Resequence A Maiden Album

MrKnickerbocker

MrKnickerbocker

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Which Iron Maiden albums do you think could have worked better by rearranging the track order? How would you change it? Why? I'm not looking for "let's cut all these songs I don't like", you have to keep all of the original tracks on the album.

Personally, I find The Number of the Beast to be sequenced very poorly. Invaders has a ton of energy, but it's weaker than almost every song on the album. Then they follow that up with a half-ballad? And the lead single is on Side Two? It's all very odd. The last three tracks work pretty well, I think, especially since they made the right choice burying Gangland between the two iconic tracks.

I think this would be a pretty killer sequence for TNOTB:

1. Run To The Hills
2. 22 Acacia Avenue
3. The Prisoner
4. Children of the Damned
5. Invaders
6. The Number of the Beast
7. Gangland
8. Hallowed Be Thy Name
 
Fear of the Dark

Be Quick Or Be Dead
Judas Be My Guide
Fear is the Key
Wasting Love
Weekend Warrior
The Apparition
Afraid to Shoot Strangers
Chains of Misery
From Here to Eternity
The Fugitive
Childhood's End
Fear of the Dark

I have never thought that the ordering with The Fugitive, Chains of Misery and The Apparition in row has a good flow on that album. I also think that Judas Be My Guide could have been a better track to have early on the album, like Rainmaker on DOD (also a shorter Murray/Dickinson co-written song).
 
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MrKnickerbocker said:
Which Iron Maiden albums do you think could have worked better by rearranging the track order? How would you change it? Why? I'm not looking for "let's cut all these songs I don't like", you have to keep all of the original tracks on the album.

Personally, I find The Number of the Beast to be sequenced very poorly. Invaders has a ton of energy, but it's weaker than almost every song on the album. Then they follow that up with a half-ballad? And the lead single is on Side
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Cool thread idea! I´d put Run To The Hills as an opener on side A too! The creepy intro of 22AA suits nicely after that.
 
I´m not going to do the whole album but I never liked Wildest Dreams as an opener on Dance Of Death.
No More Lies or the title track should´ve been opening.

And as much as I love Senjutsu, The Writing On The Wall doesn´t sound right after Stratego.
 
I guess I’m the only one who loves “Invaders” as both a song and an opener lol.

There’s no Maiden album that I think needs resequencing unless you really edit the material too. TFF could use a couple songs cut and some edits here are there; TXF could’ve been a double album (although I’m fine with the way it is); and SSOASS needs some kind of expansion to be nearly as good as most people say it is. But I think Maiden do a good job of sequencing their records as it is. They always flow from track to track really well, even if an album like POM is super frontloaded.
 
Ascendingthethrone said:
I’ll make a case for The Final Frontier. I love the album, but the epic heavy tail end of the album doesn’t quite work. I’m too tired to think of a new order right now. I’ll get back to it.
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Yeah, this is a tough one. Here's my crack at it:

1. Satellite 15...The Final Frontier
2. El Dorado
3. The Talisman [front load this one a la Ghost of the Navigator]
4. Mother of Mercy
5. Coming Home
6. Isle of Avalon
7. Starblind
8. The Alchemist
9. The Man Who Would Be King
10. When the Wild Wind Blows

The whole album would be better off cutting TMWWBK, but that's not our job here. :p

Poto said:
The Number of the Beast should have opened with the title track.
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Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It makes it much harder to sequence, though, since TNOTB and Prisoner both start with spoken word intros. TNOTB and 22AA both start with similar palm-muted patterns. Hmmmmmm let's see...

1. The Number of the Beast
2. Run to the Hills
3. Children of the Damned
4. 22 Acacia Avenue
5. Invaders
6. Gangland
7. The Prisoner
8. Hallowed Be Thy Name

That definitely allows for an easy 1-2 skip. :D

Diesel 11 said:
I guess I’m the only one who loves “Invaders” as both a song and an opener lol.
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Yeah, I truly dislike it as either.

MindRuler said:
I´m not going to do the whole album but I never liked Wildest Dreams as an opener on Dance Of Death.
No More Lies or the title track should´ve been opening.
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I actually disagree with this. I think DOD, for all its faults, is pretty well sequenced considering the amount of long tracks on it. Wildest Dreams was clearly written as an opener, as a way of recapturing The Wicker Man vibe. It just isn't a great song.
MindRuler said:
And as much as I love Senjutsu, The Writing On The Wall doesn´t sound right after Stratego.
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Senjutsu as a whole is pretty poorly sequenced, in my opinion.
 
FEAR OF THE DARK

1. Be Quick Or Be Dead
2. From Here To Eternity
3. Afraid To Shoot Strangers
4. Childhood's End
5. Judas Be My Guide

6. Holy Smoke
7. No Prayer For The Dying
8. Mother Russia (music is good, theme sucks)
9. Bring Your Daughter... To The Slaughter
10. Fear Of The Dark

Would be very strong album.
 
Diesel 11 said:
There’s no Maiden album that I think needs resequencing unless you really edit the material too.
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^ This. Although I can list some:

-> swap the places of New Frontier and Gates Of Tomorrow.
-> TFF album order is unique, but I would swap the places of Mother Of Mercy and The Talisman, the rest are good.
-> Shadows Of The Valley as song #9, Tears Of A Clown as song #10 and The Man Of Sorrows as song #8.
 
TheTalisman said:
Fear of the Dark

Be Quick Or Be Dead
Judas Be My Guide
Fear is the Key
Wasting Love
Weekend Warrior
The Apparition
Afraid to Shoot Strangers
Chains of Misery
From Here to Eternity
The Fugitive
Childhood's End
Fear of the Dark

I have never thought that the ordering with The Fugitive, Chains of Misery and The Apparition in row has a good flow on that album. I also think that Judas Be My Guide could have been a better track to have early on the album, like Rainmaker on DOD (also a shorter Murray/Dickinson co-written song).
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I think FOTD is a very easy listening album, regardless of the order of the songs.
Diesel 11 said:
even if an album like POM is super frontloaded.
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I like this a lot.
MrKnickerbocker said:
The whole album would be better off cutting TMWWBK, but that's not our job here.
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It should have been a short rocker. Or without a long intro, although it's awesome. The tempo is good.
MrKnickerbocker said:
I actually disagree with this. I think DOD, for all its faults, is pretty well sequenced considering the amount of long tracks on it. Wildest Dreams was clearly written as an opener, as a way of recapturing The Wicker Man vibe.
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I agree.
MrKnickerbocker said:
Senjutsu as a whole is pretty poorly sequenced, in my opinion.
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I think the songs sequence and flow of Senjutsu are great, yes even the 3 long back-to-back epics that end the album.
Azas said:
It puzzles me, that they chose such underwhelming opener for a monster classic album. Complete mystery.
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The Number Of The Beast indeed would have been a fitting opener for the album, but as a song structure Invaders (Gangland even more so) is best fitting as an opener. It's just that it's a weak song. It sounds like a leftover from the previous album.
 
I always felt that the debut has a bit of a sequencing problem on Side A. The flow of the first three songs (i.e. Prowler, Remember Tomorrow, Running Free) just doesn't fit. I guess that's why they placed Sanctuary between the first two on the reissues, but the real problem is that Remember Tomorrow sounds a bit awkward so early on the album. I never understood why they wouldn't open the album with the double-punch of Prowler and Running Free, these two songs are pretty much natural companions to each other. Remember Tomorrow would work better immediately preceding Phantom of the Opera, in a way signalling to the listener that after the power-blast opening, the album is about to get more diverse. Side B on the other hand gets everything right, IMHO.

Also, regarding NOTB, pretty much the only quality Invaders has is as an opener. Remove it from that slot and you have a song that does nothing and would only be filler wherever you put it.
 
Kalata said:
-> swap the places of New Frontier and Gates Of Tomorrow.
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Big disagree. After the comedown from “Dance of Death”, I love the way Janick’s staccato riff builds us back into some good old rock n roll. It’s like a palette cleanser. Also “Gates” and “Frontier” are super underrated.

Kalata said:
-> TFF album order is unique, but I would swap the places of Mother Of Mercy and The Talisman, the rest are good.
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Having “The Talisman” as the fourth song in the setlist on the TFF tour was a mistake, tbh. If anything it needs to be pushed further back. Here’s how the album should’ve been resequenced:

1. Satellite 15… The Final Frontier
2. El Dorado
3. Coming Home
4. Isle of Avalon
5. The Alchemist
6. Starblind
7. The Talisman
8. When the Wild Wind Blows

El Dorado single
A. El Dorado
B. Mother of Mercy

Coming Home single
A. Coming Home
B. The Man Who Would Be King

There, now I haven’t fully cut any songs. :p Relegating MoM and TMWWBK to b-side status makes them way more interesting and makes the album less of a slog. And now you’ve got a bunch of brighter songs in tracks 1-5, leaving the darker tracks 6-8 to close out the record in style. And obviously “When the Wild Wind Blows” still has to close out the record, but “The Talisman” gets to shine as a rightful show-stopping epic just before the grand finale.

I’ll leave my comments about song edits alone, Knick is probably going to smite me for this post already…
 
Perun said:
I always felt that the debut has a bit of a sequencing problem on Side A. The flow of the first three songs (i.e. Prowler, Remember Tomorrow, Running Free) just doesn't fit. I guess that's why they placed Sanctuary between the first two on the reissues, but the real problem is that Remember Tomorrow sounds a bit awkward so early on the album. I never understood why they wouldn't open the album with the double-punch of Prowler and Running Free, these two songs are pretty much natural companions to each other. Remember Tomorrow would work better immediately preceding Phantom of the Opera, in a way signalling to the listener that after the power-blast opening, the album is about to get more diverse. Side B on the other hand gets everything right, IMHO.
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I never had a problem with the flow of the debut album, but now that you mention it, it makes sense.
Perun said:
Also, regarding NOTB, pretty much the only quality Invaders has is as an opener. Remove it from that slot and you have a song that does nothing and would only be filler wherever you put it.
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This.
Diesel 11 said:
Big disagree. After the comedown from “Dance of Death”, I love the way Janick’s staccato riff builds us back into some good old rock n roll. It’s like a palette cleanser. Also “Gates” and “Frontier” are super underrated.
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New Frontier is also a rocker, and I think another song without a long intro (after the 3 minutes long intro of Dance Of Death) is better. Energetic (like the whole album) underrated songs, yep.
 
Diesel 11 said:
Big disagree. After the comedown from “Dance of Death”, I love the way Janick’s staccato riff builds us back into some good old rock n roll. It’s like a palette cleanser. Also “Gates” and “Frontier” are super underrated.


Having “The Talisman” as the fourth song in the setlist on the TFF tour was a mistake, tbh. If anything it needs to be pushed further back. Here’s how the album should’ve been resequenced:

1. Satellite 15… The Final Frontier
2. El Dorado
3. Coming Home
4. Isle of Avalon
5. The Alchemist
6. Starblind
7. The Talisman
8. When the Wild Wind Blows

El Dorado single
A. El Dorado
B. Mother of Mercy

Coming Home single
A. Coming Home
B. The Man Who Would Be King

There, now I haven’t fully cut any songs. :p Relegating MoM and TMWWBK to b-side status makes them way more interesting and makes the album less of a slog. And now you’ve got a bunch of brighter songs in tracks 1-5, leaving the darker tracks 6-8 to close out the record in style. And obviously “When the Wild Wind Blows” still has to close out the record, but “The Talisman” gets to shine as a rightful show-stopping epic just before the grand finale.

I’ll leave my comments about song edits alone, Knick is probably going to smite me for this post already…
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I seem to remember that The Talisman was later in the set for the first few shows. I think you can see a screenshot of this in the ‘Behind the Beast’ documentary. I think it is pretty obvious why they moved it earlier in the set.
 
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