Single Disc version of the last 3 studio albums (ADTOE, DT12, TA)

[AboutToCrash]

1. If you had to make a single disc album of the last 3 albums (ADTOE, DT12, TA) what tracks would you choose?

2. Where would you rank this compilation compared to the other DT albums?

[BlobVanDam]

I just went and chose everything I'd consider putting on a single disc, and it just happened to be 77 minutes. Perfect.

From ADTOE-
Lost Not Forgotten
This is the Life
Bridges in the Sky

From DT12-
False Awakening Suite
The Enemy Inside
Surrender to Reason

From TA-
Dystopian Overture
TGOM
Lord Nafaryus
Act of Faythe
Three Days
A New Beginning
Our New World

It's hard to judge it as an album, since it's not designed to be one cohesive album, and TA is already designed to be it's own unified album. It would rank well above the last 3 albums individually, probably all of the RR era. Beyond that, it's hard to say, but not top 4 or 5 at least.

[Zyzzyva17]

1. On the Backs of Angels
2. The Enemy Inside
3. Lost Not Forgotten
4. Act of Faythe
5. Chosen
6. A New Beginning
7. Behind the Veil
8. Surrender to Reason
9. Far from Heaven
10. Breaking All Illusions
11. Our New World

About 76 minutes.

This would be a top 3 album for me.

[Outcrier]

Not in order:

Lost not Forgotten
Bridges in the Sky
Outcry
Breaking All Illusions
The Looking Glass
The Bigger Picture
Surrender to Reason
The X Aspect
A New Beginning
Lord Nafaryus

[Estiui]

On the backs of angels
This is the life
Bridges in the sky
Breaking all illusions
The enemy inside
Dystopian overture
The gift of music
The answer
A better life
Lord Nafaryus
Three days
A life left behind
Ravenskill
A new beginning
Heaven's cove

[erwinrafael]

I have a "double-disc version" on my phone right now that has good pace like real albums:

Disc 1 - Dream Theater (1 h 19 min 36 sec)

On the Backs of Angels
This is the Life
Bridges in the Sky
Far From Heaven
Breaking All Illusions
The Bigger Picture
Surrender to Reason
Illumination Theory

Disc 2 - The Astonishing (1 h 19 min 50 sec)

The Gift of Music
Savior in the Square
When Your Time Has Come
Act of Faythe
Three Days
A Life Left Behind
Ravenskill
Chosen
A Tempting Offer
A New Beginning
Moment of Betrayal
The Path That Divides
The Walking Shadow
My Last Farewell
Losing Faythe
Hymn of a Thousand Voices
Our New World

BUT IF I WILL DO A SINGLE DISC VERSION, this would be it, arranged like a real album with pacing:

DREAM THEATER

Dystopian Overture
The Gift of Music
This is the Life
Bridges in the Sky
Chosen
Behind the Veil
Breaking All Illusions
Our New World
Illumination Theory

1 hour 17 mins 10 seconds

or I could substitute Surrender to Reason for Chosen, which would make it 1 hour 19 mins and 13 secs. I just want Chosen because I can't help but sing to that song. 

[MirrorMask]

I could make a single disc of A Dramatic Turn and Dream Theater, but no way I can separate any song from The Astonishing from its contest...

Having said that, I would go for something like this:

False Awakening Suite
The Enemy Inside
On the Back of Angels
Along for the Ride
Outcry
The Bigger Picture
Bridges in the Sky
Behind the Veil
Breaking All Illusions
Beneath the Surface

[pdurbin22]

Slightly different but along the same vein, I was just thinking about a "Best of the Roadrunner Years" compilation and came up with the following which would run about 78 min. Being somewhat realistic, I included most of the "singles" along with a couple of my personal favorites. I did selfishly leave out "Constant Motion" because I don't love it and begrudgingly left out "Breaking All Illusions" due to time constraints.

01. On The Backs Of Angels
02. A Rite Of Passage
03. The Enemy Inside
04. The Gift Of Music
05. Forsaken
06. The Dark Eternal Night
07. Wither
08. Moment Of Betrayal
09. The Looking Glass
10. Along For The Ride
11. Bridges In The Sky
12. Our New World

[Calvin6s]

Outcry
Breaking All Illusions
The Enemy Inside
Illumination Theory (maybe cut down)
Dystopian Overture
Three Days
A Life Left Behind
A Tempting Offer

1:06:50

[ariich]

Pretty tough. Something like this.

From ADTOE:
This is the Life
Bridges in the Sky
Breaking All Illusions

From DT12:
The Bigger Picture
Surrender to Reason

From TA:
Lord Nafaryus
Three Days
A Life Left Behind
Ravenskill
The X Aspect
The Path That Divides
My Last Farewell

Clocks in at 77 minutes.

[Bacong]

1. Dystopian Overture
2. The Enemy Inside
3. Three Days
4. Brother, Can You Hear Me?
5. Ravenskill
6. Bridges in the Sky
7. A New Beginning
8. 2285 Entr'acte
9. Moment of Betrayal
10. Breaking All Illusions
11. Losing Faythe
12. Hymn of a Thousand Voices
13. Astonishing



edit: gonna listen to it right now!

[Bacong]

holy shit, ADTOE has the worst drum sound ever

[erwinrafael]

So I am the only one who has Illumination Theory in the playlist so far. 

[Calvin6s]

So I am the only one who has Illumination Theory in the playlist so far. 

CTRL F

[Enigmachine]

1. Dystopian Overture
2. The Enemy Inside
3. Three Days
4. Brother, Can You Hear Me?
5. Ravenskill
6. Bridges in the Sky
7. A New Beginning
8. 2285 Entr'acte
9. Moment of Betrayal
10. Breaking All Illusions
11. Losing Faythe
12. Hymn of a Thousand Voices
13. Astonishing

That album imbalance... 
ADToE has the long lengths of the songs to make up for it (23 mins is pretty large for 2 songs), but poor DT12 with just TEI. 

holy shit, ADTOE has the worst drum sound ever

iirc it's a bit better in the HD Tracks version due to them being higher in the mix with more clarity. Still probably the least well-produced DT album other than WDaDU (I think DT12 is well produced though, as with TA). For an album which is musically pretty heavy and intense for the band, the sound doesn't really suit the style apart from with FFH and BtS.

[KevShmev]

Hmmm, I'd have to give this some thought, but the no-brainers would be:

This Is the Life
Bridges in the Sky
Breaking All Illusions
The Looking Glass
Surrender to Reason
A Savior in the Square
When Your Time Has Come
Ravenskill
A New Beginning

Looks like that is 65 minutes.  I guess I could also throw in:

Our New World
The Answer (too lovely to not include)
Three Days
Chosen

I hate leaving off Illumination Theory, but it's so long and would cause me to not include too many others.

[erwinrafael]

So I am the only one who has Illumination Theory in the playlist so far. 

CTRL F

I think I am the only one who does not have an unedited version. Hehehe

I am enjoying these playlist threads. Based on three album clusters starting Images and Words, I now have the following 1-disc playlists: Awakening (songs from I&W to FII with ACOS), The Golden Age (SFAM to ToT), Imperfect Circle (8V to BC&SL) and Our New World (ADTOE to TA).

[BlobVanDam]

So I am the only one who has Illumination Theory in the playlist so far. 

I think song length is a factor here for many, since that's a quarter of an entire disc in one go.

[Ben_Jamin]

1. Dystopian Overture
2. The Enemy Inside
3. Three Days
4. Brother, Can You Hear Me?
5. Ravenskill
6. Bridges in the Sky
7. A New Beginning
8. 2285 Entr'acte
9. Moment of Betrayal
10. Breaking All Illusions
11. Losing Faythe
12. Hymn of a Thousand Voices
13. Astonishing



edit: gonna listen to it right now!

On paper, that sounds awesome. I think I'll try that.

[DragonAttack]

I'm still trying to digest 'Outcry II: The Astonishing', so something like this would be a while down the road for me.

With that theme, it would consist of  'Bridges', 'Outcry', 'This Is The Life', 'Illusions', 'Enemy Inside', 'Bigger Picture', and 25 minutes of TA full songs and edits.  I'd include 'On The Backs of Angels', but then it just becomes ADTOE expanded.

[SkiFiX]

1- Bridges in the sky or Moment of Betrayal
2- The Looking Glass
3- Outcry
4- Far From Heaven
5- Breaking All Illusions
6- The Gift of Music
7- Ravenskill
8- A New Beginning
9- Illumination Theory
10- Beneath the surface

[chaossystem]

1) The Looking Glass
2) Outcry
3) The Gift of Music
4) Along for the Ride
5) This is the Life
6) When Your Time Has Come
7) Behind the Veil
8) Lost Not Forgotten
9) Moment of Betrayal
10) The Enemy Inside
11) On the Backs of Angels
12) Hymn of a Thousand Voices

[AboutToCrash]

Interesting lists, Nice seeing this is the life on a lot of them! I was wondering how people would deal with the 22 minute Illumination Theory. That's a tough one because I feel it's difficult to leave that track out, I suppose if you cut the interlude and easter egg it'll be more like 14 minutes. Still a lot of the disc

[TAC]

What this exercise has done is to prove that there is a lot of strong material on the last three albums.   

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Wow, tough one. I don't usually struggle with these sorts of things, but The Astonishing is so clearly meant to be digested as a full album that it makes this particular exercise quite difficult for me. Here she goes:

A Dramatic Turn of Events
- Bridges in the Sky
- Breaking All Illusions

Self-titled
- The Looking Glass
- Behind the Veil
- Surrender to Reason

The Astonishing
- Ravenskill
- A New Beginning
- Moment of Betrayal
- The Path That Divides

[erwinrafael]

What this exercise has done is to prove that there is a lot of strong material on the last three albums.

There is indeed.

[Ben_Jamin]

DOTN/DO/TGOM
The Bigger Picture
This is the Life
Saviour In The Square/When Your time Has Come
Breaking All Illusions
Bridges in the Sky
Surrender to Reason
The Path That Divides
Outcry

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

I think Dystopian Overture and The Gift of Music should forever be played together. Anything else just seems like a mistake.

[Enigmachine]

I think Dystopian Overture and The Gift of Music should forever be played together. Anything else just seems like a mistake.

What other song groups would you say this for? A Saviour in the Square / When Your Time Has Come is a clear example.

[TAC]

It is, but if I had to whittle down the songs from the last album to make one CD, WYTHC would not make the cut, while Saviour would. TGOM would, but DO would not.

[Enigmachine]

But ASitS directly transitions into WYTHC. Literally mid-sentence.

[SebastianPratesi]

Other examples would be "The Answer"/"A Better Life", and -to some extent- "The Walking Shadow"/"My Last Farewell": I don't think there is silence or a pause between those two.

[TAC]

But ASitS directly transitions into WYTHC. Literally mid-sentence.

Yes I

[Another_Won]

But ASitS directly transitions into WYTHC. Literally mid-sentence.

Ha, it sure does.  If you have the song by itself you miss the last word.  I've updated my lyric sheet to reflect that "Eyes" is the first lyric for WyTHC.

Listening to WyTHC by itself is really weird with the way it starts . . . "EYES . . . ."

[deslock]

1. If you had to make a single disc album of the last 3 albums (ADTOE, DT12, TA) what tracks would you choose?

10 songs on a single CD (74:09):

• On the Backs of Angels
• Bridges in the Sky
• Breaking All Illusions
• The Enemy Inside
• Enigma Machine
• Behind the Veil
• A New Beginning
• Moment of Betrayal
• The Path That Divides
• My Last Farewell

Breakdown:

• A Dramatic Turn of Events: 32:10, 3 songs
• Dream Theater: 19:12, 3 songs
• The Astonishing: 22:47, 4 songs

On a side note, my general DT playlist has 2 hours and 35 minutes from the last 3 albums. The other songs:

• Lost Not Forgotten
• Outcry
• False Awakening Suite
• The Looking Glass
• Surrender to Reason
• Illumination Theory
• Dystopian Overture
• The Gift of Music
• Three Days
• 2285 Entr'acte
• Heaven's Cove
• The Walking Shadow

If I also include all of those (in a 2 CD mix), the breakdown becomes:

• ADTOE 54 min, 5 songs
• DT 56 min, 7 songs
• TA 45 min, 10 songs

DT has the most minutes, TA has the most songs, and (in my opinion) ADTOE has the strongest material, on average.

2. Where would you rank this compilation compared to the other DT albums?

Better than any of DT's existing albums.