Hokeyboy

It is the weakest of the "Big 7", but Somewhere In Time not a bad album. In fact, it is a very good album, by all accounts. It just doesn't quite measure up.

The introduction of guitar synths definitely signaled a new phase in the direction of Maiden's sound. I give them credit for evolving and exploring new creative avenues. It just struck me as blasphemy at the time, considering Maiden prided themselves on their "No synths or any other ulterior motives were used in the creation of this album" attitude. Remember Bruce behind the Iron Curtain? "No, yah can't play 'eavy metal on a synthesizer...." Well, things change. No problem with that. I mean, they were guitar synths, so I guess that's legit too right?

Anyway... "Caught Somewhere In Time" is a good tune but not great opener. It has a catchy chorus, but it lacks the hook of an "Aces High" or "Where Eagles Dare" or "Prowler". "Wasted Years" was the lead-off single, and it's a great tune even if it represents Maiden at their most "commercial" up to this point. Still, can't deny its dude as a strong, catchy metal track.

"Sea Of Madness" is sort of ehhh. The harmonies on the chorus turn me off for some reason, and the riff that anchors the song doesn't do anything for me either. I've grown to LOATHE "Heaven Can Wait" because of its utilization live to bring up the fan-club to sing on the "WHOA-O-OHHH" chant. It's a decent song, nothing spectacular, but can we PLEASE drop it live? Forever? Kthx.

"The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" is a good number. It has a killer opening and some of the best twin fretwork from Smith and Murray. This leads into the album's best track (and second single) "Stranger In A Strange Land". Everything about this song works perfectly. The tone, the lyrics, the music, it's sinister and haunting and fucking rocks. Even the synths are utilized perfectly.

This is followed up by another one of the album's best songs, "Deja Vu". It's the "Sun & Steel" of the album, which is a pretty high compliment from me as I love that particular deep track from "Piece of Mind". Anyway, "Deja Vu" is a short, fast little rocker that flies under the radar but is one of those tracks that I never skip when listening to Somewhere In Time. Love it. There's a spontaneity and looseness there that is missing from some of the more "serious" album cuts.

I don't like "Alexander The Great". At all. The attempt to end the album with an "epic closer" fell entirely flat. Whereas "Rime" was graceful, poetic, and powerful, "Alexander" is awkward, stilted, forced, and feels like a fucking lecture.

So as far as GREAT songs, there are Wasted Years, Stranger In A Strange Land, and Deja Vu. GOOD songs are Caught Somewhere In Time and Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. As far as EHH, there's Sea of Madness and Heaven Can Wait. And Alexander The Great just SUCKS. Overall, Somewhere In Time is still a very good album from Maiden... but at this point in their game, very good could only be seen as a slight disappointment. Regardless, you can cherrypick some fine songs here.

Hokeyboy

My rankings on the Maiden scale:

- ESSENTIAL MAIDEN - ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE
Number of the Beast
Powerslave
Killers

- ESSENTIAL MAIDEN -- NEAR PERFECT
Piece of Mind
Iron Maiden
Live After Death

- REALLY GOOD MAIDEN
Somewhere In Time

Supermallet

I think Somewhere In Times feels underwhelming at first, because the hooks aren't as immediate as they were on previous albums, but I find that some close listening rewards the audience with a strong set of songs that take a little extra time to sink in. I especially love the title track and "Heaven Can Wait." Again, there's not a single song I dislike. This also has my favorite Maiden cover and incarnation of Eddie.

cdollaz

I don't like Stranger In A Strange Land at all, but the rest are good to great. My favorites are the title track, Sea Of Madness, and Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner.

Jason

I could never warm up to this album for some reason. To be honest, I haven't played it in a long time. I'll have to throw it in the car tomorrow and see what happens.

FantasticVSDoom

I was 12 years old, and this was the first Maiden album I bought "live" and was really the first metal cassette tape I bought with my allowance money at Strawberries Records and Tapes. Wasted Years was the first song I learned to play on guitar. I agree it doesnt live up to the previous albums, but for me its important because it was really my forray into more "modern" rock music (previous was all classic rock/hardrock due to mom and dad).

boc4ever

I'm in the same boat as you. I liked Wasted Years, but I never listened the rest more than a handful of times, if that. It just hit me as way too much of a letdown after Powerslave. Kind of like Power Windows after Grace Under Pressure from Rush.

Hokeyboy

Or Grace Under Pressure after Signals...

Fist of Doom

I love this album. The cover art perfectly conveys the music inside - it has sort of an otherworldly feel. To me, it's more than the sum of its parts. Listening to the whole album in one sitting (preferably at night) is a great experience.

BearFan

Next up, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son




Inner sleve, one of my favorites


This album took off where Somewhere in Time left off and took it to a whole new level (sadly the end of the golden era) and the last album with Adrian Smith until the reunion.

I listened to this yesterday and what an epic album, it's hard to rank all the early albums because they are so good, but this is right up with any of them. Some great music, snappy songs like Moonchild and The Evil That Men Do, epics like the title track and Only the Good Die Young.

Also, Maiden's one and only concept album. A real intresting story, but they did what any good concept album should be, the songs stand great on their own while telling the bigger story.


Track list
1. Moonchild (Smith/Dickinson)
2. Infinite Dreams (Harris)
3. Can I Play With Madness (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
4. The Evil That Men Do (Smith/Dickinson/Harris)
5. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Harris)
6. The Prophecy (Murray/Harris)
7. The Clairvoyant (Harris)
8. Only The Good Die Young (Harris/Dickinson)


Singles

Can I Play With Madness b/w Black Bart Blues



The Evil That Men Do b/w Prowler '88, Charlotte the Harlot '88


The Clairvoyant b/w The Clairvoyant (Live), The Prisoner (Live), Heaven Can Wait (Live) .. all Live songs from Monsters of Rock Donington 1988



Videos ... I'll just post those for the singles, but you really cannot go wrong with picking any of these.

Can I Play With Madness
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xSZbbTjM0Es" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Evil That Men Do
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uvrupTBsGco" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Clairvoyant
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8SvxlcSpRgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

cdollaz

The last great Maiden album. After this one, the only one that I consider even above average is Brave New World.

sniper007

I never had this album until about five years ago. Having just purchased satellite radio the year before would here tracks like seventh son, play with madness, the clairvoyant this my favorite. This album seventh son of a seventh is like a hidden gem for me.

Phodg

Interestingly, the video for "Can I Play With Madness" features one of the last performances of Graham Chapman (from Monty Python). I haven't chimed in on this thread yet although I'm a huge Maiden fan. I love all their first 7 albums though. For different reasons. They were a big part of my growing up. Met the band on the Somewhere In Time tour after a gig at Manchester Apollo and they sat around for hours making sure that everyone who brought stuff to sign got everything signed. Never forgot that - they were big enough at that stage where they could have blown everybody off, but they didn't. They were great.

Anyway - back on topic !

Hokeyboy

Ahh the first Maiden album I ever bought on CD, April 1988. Good times.

This album was a big step up from Somewhere In Time. Yeah, as a "concept" album the story is kind of silly, typical "chosen one" magical mystical nonsense. But the songs are so damn good it doesn't matter.

Moonchild is a PHENOMENAL opener. Top notch. This leads into one of Maiden's strongest and most amazing all-time songs, Infinite Dreams. I'm always blown away by the slower-paced opening that leads into an anthemic midsection and explosive ending. Can I Play With Madness was hailed as a sort of "commercial" single. It's a good tune, but as far as "commercial singles" go I prefer "Wasted Years" from the previous album.

The Evil That Men Do maintains the momentum; a fast, sinister, gnashing rocker that is totally Maiden from start to finish. Finally we get to the album's centerpiece, the commanding title track. Big, operatic, thundering, slightly silly, but a great tune.

Prophecy has never done much for me. Something about the music on that one leaves me a little cold. The Clairvoyant fares better; it's a lesser song, but a decent one. Love the tempo change. Finally, Only the Good Die Young is a killer closer, with a nice callback to the opening, with Satan chuckling over his prize. Nicely played.


"Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" is an epic. It's lessened a bit by its silliness, but as a cohesive album is works as more than the sum of its parts. But individual songs like Moonchild, Infinite Dreams, the title track, and Only The Good Die Young are some of Maiden's best alltime songs. Can I Play With Matches and The Evil That Men Do are good tracks as well. As the last album of Maiden's "Golden Era", Seventh Son of a Seventh Son packs a powerful musical punch.


My rankings on the Maiden scale:

- ESSENTIAL MAIDEN - ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE
Number of the Beast
Powerslave
Killers

- ESSENTIAL MAIDEN -- NEAR PERFECT
Piece of Mind
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Iron Maiden
Live After Death

- REALLY GOOD MAIDEN
Somewhere In Time

bunkaroo

This is the first Maiden record I owned. I was 13 and rode my bike 6 miles to go buy it.

Quite possibly my favorite. Love the synth bass intro on Moonchild. Evil That Men Do is an instant classic.

And I'll always love the acoustic fade out of the Prophecy into the bass riff of the Clairvoyant, which by the way has one of the best ending of any Maiden song with Bruce hold the note out. Their last true great record indeed.

Supermallet

For all the praise I've given to the band's previous albums, none of them compare to how much I love Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. It's my favorite Maiden album, and I think the songwriting and performance were on a whole other level. Perhaps the concept (while being dangerously generic) gave the band some focus, because not a single note is misplaced. It's the kind of album where as soon as a song ends I want to hear it again, only to be totally sucked into the next track as it starts. The band's playing was as muscular and versatile as it would ever be (as evidenced by "Infinite Dreams," probably my single favorite Maiden song ever), and Bruce really tore into the vocals. This album would be a definite desert island disc for me. Totally perfect.

Jason

Just to follow up, I'm just finishing up my first complete playing of Somewhere in Time in, well, forever. A few things remind me of Piece of Mind (Alexander the Great), but more than anything, it reminds me of the modern, Brave New World era Maiden. Good stuff. This will find it's way into more regular play. I can definitely see why this didn't appeal to my younger self, though By the time this came out, I was pretty heavy into Megadeth and other really hard stuff.

Next up, Seventh Son, which I also never really got into when it came out. In fact, I never owned it until the remastered CDs came out.

Fist of Doom

"Seven deadly sins, Seven ways to win, Seven holy paths to hell, And your trip begins..."



My favorite Iron Maiden album. In the hands of another band this concept would come off as silly, but damn if Maiden doesn't pull this shit off.

Moonchild is a beast of an opener, and the album doesn't let up from there. Every song is great, and the title track is epic. I was pretty shocked to read upthread that they've never performed The Prophecy or Only the Good Die Young live.

This is Maiden's last great album, but the catalog they put out in the 80s is unmatched by any other band IMO.

7Keys

I can understand them not playing "the Prophecy" because the vocal delivery sounds like it would be really hard to perform live. Another one of my favorite Maiden songs, has a different feel to me than a lot of Maiden songs up to that point.

BearFan

Next up

Maiden England.

This was released on VHS and Laser Disc w/CD and a semi-official picture disc (though their contract with Zomba). This is also rumored to be the next Iron Maiden DVD release to go with The Early Days and Live after Death.

This tends to be overshadowed by Live After Death and Rock in Rio, but it is a live record/hopefully soon to be DVD to have. The band sounds great and it is the only change to hear Seventh Son (the song) live.



Track list (VHS/Laser Disc) .. Hallowed and Can I play with Madness are left off the record/CD

1."Moonchild"
2."The Evil That Men Do"
3."The Prisoner"
4."Still Life"
5."Die with Your Boots On"
6."Infinite Dreams"
7."Killers"
8."Can I Play with Madness"
9."Heaven Can Wait"
10."Wasted Years"
11."The Clairvoyant"
12."Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"
13."The Number of the Beast"
14."Hallowed Be Thy Name"
15."Iron Maiden"


Single:
Infinite Dreams (Live) b/w Still Life (Live), Killers (Live)


Videos

Moonchild
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/61LX_g6S4xY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Evil That Men Do
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LeWDrXpGixU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N53wPInP0_Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Infinite Dreams
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dLsh8zXstA8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hokeyboy

Did we ever talk about Maiden Japan? That was a quintessential EP back in the early 80s...

BearFan

I tacked that on with Killers, which was probably a mistake.

The EP really shows they were a great band pre-Bruce. The "extended version" that is available stands up there with LAD, Beast Over Hammersmith, and Rock in Rio as the top 4 Maiden live moments.

Hokeyboy

Cool I guess I must have forgotten LOL. But agreed about how great an album it is. Love the extended version too.

Alas, I don't think I have Maiden England, so I gotta sit this one out.

sniper007

I wish i had this, no comment on this maiden england.

FantasticVSDoom

I was surprised by all the love the 7th Son got... Not because I didnt love it, but here I thought for the longest time that I was the only one I remember people hating it when I was younger so I just got used to not talking about it.