as a gen z kid, The X Factor is my favorite iron maiden album + what are your opinions on it?
im surprised some people dont like the X factor. it has always been my favorite iron maiden album. i thought every song was so amazing, they emotionally pulled me in, each song's story was just so good to me. i loved that some were odes to classic movies (which i know werent so classic when this album was originally made, but still, it increased my enjoyment), along with the way the lyrics would retell the messages displayed within them. in fact i became obsessed with many of the songs. especially "lord of flies" and "edge of darkness". i still play them on repeat, thinking about the stories they tell, because of how viscerally they inspired me, as a creative, for my own story.
i always thought the x factor was their BEST album, hands down. granted this might just be because im a creative and get more attached to pieces that make me feel something/inspire me regardless of how good it actually sounds.
actually--i was genuinely in love with these songs for how they SOUNDED as well. theyre very catchy and beautifully melodic. i genuinely thought Lord of Flies and Edge of Darkness were masterpieces. they are also so wonderfully, sad and depressing and filled with emotion. these songs sound like ballads of hopelessness to me. i will admit some tracks on this album arent as strong, but others sound like a sudden bout of musical clarity inspired after someone trudged through the darkest pits of humanity, through trenches in ww2, barbed wire, mustard gas. to me it sounds like these songs are coming straight from their mind, the music runs so parallel with the lyrics. when i listen to 2 A.M. i feel like im actually THERE. i can see that unfurnished, unimpressive apartment, the dark room that he's in, the couch he's sitting on, the tv being the only light in that room. the only light this man has in his life. a distraction from the worthless, unimpressive life he leads. one that has recently stopped working.
i love the guitar solos on most of these tracks especially. with no knowledge of the actual iron maiden fanbase and reception, as a random gen z kid discovering this music on his own for the first time, I thought this album was a masterpiece.
perhaps the album itself isnt a masterpiece, but some of these songs certainly are, to me.
my opinion aside, what do you think of The X Factor? do you agree or disagree with me?