I love Iron Maiden, but this is a pretty useless compilation. What makes it notable it was the first "Best Of" compilation the band released. Unfortunately it was at one of the lowest points in their history, right between the two Blaze Bayley-era albums. The bonus track is the incredibly dour "Virus" which is only notable for the unusual two-guitarist credit (crazily enough no song ever had more than one guitarist credited as a composer). The version I have is the budget-issue single disc version, so I didn't get the old Soundhouse recordings that came as an extra-special bonus for getting the deluxe edition. I just couldn't bring myself to get the deluxe edition because of the reverse-chronological listing of songs I already owned. For some reason, listening to music in reverse-chronological order is somewhat jarring to my senses. Maybe it's just me, but I certainly don't feel like kicking things off which stuff from the worst album, groping my way to the golden days and finally back in the womb of the early years. The budget version mixes things up a bit, but if you like the old Paul Di'Anno stuff, forget it. Except for a live "Running Free" with Bruce at the helm, the first two albums are unrepresented here.
Since then, Iron Maiden has release six additional compilations, with only one (the best of the B-sides) not being a "Best Of". This puts the compilations in serious competition with the live albums for the honor of most-overloaded. I've heard good stuff about some of the later live albums, particularly Rock In Rio, but I don't have the kind of cash needed to scoop them all up, so I'll just stick to the studio stuff and avoid the comps unless they have something special to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment