(2000)
Steve, Dave, Bruce, Adran, Janick and Nicko.
2. Ghost of the Navigator (Gers/Dickinson/Harris)
3. Brave New World (Murray/Harris/Dickinson)
4. Blood Brothers (Harris)
5. The Mercenary (Gers/Harris)
6. Dream of Mirrors (Gers/Harris)
7. The Fallen Angel (Smith/Harris)
8. The Nomad (Murray/Harris)
9. Out of the Silent Planet (Gers/Dickinson/Harris)
10. The Thin Line Between Love and Hate (Murray/Harris)
I guess that was the reaction of many fans when the news hit that Bruce and Adrian would be returning to Iron Maiden, and that Blaze Bayley would be out of the band. And regardless of the fact that The X Factor is a brilliantly writtern, constructed and performed album, and that Virtual XI is pretty good as well... the news was for the best. Despite Steve being Iron Maiden, Bruce is absolutely need within the band; both to properly sing the songs that Steve invisions (and has in the past - songs which Blaze struggled with live), and to bring his own ideas and talent with him and re-inject them into the band. Adrian is also absolutely essential. No Prayer and Fear were both great albums, but they weren't excellent, and one of the main reasons for this is the lack of H. Now, now disrespect to Janick, because I think he's an awesome songwriter and guitar player, but I don't feel he's essential to Maiden. H, on the other hand, is very much essential. His amazing playing, his stunning songwriting ability and even just his presence. Make no mistake: H is the man.
While Jan brought a lot of great songs to the band, he was, in ways, somewhat limited in his songwriting ability. I only say this because a lot of his songs are quite similar (for example, Son of a Gun/Wasting Love, Be Quick or Be Dead/Man on the Edge, Born in '58/ Montsegur), and often his solos are not that fantastic. Compare his solo in Sign of the Cross to his solo in Tailgunner, for instance. Whereas H is very original in his songwriting, even if many of his songs do share the same general uplifting vibe, the songs themselves are not alike.
Anyway... that could all be seen as rambling (which it is, even if there is a point in there somewhere, but I digress). The point is, two of Maiden's essential members are now back in teh band, and the results should have been absolutely incredible. I mean, Bruce back (and with him, the kind of powerful songs that Blaze's voice was not built for), and the return of H now giving the band a unique three guitar 'attack.'
The results are not quite as spectacular as the theory. What we got was a stunning album that wasn't quite as good as it should have been. A flawed masterpiece, if you will. See, the trouble with Brave New World, is that, while all the songs range from good to fantastic on their own, together - as an album - they don't work quite so well. The album doesn't flow like an album should flow. In fact, it doesn't flow at all. Plus, the three guitars were just not used at all. The possibilities were brilliant, but nothing came of them. Even the return of H was not as it could have been - 2 songs and four solos. Still, the 'H presence' is cleary there.
Onto the songs themselves, then... the album kicks of with the instant classic, The Wicker Man. An excellent song, where credit goes to the two 'new arrivals' (there's some Steve in there to, probably the "whoas" at the end, although that's just a guess). H's solo is absolutely fantastic, and Bruce gives us the kind of high notes in the chorus that we haven't heard since Fear of the Dark. A brilliant song, and it gives the album a huge powerful start.
Then we have Ghost of the Navigator. Probably one of Jan's best songs, which is bogged down by a little too much repetition (a commen theme in this album) - the chorus is very long, and although it's only repated three times, its lenth doesn't do the song any favours. Still, the clean intro is great, and Jan's solo is very good.
Next, the title track. Which sports one of the worst chorus' in Maiden history . Overlooking that for the time being, and we have a wonderful song, with a beautiful intro and great solos. But the chorus... granted, it's no TAATG, but it's utter poo all the same. A huge shame. Two clean intros in a row is beginning to take it's toll on the album's momentum as well...
... and now we're dead. Another clean intro, and the only song Steve wrotr by himself for this song. See, although Blood Brothers features in my top ten list, its placement here does the album no favours. The momentum established with The Wicker Man has been stopped dead in its tracks by the third clean, mellow intro in a row. Still... the song is awesome, especially live (where the repetitive chorus really shines as the crowd are brilliant).
Next, and the pace is brought back up, sadly however, by an average song. It sports another terriblle chorus. The lyrics also seem to be about the excellent Schwarzenegger film Predator, which does seem like a random subject for a song, especially as this reference is rather ambiguous. Anyway, okay song which tries to speed things up, but fails for two reasons: One if the chorus, and the other is that thw song that follows does a great job of truly killing the album's momentum for a very long time.
Dream of Mirrors is an excellent song (especially live) which is a little too long and should have been placed somewhere else in the album, or even rearranged. The song doesn't need to be 9 minutes long. On it's own, this doesn't matter, but right in the middle of the album, it really doesn't help solve the problems that the three clean intros in a row and the two, perhaps three crap repetiitive chorus' have caused. Yes, I know I'm probably being overly hars here, but it needs to be said. Nine minutes!! Plus apparantly Blaze wrote parts of this song (presumably lyrics) and wasn't credited for them, which quite frankly, is not on.
Second and final H song now, and it's not really brilliant at all. It's unusually heavy for Maiden - and H - but is fun and has nice lyrics, plus solos from all three guitarists. The problem is the chorus - very nice, but a little too much repetition again. Then there's The Nomad, which is just... eh. A mixed bag, to say the least. What do you get when you combine some of 'Arry's worst lyrics with a average song containing a brilliantly constructed instrumental breakdown where most credit must surely be given to Davey? You get The Nomad. Sadly, it doesn't really go anywhere, and should not have been a staggeringly unnecessary eight minutes long. It would have been far better just shorted to an instrumental, leading into...
Out of the Silent Planet. At last! The album's energy is rejuvenated with this wonderful song. Yes yes yes, I know I've been going on about the damn repetition of this album for most of this review, and here we have a song that is very repetitive... yet it works. Despite Steve's meddling (and make no mistake, in this instance, it certainly was meddling) and making the song about 2 minutes longer, the song is still a classic. I do think it would have worked better had the slow intro been removed, but the solos were better here than on the single edit.
We end with some of Davey's best ever work - The Thin Line Between Love and Hate. At last, a song that it very long yet actually deserves to be that long. There is no long, drawn-out chorus or pointless repetition - just Davey showing how much of a great guitar player he is. The "I will hope my soul will fly and I will live forever" part is exceptional, and the outro solos are purely orgasmi, not to mention the beautiful singing by Bruce to end the song.
Again, then, to show something of the all round badness of some of the chorus' of this album: why all the goddamn repetition!! The prog infuence that has been getting stronger since The X Factor is out in full force, and while it is nice, I do think it should be toned down a tad. Plus, it really is a shame that the enourmous potential of the three guitars weren't even attempted to be used properly. Even with Dance of Death, where the 'attack' has begun to be utilised does not use their full potential at all. Still, the production of Brave New World is a step-up from Virtual XI, yet it's still fairly poor.
Still, some of these flaws are understandable. Maiden didn't have a great deal of time to write and record the album, since with the newws of the reunion and following Ed Hunter tour, the pressure was on the band to come up with the goods fast. Ecven then though, it is partly inexcusable. Four of the songs where left-overs from Virtual XI. Now, to me, sticking left-overs from a previous album on the new one - especially a new album as anticipated as Brane New World - is just stupid. Regardless of time issues, I'm sure H could have come up with a few more songs instead of left-overs from the band's worst album. Likewise, Bruce could have had a few more lyrics easily. Still, it's Steve who calls the shots, and there's not a whle lot that can be done about that. At the very least though, some of those songs could have been reworked to include some more solos for Adrian.
On the three guitars again, perhaps it was the time constraints that didn't allow time for the band to sit down and experiment with this new assett. Even then though, surely there must have been time whilst recording... bah. Point is, a great source of new musical excellence was vastly overlooked for this album, and that is a shame. At least live the band doubled some solos or inserted little extra solos in to some of teh classic songs. More on that when I review Rock In Rio, though.
All in all then, a flawed masterpiece. It is a brilliant album, but not one of Maiden's best, and the potential that it had was sadly not realised much at all.