Iron Maiden Album: “Somewhere Back In Time-the Best of 1980-1989”

In the age of MP3's and iPods you can create your own playlist and quit whining! This is a good start for Newbies and casual fans as IM diehards will have most or all of their albums! Di'Anno fans can get IM & Killers (hey I Like Di'Anno too)! I have different playlists for different tours that I have seen or like* (1983, 1992, 2000, 2008 & 2010*) and rotate these playlists to get some variety. Another idea would be to do playlists in decades (Di'Anno, 80's, 90's, Blayze & 00's). Or Heaven forbid, you can play your favorite IM album in its entirety (duh). You can even do, dare I say? ...an IM marathon!

Get creative and UP THE IRONS!

I graduated high school in 1991, and as much of a metal head as I was back then, the music I used to listen to somehow got lost to me in the 20+ years since then. I am a little ashamed to say that I had all but forgotten about Iron Maiden until I stumbled on a show on VH1 about the evolution of metal (remember when VH1 was an easy listening video station for our parents? Don't get me started!).

Sadly, all of my old Maiden stuff was on cassette or vinyl, and I had not replaced any of it. This album serves as a good way to replace some of the best songs from those old 80's tapes and records. There are some other songs that I would have liked to have seen on here (Die With Your Boots On and Alexander the Great come immediately to mind), but this album is a decent synopsis, and it will serve well to keep in my car for whenever I need a Maiden fix. If you just want an album to fulfill your fix for some 80's-era Maiden, look no further. If you are new to Iron Maiden, this might also be a good start for you, but if you can afford it you would be much better off buying the whole albums of Number of the Beast, Powerslave, Piece of Mind, and Somewhere in Time.

I give it four stars just because I think there are some great songs missing, but I am still very happy with this album.

UPDATE: I just went to burn this on to a CD and realized there is still over 9 minutes of available time on a standard CD, so I also downloaded the single song of Alexander the Great to add to this CD. It fit perfectly with another 43 seconds of space to spare!

Yes there are too many Iron Maiden compilations (live albums too.) It might be the band's or the record company's decision to continue releasing these discs, maybe both. Never the less I can't fault the music and this appears to be the best collection representing Maiden's prime years that I've seen so far. If you're revisiting a band of your youth or just now discovering them this is a good place to start. I'll get crucified by other reviewers but let's face it...if you've ever tried to find the remastered albums in stores (what few music stores that still exist) you're in for quite a search. Add to that the fact that Maiden albums, new anyway, are almost never discounted. So instead of spending a lot of cash on several of the (admittedly awesome)albums what's wrong with something like this to start off with? Maybe an old fan doesn't feel the need to replace the old LPs, original issue CDs or cassettes. Some folks will buy everything to complete a collection (and for Maiden it's understandable for the artwork alone) but most fans already have this music and won't need it. It's not marketed to those fans. Take it for what it is and enjoy it.

Iron Maiden should already have a place in your music collection if you're into rock'n'roll, metal or whatever genre you like. If you don't own anything by Maiden you probably shouldn't consider yourself a metalhead, they are essential to the genre. They are one of my favorite bands and are without question one of the most influential bands in rock music. Maiden's prime was definitely during the 1980s, I don't feel like they released a bad album during this decade (but some are obviously better than others) and this compilation Somewhere Back in Time: 1980-89 covers this special time. It was released in 2008 along with the excellent Live After Death DVD(from the World Slavery tour of 1984-85) promoting Maiden's tour which graced the same name of this compilation (oh and as usual with Maiden's artwork I love it the mix of Powerslave with Somewhere In Time looks terrific), Somewhere Back In Time, in which they put emphasis on the classics during this tour.

What's in this compilation? :

First we have 2 songs from their self-titled debut and 1 from Killers with singer Paul Di' Anno sang by Bruce Dickinson on Live After Death. They sound great even if they're not the originals but I just wish that they could have somehow put them here. Then there are 4 songs from The Number of The Beast on this compilation and rightfully so as it's often pointed out as their best album. I'm quite disappointed that they only included The Trooper from Piece of Mind that album was great and there were plenty of songs that could have been selected to be here, Where Eagles Dare, Die With Your Boots On, Flight of Icarus and Revelations weren't good enough? There are 3 songs from Powerslave, one live from Live After Death good representation of one of their strongest albums. Wasted Years was selected from Somewhere In Time but it would have deserved at least another song. 2 songs from Seventh Son of A Seventh Son were chosen. Somehow 14 songs that have pretty much all been used on other greatest hits aren't as effective and get less respect from true fans after the fifth time(Churchill Speech was included as well on Somewhere Back In Time and serves as a great intro but I don't consider it a song)am I the only one who thinks this?

This Greatest hits technically covers the years 1982-1988 as the songs from the first two albums (Iron Maiden 1980 and Killers 1981) were taken from 1984 live and Seventh Son of A Seventh Son was released in 1988 and was their last album of the 1980s. It would have been nice to have the original songs from the Di' Anno because the new fan who buys this will only be able to judge Bruce's interpretation of "his" songs. They selected pretty much the best from the rest, the songs are great. As said before I'm disappointed there is not more from Piece of Mind on here but the rest is terrific. On the bad side, this is Iron Maiden's fifth compilation album and the fact that some of the previous ones are much better doesn't help. The song listing here does not differ greatly from the others and does not give the old fans anything new. It's really for someone who is new to Maiden and doesn't know which greatest hits is best. I'd recommend The Essential Iron Maiden over this as it has two discs, is much more complete and career spawning for a good price, or get The Number of The Beast or Powerslave albums they would make a great introduction as well. It does get one thing right: the idea, it covers the 1980s specifically which was the best era of the band, start with this era.

It seems like every time Maiden releases an album anymore, they go and release either a "greatest hits" compilation or a live album...or both! As much as I love Iron Maiden, to continously make "best of" albums is a bit redundant to me. While the previous Essential Collection was actually a good way to kickstart someone into collecting the music, the opposite can be said of this CD.

Before I fire away any criticisms, I want to address a couple things first.

First off, I've seen a lot of reviewers dissing on this album for it not having any songs past 1988. They complained that there's no material after the "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" album. Secondly, they also complained that there are no songs sung by Paul Di'Anno.

I think people are forgetting what this album was released for: to showcase some of the songs that they'll be playing on the current "Somewhere" live tour. This wasn't meant to be a comprehensive hit list, but rather focus on Maiden's prime, which is what they're going for on the tour. As much as I do like the Paul Di'Anno material, it would make sense to include the versions sung by Bruce Dickinson so as to educate new fans that are going to see them live.

That being said, is this a worthy compilation? Well, not quite.

Even within those limits mentioned, I am still displeased with the song selections. They've barely scratched the surface on the first two Paul Di'Anno albums; Phantom of the Opera and Iron Maiden make their inclusions from the first album and rightfully so, but only Wrathchild from "Killers" makes the cut. I never understood why they couldn't at least had the title track from "Killers" included as well. I'm surprised Running Free "ran free" from the editor's list. Yes, these tracks are from the "Live After Death" tour from 1985.

"Number of the Beast" gets four hits, those being Children of the Damned, Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, and Hallowed Be Thy Name. All four are strong tracks and rightfully deserve inclusion, although they could've cut one song perhaps to include another one from a different album (much like the Essential Collection has).

"Piece of Mind" and "Powerslave" get the short straw as well; The Trooper is the ONLY song to make it off of "Piece." Where is Flight of Icarus or Where Eagles Dare? As for "Powerslave," they've got Powerslave, Aces High (live version from "Live After Death"), and 2 Minutes to Midnight. "Powerslave" was a huge success for the band so I see its rightful song selections, but a small part of me wishes they could've added their 13 minute epic Rime of the Ancient Mariner, despite its long length.

"Somewhere in Time" gets RIPPED OFF, which besides the fact that it's my favorite Maiden album, it deserved at least two more inclusions. Where are classics like Stranger in a Strange Land, or Heaven Can Wait? I don't know if Maiden planned to play only Wasted Years (which is an awesome song), but I would've liked to have seen more representation...especially since, you know, the frikken album's called "Somewhere Back in Time."

"Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" only has two tracks; Can I Play with Madness and the Evil That Men Do are credible tracks, but they couldn't they at least have added Infinite Dreams or The Clairvoyant to the list?

I know that it's a single disc compilation, so the idea of making a decent Maiden "best of" CD is very difficult. That being said, they could've smoothed the album out more to better represent the albums that they came off of. Maybe that's picky, but I think the casual or potential fan would benefit more with a more evened out compilation.

Do I recommend this greatest hits package? I don't think it's a horrible release (I place it slightly above "Edward the Great."), but this is ONLY for the potential fan that hasn't heard much. I started on "Best of the Beast" and purchased most of the albums after that. If you're a Maiden completist, fine, but for the casual fan, I highly recommend you just start with the two-disc "Essential Collection" or a classic album ("Number of the Beast" or "Piece of Mind" would be a good place to start.).

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