(1986)
Steve, Dave, Bruce, Adrian and Nicko.
2. Wasted Years (Smith)
3. Sea of Madness (Smith)
4. Heaven Can Wait (Harris)
5. The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner (Harris)
6. Stranger in a Strange Land (Smith)
7. Deja-Vu (Murray/Harris)
8. Alexander The Great (Harris)
If you thought opening with the 6+ minute Where Eagles Dare was a bit off-beat for Piece of Mind, then you're in for a shock, as Caught Somewhere In Time clocks in at almost seven and a half minutes. Does this make it any less an effective album opener than the comparitively short Aces High or Be Quick Or Be Dead? Nope. CSIT is a masterpiece in and of itself, and as an album opener, it might just be Maiden's best. Don't get be wrong, Aces High and The Wicker Man are both excellent openers, but there's something about the opening of CSIT that means it needs to be the set-opener for Maiden next tour. The intrumental and solo's are fucking astounding, and the lyrics are fun as well
Wasted Years is, put simply, Adrian's masterpiece. With lyrics that steer feelings deep within you and a chorus that fills you with a sense of joy, plus one of the best solo's ever (and I know this isn't excatly a new thing [at the time]), but the way the flows effortlesly into the chorus and keeps on going for a few more seconds just blows me away every time. Make no mistake, Wasted Years is probably the best song on the album, and one of Maiden's best that shoud be up there with Hallowed and the like as a classic.
Next is Sea of Madness, another excelllent song. Steve's bass is insanely prominent in the verse's, and it never fails to put a smile on my face to listen to this song.
Heaven Can Wait is a few seconds shorter than CSIT, and every bit as good. The intrumental section is blessed by the additional vocals of a bunch of guys they found in a place called Tehe's Bar and it works suprisinly well (and provides some extra-amusement when played live, see the Maiden England review coming soon for more on this one).
The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner could be percieved to be a overly long and boring song. Not so. It's fairly long, but Bruce's vocal work in the chorus is amazing and the song in general is superb and needs to be played live.
If there was a weakest track, it's be Stranger in a Strange Land. Nothing wrong with the song at all; in fact it's excellent, but the rest of the album is better. It doesn't drag the album down though so don't worry or anything. The solos here are beautiful, but I just wish the song didn't fade out. The pre-corus verse is rather interesting, since it means this song could easily have been named the same as a certain title song from a certain reunion album. Meh. Still rocks.
Deja-Vu provides us with another fantastoc guiatr solo intro in the vein as Still Life (good ol' Dave). And although I've heard some bashing of the lyrcs, I digress. They are excellent, and very time you hear the song your mind wanders to the subject mater and how interesting it is. In fact, I experienced deja-vu when I bought this album and got to this song. However, thiis was later revealed to be because I had previously downloaded the song and forgotten all about it. Oops.
Lastly, in true Maiden style, we end the album with a epic masterpiece. This tme it's Alexander The Great (there's a bad Greek dude). It's easily one of Maiden's most under-rated songs, and shockinly, has never been played live. This could be down to the same reason Brave New World's The Thin Line Between Love And Hate has never been included in any set-lists; just like that song has an ending that would seem to drag on a bit for a concert, this song has an intro that takes a while to get anywhere. Still, they've played Losfer Words before, so anything's possible. I certainly hope Maiden don't ignore this classic song.
In closing, I feel I must mention the absolutely unbelievable cover this album has. You could litterally spend days looking at it and still finding new shit. Here's a couple of links to huge blow-ups of both the front and back covers. And here's a link to a FAQ with all the details on the cover, though the link may be under re-construction right now. And last of all, if anyone doubt's that Caught Somewhere In Time is a bad intro, check out this shit - it's the bottom link. And yes, that is the Blade Runner theme playing as an intro. Fucking cool.
So, in conclusion, this album fucking rules like shit. Love it.