Day 0557 - Hounds of Love

Kate Bush "Hounds of Love" (1985)

 Following the relatively poor sales of her previous album "the Dreaming" Kate holed up her studio to work on this critically acclaimed album... that seems somewhat bass ackwards to me as I loved 'the Dreaming' but found this one to be only half as interesting.

Both albums are batshit crazy in their mixing and matching of different genres and sounds.  This one possibly mixes even more sounds with synths, choirs, folky celtic percussion, genteel strings, vaguely tribal tones.  I find the variety enjoyable, but I just think that the songs on "the Dreaming" are the stronger compositions.

Day 0469 - Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden "Iron Maiden" (1980)

I remember seeing the 'classic albums' show for Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast" album, and they'd talked about the issues they'd had with their former singer Paul Di'Anno and what a step up Bruce Dickinson was.  From that, I'd assumed that the first guy must be absolute rubbish... but no.

Sure, on one or two songs he sounds like a bit more of a punk yowler than a metal howler, but he still manages some decent tremolo in places and some minor wails. I actually really like this album; it's almost as if having a slightly more limited singer over top of the virtuosic and showy music kind of reins it in and stops it getting too grandiose and up it's own arse!

The album does feature an instrumental track and several songs that take their sweet time getting to the vocals, which is maybe just how Maiden roll, or it could be a sign that they were already unhappy with Paul? Either way, as I say, this album works just fine for me. The bass work is incredible, which I guess is not surprising as the bassist started the damned band!