The Theory of Everything (2013)
Release date: October 28th, 2013
Length: 89:33Tracklist:CD 1 :Phase I: Singularity1. Prologue: The Blackboard
2. The Theory of Everything Part I
3. Patterns
4. The Prodigy’s World
5. The Teacher’s Discovery
6. Love and Envy
7. Progressive Waves
8. The Gift
9. The Eleventh Dimension
10. Inertia
11. The Theory of Everything Part 2
Phase II: Symmetry12. The Consultation
13. Diagnosis
14. The Argument 1
15. The Rival’s Dilemma
16. Surface Tension
17. A Reason to Live
18. Potential
19. Quantum Chaos
20. Dark Medicine
21. Alive!
22. The Prediction
CD 2 :Phase III: Entanglement1. Fluctuations
2. Transformation
3. Collision
4. Side Effects
5. Frequency Modulation
6. Magnetism
7. Quid Pro Quo
8. String Theory
9. Fortune?
Phase IV: Unification10. Mirror of Dreams
11. The Lighthouse
12. The Argument 2
13. The Parting
14. The Visitation
15. The Breakthrough
16. The Note
17. The Uncertainty Principle
18. Dark Energy
19. The Theory of Everything Part 3
20. The Blackboard (reprise)
Personnel:Arjen Anthony Lucassen — electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, mandolin, analog synthesizers, Hammond, Solina Strings, recording, production, mixing
Jef Bertels — artwork
Brett Caldas-Lima — mastering
Christophe Dessaigne — artwork photography
Lori Linstruth — lyrics (co-written with Arjen), artists’ photographs
Vocalists:JB (Grand Magus) — The Teacher
Sara Squadrani (Ancient Bards) — The Girl
Michael Mills (Toehider) — The Father
Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) — The Mother
Tommy Karevik (Seventh Wonder, Kamelot) — The Prodigy
Marco Hietala (Nightwish) — The Rival
John Wetton (Asia) — The Psychiatrist
Wilmer Waarbroek — backing vocals and guide vocals
MusiciansEd Warby — drums and percussion
Rick Wakeman — minimoog solo on “Diagnosis”, synthesizer solo on “Surface Tension”, piano
Keith Emerson — modular moog solo on “Progressive Waves”
Jordan Rudess — synthesizer solo on “Progressive Waves”
Steve Hackett — guitar solo on “The Parting”
Troy Donockley — uilleann pipas, whistles
Ben Mathot — violin
Maaike Peterse — cello
Siddharta Barnhoorn — orchestrations
Michael Mills — irish bouzouki
Jeroen Goossens — flute, bass flute, piccolo, bamboo flute and contrabass flute
8:49 this morning
The dew of morning still glistens on the salt grass that grows along the foundation of the old Lighthouse. It isn’t in active service anymore, but has been renovated to serve as a private dwelling. High in the tower inside, a young man is slumped on the floor in the corner of the room, apparently in some kind of trance. Someone has put a blanket over him. He is deathly pale, but the steady, almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest shows that he still clings to life. Standing next to him are young woman and an older man. Both are obviously shocked and distressed. Their frequent glances toward the door give the impression that they’re waiting for someone who is yet to arrive. On the wall next to them is a blackboard covered with impenetrable mathematical equations. The older man is holding a crumpled piece of paper—it appears to be a note scribbled in haste by an unsteady hand. What follows is the story of what happened…History / Background / WritingWith main Ayreon story finished on
01011001, Arjen put the project on an indefinite hiatus. He kept writing music, however, and released albums under the Guilt Machine and Star One projects. He also released his second solo album,
Lost in the New Real, on which he played most of the instruments and sang most of the vocals himself. As he admitted in several interviews back in 2013, the liberating experience of doing the solo album with only a few guest musicians, combined with the subsequent positive response to it from fans and critics alike, was what gave him inspiration and prompted him to record a new Ayreon album. However, as the main sci-fi storyline about the Forever race and the extinction of the humanity was concluded, Arjen had to come up with a new concept for the album. The inspiration for that came one day from a Steven Hawking science documentary on TV. It was focused on the theory of everything, and Arjen thought that would be a perfect fit for the new album’s title.
As usual, Arjen’s goal was to write an album that would be stylistically different from his previous Ayreon effort.
01011001 was darker, heavier-sounding, so for the new album Arjen wanted to have a lighter, more organic and natural sound, like on
Into the Electric Castle. He also wanted the singers to have more breathing space and to flesh out the characters more—he wasn’t satisfied with the number of singers he had on
01011001, repeatedly saying that hiring seventeen singers for the album was probably a mistake. Last but not least, he wanted the story to be more clear and less ambiguous than some of the other concepts he did with Ayreon. With these goals in mind, he began to write.
Unlike all the previous Ayreon albums, Arjen wrote this one chronologically from beginning to end, intending to create one long musical story. After months of writing, he had four tracks over 20 minutes long, and that was how he intended the album to be released—just four long tracks (which was perfect for the vinyl release). However, he made a last-minute decision to split the tracks to make it easier for the listener to pick and fast-forward to their favourite part if needed, and Arjen ended up splitting up the tracks into the smaller parts—and naming them on the fly—and Arjen being who he is, he divided them in the way that there would be 42 tracks total, a reference to
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Singers and musicians / Artwork / LyricsFor
The Theory of Everything, Arjen decided to go with a theatrical, operatic approach to the singing. He wanted the singers to really get into their roles in order to give their best performance. With that in mind, he started to approach various singers from his long list of people with whom he wanted to work one day. Some singers did decline, as usual—Arjen didn’t disclose in the interviews who refused his invitation, although there was a suggestion he tried to get Kate Bush for this album. Some singers were easy to convince—Arjen reached Tommy Karevik on Facebook and got a positive answer in a few hours, and Marco Hietala actually asked to star in one of Arjen’s projects himself. Some weren’t that easy to be persuaded—JB declined at first, then reconsidered during another phone call Arjen made to him, and to record John Wetton’s vocals, Arjen had to fly to England to John’s studio there.
With the musicians, Arjen got back some familiar Ayreon names on board, like Ed Warby on drums, Maaike, Ben and Jeroen on cello, violin and flute. However, he also managed to get some famous musicians for solo spots and other parts, particularly keyboardists. Both Keith Emerson and Jordan Rudess performed their solos on the track called
Progressive Waves, and Rick Wakeman played two solos and the piano throughout the record. Steve Hackett played a guitar solo for the album, and Troy Donockley also lent his services as a fulfillment of his long-standing promise to collaborate with Arjen someday.
Because of the theatrical, operatic nature of the vocal lines, this time Arjen asked Wilmer Waarbroek to sing the guide vocals for the album, instead of performing them himself. Wilmer had worked with Arjen before, singing the backing vocals on
Lost in the New Real, and he agreed to do the guide vocals for all the album. Arjen later posted all four tracks with Wilmer’s vocals on YouTube. Not only were the guide vocals not done by Arjen this time, but
The Theory of Everything ended up to be the first album where Arjen and the invited singers weren’t the sole writers of the lyrics. This time, Arjen wrote all the lyrics and then Arjen’s partner and manager, Lori Linstruth, edited them, fixing the wording, striking some lines and adding some of her own.
However, what stayed unchanged is the quality of the artwork—Arjen worked with Jef Bertels once again, and once again the Belgian painter created a huge artwork depicting a lighthouse on seashore, which is a location where some of the story in the album takes place. As opposed to the sci-fi nature of the artwork for
The Dream Sequencer or the darker mood of
01011001 cover art, this one is done in lighter tones with blue being the dominant color—fitting the mood of the music really well.
MusicThe Theory of Everything is probably the least heavy Ayreon album since
The Dream Sequencer. There are heavy parts, sure, but it never gets as heavy as
The Human Equation or
01011001. This is achieved both by the choice of instruments for the musical compositions and the choice of singers. Heavy guitar sounds aren’t the norm here, and even when they’re present, they don’t feel that heavy; lots of flute, violin and cello, combined with Troy’s pipes and whistles almost give the album a folky vibe in some places. The singers, once again, mostly do clean and soaring passages or calm, reserved ones in a dialogue style. Marco and JB do let grit into their voices sometimes, as does Tommy Karevik, but most of the singing is pure and clean, which fits the music well. However, the quiet, calm moments are balanced with bombastic ones, where the singers go for soaring high notes with the orchestration beneath them.
The structure of the album doesn’t lend itself to casual listening, because despite being divided into 42 tracks, it really is four long songs, and, what’s more, it’s a one big story meant to be listened together. There are very few choruses on the album, and while there are a lot of recurring parts, large and small, throughout the album, they are scattered throughout all four songs—not necessarily recurring in the same ones. While each song has its climax in the final part, it also has several ones along the way, and it’s difficult to perceive and judge the songs as typical progressive rock and metal epics with movements, because there are basically no movements—the songs just flow naturally, narrating the story.
PlotThe plot revolves around seven characters, all of whom have prominent roles on the record. The Father, who is a remarkable scientist, has devoted his life to developing The Theory of Everything, the equation that will fully explain and unite all the physical forces of the universe. He feels that he is close to the answer, working on it relentlessly day and night, neglecting to care about his asocial and introverted son, the Prodigy, and his wife, the Mother (
The Theory of Everything Part I). As the years pass, the Prodigy eventually begins his education at school. During a test in one of his science classes, a gust of wind brings a sheet of paper from the Teacher’s desk to his feet. The Prodigy has already finished the test, so he picks up the paper and begins to solve the equations on it. The Teacher notices it and is astounded—the boy just solved a problem that he’d been working on for years. The pupils in the class react differently to that—the Rival is envious and tries to convince the Teacher that Prodigy is a fraud, while the Girl takes Prodigy’s side and defends him from Rival’s accusations (
The Teacher’s Discovery,
Love and Envy). The Teacher approaches the Father later, revealing to him that his son has an enormous natural talent for science. The Father isn’t convinced, but agrees to give his son a chance and take him to therapy to see if anything can help him with his psychological struggles (
The Gift,
The Theory of Everything Part II).
The family brings their son to The Psychiatrist. After performing a series of tests, he informs Mother and Father that their son is a rare and exceptional savant, whose mind is constantly distracted and unable to focus on anything. He suggests trying an experimental drug, which is still in the middle of testing, with possible unproven side effects like extreme delusions. Father is all for it, willing to sign his son to the clinical trial on the spot, and Mother is entirely against it, unwilling to risk the life of her only child (
The Consultation,
Diagnosis). Meanwhile, the Teacher and the Girl both have their own reasons to help the Prodigy. The Teacher realizes he spent his life achieving nothing, but if he would be associated with Prodigy as his mentor, it could be his last chance to get on the road to fame. The Girl just likes the boy, and genuinely wants to help him (
A Reason to Live,
Potential). As more years pass, the Prodigy’s condition seems to get gradually worse, and his Father visits the Psychiatrist again, alone this time. He agrees to test the drug on his son, with the mutual agreement that no one else needs to know about it (
Dark Medicine). Father begins secretly putting the drug into Prodigy’s meals, and the effect is instant and wondrous—Prodigy seems to connect with the real world, finally and for the first time in his life living to the fullest (
Alive). Mother, unaware of the reasons of this sudden change, rejoices and proudly tells her son that he will show the whole world how brilliant he is (
The Prediction).
The Teacher is also glad for Prodigy’s recovery, but is also suspicious about its sudden nature (
Transformation). Feeling glorious, The Prodigy finally stands up to the Rival, stating that he never realized before how insignificant the Rival was (
Collision). However, a year later the side effects of the drug are confirmed, and the Psychiatrist insists that Father should stop drugging his son and come clean to him. The Prodigy doesn’t take the news well and leaves his home, frustrated (
Side Effects). He runs to the school to find Teacher, but meets the Girl and the Rival instead, telling them both about the drug. The Girl suggests that he could live at her home for a time being (
Magnetism). However, as the chaos returns to his mind without the drug, the Prodigy can’t stand living without it, and when the Rival comes up with a suggestion—he can make more of the drug in exchange for Prodigy’s help in robbing a bank—the desperate protagonist agrees to this scheme. They succeed, but the Girl can’t bring herself to live with a criminal, and tells Prodigy to get out of her life. Meanwhile, the Rival walks into the sunset with his share of money (
Quid Pro Quo,
Fortune?).
About a year and a half after that, neither the Girl nor the Mother have seen Prodigy, and they gather together to discuss if there could be anything more they could’ve done not to lose him like that (
Mirror of Dreams). The Prodigy, after being rejected by the Girl, turned to his only remaining friend, the Teacher, asking him to find a safe place where he could work on his own to finish the theory once and for all. With his supply of the drug and the money from the bank robbery, finding such a place isn’t a problem—the Prodigy buys an abandoned lighthouse and lives as a recluse there. The only person who knows his location is the Teacher, who visits him every day (
The Lighthouse).
The Father begins another heated argument with Mother, pleading her to bring their son back; otherwise the Father can never solve The Theory of Everything. Fed up with his selfishness and ignorance, the Mother leaves her husband. Depressed, unable to finish the task he worked his whole life on, and this time truly alone, the Father decides to end the pain and do the only reasonable thing at this point (
The Argument 2,
The Parting).
The Prodigy is relentlessly working on the solution when he sees his Father on the lighthouse’s front doorstep. After a brief argument, they start to work together, Prodigy taking an excessive amount of the drug to speed up his thinking process, just until the solution is found. Together, they manage to solve the theory. The Prodigy, mentally exhausted and on the verge of the collapse, manages to summon the last of his strength to write a note to the Teacher (
The Visitation,
The Breakthrough,
The Note).
When the Teacher comes on his daily visit next day, he finds the Prodigy in the catatonic state. He finds the note and also sees the blackboard in the room, which is filled with impenetrable equations. He immediately calls the Girl, and when she arrives, tells her that The Theory of Everything was apparently solved, but only the Father would have all the answers they need. However, the Girl was on the phone with Mother, who told her that Father took his own life at the last day’s sunset (
The Uncertainty Principle).
The Mother arrives, and together with the Girl they mourn the loss of their son and love, respectively (
The Theory of Everything Part III). After a while, they leave, and only the Teacher is left in the room, still trying to figure out the meaning of the equations on the blackboard. He doesn’t succeed in that; however, he notices that there are two different types of handwriting on the board… (
The Blackboard (reprise)).
My ThoughtsI’m going to be brief here, because I wasn’t brief in the
Plot section.
Well, this is my second favourite album by Arjen, and probably a Top 5 album of all time for me. If not, it’s definitely in my Top 10. I pretty much love everything about it, which is probably obvious, if you read the writeup. The plot is intense and interesting, the music is Ayreon at its finest, the choice of singers is impeccable, and the artwork is glorious. I would say, my only complaint is about the lyrics being too simplistic and downright silly sometimes (everyone who is familiar with the album knows which moment I’m talking about), but it doesn’t take away any of my enjoyment.
I’m really glad that Arjen took a break from Ayreon in 2008, because even though I like
01011001 a lot, I still think it could’ve been much better. In my opinion, the break really helped him to recharge his batteries (and we got Guilt Machine and second Star One in the meantime), and he came up with the brilliant album
The Theory of Everything is. I wonder what you guys think about it.