Awake has no place at all in the holy trinity imo. It is SDOIT, SFAM, and IaW, in that order. Just like IaW and SFAM, SDOIT is perfect from beginning to end, whereas Awake is most definitely not.
It's just so amusing to me on how much opinions differ,
see, I think Awake is perfect the whole way through, even though I don't like Scarred very much, it is still a good song.
And, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is not at all.
I'd say both albums have something that brings them down. Awake has too many songs with samples in them. Especially Space-Dye Vest. What was the point of that Conan O'Brien sample? How does a conversation about a dry heat in Houston and swimming pools relate to the song at all?? Way to ruin the song.
In Six Degrees it's more just underwhelming parts like The Great Debate and Goodnight Kiss that kinda bring the album down overall.
Well, if you pay really close attention to Space-Dye Vest, during the sample sections, you can hear a tv fuzz every time a 'sample' is change, and, in my opinion, it is the main character just sitting in his room lonely as hell, just watching television aimlessly.
And, in a couple parts, the sample has some sort of compression on it to simulate that the character is farther away from the tv, maybe in the kitchen getting a beer, or something.
But, I agree with your statement anyways, every album is going to have a weak point in some body's opinion.
I just think that Six Degrees has way more weak points than Awake, the actual SDOIT song is one of my least favourites in their entire catalogue. and the only song I like from the first disc is Misunderstood. I know, I must be crazy.