one of the really interesting things i find reading through this thread is (and this isn't a criticism, merely an observation, and it's actually a good thing) that everybody has really different opinions on the songs ... i'm guessing most are maiden fans, but one song can have a ton of different opinions on it .... my favourite track, this song is one to skip, this is a great song but ... it is really interesting to me
Yeah, one of the fun things is to hear people have such divergent opinions on songs. It would be be boring if we all agreed on everything. Sidenote: Is this thread dead?
nah mate, i don't reckon.... if it folks are tied up i'll finish this album and happily do Book of Souls, I love that album!
Yeah, we're in the home stretch. 15 more songs plus some live albums/compilations. Looking forward to Starblind, @rubberhead!
Starblind (Smith/Harris/Dickinson) It starts off with the slow intro so typical of 21st century Maiden, but the melody has enough urgency that it builds anticipation for what's to follow. For once it doesn't go on too long and the song blasts off a mere :50 in with a meaty, muscular riff that has a bit of velocity. Maybe it's just my imagination but I always think of the riff as coming from a distant solar system. Things are pretty straightforward after that: we get a minute of verses, the music swirling around while Dickinson screams about the death of planets, the endless void and the absorption of life force into the solar winds. Or something. Whatever he's banging on about, he certainly makes it sound really damn important. And that's great. At 1:49 they barrel straight into the chorus with no transition, no pre-chorus, just “Starblind, with sun, the stars are one." Then at 2:10 we downshift into a refrain which totally changes what the song is about; it appears to be a screed against organized religion! Whatever, it's all pretty interesting. Then there's a bit of a solo and back into the chaos of the verses, motoring on until exactly at 4:00 everything fades away and a new guitar motif smoothly takes us into the solos. Around 4:40 the mood shifts to be a bit more upbeat, and at 5:00 the decks are cleared again with yet another guitar motif that kicks off a triumphant harmony section. It's like we've just made it through some black hole on our journey and now, surprised to still be conscious, we take a breath as everything crashes at 5:48 to reset and return us to the beginning. Then verses again, last chorus and out. I love this song. I realize it's very similar to many other reunion tracks, but as a great fictional duo once said, it's a fine line between stupid and clever. Sometimes the pieces don't work and the song ain't great, and sometimes they do, as in "Starblind." Whatever the lyrics are actually about to me the song is like something out of Lovecraft, a desperate howl into the void of a cold, malevolent universe. It doesn't try to do too much, no awkward time changes, just a mad rush into the maelstrom. Top shelf.
Starblind I don't hate it. The melody is repetitive but still interesting. This vocal rhythm that starts on the third beat, ends on the first beat, would be recalled more than once on the Book of Souls album. The seventies prog part goes back and forth between 7/4 and 8/4 which sounds a little forced but it's still relaxing and not too long.
This reminds me of Vision Quest with Matthew Modine. Haven't seen that one in a while. The soundtrack has REO Speedwagon, Journey, Berlin, and Style Council, as well as Dio and Madonna.
Thanks! Writing about music is not my strength and I have no technical knowledge at all, so when people say "muted palm riff" or whatever I have no idea what it means. But I tried.
Starblind Okay, so that's Starblind - I remember the song! After another moody intro (relatively short this time), the main riff comes in to dominate the scene. It sounds like SIT-era-stuff, which is a good thing. But instead of carrying us on a marvelous journey, it's more like a battle of the stubborn this time: guitars, rhythm and vocals stay on their chosen path and seem to be blinkered to each other. Nicko fails not complete but a tad too much in smoothing things up, and with ignoring the vocals, he enforces the rhythm into something quite clumsy. Bruce is... oh my gawd, I really dislike stuff like this. The vocal rhythm may look alright on paper, but it feels so inorganic I'd call it just as well wrong. The chorus is alright, not really outstanding from the rest of the song, but a bit elevated from he verses. The part at 2.15 is deadly boring because it's heard too often in the naughties, on top I don't think it's THAT fitting... The solo at 4.10 sounds a bit accidental again - could've been great, but just isn't. But it's not all wrong, at 4.49, there's a kind of salvation from that proggy mess and some really nice done soloing, licking and effective drum-breaks with the typical Maiden-class I missed all the way. At the end, a reprise of the soft intro (yeah, we already know that recipe...)... Reunion-era Maiden is said to have a "proggy edge", and here it is in full flight. You know, I really LOVE Yes and King Crimson (per example), but technical logarithmic crap like this always gets my cold shoulder. This song to me sounds like a mislead experiment - again! It's hard, because artistically, I appreciate when things change or are tried out... but if it doesn't work out, better leave it in the shelves, boys! "The Final Frontier" seems to be a victim of its title. It's all taken to extremes I don't want to know about. There's not much else to come, but I already changed my mind completely from favorite to worst reunion album!
I don't have technical knowledge either, but IMHO, it distracts more than serving when it comes to FEEL good music. It's really satisfying for me that neither The Beatles nor the Bee Gees could write down music, but made the best songs in the world!
Starblind Vocals vs drum rhythm doesnt quite work, Bruce sounds behind where he should be. And yes, the chorus is Infinite Dreams. I like the riff and chords but vocals and chorus nicked from another Maiden tune puts me off. 2/5.
Starblind: The band is clearly trying. Not succeeding, but trying, I’ll at least give them that. Too bad the song is dull and forgettable and overreaching. I don’t like it.
Starblind Love this one! Awesome melody shift at 2:10 and I like what Bruce is doing here. There's a lot going on in this song and I'd liked to really go into but I'm on my phone 'cause currently I don't have internet on my computer (and won't for 8 more days) and like I said a few months ago, I hate typing a lot on my phone. NIcko is the true star on Starblind. What he's doing on the cymbals amazes me every time. That drum roll at 6:49!! Wow! I will say upon first listen it wasn't a favorite but then one day at the gym, I was on the treadmill and the song clicked. I came home to listen on my proper system and I've been in love ever since. My second favorite off the album. What could be number one? 5/5
Starblind (Smith, Harris, Dickinson) The picking pattern in the intro, and really the backing keyboards too, remind me a lot of Heaven Can Wait. It's definitely got that "SIT" vibe at the beginning which is fine with me. I'm glad that they don't add a second verse here since that's something they'd normally do. Nice, crunchy riff comes in at just before the minute mark. That's a great riff from Adrian. Another wordy melody here that takes up nearly another minute. I like the chorus, but it's not distinctive enough from the verse. Finally at 2:10 we get a good change. It's still wordy, but I'm not terribly bothered. I love the drop down change at 2:20, that's awesome. The main riff comes back post-chorus and there's a kind of forgettable solo from Adrian before hitting another verse. So many words! The stoppage around 4:00 could go anywhere and I'm glad it wasn't a slow down. Good riff here and it's a variation of the main riff. Cool touch. Adrian takes another solo here and it's pretty damn cool, but it's mixed too quietly. The change for Dave's solo is both abrupt and cool. The middle breakdown really reminds me of Priest. Needs a harmony, esp. with it repeating so much. Back to the mellow "HCW" beginning for a short solo and back to another verse, chorus and bridge. I...like this song. Kind of. It works a lot better when listening to the album as a whole. Listening to it by itself it kind of falls short for me. Some good parts, certainly, but it's just not a tight composition. Feels like 3 songs stuck together in a way that doesn't fully work. But then, I've never once skipped it when listening to the album. It doesn't suck, I don't hate it, but...it's only OK for me. Honestly, before today I never would've thought that about it. I think the mix is really murky, or maybe it's because I just came from listening to The Yes Album immediately before going into this one. @rubberhead , good writeup. I laughed several times, much appreciated!
I'm positive that both those bands had plenty of technical knowledge and knew all about scales, chord progressions, harmonies, time signatures, playing techniques etc. Reading and writing music are skills that many rock musicians don't bother to acquire, since they're not essential. If understanding music theory and having technical knowledge distracted of feeling music, every musician would have that distraction, with the possible exception of some punk rockers.
Maybe you're right, maybe not. As for The Beatles and the Bee Gees, I'd always thought they were self-taught and therefore not familiar with academic terms and specifications. At least from the Bee Gees I know that they used to hum melodies and rhythms to the producer/studio musicians instead of giving them theoretical instructions. Concerning The Beatles, they were already so practiced when they made their first record, I guess they used clever chord progressions and/or time signature without being able to name them - and that's more or less what I meant. Going through school and learning things like that from a teacher helps you to understand how and why certain things work or are done, but I still believe it doesn't help to feel. On top, I know from my own experience how musicians go and say "you can't do that!" because they were taught so... This always annoyed me and hinders music of being more creative/adventurous. So, it's got nothing to do with punk rock, but with the stiffness that comes from endless theoretical rulebooks. I for one always appreciated more the compliments from non-musicians than from musicians because to me, that's a more direct sign if music is good or not.
Starblind Nicko kills it here, especially with the time changes. This song definitely sounds like something from 7th Son. I can hear the similarities with "Infinite Dreams" as well. This song fits the feel of the album. The chorus is lacking, but I think it's a reasonably solid song (high praise!).
Music talk.... As a musician, I don't buy the argument that studying music kills "feel". I've also never heard any musician, trained or otherwise, say "you can't do that!". Studying music on any level shows you more things that are possible than you knew before. Sure, if you never take a guitar lesson or crack a book you can hit upon some things that someone more learned might've missed. However, you're also simultaneously severely limiting yourself because you don't know what's possible. It doesn't hurt you to know more about the language you're using. In my writing & performing I've never, not once, thought that I couldn't do something because it didn't conform with music theory from 200 years ago. I simply don't care. The more you know of the rules, the more you know how to break them and why those "breaking of the rules" works. The concept of "feel" has nothing to do with how much you learn or don't about music. Some players have it, some don't. "Feel" is super subjective anyway.
