Somewhere In Time: Album Discussion

Forostar said:
Wow this was long ago. Perhaps I mixed up two posts both by two different Crieds while I may have thought there was only one. I may have thought there was one, you quoted something else, I thought you quoted the other one but changed stuff... confusing isn't it?
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Thank you for your response Foro, and everything's right with the world now.
It was long ago, and confusing, indeed.
Good to see you back.
 
My second least favourite album from the 80s, Killers being the least. I wonder if that's just a coincidence that I had the other 80s album for a while before I got those two??

Caught Somewhere in Time - 10, a great opener, love H's guitar line in the chorus and the solos are out of this world, probably H's best. The little run they do at the end of the solo section and repeat in the outro is great as well

Wasted Years - 10, Maiden's best "pop" single, it really should have done better in the charts, easily should have been top 10. Their best video too, and loved when they played it last in the encore.

Sea of Madness - 9, this took years to grow on me, I never really digged the kind of cheesy, almost boyzone lyrics, "like the eagle and the dove, fly so high on wings above", but the music is great, 'Arry's classic aggressive clunk at it's most prominent

Heaven Can Wait - 10, I really can't understand that most people disagree with my contention that this is an absolute classic. Great intro that's inverted for the outro, aggressive verses, H melody line in the chorus (one of the early examples of this now classic Maiden trope), cool bridge, classic sing a long part, great solos with even better rhythm guitar part. What's not to love?

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - 9, really good track, with an even better example of the H melody line in the chorus that I was just talking about. Also, fuckin' 3!! of Maiden's all time top harmonies. The subject matter is a little on the preposterous side for a heavy metal song which is what costs it a mark

Stranger in a Strange Land - 10, another H classic, great riff and atmosphere, and if CSIT is not H's best solo then this is.

Deja-Vu - 7, my worst song of the 80's, there's some good harmony parts but little else. The intro is ok but not sure it fits the rest of the track. The vocal melody and the words are abysmal and Bruce is wailing away in a manner that makes it obvious his heart isn't in it.

Alexander the Great - 9, a real great track musically but I'm going to have to dock it a mark for the history homework style of the lyrics, particularly the "phrygian king had bound a chariot yoke" verse. Some more great solos again and especially the harmony melody line in the section just after the jazz solo part and before the main solos start
 
With the epic achievement of Powerslave behind them and the incredible Seventh Son still to come, Somewhere in Time can easily be overlooked, yet this is yet another stunningly good album. I was never overly struck on Alexander the Great, but I love everything else on the album and even that song is still good. This was now my sixth album following Iron Maiden and it was starting to feel like they could do no wrong. Everything they touched turned to gold and everything they wrote was a classic. The opening track, for me, is everything that makes Maiden great. It has boundless energy, harmonies, changes of pace, changes of key, incredible guitar solos, and Bruce has never sounded better. His vocals on this song are unbelievably powerful and this ranks as one of my favourite songs of all time.

Having been forced to sit up and take notice of Adrian Smith on Powerslave, this album really hammered home the fact that Adrian was crucial to Maiden. Other than the title track, nothing on the album can touch the songwriting quality of Wasted Years and Stranger in a Strange Land. On top of that, his solos on this album now struck me as being of the highest quality. Everything he played was thoughtful, measured, melodic and memorable. Adrian is essentially a Blues player, but he's found a way of perfectly merging Blues with Metal and the results are stunning. What makes it even more remarkable is that he seems to know virtually no theory at all.

Somewhere in Time is stunning, and by this time I was curious how much further Maiden could take things. I'd been following them for six years at this point and everything they did seemed to get better and better, but how much better could it be than this and Powerslave?
 
I feel that for the most part every note they play on this record is pure gold. The solos are so outrageous. All the band plays like there is no tomorrow. Bruce, although strained on some cases gives a world class performance. What can I say, I freaking love these songs.
 
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