TPOF's Overly Wordy Top 50

[The Presence of Frenemies]

So, it's Top 50 time! What to say to introduce this...My DT preferences are somewhat eclectic. I'm more of a metal guy than a proghead, but I also really enjoy the long songs and interesting arrangements that DT's more progressive material provides. Further, I'm a huge fan of '80s-style stuff, so the early albums have that going for them. So overall, I'm kind of all over the map. Expect some surprises with the list. Also, I write a lot, so bear with me on that.

I'll update the OP as I go along.

#50.) Ytse Jam
#49.) Just Let Me Breathe
#48.) Wither
#47.) New Millennium
#46.) Panic Attack
#45.) Never Enough
#44.) The Mirror
#43.) Outcry
#42.) Constant Motion
#41.) On The Backs of Angels
#40.) Endless Sacrifice
#39.) Lie
#38.) Breaking All Illusions
#37.) Forsaken
#36.) Bridges In The Sky
#35.) Trial Of Tears
#34.) Lines In The Sand
#33.) Blind Faith
#32.) This Is The Life
#31.) Finally Free
#30.) The Root of All Evil
#29.) Anna Lee
#28.) A Nightmare To Remember
#27.) Build Me Up, Break Me Down
#26.) Scarred
#25.) Under A Glass Moon
#24.) Surrounded
#23.) Take The Time
#22.) Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
#21.) Beyond This Life
#20.) As I Am
#19.) Afterlife
#18.) The Count Of Tuscany
#17.) Fatal Tragedy
#16.) Metropolis
#15.) The Spirit Carries On
#14.) Peruvian Skies
#13.) Pull Me Under
#12.) Voices
#11.) Another Day
#10.) The Glass Prison
#9.) Home
#8.) Octavarium
#7.) The Best Of Times
#6.) A Change Of Seasons
#5.) The Ministry Of Lost Souls
#4.) In The Presence Of Enemies
#3.) Learning To Live
#2.) In The Name Of God
#1.) The Killing Hand

[Sycsa]

Why start the topic and not the list? C'mon.

[DebraKadabra]

No kidding.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

Alright, alright.

#50.) Ytse Jam

This is the only instrumental that will appear in my list. It's also my favorite DT instrumental. Why? A number of reasons. First, it's relatively compact. I find that DT's instrumentals (YJ included) tend to be essentially split into thirds--the first third introducing some motifs, the second introducing solos, and the final one rehashing/slightly modifying those motifs. As a result, the song tends to drag if it's overly long or if the motifs aren't all that interesting. Ytse Jam's directness place it above Erotomania and TDOE (whose main motifs drag a bit) and SOC (which is just too long to hold my attention, a rarity for DT tracks).

DT instrumentals tend to go downhill after the solo sections, and YJ is no exception. Thankfully, though, there isn't more than about 90 seconds after the solo section in the track, which keeps it from wearing out its welcome. Also, the solos themselves showcase all four members in pretty excellent form, combining technical chops with some emotive chord progressions (especially the case for KM and JP's solos). The room the band makes for these pyrotechnics, and the intensity at which they tear through them, makes this track a pretty fun one that still sounds fresh almost 25 years later.

[DebraKadabra]

Interesting that you have that pegged above Erotomania (probably my favorite DT instrumental).  Always opinions.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

Interesting that you have that pegged above Erotomania (probably my favorite DT instrumental).  Always opinions.

There's some great stuff in Erotomania. It's grown on me over the years. Just not a big fan of the main riff. It grates on me for whatever reason. I enjoy everything else in the song though.

[DebraKadabra]

Fair enough.

[GasparXR]

What you said about the instrumentals being cut into thirds, I can kind of see that actually. Although I disagree that they go downhill after the solos, at least for SoC. I find it gets WAY better in the last third.

[?]

Ytse Jam is nice, it was #49 in my list, so the position is very agreeable 

[The Presence of Frenemies]

#49.) Just Let Me Breathe

While they're of course known for their more progressive stuff, DT certainly has their fair share of songs where their "formula" (perhaps a misnomer when applied to a band with such eclectic material, but anyway) gets condensed into tighter timespans and more standard arrangements. These shorter tunes get mixed results from people--we all probably dig at least a few, and this certainly isn't the only one on the list for me, but we all probably have at least two or three that we find to be among DT's worst output. Of course, much of the negative attention with regards to the more condensed songs focuses on those on the Falling Into Infinity album, including "Just Let Me Breathe."

I enjoy the song, though. Like Ytse Jam, it's far from DT's biggest artistic statement, but it's a fun, tight song that rocks from start to finish. And unlike some of the other shorter FII tracks, the band originally conceived it essentially the way it ended up on the album. Comparing the feel of the track to FII's two most reviled--Burning My Soul and You Not Me--I think you can see the band has a lot of enthusiasm for the track, and they tear through it with more conviction than they do the "cut up" songs.

Nice performances from James, Mike, and Derek on this one. Nothing great about it that really pushes it into the top half of the DT discography, but also no bits that don't work. A well-constructed, solid song.

#48.) Wither

Okay, I promise I'm not just going to list DT's fifty shortest songs. Wither is, of course, another quickie, but unlike JLMB, it comes in the middle of an album of basically all epics (and the underwhelming AROP), which makes it seem more like an afterthought or interlude than a real part of the album.

But, again, there's nothing out of place. Quick (well, knowing me, moderately quick) tangent--one big reason DT is my favorite band (and has been for six years now) is that on any given album, each song really has its own unique character. The songs stand out as individual songs, not just reworkings of the same formula. A lot of other "prog metal" bands (and this is nothing against them, because I really like them)--Symphony X, Royal Hunt, etc.--are "progressive" in the sense that they have long, technically proficient songs with some interesting features, but they aren't progressive in terms of mining different sonic territory the way DT is. The flip side of this is that, in sticking to an arrangement template more stridently, those bands' songs are more consistent and they don't take left turns that a listener with certain tastes might find problematic, something that DT sometimes does because they cover so much stylistic ground in the course of a song, let alone an album or discography. You know, the whole "that part doesn't fit with the rest of the song!" thing. We may not agree as a community which parts don't fit with which songs, but we probably each have a few parts we wish were cut (The Reckoning, anyone?).

But it's hard to argue that Wither has any parts that don't fit with the rest of the song. It's a pretty simple track, with basic guitar, bass, and vocals. There are only three things about the song that really draw attention: the drums, the piano breakdown, and the guitar solo. And all three of those things are pretty good, and none of the other stuff is overtly bad--a bit generic, sure, but not in an on-the-nose, You Not Me sort of way that calls unwanted attention. The song doesn't overstay its welcome and feels shorter than its five-minute-plus runtime. While it comes across as an afterthought on BCSL, I find that it holds up better four years later than the tracks that immediately precede and follow it.

[Podaar]

#49.) Just Let Me Breathe

You won't get much love 'round here for this choice me thinks. Except from this kid!  Strike up you best angst ridden posture  

[Dream Team]

Interesting that you have that pegged above Erotomania (probably my favorite DT instrumental).  Always opinions.

There's some great stuff in Erotomania. It's grown on me over the years. Just not a big fan of the main riff. It grates on me for whatever reason. I enjoy everything else in the song though.

Agreed.

[?]

Strike up you best X-rated posture  

FTFY

[Lucien]

VERY interested to see what #1 will be already. This will be fun to follow 

[Ruba]

Strike up you best X-rated posture  

FTFY

Another fix!

[DebraKadabra]

Not nearly enough love around here for Wither.

[Lolzeez]

Gee I wonder what #1 will be...

[nicmos]

Glad to see JLMB in the top half.  It is a killer song with high energy, just like you said.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

#47: New Millennium

For a while, I never really gave Falling Into Infinity a chance. I first came across DT in 2006/07, and coming from a more metal perspective, I was bigger into the ToT kind of stuff, as well as the "classics" of IAW, along with the most recent album at the time, Octavarium. Learning about the history of the band and hearing all the slagging on FII obviously didn't introduce it in the most positive light, and the more egregiously straightforward songs left a bad taste in my mouth as well.

I'll discuss more about what got me to reevaluate it later on, but suffice it to say that I ultimately gave the album a thorough reexamination fairly recently, and have really started to appreciate some of the songs on the disc. One of those is New Millennium. There's a lot of creative instrumentation in the track (Chapman Stick, guitar effects, vocal orchestration), as well as an aggressive and inspired vocal take from James.

#46: Panic Attack

Another solid song. James turns in another nice performance here, though a lot more atmospheric than New Millennium. It's a fairly catchy tune, it's nice to see JM featured in the opening, and it's also the first non-instrumental on the list that really makes a lot of room for solos. While JR and JP's solos don't rank among their best, they also don't rank among their worst, either. In addition to the solo pyrotechnics, the song's arranged nicely and feels shorter than its runtime, which is a hallmark of a well-constructed DT song. So it's the first song on this list to really fuse the technical wizardry that's been DT's biggest claim to fame with a really solid arrangement (Wither does, too, but that's so stripped down that it's a whole different thing).

It is overpublicized due to its inclusion in Rock Band 2--so many DT songs seem like they'd be better fits for a game like that, but like Pull Me Under, it's so overrated that it starts to become underrated because a lot of people write it off. Its fame is certainly disproportionate to its merit when it comes to DT tracks, but that doesn't mean it isn't a rock-solid work.

[BlobVanDam]

Nice pics. I really like both songs.

[nicmos]

Spot on!  I'm really liking these writeups so far!

[DebraKadabra]

Panic Attack

New Millennium is better than people around here make it out to be.  Sure, it's not one of their best but it's DEFINITELY not one of their worst.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

#45.) Never Enough

Okay, I know this song has a pretty negative reputation. Having not become a DT fan until after Octavarium was released, I can't say I know much about the exact fan climate of 2004/05 that inspired Mike Portnoy to write these lyrics. Without that context, though, it certainly seems that that's one of the least relatable topics an artist can decide to write a song about. Not only do the lyrics lash out at fans (the very people who are, of course, supposed to listen to the music); the accusations they make are only really directed at a very small portion of the fanbase (or so MP says, though certainly it stands to reason that he's not blaming casual fans for overloading him with requests). So the result is that he alienates a lot of people he wasn't even writing about because they get grouped in with the small number he actually was angry at.

That's probably not the smartest move in the history of DT, and the song's reputation suffers badly from it, as well as the seeming comparisons to Muse (who I honestly can't say I'm all that familiar with). Strip away all of that negativity and context, though, and you're left with a pretty damn good song. Never Enough comes across a lot like Panic Attack, with fast riffing and a very open, spacey sound (that characterizes a lot of Octavarium). It's a better song, though, for a few reasons. First, the opening riff is more compelling--when the band kicks in, they rock with a manic, aggressive energy that isn't often present to that extent in DT's music. Second, the guitar tone really stands out in the song, especially in the second verse, which has a really cool crescendo effect even with its very simple patterns. Third, the band downshifts into a pretty massive, hooky chorus. And finally, Never Enough's instrumental section is direct, compelling, and interesting--there's not a lot of time wasted on "establishing riffs" and such, as JP and JR launch into interesting leads that twist and turn and also feature interesting sonic elements. The instrumental section also leads very well into the final chorus.

So yes, the lyrics are troubling, in a sense. But I'm not one who really pays much attention to lyrics, and everything else here is quite good. Likewise, even if the band really did ape Muse here, the result was a sound that's not present in too many other DT songs (Panic Attack and Prophets of War, and that's about it), and actually pushed them in some interesting directions. I wouldn't want DT to suddenly turn out a whole album of songs like this, which is why Octavarium in general is one of my least favorite albums. But Never Enough stands out as the best of DT's "modern progressive pop" songs that characterize much of that disc.

[DebraKadabra]

I don't know... in the context that we have now, Never Enough just seems really whiny.

[nicmos]

I love this writeup.  great to see the love for Never Enough.  It's doesn't win the creativity award, but is still a kick-ass song.

[iamtheeviltwin]

I love NE, I also wasn't "plugged into" the fan culture at the time the song was released so I never felt the "sting" of the lyrics in that personal sense.  However, if you divorce (ha marriage analogy) the lyrics from that situation they are strong lyrics about trying to appease someone (or someones) who make you feel that they are never satisfied with what you actually do achieve or give.  NE fits right in with other songs like As I Am, Far From Heaven, and You Not (Or) Me.  (Songs I realize most fans don't like either...guess it is not a popular theme among DT fans)

Plus it is just a rocking tune.

[?]

I didn't become a DT fan until 2009, but I don't like the NE lyrics and the music itself isn't great, either.

[Ruba]

Never Enough  !

[DebraKadabra]

I didn't become a DT fan until 2009, but I don't like the NE lyrics and the music itself isn't great, either.

I'd have to disagree.  I don't have a problem with the music so much as I have a problem with the lyrics.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

Alright, time for two more!

#44.) The Mirror

The Mirror holds an interesting place in DT's discography. In a lot of ways, it's the heaviest song in their catalogue, which is quite odd, seeing as it arrived eight or nine years before the band's move to more metallic backdrops (depending on whether you count TGP or TOT as the real sign of that transition). Further, the song is very much a stripped-down piece. And sure, DT goes stripped-down aesthetics at times--The Silent Man, Wait For Sleep, Wither, The Answer Lies Within, and so on are proof. But all of those songs are basically ballads, whereas The Mirror is anything but. It's based on an extremely basic riff, and there are notably no solos in its nearly seven-minute runtime.

No, the song essentially rides on two things: atmosphere (provided by the constant heavy riff and some fantastic work by Kevin Moore) and unbelievably aggressive vocals from James--the sort of performance even Russell Allen might struggle to pull off. Given the events that occurred with James just a year after the recording of the track, there's a certain nostalgia that comes with listening to him absolutely dominate a song like this, and it's also cool to see the vocalist carry a song--so many DT songs, of course, focus far more on the instrumentalists than the singing.

Of course, the downside is that The Mirror is a fairly one-dimensional song. James is great, Kevin's atmosphere is great, and the riffing is pretty cool, but the song is quite monolithic, with little breathing room from beginning to end. That's kind of the point, which is fine, but the lack of forward momentum and dynamism in the song limits its replay value, and you really have to be in a certain mood to want to hear it over a lot of the other DT tracks.

#43.) Outcry

I like almost all of DT's "epics"--for the sake of simplicity, let's define "epics" as "10-minute-plus songs"--and Outcry is no exception.

The song has a lot of things going for it. The intro is great, combining electronica sounds (which I normally dislike, but actually like a lot here, which says something about how effectively they're deployed) with a great opening riff and big choir sound (one of my favorite Jordan rhythm staples). The verses are pretty solid, and the chorus is the best on ADTOE. In fact, all the parts of the song that have vocals are probably the best on ADTOE (though the prechorus seems a bit tossed-off and could've been a bit tighter).

But there is also a four minute, twenty-three second instrumental section, and that section is quite problematic. Sure, there are some cool moments--7:08-7:42 is great, and the ascending guitar from 8:19-8:43 is effective--but they only comprise about a third of the section. In between those moments, there's a lot of very noodley stuff that leads to a dead end as often as it leads to a good idea, and an absolutely ridiculous atonal section from 6:45-7:08 that absolutely kills whatever momentum the song has (though I will say it's cool to hear John Myung play something resembling a lead there for a second).

Beyond that, there are a couple of other issues with the instrumental section. First, there's nothing really resembling a solo in there, except for that brief guitar line/unison--it's just a flurry of notes from all the instrumentalists (even JM!) without a whole lot of distinction between the members, so the band never really makes it clear who's supposed to be emphasized and compelling. Second, the section lets us down in an entirely different place from where we started, in a third verse that uses instrumental patterns that hadn't previously arisen in the song, so it's totally unfamiliar. When that verse kicks in, I always have that "Oh yeah, that's right, there was stuff before the instrumental section" moment, as if I now have to totally readjust to a new song.

Overall, there's some cool stuff here, but the instrumental section just has far too much filler for my tastes and really robs the song of the propulsive momentum that the first 4 1/2 minutes build. With a reworking, this could've been the best song on ADTOE; instead, it's one of DT's weakest epics.

[Podaar]

-snip- and an absolutely ridiculous atonal section from 6:45-7:08 that absolutely kills whatever momentum the song has (though I will say it's cool to hear John Myung play something resembling a lead there for a second).

I couldn't possibly disagree more with this statement. To me, this is THE most interesting, fun and exciting moment in this song. I would love to hear DT explore this type of composition more but I certainly realize why these passages must be 'sprinkles' for them.

Though my views are hardly surprising given my avatar and screen name. 

[?]

The Mirror Outcry has aged less well than the other songs on ADTOE for me (thanks to the instrumental section), but I still like it.

[nicmos]

I agree with just about everything you said on Outcry.  So far your opinions are so much like mine I can't wait to see what your top songs are going to be.  I am so following this until the end.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

-snip- and an absolutely ridiculous atonal section from 6:45-7:08 that absolutely kills whatever momentum the song has (though I will say it's cool to hear John Myung play something resembling a lead there for a second).

I couldn't possibly disagree more with this statement. To me, this is THE most interesting, fun and exciting moment in this song. I would love to hear DT explore this type of composition more but I certainly realize why these passages must be 'sprinkles' for them.

Though my views are hardly surprising given my avatar and screen name. 

Hey, I'm glad to know they reached someone with that bit, man. Certainly didn't reach me, though.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

At a rate of one song a day, this list will go on for almost two months.