Your Maiden blasphemy

runsilentrundeep said:
Hi All

Long time viewer, first time posting

Just wondering, if the four BNW songs and No More Lies (although I understand NML is more rumour) were completed/available at the time of recording VX1 what would you say would be the best tracklisting? Based on 8 songs
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Not a "from best to worst" (or the reverse) list but an 8-song album along your criteria... or rather two: one would have too many long ones for the album to have good balance.

Version 1
TAATG (trimmed version, sans-keyboards)
Lightning Strikes Twice
Blood Brothers
Dream of Mirrors
The Mercenary
The Clansman
The Nomad
Como Estais Amigos

Version 2
Dream of Mirrors (had it been a bit shorter, it would have functioned well as an opener I think)
The Mercenary
When Two Worlds Collide
The Clansman
Blood Brothers
The Educated Fool
Como Estais Amigos
TAATG
 
runsilentrundeep said:
Hi All

Long time viewer, first time posting

Just wondering, if the four BNW songs and No More Lies (although I understand NML is more rumour) were completed/available at the time of recording VX1 what would you say would be the best tracklisting? Based on 8 songs
Click to expand...

I'm leaving out No More Lies because that theory is just fantasy

For me the best 8 songs would have all those BNW songs plus Futureal, The Angel and the Gambler, The Clansman and Como Estais Amigos.

It would be a pretty unbalanced album.

IMO The 4 I left out from Virtual XI are among the very worst Maiden have ever written even if there are some sections of the songs that I like. Lightning Strikes Twice maybe my least favourite Maiden song.

EDIT:
The Virtual XI leftover songs are unquestionably the ones I think hold back BNW from being as strong as the rest of the reunion albums. Blood Brothers is the only one that's great.
Dream of Mirrors is too long and the intro is terrible as is the fast chorus that doesn't really fit the metre of the song.
Mercenary is a harmless enough throw away song.
Nomad has really silly lyrics and I used to like the instrumental section until I found out it was stolen from Beckett.

Those 3 songs are as weak as Maiden have delivered in the reunion.
 
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srfc said:
The Virtual XI leftover songs are unquestionably the ones I think hold back BNW from being as strong as the rest of the reunion albums. Blood Brothers is the only one that's great.
Dream of Mirrors is too long and the intro is terrible as is the fast chorus that doesn't really fit the metre of the song.
Mercenary is a harmless enough throw away song.
Nomad has really silly lyrics and I used to like the instrumental section until I found out it was stolen from Beckett.

Those 3 songs are as weak as Maiden have delivered in the reunion.
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Agreed.
 
TheTalisman said:
Futureal
The Mercenary
Lightning Strikes Twice
The Clansman
Dream of Mirrors
Blood Brothers
The Nomad
Como Estais Amigos
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This would probably be my album choice as well!

Although I do like all the songs on VXI there are a couple of tracks that could have done with some heavy editing. I think we all know which songs they are!
 
GhostofCain said:
I think that Fortunes of War, for example, is better than Futureal.
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I do too. I have never liked "Futureal" very much, a rather run-of-the-mill opener in my opinion ("Different World" is the only one I dislike more among openers). I like "Fortunes of War" a lot, the bonus is that it includes a "signature" Dave Murray solo.
 
Ziggyplayedguitar said:
Kevin Shirley isn't a great producer.
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Kevin Shirley isn't the problem: Steve Harris is. Steve Harris is a bad producer. His ears are mud and he wants the whole thing to sound as live as possible. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong time to do it (having three guitarists makes everything less cohesive).

Brave New World sounds great because it was tracked more traditionally, Shirley did a great job. After that, Steve started taking the reigns and I'm sure Shirley was more than happy to do a third of the work for the same price.
 
Then how come AMOLAD and TBOS vinly sound good from the production side?
 
Compared to their older material, they don't sound good. The mixes are muddy compared to the classic albums or BNW. Dance of Death is admittedly the worst of the pack, but my only major criticism of the reunion era is the lack of tracking/mastering.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Compared to their older material, they don't sound good. The mixes are muddy compared to the classic albums or BNW. Dance of Death is admittedly the worst of the pack, but my only major criticism of the reunion era is the lack of tracking/mastering.
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I agree that DOD is one of the worst sounding records.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
Compared to their older material, they don't sound good. The mixes are muddy compared to the classic albums or BNW. Dance of Death is admittedly the worst of the pack, but my only major criticism of the reunion era is the lack of tracking/mastering.
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This +1,000

The reunion albums are way too muddy and claustrophobic sounding to my ears. It's as if Steve is obsessed with making it sound like they recorded it in a garage w/no mastering. That might work if you're Pearl Jam and you pride yourself on the old school low-fi aesthetic, but that doesn't fit Maiden IMHO. BNW still had a crispness that's severely lacking now.

Ironically, the band usually sounds better live because the natural reverb (which Steve is adverse to in the studio) fills out the sound and makes it fuller. I get that the band will never return to the SIT sound, but some polish would go a long way to improving things.
 
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MrKnickerbocker said:
Compared to their older material, they don't sound good. The mixes are muddy compared to the classic albums or BNW. Dance of Death is admittedly the worst of the pack, but my only major criticism of the reunion era is the lack of tracking/mastering.
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As I've mentioned many times before, I know shit about production and mastering, but next to the other reunion albums (especially DOD) AMOLAD sounds lively, fresh and tasty. And my ears don't hurt. Maybe it's just me, but if every Maiden album was produced this way, I'd be perfectly fine with that.
 
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