Album Review: Maybeshewill – ‘I was here for a moment, then I was gone’

Posted on November 16, 2011November 16, 2011 Posted in album review, music, reviewTagged Album, i was here for a moment, maybeshewill, reviewLeave a comment

I am devouring new music. I have spent a few years avoiding too many new sounds so that my own albums exist in their own bubble, unaffected by outside interests. But now, I unwrap new music. CDs! I still buy a few CDs! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

I have mentioned in past reviews how I prefer to critique from afar. From across the span of a decade. To eat and drink an album to the point where you know it intimately.. to be able to truly see its value and place in history. Well… going against all that, I review this album from a position of no prior knowledge. I know nothing about this band. Nothing at all. I don’t know how this differs or betters anything else they’ve done. I don’t know what else they’ve done! This is therefore a blind test. This is my reasoning and justification for ignoring my previous sentiments. I like the idea of either reviewing with ALL knowledge… or reviewing with NO knowledge. For a little bit of knowledge can be a bad thing! So… Maybeshewill. Hmmm.

From the very opening seconds of “I was here for a moment, then I was gone” I knew I was going to like this album. It’s as if I’ve never been away from music. I’m picking up right from where I left off. The album opens with an immediate punch of epicness, and you know how much I adore epicness!!! Tinkling pianos, swelling strings and a choir of “ahhhhs”. I can indeed imagine filling the punch bowl for this creation. A healthy dash of Explosions in the Sky and a half bottle of Hope of the States. This is music that sits well in my frame of reference. The beautiful opening segues into first track proper “Take This to Heart”. A really cool stomping song that could be the theme for a Zombie film – I suggest 28 Days Later… or has that already been done? 😉 . It has that post rock feel. The sound of physical oxygen and carbon dioxide around the instruments. Air being moved. This is another quietLOUDquiet band and to a certain extent I’ve heard it all before. But that doesn’t stop the individual tracks pricking my ears and “Take This to Heart” for instance is smooth. It’s hard to put some of these sounds into words… but Maybeshewill‘s sound would make a good ‘spread’ for a sandwich. I don’t know how much of this album is sequenced and how much is played live but it sounds very, very real. This is an album after my heart… tugging at my hamstrings. Fragments of the album sound like the theme to Dexter, which I love. “Words For Arabella” has hand-claps and “Red Paper Lanterns” even has chimes! Yay! This is exquisitely crafted sound. However, like Three Trapped Tigers before it, this is well trodden ground. The post rock landscape is a dirty, desolate, solitary place with countless square miles of ground sodden with oil and the carcasses of all the ‘noise’ bands who came before. So… do Maybeshewill do enough to get my blood flowing?

This is a different beast to the feline antics of Three Trapped Tigers. Maybeshewill are not so heavily reliant on the extreme skills of one member of the band (Tiger‘s drummer). This band has an all round pretty sheen. For a post rock noise album “I was here for a moment, then I was gone” is actually quite gentle. And my does it flow. Like Chateauneuf du Pape down a greased, angled piece of glass. I suppose that’s the ‘smoothness’ coming in to play again! We are not going to escape the fast downward strummed electric guitar here. This is no place for alternate picking! Ha ha! Saying that, “Red Paper Lanterns” features a beautiful guitar melody which reminds me of some of the techniques of Joe Satriani. Strange that I’ve mentioned Satriani two reviews in a row now, for I bet he isn’t an influence on this band. They will probably deny his existence! Ha ha!

This album fizzes in places. Literally fizzes… like a can of freshly opened Coke (not Pepsi). Hmmmm… is that chugging power chords I hear on “Relative Minors”? Ha ha! Yes! More! Another very important point: the songs are short, most being around the 4 minute mark. This means the band are compressing ideas… getting straight to the point. There is no meandering here. If anything, this is as close to ‘pop singles’ as you’re going to get in the world of post rock! I appreciate it. Although I love long songs too it is nice for a band in this genre to be making a concerted effort to be concise.

Negatives… well, I hate to harp on and I realise I’m like a broken record… but it is a little clichéd to have no vocals. Yes, I know, I know… this is supposed to be instrumental music. I know that post rock doesn’t have vocals. I know it’s the antithesis of commercial rock. I know it is an attempt to bring to rock what electronic brought to pop. I know that Aphex Twin is a closer comparison to this music than the Rolling Stones. However, I would like these bands to keep pushing forward. And for me, well, I would love to hear what Maybeshewill could do with another weapon in their repertoire. The human voice is the most versatile of all instruments… come on someone on the scene… bring it into play!!!

An exquisite album. Well played, well thought out, well-intentioned. I’m not sure it truthfully offers much above and beyond what we’ve already been given by the likes of Explosions in the Sky. However, there is an increased sense of urgency on display here. This band has the ability to rock out balls-to-the-wall and still maintain the melody. This isn’t ‘clever’ music… this sound-scape retains emotion. And for that reason I give Maybeshewill an awful lot of credit. It’s hard to give a score to an album like this. I feel I have to fit it into the huge swathe of post rock bands in some way… like its achievement can’t make up for the fact that there are a thousand similar sounding bands at the moment. However… I shall give it a score based on how I feel. Take it or leave it. Great album. Fantastic album. I just don’t know whether it’s game changing. Simple as that.

Maybeshewill – I was here for a moment, then I was gone: 7/10

Album Review: Three Trapped Tigers – ‘Route One or Die’

Posted on November 15, 2011November 16, 2011 Posted in album review, music, reviewTagged drums, review, Route One or Die, Three Trapped TigersLeave a comment

Context… context is important to a review. To set the scene. I am ironing. Not just any ironing. This is ironing on the scale of the conquest of Everest. If and when I finish I will be honoured to the highest level. I expect a telegram from the Queen!!!

I choose to listen to an album by Three Trapped Tigers called “Route One or Die”. First things first. These guys can play their instruments. They are serious cats dude! Trapped cats! Ha ha! But do these cats emit the sound of a trapped cat? Or, more importantly, three trapped cats? For that would be a bad, bad sound!!!

There are times during this album when it sounds like the band are just about to fall off the stage. A cacophonous riot of avant-garde destruction almost on par with Explosions in the Sky at their noisiest. I expect the aforementioned band is an influence, for this is fundamentally a ‘post-rock project’. Post rock as a tag often puts fear into my heart. It is a style of music which appears to have no boundaries… and yet has given itself a very tightly fenced garden in the process. Crashing drums – check. ’70s prog rock keyboards – check. Manic guitar strums – check. No vocals – check. “Route One or Die” dwells within this garden… very safely in this garden. The three tigers are caged in this garden.

So… as I iron another t-shirt (how may t-shirts should a man have?)… I listen intently. I am not au fait with post rock really. I have tinkered on its outskirts… I have driven the car by, wound down the window and breathed in the stale post-apocalyptic air. But I have only stayed momentarily. I enjoy the extreme drumming, almost thrash drumming in fact. This album is at times as heavy as Metallica, sometimes even hitting Napalm Death levels of explosive noise. The final track, Reset, is one of these moments… after it is done emulating the melody of Spinal Tap‘s Stonehenge it spanks us hard with absolutely astonishing drumming. Adam Betts (I believe) hits those drums as if his pants depend on it. Incredible.

Throughout the album I am reminded of other bands. Sometimes hints… sometimes slaps in the face. I hear Yes in the arpeggios of the keyboards. I hear Joe Satriani in the melodies. I hear Explosions in the Sky in the quietLOUDquietness of it all. I hear War of the Worlds, Tubular Bells, DJ Shadow … I hear the 80’s TV programme Tripods. I hear fantastic musicianship. The drums are indeed the standout. Sheer power. This album is bringing my walls down. Manic, threatening, belligerent racket!

The album opens with a ‘song’ called Cramm. This track sums the band up perfectly adequately. If you like it then sit back and enjoy the rest. If you think it sounds like a noisy baby, trapped in a metal dustbin being rolled down the steps of a lighthouse then feel free to chuck the album straight in the nearest canal! Ha ha!

I like the scope… I like the interest brought about by the timing changes. This band has finesse, coupled with the ability to switch gears in an instant. When this band hits the ‘heavy’ switch you honestly feel like Chicken Licken waiting for the sky to fall on your head. Again… I think the drums are incredible. This is noise rock… but it could almost be categorised as a new era heavy metal rather than the electronic tag it’s usually filed under. These are real people playing real instruments and they absolutely slay! Massive. I would like vocals, more than just a few ahhs on the final track. I appreciate this style of music exists only without a vocalist, but I think it would be interesting to break a section of that garden fence. Or at least let one of the three tigers dig a small tunnel beneath it.

This is heavy, demanding, intelligent music that drives home a good ironing session. I am ironing faster than ever before! Music for ironing? Yes.

A score. Hmmm. This is a post rock noise album. And it does what it says on the tin. So… probably a straight 5/10. But I like the drums. I like the stutters. And most importantly… my kitten is loving it!!! Extra point! If the tigers had given me a couple of lyrical themes they might have got another point. But hey… 6 is bloody good! As I keep saying ad nauseum, I’m fed up with the 7-10 point scale. Use all ten bloody numbers people!

Three Trapped Tigers – Route One or Die: 6/10

Album Review: PULP – ‘HIS ‘N’ HERS’

Posted on August 9, 2011November 16, 2011 Posted in album review, music, reviewTagged '90s, Album, Band, blur, bowie, Brit, Brit-Pop, do you remember the first time, glam, His 'n' Hers, indie, Jarvis Cocker, oasis, Pop, pulp, review, rockLeave a comment

I’ll be honest right from the start. I’ve drunk a fair bit of wine. So much so that my fingers look like lightning across the keyboard. A FrEnZy I tell thee!!!! Ha ha!!!!

London is burning. The rioting is spreading. Don’t get me started on my feelings about the cretins involved in this mindless nonsense! All I hear on the news channels is people sticking up for the behaviour of these idiots of society. Well… as people in my own city plan their own riots (for possessions you understand… looting for POSSESSIONS… there is no political ideology on display here!!! 😐 ) I shall sink into the deepest recesses of music. You will all know me by now. You will know I can ramble. Well… I have precisely one hour to put some thoughts onto the interweb. This will be stream of consciousness stuff so expect wrongness. And inconsequence!

What comes to mind then…. I mean to write about. Hmmm. More wine first vicar!

How about a ‘discussion’ of an album. Hmmmm. What album though. I get the feeling that in my time with you – and I hope it will be years – I will discuss a huge variety of albums! Rubber Soul seems the next ‘apt’ album to discuss in terms of my recent road trip. Or perhaps a punk album, maybe the Sex Pistols in light of the riots. Or the Kaiser Chiefs… clever blokes 😉

No… I shall write about an album that is important to me. An album that changed my life – for a while. Perhaps for ever really. His ‘n’ Hers by Pulp.

Back-story. I was well into rock music in my youth. You could even go so far as to call me a ‘metaller’. Ha ha! Seriously… I was well into my Sabbath, Maiden, Aerosmith etc etc ad infinitum. That wasn’t a problem. I enjoyed it. It was important to me. Then along came grunge. And grunge changed everything. So much so that I’m sure I’ll write some entries about certain grunge albums in the future! I started a band. I drafted in someone I met at school. He approached me one day with an armful of grunge albums and lent them to me no questions asked. He’d just moved into the area and I’m sure it was a way to make a friend (the guy with long hair and a leather jacket was probably the safest bet for him!!!). Ha ha! Anyway… I did indeed borrow those albums… and I loved them. I think it was stuff like Nevermind and Ten, pretty mainstream really…. but do you remember those times – were you even born then?!? It was refreshing. It changed the landscape of music. Me and ‘the guy who lent me those albums’ became great friends. Hmmm… perhaps warrants a new paragraph?

So we started a band. I claimed I could play the guitar. Well, compared to him and his mates I was like a flippin’ guitar hero. Ha ha! What we needed was a bass player… so he bought a cheap bass. I taught him to play it and a band was in the making. He went on to become a really great bass player, perhaps I’ll get a cheque in the post one day! Ha ha! No, seriously, that guy had talent and we actually made a great partnership. I went to Uni and converted a couple more people to my cause. A keyboard player (who I at least converted, if not actually taught, to play the guitar) and a drummer. We were a punk band I suppose. Punk in as much as we couldn’t play… but also punk in as much as I was well into the Pistols and the Buzzcocks at the time. And elements of Nirvana’s first album, Bleach, came into play. Nirvana… remember Nirvana? The frightening thing is that some people genuinely think that Dave Grohl is just the front-man of the Foo Fighters. They don’t even know he was the drummer of a really important rock band?!? But that’s just the way of the world. Isn’t it? Memories fade. And sometimes memories are poured onto a computer screen when one is drinking wine!!!

So I was a rocker in a punk band. I was rocker in a punk band with all the trappings. Easy. Very easy. Then Brit-Pop happened. I was slowly converted to the likes of Blur and pretty much instantly to the likes of Oasis. It’s difficult in hindsight to remember how totally game-changing “Definitely Maybe” was at the time. It not only created a band wagon but it created the biggest band and the very biggest wagon!!! Seriously… you should have seen the size of the wheels!?! You needed to clamber up a 6 foot supermodel’s shoulders just to reach the cab! Ha ha! So my band at the time graduated to the title of “indie pop band” – as did every other band of the day! All bands became Oasis! We started to hang out in indie clubs. Perhaps I’ll tell stories of those times one day. But we enjoyed our particular brand of insulated imaginary fame! Ha ha! Then I heard a song. I cannot remember where it figured exactly in the time line. But it was probably on Top of the Pops, or in the indie clubs. I heard the song “Babies” by Pulp. Babies.

That kind of changed everything. That one song. I was converted instantly. This band was a revelation. Even just to look at – they were extreme. A weird mix of modern and complete nostalgia. David Bowie, disco and Brit-Pop. A gangly front-man….. a girl playing the keyboards – and an angelic sound. As with the other bands of the time it’s hard to listen to the music now and recognise the dynamite, neon-flamed abuse of the senses that erupted at the time. They were extraordinary. Completely. So much so that I can still taste the first few times I heard that song on my tongue. I still remember the first time! 😉 And I have an infamously bad memory!!! The song “Babies” is a track from an album called His ‘n’ Hers by a band called Pulp. Now… if I was going to be ‘cool’ I’d actually big up their previous album, “Separations” – another magnificent album. But, I have to be honest with you my faithful readers, this is a confessional site and His ‘n’ Hers was in many ways my confessional album.

The album was actually a huge way into Pulp’s career… and yet it feels like a debut album. Actually strike that… it feels like a reboot. In the same way that Nolan rebooted Batman and all the superheroes are currently receiving reinventions, Pulp recognised what worked and what didn’t from their past – and started again from square one. The violins and the electronics are still there. The moody reflection and autumnal tones are still very much in play. But Pulp finally found that magical ingredient so often missing before – a good song.

The album kicks in with ‘Joyriders’. A track which to this day I still remember all the words to. I just love the way the song smacks you in the face immediately. There’s no intro. This song signifies an album with straight-ahead intentions.

“We can’t help it we’re so thick we can’t think.

Can’t think of anything but shit, sleep and drink”

A song that seems SO relevant in the current climate of disillusionment and destruction. People making excuses for their actions. It’s like Jarvis is a prophet – like he should be bowed down to. Jarvis. Jarvis Cocker! I DO bow down to Jarvis Cocker. Never has someone made so much from so little. And yet… that is unfair. He has that certain ‘something’. You can’t quite put your finger on it… but he has IT. I wished I was him at the time. Maybe I still do now! Ha ha!

This majestic album then hits you with “Lipgloss”. It’s at this point that you realise the lyrics are genius. They are like a diary. Fair enough, a diary from someone who is having a more interesting life than you. But in any case, I certainly remember listening to the lyrics and experiencing a revelatory moment. Songs could be SO from the heart that they BECAME the heart. Heart and soul. Heart and soul. ///throws up!

Acrylic Afternoons is perhaps the true highlight of the album. This song needs to be experienced – preferably lying on your bed in a darkened room (only really an activity you can perform as a student). I had similar experiences in that ‘darkened room’ with Portishead and Jeff Buckley, but I’m sure I’ll talk about them another day. Acrylic Afternoons is almost perfect. It’s fragile… gentle. A world away from Iron Maiden or the Ramones. And yet in some ways infinitely more powerful. That’s what pains me about music reviews. It’s so easy to spout verbal shite about music. To be all verbally dexterous with your verbiage. But the honest reality is that you just have to hear it for yourself. You may not like it… but you have to hear it.

This diary of an album continues until we come to the song “Babies”. A song so good I will name it twice. Babies Babies. I won’t say too much about this song. I CAN’T say too much about this song. It’s just too important. This single, solitary song underpins everything I have ever done. It defines Confession of the Whole School to a certain extent. It changed my life. Set me on a different path – it HAS to be that important. I (wrongly) relegated all of my heavy metal albums to the bottom drawer of my wardrobe for years. Yes… years! Seriously, Babies had that much of an impact. It changed me! It still changes me. It remains one of the greatest songs ever written. Check out the video! It is tongue in cheek and unpretentious (considering the vastness of the song), but it is funny and witty and defines the band. It also features the never to be topped dancing skills of Mr Cocker! Common People may represent the band for the masses…. but for the believers, “Babies” is the song to beat! 🙂

So… I’m running out of time. Have I even started the album review yet? “Babies” reminds me of so much. People I no longer see and things I no longer do. It is MY song. And for that reason I will never allow a bad word to be said about it!

The next song on the album is called “She’s a Lady”. This song betrays the roots of Pulp. For you see Pulp had to deal with being a ‘band’ when being a ‘band’ wasn’t cool. They had to exist through acid house, rave, dance and all things electronic. They adapted. This is more evident on Separations… but it is indeed evident here on His ‘n’ Hers too. She’s a Lady isn’t one of my favourites, but it has its moments. Every song on this album does. Because this is a classic album. This album is up there with Definitely Maybe, Parklife and Dog Man Star. For me it is the crowning glory of Brit-Pop whilst perhaps not being Brit-Pop at all. It is a contrary album. So, let’s just forget She’s a Lady shall we?

Happy Endings is another torn page from the Cocker diary. An epic of Human League like proportions. Jarvis is just perfect. The perfect singer who can’t sing. As are Jonny Rotten and Alice Cooper. You don’t have to be able to sing conventionally to win my heart. In fact I insist! If you win the X-Factor I will disown you! I promise.

“Happy Endings” is the companion piece to Blur’s “To the End”. It is a magnificent song with the cutest keyboard solo ever! Ha ha!

Then comes perhaps the stand-out single from the album. Another song that instantly reduces me to tears. Because it really is THAT GOOD!

Do You Remember the First Time?

“I can’t remember a worse time.”

The perfect “indie”TM single. This song, along with Suede’s whole first album, cornered the market in swirling sexual indie rock. There was no point anyone else even trying afterwards. “Do You Remember the First Time” could be summed up as a Buzzcocks single for the ’90s. A song the Buzzcocks, in their prime, might have written. Sheer diary. Sheer poetry. Sheer class. Sheer riff-age. Sheer perfection.

Pink Glove continues the veiled lyrics. The secret written word that you can’t believe someone is actually singing. So close to the bone. Like a bloody post-mortem! Excuse me while I nip downstairs for more wine. —- Back. Yep… The lyrics to Pink Glove almost make me cry. You know something’s good when you can say that.

So… all that really leaves me to talk about is the final track on the album – “David’s Last Summer”. An epic. A 7 minute epic. Having now written a few epics myself I can appreciate the influence this song may have had on me. I’ll never be a ‘speaker’ of words, I’ll always be a singer – so I couldn’t say the song is ‘vocally’ an influence. But it is certainly an inspiration. Not one I ever think about. But it must have had an impact on my younger self. As did a song like Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The idea of a song as a series of movements. The idea of words as a series of moments. They can tie together or they can drift apart. There are no rules. Listen to David’s Last Summer. There are no rules. And yet the song totally sticks to the rules. Its own rules… but rules nevertheless. And so… my self-imposed time limit comes to an end. Sorry if this ‘so-called review’ has been a little obtuse. I should be better prepared for these things. The old rock CDs were eventually allowed out of that drawer, and everything returned to normality. With age comes the realisation that you don’t have to be embarrassed by the music that you love. In fact you should do everything in your power to promote it. Pulp can easily live alongside Wolfsbane, for example. For although they sound completely different, there is a drive and determination fuelling all of the best bands. Whether they do it with a bark or a gentle yap is kind of irrelevant.

Hmmmm…. a score? You want a score? That is very difficult. I’m tempted to give this album a 10/10. However there are moments of distinct 5/10… yet they are so very few and far between. Floating, bobbing carrier bags in a glittering ocean. Hmmmm. For me this album is close to perfection. It is certainly dating. I don’t deny that. And yet it was dated when it was released. Even then it harked back to the glam of ’70s Britain. Platform boots and singers driving into trees. Hmmm.

PULP – HIS ‘N’ HERS: 9/10

Album Review: Iron Maiden – ‘Powerslave’

Posted on June 7, 2011November 16, 2011 Posted in album review, music, reviewTagged Iron Maiden, Powerslave, review2 Comments

Here’s a new thing I’m gonna do. I’ve always been a fan of album reviews. As a student I lapped up NME and Melody Maker. My problem with most reviews is that they’re written so close to the event. So soon after an album release. Therefore likely with very few listens. You only have to read the reviews of Be Here Now by Oasis to realise how badly wrong things can go!!! This has always foxed me. You see, I am one of those people who sticks a CD in the car (yes… still a CD!), and then listens to that CD until destruction. Often months at a time. And after the monumental number of ‘listens’ I rack up I truly know the album inside out. I know the good and the bad. In my head I then imagine I’m reviewing the album. And the review is always easy because I know every single note of the album inside out. If reviewers had to live with an album for 6 months you would get a whole different appraisal! Probably a very honest one! But of course… that’s impossible. You need the review before or on the day of release! So… anyway… I’ve decided to stick up the occasional review on this site. The reviews will give a window into my world. The albums I choose to review will not necessarily be representative of anything in particular… but they will be a snapshot of my life!

So… recently I’ve decided to listen to a cassette in the tape player of my van. I’ve got a CD player in the car and a tape player in the van. Now.. having moved house a couple of times I found it extremely difficult to actually find a cassette to put in the van! I’ve only got CDs, and even then most of them have now been stuck onto the computer as MP3s. You definitely get a sense that “physical media” is dead and buried! Anyway… I managed to find one, solitary tape. Powerslave by Iron Maiden. An album I never owned on anything other than cassette. So… a couple of months ago into the van it went. And 100 listens later:

Okay. Powerslave. Hmmm. First of all, you have to bear something in mind when you listen to my thoughts on this album. Iron Maiden were pretty much my first love. The most accessible of ‘metal’ bands, and for me, one of the most important. At the time I bought this cassette, probably the late ’80s, I was much more into CDs and therefore this particular album was one of my least played of Maiden‘s career. However, that is not to say I didn’t know the songs. Many of these songs were played on the associated tour and were captured on the concert CD “Live After Death”. In any case, when I say this album was one of the lesser played of my Maiden albums, I’m probably still talking 10,000 listens! Ha ha!

Anyway, having listened to it in the van over the last couple of months I can say that the first thing that strikes you is the production. The whole album has a warm, punchy, analogue sound. In fact I’d go so far as to say that this is the archetypal “Iron Maiden sound”. A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that I have only ever listened to this album on tape. Tape has that effect on a sound. Any sound. But it seriously suited Iron Maiden. And so I listened to my old, worn, warped tape.

The era of Powerslave was arguably Maiden at their peak. It was released in 1984 and features the “classic” line-up of Bruce Dickinson, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, Nick McBrain and Steve Harris. This is THE Maiden line-up. And funnily enough, through thick and thin this line-up is still in existence today. There have been a lot of ups and downs along the way – and in fact Maiden lost me as a fan for a good few years – but the nostalgic line-up is back together (with an added Geordie for extra measure).

So, Powerslave. This album has the weight of a thousand sweaty teenage boys’ dreams on its shoulders.

Marty:  Let's talk about your music today...uh...one thing that puzzles me
        ...um...is the make up of your audience seems to be ...uh...
        predominately young boys.
David:  Well it's a sexual thing, really isn't it.  Aside from the
        identifying the boys do with us there's also a re-reaction to the
        female.....of the female to our music.  How did you put it?
Nigel:  Really they're quite fearful - that's my theory.  They see us on
        stage with tight trousers we've got, you know, armadillos in our
        trousers, I mean it's really quite frightening...
David:  Yeah.
Nigel:  ...the size...and and they, they run screaming.

Powerslave opens with Aces High. A great opening song. One of the greatest opening songs! An interesting fact about Maiden (and perhaps a lot of heavier music generally) is that very few of the songs are about ‘love’. There are no standard ‘love songs’. Maiden take this a little further in that most of their songs are completely impersonal. They tend to be songs about war, songs based on books, TV or poetry. Aces High is a war song. It’s the song they opened their gigs with at the time. They spliced a Churchill quote onto the front of the song and it went down a storm. A real kick of a song. A song that Dickinson tended to struggle with live at the time. As a singer he earned the nickname “the air-raid siren”. And this album features much of his absurdly high pitched singing. And he expanded on his “rasp”. A voice used to greater effect in the ’90s, you can hear it evidenced on this album.

Two Minutes to Midnight then slices in with its great opening guitar riff. This was Adrian Smith’s song and you can tell. It has a different fire to the other songs. Steve Harris tends to be the main songwriter for Iron Maiden. In fact… to be honest that is a huge understatement. Steve pretty much IS Iron Maiden. But Two Minutes to Midnight certainly showcased what the other members could achieve if they were allowed to! Dickinson is at his vicious best. I used to have the poster for this song on my wall as a kid. Eddie (the band mascot) sitting in the foreground with a nuclear explosion mushroom cloud serving as the backdrop. Awesome artwork. Awesome song.

In fact… now that I’ve mentioned artwork I think I might just mention Derek Riggs. Derek was the artist for all of Maiden‘s ‘golden-era’ work. He came across as a strange little man on the only footage I’ve seen of him. But at his best (during the ’80s) he came up with some inspirational album cover art. Perhaps some of the best. Although I personally favour some of the other album covers, I have to admit that Powerslave is a classic. Yes… a classic ‘metal’ album cover. A classic album needs a classic cover. Hmmm… do you think I’m gonna end up concluding that this is a classic album by any chance?!? 😉

The next track on the album is a strange one. Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra). Now, I was never a fan of the name of this instrumental. Not then and certainly not now. Poor. Very poor. But I have to look beyond the title and into the meat and two veg of the song. And actually… it’s a pretty damn fine instrumental. Certainly not up to the standard of something like “The Crusade” by Trivium (that IS an instrumental to end all instrumentals!), but it is a real tour de force for Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain. Steve is the bass player and Nicko is the drummer. And this song, and in fact this whole album is about the bass and the drums. I think Steve and Nicko as a team were at the top of their game on this album. Losfer Words is a mental showdown for the pair. Nicko is one of the most distinctive drummers of all time. He tends to have a motto: “Why hit one drum when you could hit a hundred?”. He owns Losfer Words. He owns the album. His drumming is killer throughout. I bet a lot of boys took up drumming after listening to Nicko. (because you can’t ‘watch’ him – he’s always hidden behind a wall of drums!). In fact Dickinson probably rebelled against this when he went solo in the ’90s. He went into a shop and asked for the “biggest drum kit they had”. The guy behind the counter said “Well… we could probably make a kit up of as many drums as you want.” Dickinson replied “No… I only want three drums… I just want those three drums to be the biggest you can get!”.

For all its technical difficulty and complex drum and bass work, the honest truth is that a song like Losfer Words could only have been helped by having Bruce sing something on it. What’s the point of having the greatest metal singer of all time and leaving him to sip Soda Stream in the studio storeroom? Come on guys… what the hell was this all about?!? And change the name of the song!!!

The next song, Flash of the Blade, is credited to Dickinson. It has aspects to it which are quite pleasing. The chorus for example has a nice enough melody and it is perfectly well sung. The playing all round on the album by everyone is spectacular. But.. you can’t help but feel that Flash of the Blade is album filler. Quite good album filler… but album filler nonetheless.

As the Duellists emanates from the van’s speakers I can’t help but notice that my cassette is incredibly warped on this song. Dickinson is singing like an X-Factor hopeful. Anyway… terrible song. Needs no more said about it.

A turn of the tape (remember having to do that?!?) reveals the next song. Back in the Village is likely a song referencing one of my favourite TV shows of all time – the Prisoner. And Back in the Village kicks ass! Serious ass! I see now that this song is also credited to Adrian Smith. That makes sense. This song hits you in the face similarly to Two Minutes to Midnight. Back in the Village has always been an underrated song. I have never heard Maiden play it live. I have never heard them mention it. It’s like it doesn’t actually exist. Fits with the theme of the Prisoner actually! Ha ha! When I was a kid I never gave Back in the Village the time of day. Pure album filler. However, re-evaluating it after 100 more listens I can confirm that this song is the dark horse of the album. A killer guitar riff (perhaps one of the reasons they never played it live – it’s killer to the point of being impossible! ha ha!), a great snarling vocal by Dickinson and pure powerhouse playing all round. A friend of mine (actually a top music reviewer) recently said that this was the second best song on the album. I have to admit that I look forward to turning the tape to hear this song. Perhaps the most underrated, undervalued Maiden song ever?

The title track is the pop song of the album. It starts with an intro that reminds you of Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. Then the Maiden stomp enters like a full force lovin’ machine. Bass and Drums. Killer. And I’m pretty sure I hear guitar synthesisers on this song too. A little two-faced after boasting on earlier albums how there were “no synthesisers used in the making of this album”. Ha ha! Oh well. I’ve backtracked on my own decisions enough times in my life to know that a statement is only ever as good as the second it’s made. Ten seconds later… u-turn! Ha ha! Anyway, Powerslave is another kick-ass song. Dickinson’s vocals are excellent and there are a few different tones on display with the instrumentation. The song mellows the feel of the rest of the album. You could probably say it was the most rounded song on the album, the perfect showcase for the band… if it wasn’t for the closing track!

Yes… the final track of the album. A song that for me is far and away the greatest of the ‘long songs’ Iron Maiden have written. It is another song based on literature, and for me it is also the best example. Rime of the Ancient Mariner is everything an epic song should be. It clocks in at over 13 minutes and never gets dull. It features amazing instrumentation and cinematic atmosphere. Just listen to that middle section. Just the bass and guitars, with the sounds of the ship creaking! Magnificent! The weaving of the classic poem into a rock song is done with perfection. Steve Harris has dropped the ball with these ‘epic’ songs on so many occasions, yet here he gets it all absolutely right! The way the song comes out of the soft middle section with a monumental gallop always brings a smile to my face. Bruce is again on top form. This song is what music is all about. It must have seemed such a risk at the time. But now it still holds its own. A truly epic work of art. The perfect end to a classic album.

So… I think I’ll give my album reviews a mark out of 10. One thing you must always bear in mind with me is that I use the full scale!!! 1 is dire. 5 is average. 10 is perfect. Weighing up the pros and cons of Powerslave I have to give it the only fitting mark. It is not a bad mark. It is a good mark! Thank you for reading. I shall be back with the next review soon… for the album I currently have in my car!

Iron Maiden – Powerslave: 6/10