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Released: 1990
Tracks: [Disc 1] Running Free; Burning Ambition; Sanctuary; Drifter (live); I’ve Got the Fire (live); [Disc 2] Women in Uniform; Invasion; Phantom of the Opera (live); Twilight Zone; Wrathchild; [Disc 3] Purgatory; Genghis Khan; Running Free (live); Remember Tomorrow (live); Killers (live); Innocent Exile (live); [Disc 4] Run to the Hills; Total Eclipse; The Number of the Beast; Remember Tomorrow (live); [Disc 5] Flight of Icarus; I’ve Got the Fire; The Trooper; Cross-Eyed Mary; [Disc 6] 2 Minutes to Midnight; Rainbow’s Gold; Mission From ‘Arry; Aces High; King of Twilight; The Number of the Beast (live); [Disc 7] Running Free (live); Sanctuary (live); Murders in the Rue Morgue (live); Run to the Hills (live); Phantom of the Opera (live); Losfer Words (Big ‘Orra) (live); [Disc 8] Wasted Years; Reach Out; Sheriff of Huddersfield; Stranger in a Strange Land; That Girl; Juanita [Disc 9] Can I Play With Madness; Black Bart Blues; Massacre; The Evil That Men Do; Prowler ’88; Charlotte the Harlot ’88; [Disc 10] The Clairvoyant (live); The Prisoner (live); Heaven Can Wait (live); Infinite Dreams (live); Killers (live); Still Live (live)
Best tracks: [Disc 1] I’ve Got the Fire [Disc2] Phantom of the Opera (live) [Disc 3] Genghis Khan [Disc 4] Total Eclipse [Disc 5] The Trooper [Disc 6] 2 Minutes to Midnight [Disc 7] Sanctuary (live) [Disc 8] Wasted Years [Disc 9] The Evil That Men Do [Disc 10] The Clairvoyant/The Prisoner/Killers
Track to skip: let’s be consistent and skip Can I Play with Madness
Woo-hoo, a box set! It’s always interesting to do these. Today’s is Iron Maiden’s box of singles from their first decade, 1980-1989. I’m still unsure why there was never a “Second Ten Years”. It would’ve been cool to have. For a lot of us in America, it was difficult to get every Maiden single. Some of them, like Running Free and Purgatory just weren’t available over here. Not that I ever saw, anyway. This box was a welcome collection in 1990 because it contains all of the band’s A & B-sides throughout the 80’s (minus one…). Nice to have everything in one collection. These 20 singles are spread out over 10 discs with each disc having a recorded bit from drummer Nicko McBrain where he tells jokes, talks about the singles & tracks, has silly answering machine messages and just general Nicko madness. He’s a totally hilarious dude and these “Listen With Nicko’s” were a fun addition to the songs. I didn’t include them above because they’re not essential for reviewing of this box. More or less like recorded liner notes.
The packaging of this box is really nice, with cool new artwork and a booklet with the history of the band. Well, I assume it is as it’s in Japanese and I can’t read it! The discs themselves have full artwork for all 20 singles with (sometimes incorrect) lyrics in Japanese and English. Very cool. Let’s dig into these!
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Released: 1969
Tracks: Yellow Submarine; Only a Northern Song; All Together Now; Hey Bulldog; It’s All Too Much; All You Need is Love; Pepperland; Sea of Time; Sea of Holes; Sea of Monsters; March of the Meanies; Pepperland Laid Waste; Yellow Submarine in Pepperland
Best track: It’s All Too Much
Track to skip: none
This is the first of the Beatles’ albums that I’ve reviewed from the 2009 remasters – all the previous (original) albums were the 1987 issues. Just…wow. The sound on this album is fantastic. I’m hearing so many wonderful things that were previously buried in the mix; now they come out loud and clear. This was actually the first album of the remasters that I played in my car one minute after buying it. The bass on Hey Bulldog stood out even more than it did in any other version I’d ever heard. As a bassist, it’s such an absolute joy to hear Paul’s playing on this song! His bassline just floats above everything and is a great example of how good of a player he is. Also, further speaking of bass, I never paid any attention to Paul’s slightly distorted bass on It’s All Too Much. I love this song! Paul’s playing is very cool here.
It took me years to finally buy the original issue of this album, with the orchestral film score. Of course I’d heard the pieces in the film itself, but it was a cool experience to hear this music for the first time on disc. I admit it, I quite like the orchestral music here (mostly written by George Martin). Am I the only one? Maybe. The pieces that stood out to me most on this “side two” were Sea of Time (yay for incorporating the Indian influence!) and Sea of Monsters (love how it just goes all over the place compositionally). The reprisal of the theme in Yellow Submarine in Pepperland is a nice touch and I like hearing what George Martin did with this otherwise familiar song.
All that said…I don’t think the inclusion of the orchestral tracks really works here, not as a continuous “album” at least. It’s just so different from songs like Only a Northern Song (love the mono mix on there! Holy crap is that cool) and It’s All Too Much. Obviously there was a record flip on the original issue of this, but it’s still too different to really work cohesively. I mean, that’s a minor complaint because The Beatles really didn’t have much to do with this album anyway. The four new tracks were all extra songs that didn’t make the cut on Sgt. Pepper’s, Magical Mystery Tour & The White Album. Maybe All Together Now was specifically written for this film? If it was, it shows you how much the band really cared about it.
I’ve been listening to the remixed “Songtrack” version of this album for about 10 years now, so I’m definitely more familiar with those new mixes. It’s certainly good, but I think I prefer the original mixes of these four new songs. Yes, All Together Now is quite silly, but it’s fine. I really like Northern Song, Hey Bulldog and especially It’s All Too Much. I think that’s my favorite on the album, made even better with the remastered original mix. So I don’t have a problem of the quality of the new songs, I definitely like them. I’m not as down on this album as so many people seem to be. It’s not supposed to be a REAL Beatles album, it’s just background music from the move with some unreleased tracks and two favorites that you can’t go wrong with. The combination of these elements doesn’t really work, but…who cares. It’s a fun, non-serious Beatles album and I enjoy having it in my collection.
Rating: 83
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