Head or heart: how do you choose your Maiden?

The best songs grab both the head and the heart.

Beyond that, for me it's more about how much the negatives stick out in the lesser songs. Is the vocal phrasing really bad, is there too much repetition, is the vocal melody weak, is there a stupid sped-up section that doesn't fit, is there a circular Harris intro/outro when the song doesn't benefit from one, is Bruce struggling to hit notes that are a little too high for him to nail anymore, did Janick crap out an improv solo when a more thoughtful one would have worked a lot better, do the vocal harmonies sound terrible because Harris couldn't help himself behind the mixing board, was a guitar lick obviously lifted from an earlier song, are the guitars doubling the vocal lines too much, etc. These things all throw me out of the music to varying degrees, and that's why I wind up liking those songs less.

Forced to choose, I would much rather take a simpler song that nails everything it does, rather than a more complicated song that has a lot of missteps. But the best of both worlds is a complicated song that still nails everything.
 
I always appreciate more complex, interesting, unique and better (as a whole) songs, but if I like a certain part or parts of another song a lot, I will go for the latter. The repetition is not an issue for me. Almost all Maiden songs relate to me.
 
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While I could certainly bemoan (as perceived by me, of course) lacks of creativity/inspiration, a sense of repetition, wonky lyrics or any issues with production, if the song incites an emotional response in me (which roughly 90% of Maiden songs do) then I couldn't give less of a shit, that goes for all music for me. Maiden's music generally makes me feel strong, cheerful, nostalgic and occasionally makes me well up, with that, I don't care if they're prone to repeating themselves or it's not technically perfect.
 
Heart of course, otherwise I wouldn't have such a soft spot for QFF or VXI.

Art is subjective. There are tons of bands out there who consist of undeniably talented and gifted musicians; people who could deliver some awe-inspiring performances and hardly break a sweat. All that means nothing if I can't enjoy the song. Technical wankery has its place but if the songwriting isn't up to par I won't enjoy the song as much as a simpler but good song.

A couple of hours ago there was a live stream on YouTube with the drummer from Sleep Token where he played some of their songs and answered questions in between. Great drummer, high quality performances, but holy shit the music bored me to tears. It's competently produced, but to me it sounded like the audio version of blending every single generic cliche into one mass. I'd rather listen to anything else.
 
There is a strong element of nostalgia going on while listening to Iron Maiden. Having discovered Maiden in '93, I think I appreciate anything pre-1995 much more than anything they published after... though I can accept that certain more or less "objective" criteria make some people prefer "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns" to "Drifter" (which is not my case... but I can totally understand some people prefer the former because it makes them relate to the years they heard the band for the first time).
So definitely: heart. ;)
 
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