Official DT Top 50 Thread Mark II (bss4life15 up now - starting page 79)

[robwebster]

Great songs, love 'em all! Liking Forsaken in the top 10. Don't know if I'd put it there myself, but probably top 20, almost certainly top 30. Superb little song.

Don't read these much - never follow them - but I've been skimming through and quite approved of the placing Constant Motion a few pages back, while I'm here. Good song, great riffs, lots of energy, drive, brilliant chorus... honed, high-octane fun.

[TheGreatPretender]

Great songs, love 'em all! Liking Forsaken in the top 10. Don't know if I'd put it there myself, but probably top 20, almost certainly top 30. Superb little song.

Don't read these much - never follow them - but I've been skimming through and quite approved of the placing Constant Motion a few pages back, while I'm here. Good song, great riffs, lots of energy, drive, brilliant chorus... honed, high-octane fun.

Good to see some appreciation for Systematic Chaos. 

[BlackInk]

Outcry at 10? Nice.
A Change of Seasons at 6? Nice.
The rest? Meh.

[Onno]

Very cool, interesting choices 

[Ħ]

Raise the Knife is excellent!

[senecadawg2]

Wow. I certainly think that Forsaken is a bit under appreciated around here. However, with that being said, I wouldn't let it touch my top 10. You gotta love the variety in the DT catalog. 

[TheGreatPretender]

Wow. I certainly think that Forsaken is a bit under appreciated around here. However, with that being said, I wouldn't let it touch my top 10. You gotta love the variety in the DT catalog.

You also gotta love the variety in their fans' tastes, huh?

[senecadawg2]

Wow. I certainly think that Forsaken is a bit under appreciated around here. However, with that being said, I wouldn't let it touch my top 10. You gotta love the variety in the DT catalog.

You also gotta love the variety in their fans' tastes, huh?

Yeah. That is what I was implying, I thought...

[Ruba]

Liking Forsaken in the top 10.

Yes. The best simple song after Status Seeker.

[BlackInk]

Liking Forsaken in the top 10.

Yes. The best simple song after Status Seeker.

Which is awful.

[Ruba]

Liking Forsaken in the top 10.

Yes. The best simple song after Status Seeker.

Which is awful.

I have nothing against rock music with awesome melodies.

[BlackInk]

I have nothing against rock music with awesome melodies.

Oh no, it's the terrible audio quality and awful vocals that does it.

[Elite]

I can agree with you saying production (and vocals) can ruin your experience of listening to music, but saying the song itself is aweful is unjustified. That's like saying a book is shit because it's in a language you don't know.

[BlobVanDam]

I think the song is terrible regardless of the vocals or production.

[Elite]

Well, there's that possibility as well  I just don't agree.

[BlobVanDam]

Well, there's that possibility as well  I just don't agree.

Which is perfect fine. I just like to clear up the idea that the production/vocals are the main/only reason some people dislike WDADU. I'm sure it will be a barrier for some people, but even beyond that I see many issues with the album.

[Mladen]

Forsaken is quite high, and I'm surprised that Overture 1928/Strange Deja-Vu keep showing up together in different lists, and they're showing up very high as well.

But well done for having Raise the knife in your top 10, it really is awesome. 

[Elite]

@Blob;
I definitely understand that, but if you look beyond the production, I think there's some really good songs on WDADU.

[BlobVanDam]

@Blob;
I definitely understand that, but if you look beyond the production, I think there's some really good songs on WDADU.

I think there are a couple of fairly good songs, but for me they don't rank with anything else DT has done since. And that's even ignoring production. Even the better songs have problems.

[iamtheeviltwin]

Well, there's that possibility as well  I just don't agree.

Which is perfect fine. I just like to clear up the idea that the production/vocals are the main/only reason some people dislike WDADU. I'm sure it will be a barrier for some people, but even beyond that I see many issues with the album.

For me there are two primary issues with WDADU and neither is the production or CD's vocals.  First, the vocal melodies are for the most part sub-par.  It is obvious from their earliest work that the DT core did not know how to write a vocal melody line.  The phrasing and lyrics are clunky and unwieldy and even JLB can't save them.  Second, the guys hadn't really learned how to transition between musical passages well and it really stands out in many of the songs.

As for the top 50

Love Forsaken, it has one of my favorite piano melodies in the DT catalog.

[TheGreatPretender]

Alrighty, moving on! Top 5, one at a time.

05: Scene Three: Through My Words/Fatal Tragedy
While putting Overture 1928 and Strange Deja-Vu isn't necessarily intuitive, I'm sure that most people consider Through My Words and Fatal Tragedy a part of the same entity. Otherwise, Through My Words, beautiful as it is, would be one of the shortest, simplest things that DT has ever done and that highly undermines what it's about. So yeah, Scene three takes spot 5. Through My Words, the entire piano beginning basically is beautiful. The melody is great, the vocals are great and then, BALLS! While the vocal section of Fatal Tragedy is not necessarily my favorite, the lyrics are way too story driven, it's still pretty cool. But what really puts this track all the way up to five for me is the instrumental section, and I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of people will agree with me. It's fast, it's energetic, it's progressive, quite simply, it's Dream Theater at its best. Hearing this song played live last year brought a tear to my eye. I remember when I first heard this song, and the album, and never did I imagine that I would get to see it played live. Magic.

[Elite]

Didn't expect that and I wouldn't place it that high at all, but nice inclusion.

[Ħ]

Amazing.

[Pols Voice]

Nice one. The instrumental section is awesome.

[senecadawg2]

Scene III 

I'm loving the SFAM picks.

[Jaffa]

Interesting pick.  I've seen a lot of love for Fatal Tragedy, but I don't know if I've seen many people consider it top 5 material, especially not when combined with Through My Words.  Great song(s), though! 

[TheGreatPretender]

Interesting pick.  I've seen a lot of love for Fatal Tragedy, but I don't know if I've seen many people consider it top 5 material, especially not when combined with Through My Words.  Great song(s), though!

Wouldn't combining it with "Through My Words" make it better?

[FlyingBIZKIT]

No.












Yes.

[BlackInk]

Nice choice. Even though I wouldn't put Fatal Tragedy this high it's still one of the better parts of Scenes From a Memory.

[BlobVanDam]

Another oddball pick.
I love Fatal Tragedy, but again nothing on SFAM makes my top 20 despite it being my 2nd favourite DT album. Greater than the sum of its parts, so I find it hard to rank the parts.

[Mladen]

Fatal tragedy 

[TheGreatPretender]

BAM!

04: In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 1
I love pretty much DT's entire discography, and tend to view each album as its own entity and judge it as a whole thing from beginning to end. So when they have albums that try to build up to something right at the very beginning, such as Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Octavarium or A Dramatic Turn Of Events, I get it, and I love it in the grand scheme of things. But all in all, I believe that any album has to start strong and kick you in the nuts right off the bat, and with Systematic Chaos, there's no foreplay. As soon as In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 1 starts, it's right in the action and gets the blood pumping right off the bat. This little 9 minute gem is by far the best first song on any DT album (in my humble opinion, of course), and really starts it off strong and exciting. It's heavy, it's dramatic, it's progressive, it's everything DT stands for. I love it to the very core. It goes through several movements and each one brings something different and exciting to the song. Some of JP's best work in terms of solos. And somehow Rudess managed to find the perfect blend of playing a melody on his keyboard while still shredding it at the same time. It's really awesome. And when the vocals kick in, again, even though JP didn't completely come up with the lyrics on his own, the way they fit into the song is nothing short of amazing, and the message they deliver is absolutely beautiful. One of Dream Theater's best songs from the most underappreciated Dream Theater album. There isn't one thing I would change about this song. Even if I said, "I wish it was longer" there's part 2 to enjoy as well.

[54_diplomats]

Nice pick, it wouldn't make my top 10 but it definitely makes my top 20. Amazing song and the vocals are amazing too.

[BlobVanDam]

Wouldn't make my own top 10, but a very underrated track (as most of SC is), and a great song. Nice choice.

[theseoafs]

Nothing on SC is top 20 material. [/controversialopinion]