Haha, you just reminded me, I was gonna respond to that demo comment aswell but forgot or couldn't be bothered or something.
But just to echo Scotty's thoughts, the demos are totally worth it, all of them IMO and one would me missing out if they dismissed them as uninteresting.
*Takes deep breath, cracks fingers*
- Falling into Infinity demos would be the best example because they have significant differences to the final product but most of that has been discussed extensively.
- All the others have enough curiosities to interest most fans; the Images & Words demos are great because we have a younger James nailing all the vocals. I thought some of those Atco demos actually had stronger vocals than I&W sessions sometimes. And the vocalist audition demos on various songs are certainly an interesting curiosity. As is Erotomania being part of Pull me Under, very bizarre.
- Even the Train of Thought instrumental demos are quite interesting because although the arrangements are mostly the same, you'd be surprised how many more details you notice in the songs with the absence of vocals (anyone that's listened to the BL&SL/ADTOE instrumentals knows what I'm talking about). Not to mention, we have some different/alternate solos by John and Jordan sometimes which will surprise you if you're familiar with the regular Train of Thought.
- The Awake demos are probably the least interesting compared to the rest (imo) but mainly because they are relatively of worse quality to the others (save for some Majesty stuff) but not to undermine their relevance. Still got some amazing vocals from James, where again; some moments come across clearer (unless it's just me), I swear I can understand his annunciation better on a lot of the higher vocals (everyone that's digested Awake fully has to know what I mean by this
). Not to mention we've got some slightly different keyboard patches and sounds from Keven that you won't find on the final version, and an interesting longer version of The Mirror with the 'Lie instrumental' still intact.
- When Dream and Day Unite demos can be interesting, but you probably have to already like that album a fair bit to bother with these because it's a LOT more WDADU than anyone is used to.
It's got instrumental versions of everything which is quite interesting to hear extra detail (too bad about the quality though) and all the pre-production and extra Charlie stuff.
- Then the Majesty demos, I think any dedicated DT fan has to at least check these out at some point, pure recorded history here but don't necessarily expect to find pure gold, there's certainly some gems here though. Start of a legacy.
That's enough rambling from me, but hopefully I convinced someone to check out the demos.