20 “Heaven can wait” (from
Somewhere in Time)
The first track from this album and it's almost in the top twenty? Well,
Somewhere in Time is really not that great an album, and for me was something of a disappointment after
Powerslave. It suffers, in my opinion, from too many long tracks, with virtually nothing under five minutes and three of the eight over seven. Add to that the fact that some of the track are just pompous and boring and uninspiring, such as “The loneliness of the long distance runner” and “Alexander the Great”, and you have the elements for a serious comedown after one of Maiden's best ever albums. But it does have its moments and this is one of them. I like the guitar riff that runs through it, I like the melody and the big buildup at the start. It's also on the side of the album (yeah I bought the vinyl at the time) which has neither of the two bloated epics mentioned above. The midsection with the “Whoa-oh-oh”s is great too..
19 “Still life” (from Piece of Mind)
A controversial choice perhaps, as most will not rate this track but I really like it. I have great memories of, for some reason, envisioning myself on a powerful motorbike with this blasting in my headphones as Bruce sings “Nightmares coming all the time! Nightmares will give me piece of mind!” I don't know why, as I never rode a bike in my life, motor or otherwise. Not without falling off anyway. But it really appealed. I love the lyric and the way it mentions the title of the album, the arabic style to the opening guitar line, which gives you the mistaken impression this might be a ballad (especially given the title) the stupid backwards masking at the start, which was a real “Fu
ck you morons” to the Religious Right from Maiden. Good on yaz sons!
18 “Two minutes to midnight” (from Powerslave)
Coming as it does hard on the heels of the tremendous opener to the album, this keeps the tempo high and the blood pumping, and in the vein of “Die with your boots on” it's something of a warning about the way the world is going. Nothing new about that, but I just love the way they talk about abortion and oil in the same song, and the beat is powerful and headbang-worthy. The only thing I don't like about it is the ending, which I feel cheapens the song slightly. Ah well, cant have everything I guess.
17 “Judas be my guide” (from Fear of the Dark)
Particualrly because prior to this I had suffered through “The Fugitive”, “The apparition” and “Chains of misery” (appropriately titled hah!) it was a joy to hear a song that didn't make me shake my head and despair. The familiar opening riff allied to the soaraway guitar gives you the feeling that maybe, just maybe, here is a pearl among the swine, and indeed it turns out to be just the case. This track almost belongs on another, better album, but because it's here it shines like a diamond, and though it's followed by the piss-poor “Weekend warrior”, it's good preparation for the final closing track.
16 “Brave new world” (from Brave New World)
What can I say? The title track from the album that brought Bruce back to us, it's a powerful, triumphant, marching anthem that kicks off something like the opening to
Seventh Son to my mind, again gives you the idea it could be a ballad for about ninety seconds until it powers up. But once it gets going, it doesn't stay at that tempo, changing as I say for the chorus into a swaggering, marching anthem. Great stuff, and great to hear Bruce in such fine form on his return.
15 “Tailgunner” (from No Prayer for the Dying)
Okay, let's be honest: this is just “Aces high” rewritten. But for all that, it's a good track and has a lot of excitement and passion, and it is one of the few good tracks on this album. Great hammering guitar in it, but it lacks something I feel.
14 “Sea of madness” (from Somewhere in Time)
The other good track on this album, I love the hook in this and the way it pounds along, great melody in it. One of only two songs written solo by Adrian Smith, and he does a great job on it. Both his efforts are on this album by the way.
13 “Strange world” (from Iron Maiden)
Well I'd have to include the first of very few ballads written by the boys, wouldn't I? When I first heard this album I was amazed that there were any slow songs on it, the more so that Di'Anno could sing in anything other than a snarly growl. Shows what I knew! Lovely ringing, kind of phased (?) guitar tone to this, gives it a real otherworldly feel, and if I didn't know better I would have sworn there were keyboards in here somewhere. Great song.
12 “The evil that men do” (from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son)
I don't know; after “Infinite dreams” and even “Can I play with madness” I was losing hope that this album could hold much for me, and then came this. It's a bouncy, unapologetic tirade against ourselves and how we screw things up and how, as Shakespeare noted, the good men do is forgotten but the evil lives on. As a closer to side one of the album it's perfect.
11 “Sun and steel” (from Piece of Mind)
Yeah, some will say that it's a simple song and I would agree with that. There's no great structure to it, the lyric isn't particularly clever, and there's no happy ending. But I really love this song. Maybe because I mistakenly believed it was about Conan the Barbarian, and I think I had seen the movie recently at the time, or maybe it's just that it blasts away the cobwebs and misery that the awful “Quest for fire” had brought down. Either way, I love this song.