The Erotomania and other instrumentals appreciation Thread

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

These guys need more love. We are too focused on the higher tier, that the lower tier needs a lot of love.

Erotomania is a very great instrumental. Though it doesn't have the baddasery of SoC, the emotion of Hell's kitchen, and the technicality of the dance of eternity, it still has its moments. I feel like this is one of the greatest piano/guitar duo instrumental DT has ever given to us. Would you not agree?

Overture 1928 starts off Metropolis part 2's actual music and is the debut of Rudess. It gives me the chills everytime I listen to the overture. The synth Rudess uses sounds well and his solos are pretty soft.

The Overture of 6DOIT is the beginning of our journey. It contains many musical elements led by Jordan rudess. Don't count Petrucci out though, his support of Rudess is amazing.

[bosk1]

Not sure what you mean by "lower tier" and "higher tier" in this context.  Pretty much ALL the DT instrumentals get a lot of love around here (even ones like Eve and Hell's Kitchen that, for the life of me, I do not understand why people adore them, but taste is what it is).

[Destiny Of Chaos]

I came here to read about Raw Dog.

[TAC]

How can anyone claim Erotomania is lower tier??

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Oh, the other two. Erotomania is definitely mid to hign.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Not sure what you mean by "lower tier" and "higher tier" in this context.  Pretty much ALL the DT instrumentals get a lot of love around here (even ones like Eve and Hell's Kitchen that, for the life of me, I do not understand why people adore them, but taste is what it is).

Where would you rank Erotomania?

[mikeyd23]

Oh, the other two. Erotomania is definitely mid to hign.

Based on..?

[Train of Naught]

Controversial DT opinions right there.

Though I was more shocked to see Overture 1928 here, but that's probably just because it's easily a top 3 DT instrumental for me.

[bosk1]

Not sure what you mean by "lower tier" and "higher tier" in this context.  Pretty much ALL the DT instrumentals get a lot of love around here (even ones like Eve and Hell's Kitchen that, for the life of me, I do not understand why people adore them, but taste is what it is).

Where would you rank Erotomania?

Personally, high middle (not sure about exact ranking without listing them all again and actually taking a moment to rank them).  But the majority would rank it near the top.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

I'm sure you have those tastes, but from the people I know, when I say name an instrumental and give me your top 3, 99% of them say: Hell's Kitchen, Dance of eternity, and SoC. I've never heard anyone (my friends) even mention the both overtures and erotomania, maybe once.

[Enigmachine]

Where do Enigma Machine and Raw Dog come in? I'd say those are by far the least appreciated of the lot (though I like both).

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Yeah, those two are good! Especially from Enigma Machine, the part where Petrucci plays the Rudess then Myung. Loved the drum solo of Mangini. Rudess goes crazy with his synth too. I haven't heard Raw Dog yet.

[bosk1]

I'm sure you have those tastes, but from the people I know, when I say name an instrumental and give me your top 3, 99% of them say: Hell's Kitchen, Dance of eternity, and SoC. I've never heard anyone (my friends) even mention the both overtures and erotomania, maybe once.

And that's fine.  But perhaps before assuming that your personal circle of friends represents the majority of the DT fanbase, you can just ask?  Not a big deal, but just saying.  Your post assumes something that most here would find doesn't make sense.

Anyhow, for what it's worth, here is how I would rank the full instrumental songs (as opposed to instrumental parts of songs, like the SDOIT overture, for example) that appear on the 12 studio albums:
1.  Stream of Consciousness
2.  Erotomania
3.  Enigma Machine
4.  Overture 1928
5.  False Awakening Suite
6.  The Dance of Eternity
7.  Ytsejam
8.  Hell's Kitchen

Tough to do, and it may change slightly from moment to moment.  I would definitely always put SOC at #1 and HK dead last.  But other than that, tracks next to each other could switch at any given moment.  Ask me tomorrow, and I might switch 2 and 3, or 6 and 7, and so on.

[Train of Naught]

Ranking time 

1. Overture 1928
2. Stream of Consciousness
3. The Dance of Eternity
4. False Awakening Suite
5. Hell's Kitchen
6. Enigma Machine
7. Ytse Jam
8. Erotomania

[CDrice]

9.  Hell's Kitchen

[...] and HK dead last. 

This makes me sad 

[Evermind]

Stream of Consciousness > Overture 1928 > The Dance of Eternity

[Train of Naught]

He ranked Hell's Kitchen #9 out of the 8 he listed, he despises it THAT much 

[bosk1]

Oops!  Got off on my numbering there.    Fixed now.

[DT_12_Octavarium]

All of the instrumentals are great, but TDOT and SoC are masterpieces.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

And that's fine.  But perhaps before assuming that your personal circle of friends represents the majority of the DT fanbase, you can just ask?  Not a big deal, but just saying.  Your post assumes something that most here would find doesn't make sense.

Sorry about that. :/

[TheCountOfNYC]

01- The Dance of Eternity
02- Stream of Consciousness
03- Overture 1928
04- Erotomania
05- False Awakening Suite
06- Hell's Kitchen
07- Raw Dog
08- Ytse Jam
09- Enigma Machine
10- Eve

3 through 9 may change position depending on my mood but 1, 2, and 10 are locked in (although this ranking will have to be redone in 9 days).

[bosk1]

And that's fine.  But perhaps before assuming that your personal circle of friends represents the majority of the DT fanbase, you can just ask?  Not a big deal, but just saying.  Your post assumes something that most here would find doesn't make sense.

Sorry about that. :/

No problem.  Like I said, not a big deal.  I'm just trying to explain to you why a lot of people here would react like:   It is still a good topic.

[Ben_Jamin]

1. Stream of consciousness
2. Erotomania
3. Eve
4. Overture 1928
5. Hell's Kitchen
6. Enigma Machine
7. Ytsejam
8. The Dance of Eternity
9. False Awakening Suite

Note These are all excellent songs that FAS being 9 doesn't mean much.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

Thanks for your understanding. I'll make sure that does not happen again. 

[Viking of the Sagas]

I really enjoy Overture from 6DOIT. If it was considered a separate song, I'd rank it close to the top.

About Erotomania though, I never really enjoyed it that much. It was sort of 'meh' for me (after the initial shock of hearing something so... vulgar, for the lack of a better word) and slowly descended into obscure mediocrity. So I'd place it around 5th or 6th on my list, despite it being more musically accomplished in many ways in comparison to other instrumentals.

[bosk1]

To further add explanation to my own preferences with the instrumentals, I really do like them all, with the exception of HK, and even that isn't straightforward.  Instrumentals are a bit tricky to deal with for me, for a variety of reasons.  First off, I just tend to naturally view them as "lesser" songs than those with vocals.  That isn't always the case, but is a natural tendency I have.  Second, not all instrumentals are intended to be viewed as complete standalone pieces of music.  Overture 1928, for example, is an overture.  By definition, it is meant to introduce and set up themes that will be more fully explored later.  It does a great job at that.  But I don't think I have ever once wanted to listen to it alone out of the context of the entire SFAM album, and I don't think the band has ever played it without Strange Deja Vu begin tagged onto it.  FAS is similar.  Great, fun little piece, but it is clearly intended to be an intro piece, and would feel weird and incomplete out of context.  Erotomania is a bit different in that it is part of a suite and fits as the intro of the three songs.  But it also works perfectly fine as a standalone.  Others like Ytsejam, SOC, and Enigma Machine are clearly standalone pieces that do not need context.  Now onto HK.  For me, as a standalone piece, it bores me to death, and I would NEVER have any real desire to listen to it.  However, if treated as an intro to LITS (which is sort of what it evolved into when pulled out of BMS, retooled a bit, and put on the album as a standalone that flows into LITS), I actually like it and think it is kind of cool.

A last bit about some others I did not mention:

TDOE is cool.  It shows off all kinds of chops and is an amazing musical feat.  That said, it does little for me as a standalone track.  I can appreciate it for what it is.  But it isn't something I love to listen to as a song.

Ytsejam is also nice.  But like a lot of the songs on WDADU, it just isn't as compositionally strong as their later offerings.

[thosava]

1. The Dance of Eternity
2. Stream of Consciousness
3. Overture 1928
4. False Awakening Suite
5. Erotomania
6. Ytse Jam
7. Enigma Machine
8. Hells Kitchen

[pcs90]

1. Eve
2. Erotomania
3. Overture 1928
4. Hell's Kitchen
5. Enigma Machine
6. False Awakening Suite
7. The Dance of Eternity
8. Stream of consciousness
9. Overture
10. Ytsejam


For the life of me I cannot understand why so many people regard SOC as one of, if not their best, instrumental. It goes on way too long, the solos are mostly just technical for the sake of it (like all the other TOT solos), and it just feels uninspired to me. I've tried several times to get into it (and I love instrumentals) but no luck...I feel like I'm missing something.

[OnTheBacksofAngela]

1. Eve
2. Erotomania
3. Overture 1928
4. Hell's Kitchen
5. Enigma Machine
6. False Awakening Suite
7. The Dance of Eternity
8. Stream of consciousness
9. Overture
10. Ytsejam


For the life of me I cannot understand why so many people regard SOC as one of, if not their best, instrumental. It goes on way too long, the solos are mostly just technical for the sake of it (like all the other TOT solos), and it just feels uninspired to me. I've tried several times to get into it (and I love instrumentals) but no luck...I feel like I'm missing something.

What about Myungs part? The one that sounds really cool. And the ending when Petrucci finishes it off with a solo?

[DreamTension]

Erotomania is my favorite DT instrumental! It's such a pure guitar song and is one of John Petrucci's masterpieces.  I love every second of it and it features Mike Portnoy at his best. 

[pcs90]

What about Myungs part? The one that sounds really cool. And the ending when Petrucci finishes it off with a solo?

I just listened to both sections to confirm. Neither of those parts stick out to me in any way. I like Jordan's piano solo about 4:30 in and the synth one following that, while technical, is still very melodic. Really that's the only thing I ever come back to on this song. There are other cool moments, don't get me wrong, but they're few and to me it's not worth sitting through the rest to hear a few good seconds. I'm always glad when Myung gets some time in the spotlight, I just don't get the fascination with that part in particular?

[jakepriest]

1. SOC
2. Hell's Kitchen
3. Overture 1928
4. The Dance of Eternity
5. Raw Dog

I don't listen to the others, but if I had to rank them, Enigma Machine is by far the most uninteresting one.

[RMGadelha]

I wonder where Dystopian Overture and Entr'acte enter this. I guess we will know

Any opinions from people who already listened to those tracks?

[Setlist Scotty]

Let's also not forget about some of the live only instrumentals that the band has done over time! Besides loving the studio instrumentals, I love Bombay Vindaloo, Barfbag and the Gladiator Theme. For me, I'd rank everything as:

01 Bombay Vindaloo
02 The Dance of Eternity
03 Ytse Jam
04 Overture 1928
05 the Gladiator Theme
06 Erotomania
07 Eve
08 Hell's Kitchen
09 Barfbag
10 False Awakening Suite
11 Raw Dog
12 Enigma Machine
13 SDoIT Overture
14 Stream of Consciousness

Yes, I ranked SoC last. It's a good song, as are all of their instrumentals, but to me it's a fairly plain song in comparison to most of their other instrumentals and it goes on for too long. Had there been more to it, or if it were more concise, it would probably rank higher. And while I do think the SDoIT Overture is great, it's a bit too Disney to me.

[Enigmachine]

Overture 1928, for example, is an overture.  By definition, it is meant to introduce and set up themes that will be more fully explored later.  It does a great job at that.  But I don't think I have ever once wanted to listen to it alone out of the context of the entire SFAM album, and I don't think the band has ever played it without Strange Deja Vu begin tagged onto it.  FAS is similar.  Great, fun little piece, but it is clearly intended to be an intro piece, and would feel weird and incomplete out of context.  Erotomania is a bit different in that it is part of a suite and fits as the intro of the three songs.  But it also works perfectly fine as a standalone.  Others like Ytsejam, SOC, and Enigma Machine are clearly standalone pieces that do not need context.  Now onto HK.  For me, as a standalone piece, it bores me to death, and I would NEVER have any real desire to listen to it.  However, if treated as an intro to LITS (which is sort of what it evolved into when pulled out of BMS, retooled a bit, and put on the album as a standalone that flows into LITS), I actually like it and think it is kind of cool.

I also don't really O1928 or HK alone anymore, but I would also extend that to Erotomania being listened to only in the suite, Vacant tagged onto SoC and even putting OLT at the end of TDoE. These units of songs feel more complete to me. Oddly enough, I think FAS works well on its own as a short, but dense and epic-sounding instrumental. This would mean I only consider listening to 5 DT instrumentals as standalone pieces.