Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

[Vic2012]

This is my first thread on new PE.

I had a few bucks left on the Best Buy gift card my kid gave me so I perused the racks to see what I could find. I'd been looking for Maiden's SIT for a while but it was either overpriced or just no where to be found (at brick and mortar stores). Best Buy stores are closing down so I'm pretty sure they're gonna have a fire sale soon. CD prices have gone down to a reasonable $9.99 to $4.99.

Okay, the album: Most of the reviews I've read over the years have been negative. The synth guitars, Bruce's voice, the "this or that." Well, I love it. It's as good as (or slightly better than) Seventh Son. Yeah, the synthy guitar and overall production are not as good as Piece Of Mind or Powerslave but I think it's a damn fine Maiden album.

BTW, I also noticed that Steve Harris released a solo album titled "British Lion." I almost picked it up but wasn't sure if that was THE Steve Harris. It is. Has anyone heard it?

[polmico]

It is IM's Steve Harris and it's pretty unremarkable; nevertheless, here's my remark on it: don't buy.

[Vic2012]

I read about British Lion on Wiki a little while ago. Most reviews are negative. I'll pass. Thanks.

[PeterG]

It's good, as are 95% of IM albums, but it's not in my top five.

1. Piece of Mind
2. Dance of Death
3. Powerslave
4. Seventh Son
5. Brave New World

[Supersonic Scientist]

I LOVE Somewhere in Time. Very decent song-craft & production. I like the GTR synth stuff, it adds a deeper dimension to their sound without being overtly Guitar-synthy (if you know what I mean)
I recommend getting it.

[iguana]

if you fancy experiencing a lighter, slightly more spacious version of the patented iRON MAiDEN-sound, be sure to check this one out. side one (vinyl-days terminology!) is faultless and “stranger in a strange land”, which had a very electronic (and then much maligned) feel, remains a lost iRON MAiDEN classic. love the cover art! how many iRON MAiDEN cross references can one detect? derek riggs totally excelled himself here.

up the irons!

[Yaman Aksu]

Listened to it a lot in the late 80s but only probably 5-6 times since then. Enjoyable nice and light, melodic high-energy album --- heavy but not dark, unlike a lot of Metal --- proggy but normally cataloged under Metal. Many lyrics have adventurous and/or sci-fi themes (including 2 songs named after movies which is typical for this band). Second half plus the opener track are probably the more interesting parts. Even though many people 'grow out' of listening to this band past their teens, the band's music has some qualities that make it worth revisiting occasionally (at least a few times a decade for me). I'd recommend it as a nice and light high-energy album with adventurous themes, without the music or mood being dark.

Stumbled on this piano cover of the opening track --- this piano version really makes it stand out that the underlying music construction in this particular song is actually pretty simple -- so, makes you see clearly that it's the full band instrumentation that gives the original version the drama:

[Yaman Aksu]

^^^ well actually that piano cover is pretty dramatic too...nice and light dramatic music...enjoyable stuff IMO

[ItalProgRules]

I actually like this one quite a bit. It came after my initial IM phase but I inherited a bunch of CDs from my cousin went he went away to college, and this was one of them.

The much-maligned guitar synths don't bother me at all. I find them to be tastefully used and really cool-sounding.

Couple of duff tracks on this one, it suffers from the old CD problem of "more is less" but the winners here are more than enough to make this one a worthy addition to an IM collection.

[mellotron storm]

A feel good record for me that i described as melodic and reflective when i reviewed it years ago. It's weird maybe but Wasted Years mean't as much to me back then as i'm sure it did for the band.

[Sean]

Good album. Heaven Can Wait was kinda the beginning of a cheesy track or two being on each album, but the rest is pretty groovy.

[Wisdomview]

'Somewhere In Time' is one of my favorite albums by anyone. IMHO, it's a classic!

[Kim Olesen]

'Somewhere In Time' is one of my favorite albums by anyone. IMHO, a it's a classic!

Same here. And imho the best metal album by anyone. EVER.

[Sean]

You sure? That's very high praise!

[ItalProgRules]

"Heaven Can Wait" may have a layer of cheez, but I can't help it, I just plain like that song.

But then again, I do have a fairly high tolerance for cheez.

[Sean]

Can I Play With Madness sets off my lactose intolerance too, on the next album.

[spellbound]

I managed to score a half dozen or so Iron Maiden CDs at a thrift store. Some are better than others; none are unlistenable. Later, I used Best Buy and Lasers Edge to fill in some gaps.

I now have:

Iron Maiden
Killers
The Number of the Beast
Piece of Mind
Powerslave
Live After Death
Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
No Prayer for the Dying
A Real Dead One
A Matter of Life and Death
Dance of Death

That's probably more Maiden than anyone needs, but I still want to get Brave New World. I would say Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and Somewhere In Time are the peak of their studio albums and Live After Death is an indispensable concert album. But they didn't make many bad albums.

[ItalProgRules]

I just realized, even in their earliest days there was some Maiden Cheeze.

As evidence, I give you "Women in Uniform."

[Sean]

Yeah, that was pretty bad. Notice it wasn't on an album though.... Like they knew better.

[MudShark22]

When CDs became dominant; Maiden put the cheeze on the album proper rather than on the b-sides. Collectable cheeze tastes better than cheese on the album, IMO.

Re: SiT
The beginning of the end, IMO, but a fantastic way to begin the decline.

[Rael]

SiT is a good album but for me, it's the second weakest Iron Maiden album from the 1980-92 era after No Prayer For the Dying.

[Jerjo]

Harris' solo album was one I got rid of pretty fast. But Bruce's greatest hits collection is pretty decent. "Tattooed Millionaire" is pretty commercial but damn, that hook will stay in your brain for days.

Regarding Somewhere in Time, it's OK. Better than the albums that came after 7th Son. At the time I gave them credit for trying something different and it holds up. But it sure isn't Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast.

[GuitarGeek]

This is actually probably my favorite Iron Maiden album. Lots of cool songs, cool guitar work, and I love the B-sides to the singles too. I can't imagine what issue anyone would have with Bruce's voice on this album. It's just as powerful as on any other Maiden album he appeared on.

As for the guitar synths, they're actually deployed relatively subtly, and only a few songs, without overwhelming the sound. Contrast the guitar synths on this record against their more or less contemporary use on Judas Priest's Turbo album. I certainly always dug, for instance, that descending melody during the chorus of Heaven Can Wait. And I always liked that white Jackson that Adrian Smith used with his GR-700.

Overall, I think it's a great album. I wish they'd release some concert footage from this tour. I know there's about a minute or so of pro-shot material on the 12 Wasted Years VHS release. Would love to know if there isn't more in the vaults somewhere. There's a couple great audience shot concert videos from this tour, where you can see they had an, as usual, elaborate stage set, apparently based on the movie Blade Runner. And that was the tour where Dave and Ade did that guitar synth duet, where Adrian would play chords on the guitar synth (using the "hold" footswitch on the GR-700) and he and Dave would trade solos back and forth over the chords.

[ItalProgRules]

"Iron maiden-gonna get you-wherever you are. Iron maiden-gonna get you-how near or how far."

Damn I love the early stuff. I turned 16 in 1980 and IM were OUR metal band. Sure, we all loved Sabbath and Priest, but they belonged to a previous era (in the 70s, 5 years WAS an era!)

But in those days, kids always wanted their own stuff, that we felt belonged to us. Maiden were the greatest thing ever to us, in those days. Named for a medieval torture device, with THOSE covers...damn, they were great.

Not to take a single thing away from Dickinson and all the excellent albums they have made since. But we never forget our first loves, now do we?

[Wisdomview]

Overall, I think it's a great album. I wish they'd release some concert footage from this tour. I know there's about a minute or so of pro-shot material on the 12 Wasted Years VHS release. Would love to know if there isn't more in the vaults somewhere. There's a couple great audience shot concert videos from this tour, where you can see they had an, as usual, elaborate stage set, apparently based on the movie Blade Runner. And that was the tour where Dave and Ade did that guitar synth duet, where Adrian would play chords on the guitar synth (using the "hold" footswitch on the GR-700) and he and Dave would trade solos back and forth over the chords.

I had hoped for a pro video for years, but I doubt it will ever happen.