What are your favourite nineties albums and why?

[The Mid-Distance Runner]

Cool, man! @The Mid-Distance Runner I wonder what you think of what I wrote about The Apparition: http://forum.maidenfans.com/threads/the-apparition.4286/page-2

Foro, your anaylsis on the couplets is as insightful as the advice the apparition whispers to us. And I'd never before noticed the cleverness of Bruce's final line in the song. Nice job, I will now listen to this already excellent song with more eager ears than before.

 

[Forostar]

Thank you. Much appreciated, Mid. This is the first reaction to this piece (I think it was overlooked, although I have tried to draw attention to it several times when this song was discussed elsewhere). I am kinda proud about it. Usually I do not say (or even think) much about lyrics in Maiden, because the music takes me over, almost completely. In this particular song, the lyrics are a great contributor, with a strong message. Also I managed to disclose certain musical elements that are not that much on the surface. And I found that out just before I wrote this, almost two decades after its release.

 

[MrKnickerbocker]

My favorites are the two unpopular ones.

As a 90's album, Fear of the Dark is my favorite by far. Yes, there are some truly bad songs on it (Fear is the Key, Weekend Warrior, Apparition), but there are a few great songs (FOTD, ATSS, Wasting Love) and some really, really good ones (Be Quick, Childhood's End, Chains, Fugitive). Call me crazy, but I like this album. NPFTD, by comparison, does not have a single "god-tier" song and very little that is memorable.

I prefer Virtual XI to X Factor for the same reason - the good songs are great and there is less filler. X Factor has probably as many good songs as XI, but you have to muddle through the rest to find them. XI might have some pure dreck, but at least there's half as many songs.

 

[Black Bart]

Unsurprisingly, my choice is more emotional than rational (by the way, how can one be "objective" about the quality of a piece of music any way?): I discovered Iron Maiden when A Real Live One was released (spring 1993). Fear of the Dark was highly popular then and benefitted from (relatively) strong media coverage on radio and TV. Try as I might, the albums that have been released ever since can't provide me with the same feeling of familiarity.

NPFTD, TXF and VXI come next.

By the way, how many of you prefer an album they have discovered "later", that is when it was released, to an album that already existed when they discovered the band?