Which 1-2 punch of DT albums do you prefer?

[KevShmev]

I&W and Awake for me, of course.

[Zydar]

Images and Words & Awake, on the strength of I&W.

[jakepriest]

Awake > DT12
ADToE > I&W

Can't vote on this one.

[Tom Bombadil]

Awake and Images, it's not even remotely close.

[Nekov]

Images and Words & Awake, on the strength of I&W.

This. I like Dream Theater better than Awake but I'm not really into ADTOE

[mikeyd23]

Images and Words & Awake, on the strength of I&W.

This. I like Dream Theater better than Awake but I'm not really into ADTOE

Yeah I'd have to agree with this overall.... Awake is a good album, but I prefer DT12, ADTOE is solid but I&W is light years ahead of it so overall, I guess the first group gets my vote riding on the strength of I&W.  That was actually a tough decision though.

[?]

I&W and Awake for me, of course.

[bosk1]

I had to go with the new ones.  DT12 is closely on par with either I&W or Awake in terms of both quality and consistency, although I would probably put I&W and Awake slightly ahead of it.  But ADTOE blows all of them away by a large margin.  Plus, while I&W and Awake are both incredible albums, they collectively have 3 of my bottom 10 DT songs.  So DT12 and ADTOE win.

[cyberdrummer]

I'd rank them:

I&W
Awake
ADTOE
DT12

So, it had to be the first option for me.

[Kotowboy]

I prefer DT12 to Awake and ADTOE to Images. Easy for me.

[hefdaddy42]

Option A, but the new ones are really good too.

[DT_1928]

For me it's Awake & DT12 ....
really can't choose between the 2 options 

[gmillerdrake]

Awake and Images, it's not even remotely close.

Yeah, for me.....as good as all the other albums are and all the fantastic songs that are on them, that one-two of I&W and Awake is just unbeatable. Not only for the musical content but when I hear any song on those albums......it immediately 'takes me back' to that moment in time when I first heard it.

Images and Words being played automatically sits me back down at the desk in my basement room while I was in High School. I'd sit there and draw for hours upon hours while listening to I&W....just flip the tape over and over into the wee hours of the morning, school night or not. I was convinced that 'Learning to Live' was written specifically for me.....

[TAC]

Option A, but the new ones are really good too.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I'm actually surprised this isn't a total slaughter.

Even though I'm not too crazy about DT recent work, it's great to see that this late in their career, they can still make albums that really resonate with people.

[GasparXR]

I went with I&W and Awake since I pretty much have them at a tied ranking. I like DT12 better than those two, but I like those two better than ADTOE.

[Jaq]

Love all four albums, but Images And Words is Images And Words, man.  Easy choice.

[krands85]

Images and Awake.

I&W is my #1 album. ADTOE #3. Awake #6 just ahead of DT12.

[Laughingplace56]

For me it's Awake & DT12 ....
really can't choose between the 2 options 

This.

My ranking of the 4 would be:

Awake
DT12
I&W
ADToE

But since 1&3>2&4, I went with option 1. Love all 4 albums though.

[Dark Castle]

I don't know if I can choose, my rankings of the 4 go:

Images & Words
Dream Theater
Awake
A Dramatic Turn of Events

It's really close, but probably Option# 1

[Jaffa]

First option.  Awake, ADTOE, and DT are all pretty close in terms of quality, but Images and Words is miles better than all of them, so it carries its team to victory.

[Onno]

I&W + Awake by a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way.

[bl5150]

Awake is a good album, but I prefer DT12, ADTOE is solid but I&W is light years ahead of it so overall, I guess the first group gets my vote riding on the strength of I&W.  That was actually a tough decision though.

Wasn't too tough but this..........DT12 just went past Awake in my rankings.

[lonestar]

Again, the first group on the strength of I&W, it's just a good step above the other three albums. Though I would have DT12 next, with ADTOE and Awake pulling up the rear.

[evz]

Interestingly, these are my top 2 two album punches in DT's catalog.  But have to give the nod to I&W and Awake, possibly because of discovering Dream Theater on the release of I&W and where I was in my life at that point. 

[Prog Snob]

I & W and Awake, no question.   The only back to back pair that comes close is Metropolis 2 and 6DOIT. 

[RuRoRul]

Hmm, both I&W and ADTOE are very close (being among their best) while Awake and Dream Theater are very close (being among the worst of the non-WDADU albums). I'd probably say I&W and Awake, not because it's a particularly strong among all combinations of two DT albums, but just because Dream Theater isn't far enough ahead of Awake to give that pair the advantage.

I&W > ADTOE >>> DT > Awake

Of course, the real answer here is SDOIT and TOT.

[son_ov_hades]

Why just these two options? I easily picked Images And Words and Awake, total no brainer. But if I had other options it would be very difficult to choose between When Dream And Day Unite and Images And Words, and Falling Into Infinity and Scenes From A Memory. Though I probably still would have voted the way I did.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

I voted for ADToE and DT12.

If we're comparing these albums to punches, then Awake is like getting hit over the head with a pillow. Totally underwhelming compositionally from start to finish and uneven quality of songs.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Personally, I'd rather get hit by a pillow than punched.

[Crow]

Considering the second option contains both the worst DT song and one of the worst albums, easily the first choice :B

[Kotowboy]

Considering the second option contains both the worst DT song and one of the worst albums, easily the first choice :B

Awake is one of the worst albums imo. Aside from the opening three songs.

[Daso]

When I was opening the thread I thought "well, out of all 1-2 punch of DT albums, the tough match for me would be between I&W-Awake and ADTOE-DT12" and then I open the thread and those are the only two poll options. How the fuck am I supposed to vote? 

For me it's sort of this order I&W >> DT12 > Awake>ADToE. DT12 is fantastic, it exceeded my very high expectations, and the fact that MM was involved in all the process (with him being my favorite member) makes me love it a lot more. ADToE also had him there, and it's my fourth favorite DT album. At the same time, there's I&W which is a life-changing album and definitely among my Top 3 albums of all time, and Awake is almost as good (actually I think Awake works better as an album, but I'm judging by individual songs here).

The logical order would say that I should vote for I&W and Awake, but I don't feel like I can 

[jingle.boy]

Love all four albums, but Images And Words is Images And Words, man.  Easy choice.

This man knows his shit.

[BlobVanDam]

Uh IaW > Awake only because of IaW. IaW is the only one of these albums I don't rank near the bottom, so neither one really packs much "punch". But IaW is amazing enough to compensate for that.