Maiden Songs That Are Growing On You

That was one of the TFF ones that took a while for me, but it's one of my favourites from that album now. I always think it has more in common with AMOLAD.
 
Mother of Mercy is so good. I love that it's musically similar to AMOLAD but with the TFF production and the guitar sounds. It's a nice contrast.
 
Musically speaking, Mother of Mercy has an "apocalyptic" feel that is very different from the rest of TFF. Lyrically it is also very dark and AMOLAD'ish. I actually think it is made from ideas that didn't fit in any of the finished songs on AMOLAD, but that the band felt were too good to be left unused. Then those ideas were molded into a song, and a pretty good one.
 
I wondered if that was the case. There's often a song or two that sounds like it fits the previous album, and Mother of Mercy was my guess for AMOLAD/TFF.
 
I always thought there were a few of interesting parallels in terms of very specific subject matter on songs between AMOLAD and TFF...

The Pilgrim/The Talisman: Pilgrims fleeing the oppression of their homeland for the New World
These Colours, Longest Day & FTGOG/Mother of Mercy: The experience of a soldier going to war, and the role religion plays in armed conflict.
BTATS/WTWWB: The creation/use of nuclear weapons and implications thereof
Man Who Would Be King/Legacy: A leader/figurehead with a dubious reputation and some "skeletons in the closet"

I wonder if any of the kernels of these TFF songs are leftovers from AMOLAD? In just about every example I find the AMOLAD tunes are stronger. The Talisman would probably top The Pilgrim if it weren't for some absolutely atrocious grammar and syntax things going on in the lyrics.
 
There are also musical parallels. Starblind sounds like a successor to Lord of Light, The Talisman has a lot in common with The Legacy, Coming Home has a similar feel to Out of the Shadows. I like it, they don't feel like clones as much as they refined those ideas and built off them. This is a lot like what a young band might do after their first album. Iron Maiden certainly did going from Killers to NOTB IMO. So it's cool seeing them be able to do that again with new ideas 30 years into their career instead of try to recapture old magic like a lot of bands their age try to do. I feel like this has been ongoing since Dance of Death and I hope they continue that path.
 
I always associate Paschendale with AMOLAD too, I keep forgetting it's on Dance of Death, although it does fit in there too.
 
Other than 7th Son to No Prayer, Maiden has never really made an abrupt shift.
Most albums just seem an organic outgrowth of the last.

This one is five years in the making though, with a couple unexpected solo diversions for two of the main songwriters.
Really intrigued to see if they will push the envelope.
 
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mckindog said:
Other than 7th Son to No Prayer, Maiden has never really made an abrupt shift.
Most albums just seem an organic outgrowth of the last.
Click to expand...

I'd say Fear of the Dark to The X Factor was a pretty big shift. They spent two albums trying to boil down their songs to be shorter, faster, more aggressive or more accessible...and then here comes this big, dark, lumbering, moody, 70-minute juggernaut with a different singer.

Also, depending on who you talk to, Somewhere in Time was an abrupt shift due to TEH EVIL SYNTHS!!1
 
Absolutely spot on Mr. knick, that change from poweslave to sit was mammoth. Sit didnot go over really well with me and my group of freinds at the time. That album didn't grow on me in fact, until years later.
I still now discover delightful new parts in somewhere in time. Being that I didn't listen to it nearly as much as the other albums back when it was new. It is a great album. But an enormous departure from poweslave.
 
I could have done a better job making my point.

Other than NPFTD, I don't think Maiden ever went in to an album saying we are going to do something different this time, something like "----" I think they bring in the songs and the develop them organically, based on whatever sounded right to them at the time.

To the above point, composition-wise I dont find the shift dramatic at all between Powerslave and SiT.
The sound got spacey with the synths, but it was a natural experimentation, not a drastic refocusing.

TFX was natural as well, given the new singer and the stuff going on in Steve's world.

In fact with SiT, Bruce came in with a preset notion the album was going to be a radical new direction and the band (Steve) shut him down.
 
I think your point is valid. As far as public knows, it was the first and the last time "they" decided on course of an album before actually doing any work.

I also think that Harris was fed up with all the glitter and glamour of Seventh Son aftermath, and wanted just to return to plain old rock fun. Which Bruce confirmed. He had doubts that band is being completely serious during No Prayer development. He also said they had great fun, but he asked them should they take it, the album process, more serious?

And that's the problem with No Prayer. I think Adrian wasn't "100%" in because he saw that Harris wasn't "100%" in either, meaning that he didn't want to continue with organic development of music, as they did before.
But at the end of the day, it's Steve's decisions that made Maiden what it is today, so I won't complain, even for sake of Adrian getting fired back then ;)
 
Honestly I know a lot of people bash Total Eclipse but that song really sounds better to me each time I hear it now! Also I like Quest for Fire now a lot more than I used to. It's a bit corny but still enjoyable to me.
 
The Aftermath! I really, really like the intro guitar riff. Its simple but powerful, similar to my new found interest in Where Eagles Dare. Sign of the Cross has a great, great, great instrumental section. Also, Justice of the Peace on the B-Sides record is quickly becoming a new favorite, love the riffage, seems not very Maiden-like but still awesome
 
bornless1 said:
Absolutely spot on Mr. knick, that change from poweslave to sit was mammoth. Sit didnot go over really well with me and my group of freinds at the time. That album didn't grow on me in fact, until years later.
I still now discover delightful new parts in somewhere in time. Being that I didn't listen to it nearly as much as the other albums back when it was new. It is a great album. But an enormous departure from poweslave.
Click to expand...

SIT was a departure for sure from all previous albums in terms of the tone and lyrical content I would think too. The synths were a great addition and since it was my first maiden Album, I think I had an advantage to rating it so well since I hadn't heard the others before hand and it was like comparing them backwards as to those who heard others before. Took me a long time to get used to the first 2 albums and many of the songs from NOTB and POM, which some, still don't sit with me. Took a very long time to get NPFTD to sit with me but several songs did and did well. Blaze was harder to get used to than Paul and I ended up really liking Paul almost as much as Bruce as they brought something different to the table. Blaze was literally a replacement of Bruce.
 
A bit off topic.IMO Steve messes up the songs for the last 20 years.The usic formula is almost unchanged.The music is somehow sa ed by adrians additions...but still Steve would use another boring intro and use 8 to 16 chorus repetitions for no reason at all e.g ftggog

Back to the topic

I quite like the NPFTD album nowadays.It is good to know that the song would end where in the latest albums it would normally start...around 3 minutes in that is.
 
I'm still just getting into IM. I'm now 1/3 of the way through, all the way through the marvelous powerslave. One song on that album that I thought was a filler song at first listen was Flash of the Blade. The more and more I hear this song, the more I love it. It is then followed by the duellists, which is a magnificent gem that I don't see many people mention that I can tell.
So I will say that Flash of the Blade is "growing on me".
 
The whole NPFTD album is growing on me. I don't see what's so bad about the production of this album. So it's stripped down, so what. Sounds ok to me.
 
I don't mind the production of No Prayer. I'm a huge audio nerd but sometimes raw is the best way to go. There are Maiden albums with much worse production out there.
 
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