Bruce Dickinson – Balls to Picasso (1994)

Some time ago, I wrote about pretty much the same songs in another post about Bruce Dickinson's Live in Studio A album. In a way, it's a bit strange to write about this album after that, because this was the original album, where Live in Studio A was a remake of the songs played live in studio. The good news is that Balls to Picasso is a lot better than Live in Studio A. I still hold on to some things I said in that post about me not listening to this kind of music anymore at all, but at least the sounds on this album are a lot better. The songs are really not that exciting on this album either, but the better production makes the album more listenable. As I said back then, Dickinson's solo material is not as melodic and not as ambitious as Iron Maiden's albums, and today I would never even consider buying an album like this.



Saying all this, there is lots of nostalgia related to this album. When I'm listening to it, these images of my old room at my parents place come to mind. I remember how I had some CD's on the wall in a rack that showed the album covers. My mind is also filled with memories from school and from my friendships back then. As I said in the other post, Bruce Dickinson was also one of the first rock concerts I went to.

The songs I like the most on this album are the songs that are not quite as generic heavy metal songs but have some depth to the sounds. These songs include growing hard rock song Hell No, Laughing in the Hiding Bush, Change of Heart and Tears of the Dragon. The last two of these are ballads and I can definitely see why I liked them back in the day. I've always wanted beautiful melodies of the songs I listen to. The thing that bothers me in these songs though, is that Dickinson's loud heavy metal yelling sound in his singing doesn't really fit well in ballads. These songs could sound great with softer vocals and different kind of production. Although, I feel like a song such as Tears of the Dragon would still be way too cheesy for my taste nowadays. In any case, that was the biggest hit of the time. There was even a music video that I remember quite well. It really embodies what a 90's music video was all about. There's fire, sandy beaches, demons, deserts etc. and of course Dickinson himself singing his heart out. Now, if I had to choose, I would say Change of Heart is my favourite song on the album. I kind of like the simple production of the song.

There are some albums that are just amazingly 90's sounding. This really is one of them. You couldn't mistake these sounds for any other decade. That also means that they are very tied to that one time in history and makes them sound really old later on. I can't imagine anything like this being made today. The whole hard rock and heavy metal genre is kind of outdated these days. Metal obviously still exists for certain small groups of headbangers, but the style is more aggressive and there are very few attempts to make the kind of metal that would also appeal to larger audiences. Personally, this album will always remain quite nostalgic and for that reason, I think I'm glad I still own it, but I would really never listen to this without a reason like this blog.

Listen to the album on Spotify.