*Official* A View from the Top of the World discussion thread

[gzarruk]

Clearly, I need to change the angle of my critiques lol

[DoctorAction]

Quick point: all the AVFTTOTW tracks came over incredibly well live when I saw them this week.

[Lonk]

Answer the Call official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XX_EIfenpY

[Setlist Scotty]

Answer the Call official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XX_EIfenpY

Is that the same video that came with the super deluxe fancy pants box set version of the album?

[TAC]

Answer the Call official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XX_EIfenpY

Is that the same video that came with the super deluxe fancy pants box set version of the album?

It's a neat enough video, but any chance I could see the band playing the song??

[Setlist Scotty]

Answer the Call official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XX_EIfenpY

Is that the same video that came with the super deluxe fancy pants box set version of the album?

It's a neat enough video, but any chance I could see the band playing the song??

Read the description for the video...   

[TAC]

Answer the Call official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XX_EIfenpY

Is that the same video that came with the super deluxe fancy pants box set version of the album?

It's a neat enough video, but any chance I could see the band playing the song??

Read the description for the video...   

What did I miss?

[Schurftkut]

i tells you in the description to buy tickets to see them play it live..

[TAC]

i tells you in the description to buy tickets to see them play it live..

I wasn't gonna go, but now I can't miss it!

[Setlist Scotty]

Answer the Call official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XX_EIfenpY

Is that the same video that came with the super deluxe fancy pants box set version of the album?

It's a neat enough video, but any chance I could see the band playing the song??

Read the description for the video...   

What did I miss?

Couldn't even click the link? I mean I know you're getting to be an old fart, but...

See 'Answering the Call' and many more of your favorite Dream Theater tracks, live on the Dreamsonic 2023 tour featuring special guest Devin Townsend, and Animals as Leaders - Tickets still available at https://dreamsonic.com

[TAC]

Well, yeah, I saw that.

[faizoff]

Listened to this album in preparation for the show next Friday. Holy shit this albums smokes. The mix is solid throughout and every track is fun to listen to. I put on D/T right after and even though that album has great sound too, Top takes the cake for one of the best produced DT records. Missed the band during the regular tour so looking forward to the show next week.

[Setlist Scotty]

Well, yeah, I saw that.

And didn't that answer your question here:

any chance I could see the band playing the song??

[TAC]

 

I think there's something missing in the translation.

[bosk1]

I feel like I'm waiting for Florence Henderson to walk in and say, "Excuse me, stewardess, I speak TAC."

[Dream Team]

Back to the topic of the tour; in the Iron Maiden thread someone commented about Maiden retiring if Nicko can't go anymore for "dignity" reasons.

Honest question: do you think Kevin James LaBrie cares about dignity and self-respect? Because if he did . . .

[Architeuthis]

Dang,  people are too hard on Labrie these days. He's still amazing on the studio albums and has a lot of good moments live.  He's such a integral part of DT,  I'm willing to take the good with the bad. At least he's still out there doing it the best he can.   
I love his singing throughout View!

[Ben_Jamin]

Dang,  people are too hard on Labrie these days. He's still amazing on the studio albums and has a lot of good moments live.  He's such a integral part of DT,  I'm willing to take the good with the bad. At least he's still out there doing it the best he can.   
I love his singing throughout View!

Exactly, it's despicable how supposed fans are reacting to his vocals.

[lovethedrake]

Dang,  people are too hard on Labrie these days. He's still amazing on the studio albums and has a lot of good moments live.  He's such a integral part of DT,  I'm willing to take the good with the bad. At least he's still out there doing it the best he can.   
I love his singing throughout View!

The way I see it ... I've seen DT 12 times live and they are always amazing.   James struggling would maybe bring from a 10 to a 9.

I've listened to their studio albums a billion times....  so as long as he's still nailing it in the studio I'm a happy man.

[DoctorAction]

Dang,  people are too hard on Labrie these days. He's still amazing on the studio albums and has a lot of good moments live.  He's such a integral part of DT,  I'm willing to take the good with the bad. At least he's still out there doing it the best he can.   
I love his singing throughout View!

Exactly, it's despicable how supposed fans are reacting to his vocals.

"Despicable" because you don't agree with their opinions? Or think they shouldn't be frank and instead only say positive things?

[Ben_Jamin]

Dang,  people are too hard on Labrie these days. He's still amazing on the studio albums and has a lot of good moments live.  He's such a integral part of DT,  I'm willing to take the good with the bad. At least he's still out there doing it the best he can.   
I love his singing throughout View!

Exactly, it's despicable how supposed fans are reacting to his vocals.

"Despicable" because you don't agree with their opinions? Or think they shouldn't be frank and instead only say positive things?

Just how harsh people are being with his vocals. Honestly, when you are there at the show, his vocals are not bad at all.

[nobloodyname]

For me, the vocals live sound exactly like they do when recorded on a mobile, and that means I sit there tilting my head and grimacing at times. Of course the feeling you have when literally being there is missing on a mobile recording, which makes some people think James sounds "amazing" (that's the word that's been used in one of the other threads), but otherwise, it's a factual account of the relative pitches and melodies.

[DoctorAction]

Dang,  people are too hard on Labrie these days. He's still amazing on the studio albums and has a lot of good moments live.  He's such a integral part of DT,  I'm willing to take the good with the bad. At least he's still out there doing it the best he can.   
I love his singing throughout View!

Exactly, it's despicable how supposed fans are reacting to his vocals.

"Despicable" because you don't agree with their opinions? Or think they shouldn't be frank and instead only say positive things?

Just how harsh people are being with his vocals. Honestly, when you are there at the show, his vocals are not bad at all.

Well, my View on this is the opposite of yours. That's ok, man. I'm not being despicable. No need to descend into some moral panic about it.

[Schurftkut]

yeah even my tone-deaf father was complaining about how bad the singer was, it's just a fact of life, no need to defend labrie because he ages

[jimgolf]

There's only been two shows ive been at out of around 12 where I've really noticed James struggling at times and only once where it was actively a detriment to the show. The first was the Images&Words Tour. I was expecting it to be a tough go of it because of the material, and some songs were rough, but overall it was still a fine show. The View show I saw was the other one and it was just rough. The Images tour was tough because James couldnt really hit the high notes anymore(which I think was expected and not the end of the world) but the View show he was forgetting lyrics, coming in early/late to verses/changing melodies to hit notes that were sharp or out of tune. It was just a very rough performance.

I saw a performance of Caught in a Webb, and boy, thats a rough one. I just don't understand what the point is pulling songs like that out when you know your singer cant perform them. It can't just be James, because im sure the band picks the songs as well. I just don't get it. I want to see James up there succeeding and singing the songs comfortably and it feels like he is not being put in a position to succeed.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I saw a performance of Caught in a Webb, and boy, thats a rough one. I just don't understand what the point is pulling songs like that out when you know your singer cant perform them. It can't just be James, because im sure the band picks the songs as well. I just don't get it. I want to see James up there succeeding and singing the songs comfortably and it feels like he is not being put in a position to succeed.

I do think it's time, probably long past time even, for the band to just retire certain songs. For example, Another Day was near-impossible to sing live even when James was in his absolute prime. No shame in just throwing in the towel on that one now.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

There's only been two shows ive been at out of around 12 where I've really noticed James struggling at times and only once where it was actively a detriment to the show. The first was the Images&Words Tour. I was expecting it to be a tough go of it because of the material, and some songs were rough, but overall it was still a fine show. The View show I saw was the other one and it was just rough. The Images tour was tough because James couldnt really hit the high notes anymore(which I think was expected and not the end of the world) but the View show he was forgetting lyrics, coming in early/late to verses/changing melodies to hit notes that were sharp or out of tune. It was just a very rough performance.

I saw a performance of Caught in a Webb, and boy, thats a rough one. I just don't understand what the point is pulling songs like that out when you know your singer cant perform them. It can't just be James, because im sure the band picks the songs as well. I just don't get it. I want to see James up there succeeding and singing the songs comfortably and it feels like he is not being put in a position to succeed.

The reason why this is perplexing to you is because you are missing the bigger picture. He can't seem to perform ANY of the songs. It's not a song specific issue. The show opens with the Alien, a song whose melody he himself wrote 2 years ago. Even that isn't going well to say the least. I am curious to know which songs you think are going well.

It's a systemic problem, not the band sabotaging him by seeing if he can sing the harder tunes; they're all hard at this point in the fight.


And honestly, if you can't service the fan favorites any longer then it is time to hang it up. 

[Madman Shepherd]

Just listened to this album for the first time in a bit and man it holds up. Got to the title track and the middle part is so much more eerie with the everything about the submarine disaster in the news. Normally I avoid "pop culture" stories which this essentially is but regardless of that, regardless of the wisdom of what they did, I couldn't help but put myself in their mindset as they descended, probably realizing their time was getting cut short, and their inevitable realization they would soon die as I gave it this latest listen. DT is so good at evoking emotion even though they clearly weren't thinking about this story as they wrote it.

[jimgolf]

The reason why this is perplexing to you is because you are missing the bigger picture. He can't seem to perform ANY of the songs. It's not a song specific issue. The show opens with the Alien, a song whose melody he himself wrote 2 years ago. Even that isn't going well to say the least. I am curious to know which songs you think are going well.

It's a systemic problem, not the band sabotaging him by seeing if he can sing the harder tunes; they're all hard at this point in the fight.


And honestly, if you can't service the fan favorites any longer then it is time to hang it up.

So the last time I saw them(first leg of the A View), The Alien was a little rough, 6:00 was mixed, Bridges in the Sky and Endless Sacrifice were the worst offenders. The rest of the songs he at least sounded okay on and comfortable with performing. Was it sounding great? No. But I wasn't outright noticing the vocal issues when he was singing Invisible Monster/Ministry of Lost Souls/A View from the Top of the World/Awaken the Master. Now part of it is the result of his own making because at times he sings harder notes that deviate from the original melody or hold notes out longer than needed. He needs to just keep it simple right now to get back on track. I think they should drop Caught in a Web(they wont, but they should). If they want to continue playing Pull Me Under because its a classic, fine, but they need to down-tune it because it doesn't seem like something he can pull off live anymore. I think if they did some of those tweaks and gave James some positive feedback about this coming from a place of encouragement he could be better and it would be much less of an issue.

Just listened to this album for the first time in a bit and man it holds up. Got to the title track and the middle part is so much more eerie with the everything about the submarine disaster in the news. Normally I avoid "pop culture" stories which this essentially is but regardless of that, regardless of the wisdom of what they did, I couldn't help but put myself in their mindset as they descended, probably realizing their time was getting cut short, and their inevitable realization they would soon die as I gave it this latest listen. DT is so good at evoking emotion even though they clearly weren't thinking about this story as they wrote it.

I think A View has really held up. When I first heard it, I wasn't so sure what to think about it, but I've really grown to be a big fan of the album. The production sounds great and I think it has some really outstanding songs with Answering the Call/Sleeping Giant/Transcending Time/Awaken the Master. I was a big fan of Distance over Time as well so I've been a happy man when it's come to DT's recent studio output. The other thing I noticed with A View and D/T is how comfortable Mangini sounds with the band now. I think he was okay on ADTOE, much better on Self Titled, good on The Astonishing(wasn't a whole lot of room for any crazy drum parts), but has been outstanding on the past two albums. 

[Jamesman42]

I am going to try and catch up this week on some DT that I have missed over the last few albums. What is this album like? Any consensus on what the better songs are?

[KevShmev]

I am going to try and catch up this week on some DT that I have missed over the last few albums. What is this album like? Any consensus on what the better songs are?

Opinions will vary, but I feel the best songs are The Alien (although this one took a bit of time to really grab me), Transcending Time and Awaken the Master. Answering the Call is right there as well. 

The album took a bit of time to grow on me as a whole, as the amount of heavy riffing in coordination with the constant double bass drumming felt too much for me at first, but I eventually got past and barely even notice it now.   

[Madman Shepherd]

I am going to try and catch up this week on some DT that I have missed over the last few albums. What is this album like? Any consensus on what the better songs are?

You haven't heard any of the last few albums?

Distance Over Time is pretty much flawless in my book. A View From the Top of the World is almost near flawless.

They also released an album called The Astonishing.

[Jamesman42]

Thanks Kev!

After ADTOE and the self-titled I just stopped caring for the direction they were heading. But now that I am old, I find myself getting the DT itch again, so why not check out some of the newer stuff.

[KevShmev]

I don't agree with Madman in regards to Distance over Time being flawless, but once you get past the two average opening tracks, the rest is pretty dang great.

I feel that the last two albums are their best since the early 2000s.  Not saying either touches the holy trinity of I&W, Awake and Scenes, but both are very good records.

[Madman Shepherd]

I don't agree with Madman in regards to Distance over Time being flawless, but once you get past the two average opening tracks, the rest is pretty dang great.

I feel that the last two albums are their best since the early 2000s.  Not saying either touches the holy trinity of I&W, Awake and Scenes, but both are very good records.

Untethered Angel I don't come back to a lot but then when I hear it I'm usually like, "oh yeah, this is great."

Paralyzed to me is just an excellent track that's clearly an attempt to be more mainstream but I love it.

Even Room 137 is probably one of my least favorite tracks on the album but if the album was an 8 course meal, each one would compliment or fill a void by the other tracks. So when I say flawless, I'm also thinking of the fact that every song scratches an itch short of a 20 minute epic.