that musician's "break the fourth wall" and therefore detracts from my musical immersion. I was glad that Maiden stayed away from this subject (or cloaked it in storytelling) for so long. Having said that, they handled it better than most as they don't fully go down that road - I liked that it was from Bruce's aviator perspective and I could relate to it from a traveler's POV.

Musically, the song is fairly "stock". Nothing really that exciting other than Bruce's delivery and some good soloing from Dave and H. I'd rather listen to OOTS.
Click to expand...

Please help with the acronym OOTS :-)
 
This song took a long time to grow on me. It eventually did, and it was a great thing to happen. This may be Iron Maiden's most emotional song ever (the lyrics don't always make full sense, but it's fun to come up with various meanings to them), and the way Bruce sing the chorus is almost enough to bring one to tears. By far Maiden's most touching and powerful balad. Sounds particularly good on En Vivo! 9.
 
Nothing is particularly outstanding about this song apart from Bruce’s singing and the solos, but everything works very well. A solid 8
 
An OK but plodding riff gives way to a pleasant softer verse. A heavier pre-chorus builds into a catchy chorus with nice harmonized guitar backup. Bruce's voice unfortunately continues to sound dry on the pre-chorus and chorus, and the production is a bit muffled.

Another round of verse through chorus, and then a reprise of the opening riff fades into a tasteful bluesy solo and a punchier electric solo. We return to the chorus, then close things out with the opening riff again.

Good, but not great, with some weaker elements. I'll round it up to a 7/10.
 
Fantastic typical song for Maiden. This song is like Blood Brothers - mid-tempo classic. The riff is great (classic Adrian), brutally good solo from him and Bruce makes the song one level better. The pre-chorus is amazing, maybe better than the actual chorus. The calm part of the song is top-notch. The song is majestic live, especially in Chile, Estadio Nacional. :ok: Maybe it should have been 1 minute shorter, but still.... 9/10.
 
Some really great lyrics are backed up by some cool music, but "Coming Home", while an effective ballad, isn't quite as good as I'd like it to be, and certainly, Maiden have made several better songs. That said, it's very enjoyable and I don't think I'll ever dislike it, but again, it's not quite outstanding. Maybe one day I'll truly 'get' it. 6
 
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