New music reviews: Iron Maiden - Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989, Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!, Spiritualized - Songs in A&E, Stone Gods - Burn the Witch

Iron Maiden - Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989: Although Iron Maiden has churned out any number of compilations and collections over the years, this may just be the perfect single-disc distillation of their oeuvre. While their early records with vocalist Paul Di’Anno are great for what they are, the years with Blaze Bayley singing weren’t entirely useless, and the material the reunited classic lineup has produced since regathering has been largely exemplary, it’s hard to argue that the years covered by Somewhere Back in Time document their strongest and most fertile period. While to a Maiden fan the idea of doing without the full albums from this period is sacrilege, many among the less devout can probably get by with only the unassailable selection here. Perhaps best of all, the band is offering the chance to download Somewhere Back in Time at http://www.ironmaiden.com/try/ for free, though the high-quality wma files are drm-protected and limited to three plays. Still, it’s hard to argue that this provides the curious a good opportunity to check out the band: honestly, if you get through this album three times and still don’t get into it, then you just don’t like Iron Maiden.

Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!: Green Day treads water under this assumed name while continuing to duck the four-year interval since American Idiot, the last proper Green Day album. Recycled garage-rock riffs, Strokes cops, and attempted exuberance abound, but somehow Stop Drop and Roll!!! lacks the presumably intended charm. Rather than raggedly appealing, the album just comes off kind of half-assed, and wears out its welcome barely halfway into its half-hour playing time. I guess the junior-high kids anxiously awaiting new material from Billie Joe Armstrong and company will eat it up, but chances are everyone else will forget this just as quickly as Green Day’s last pseudonymous project, the Network’s Money Money 2020. When was the last time you put that on? Yeah, thought so.

Spiritualized - Songs in A&E: Jason Pierce returns with another album of basic three-chord songs overarranged to the nth degree, layered with everything from choirs and glockenspiels to fuzz guitar and acoustic plucking. Unfortunately, the coherence of Spiritualized’s masterpiece Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is sorely missed here. The vocals are a bit wan, the tuneage feels a bit thin despite the kitchen-sink production approach (”Baby I’m Just A Fool” updates “Walkin’ With Jesus” for about the tenth time of Jason’s career), and too often the arrangements fail to elaborate successfully or add enough filigree to adorn the flimsy, repetitive songs. Even the incidental “Harmony” pieces between songs mostly just come off random and fragmentary. Songs in A&E doesn’t contain any real surprises, as there just doesn’t seem to be much here Pierce hasn’t done before, better – essentially, it’s another Spiritualized LP, so if you’re looking for one, here it is.

Stone Gods - Burn the Witch EP: The remnants of the Darkness attempt to pick up the pieces in the wake of charismatic frontman Justin Hawkins’ departure, shifting their replacement bassist up front and shifting to a somewhat more conventional direction. Unfortunately it seems that without Justin, they’ve largely lost the plot. Admittedly, replacing a frontman is one of the most difficult problems a band can face, but it definitely doesn’t help establish a bold new order when the new singer’s work recalls no one so strongly as Rick Springfield. The generically forgettable songs here lack flair and don’t nearly live up even to the weak tunes on the second Darkness album. Expect Stone Gods to be a footnote, one mentioned only in articles announcing the inevitable reunion of the Darkness — once Justin comes to his senses.

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