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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: aprilethereal on September 24, 2013, 08:34:37 AM
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A lot of people mention this song as one of their favourites from DT12, so I thought it'd deserve its own thread.
It took me a while to really like STR, but now I can't get enough of it. Restless angels kind of overshadows the whole song imo, but the rest is fantastic as well. My favourite parts are probably the acoustic verse, the chorus and of course the outro :metal
So what are your thoughts about it?
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Surrender to Reason is a fantastic
Rush Dream Theater song. Loved it right away.
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A great song with fine lyrics by Myung. The Restless Angels section is the highlight, along with the solo after the first chorus. A Top 3 song from this album.
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Progressive rock at its best. Really, really strong track.
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One of my favorites for sure.
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Top 3 for me right now. Has everything I love about DT.
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Incredible thought-provoking lyrics by JM. I absolutely love the phrase "surrender to reason." He is so poetic.
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During the Q&A, I believe two band members listed this song as one of the songs they are most enjoying listening to at this time.
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Just an unbelievably great song. Love the intro. Love the lyrics. Love the call/response between the lyrics and guitar in the "visions flow" section. Love the first guitar solo. Love the organ. Love the bass lead in to the second solo. LOVE the riffing under the "through sacrifices made" bit, and the build of the drums. Such amazing stuff.
My favorite on the album right now, and very likely to earn a place in my top 10 eventually.
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Love this song. Definitely one of my favorites from the new record. :tup :tup
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The acoustic verse is one of my favorite parts of the whole album. The whole song is really good, but that part takes the cake.
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The acoustic verse is one of my favorite parts of the whole album. The whole song is really good, but that part takes the cake.
That wouldn't be chocolate cake, would it??
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This was prob the last song to grow on me. Now,I love it. :heart
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That riff! :metal :metal :metal One of the best riffs on the album. I mean the one after the acoustic verse. That, the chorus, and the outro are my favorite parts. Definitely my 2nd favorite song on the album behind IT.
Also, anyone else feel a definite presence of both Learning To Live and Bridges In The Sky? Surrender To Reason feels like an appropriate mixture of those two songs, of course since it's a Myung song. The lyrics, as always by Myung, are great and some of my favorite on the album. It has the spirituality of BITS and the life-lesson-esque feel of LTL.
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Fantastic song.
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EPIC
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I LOVE IT. It's still soon in the running, but it's poking it's peen top in the b-hole of mah top ten.
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That riff is awesome.
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A great song with fine lyrics by Myung. The Restless Angels section is the highlight, along with the solo after the first chorus. A Top 3 song from this album.
If this man hadn't already done it, I would have posted exactly this.
-J
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It took a while to really appreciate this one. The first time I was like "oh ok, it's cool but I don't know, I miss something" and so the other two listenings. The day after I was in my car and suddenly I was totally mesmerized by the acoustic verse and the chorus and as many of you already said the "restless angels" part is "ABSOLUTLY PHN-O-MNL" :biggrin:
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After the "Angels" part towards the end builds up with the JP melody underneath it and they go back into those triumphant chords from the opening of the song I get chills every time. So awesomely beautiful.
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Just listening to this again now. Great song, and definitely one of the strongest on the album. :tup
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I just noticed how much I love the little riff part with the organ (?) sounds that appears multiple times throughout the song :metal
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At the moment this is my favourite song on the album.
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At the moment this is my favourite song on the album.
And is it a coincidence that it is the only song with JM lyrics?
Well, yes. That's what coincidence means.
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:lol
But yeah, my favourite on ADTOE is BAI - also the only one with JM lyrics.
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Probably the biggest highlight of what I considered to be a pretty underwhelming album (on first listen).
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I won't be surprised if this ends up being my favorite song from the new record; it sounds more and more awesome every time I listen to it. :coolio
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I like it more each time I hear it as well. I absolutely love the beginning, with full band to the acoustic guitar/JLB section, and then electric guitar coming in. Fantastic stuff.
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Definitely a mid 80's Rush vibe and that's not a bad thing. I love the ebb and flow of this track. One of my favs.
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Definitely one of MY favorites on the album, along with IT and TBP...and BTV. Actually everything after EM is just pretty damn good (yes, even AFTR, but of the last five songs on the album, it's my least favorite).
Love the 80's Rush feel to it, and the outro section is amazing. It's like every song with JMX lyrics just ends up being amazing!
-Marc.
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This one opened itself up the least to me initially; it's the only one that didn't grab me on the first play. But it's a fantastic song and one of my favorites of the album.
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along with the solo after the first chorus.
My fav part of the album.
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I just noticed how much I love the little riff part with the organ (?) sounds that appears multiple times throughout the song :metal
My favorites are the one during "Life gives you brighter days" and that bass riff during "late night at smoking club" section :rollin
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One of the very best songs on the album. The melody, the chorus, the breakdown in the middle. Just great.
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Well, it finally happened.....
I just had my first goosebump moment with this album.. It just occurred when James sang "Let love lead the way.."
I rank DT 12 at this point either #5 or maybe #6 on my rankings, but this album feels like it may climb even higher. Been listening to it exclusively for the last two weeks, and it is just now all starting to sink in.
Surrender To Reason is my favorite song on the album so far.
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A great song with fine lyrics by Myung. The Restless Angels section is the highlight, along with the solo after the first chorus. A Top 3 song from this album.
This is correct.
This song definitely reminds me the most of DT's early days out of anything else on the album. The way the song is written is very unusual structurally - the opening Rush-esque stuff just disappears once the song gets going, but returns right at the end. It also seems to jump from one idea to the next (or at least it did on the first couple of listens) but still holds together really nicely. I'm used to DT's music doing that, but when it's in a shorter song like this, it can feel confusing, but here it's lovely.
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I'm really having trouble getting this song. It's got a very complicated structure with lots of very weird jarring elements. I don't dislike the song, but I still don't know exactly what I'm listening to.
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Best song on the album, I really love it!
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This song definitely reminds me the most of DT's early days out of anything else on the album. The way the song is written is very unusual structurally - the opening Rush-esque stuff just disappears once the song gets going, but returns right at the end. It also seems to jump from one idea to the next (or at least it did on the first couple of listens) but still holds together really nicely. I'm used to DT's music doing that, but when it's in a shorter song like this, it can feel confusing, but here it's lovely.
Agreed with pretty much all. Definitely reminds me of DT early days (this and some parts of The Looking Glass) and it holds together, flows nice and don't feel forced overall.
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One of my three favorite songs on the album since round 1. It is the first time I find a song that made me feel like this upon the first listen. I knew I was listening to something great, I knew it was the kind of thing I enjoy listening to, but at the same time there was something I wasn't quite catching up with, and even with it being among my favorites, I knew I wasn't enjoying it as much as I should. I was hoping to listen to something else at first, even though I could recognize how great it was.
After a few listens I got used to it and forgot any former criticism though :lol I love that the song is so all over the place, there is a lot of very different parts that could seem unrelated, yet it keeps it short, cohesive and interesting. Excellent MM performance as well.
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A late grower for me but now one of my favorites. That riff and JLB's performance is amazing. It also reminds me a whole lot of BITS, that melody is very similar but in a good way. This song has been moving up from close to last to right there on the top 3 fighting a hard fight against EM, BTV, and IT.
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Much to my surprise this is now my favorite track other than Illumination Theory. I didn't find it particularly good or melodic at first but it has really grown on me. The track itself is tremendous and I love the beauty of Myung's lyrics on this one.
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During the Q&A, I believe two band members listed this song as one of the songs they are most enjoying listening to at this time.
I could have sworn that 2 members said STR as well! I was trying to recall it in my head, but I had to refer back to the vid. For those wondering, here are the songs which the members of DT said they currently gravitate toward:
JP: TLG
JR: IT
JLB: TBP
MM: STR
JM: TBP
When held against my personal favs, they all have great taste except for JP :P (Joking of course)
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This along with The Bigger Picture took the longest time to seep into my brain but now that it has I think its a stunning song. :metal
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A few things:
I really like this song... I think it's one of the best tracks off DT12.
Let's start with the negative: Don't like the intro and the acoustic verse doesn't add much for me --- The song could've started after that acoustic verse and I would've been OK with it.
But.... BIG BUT....
The instrumental section, particularly during JP's dirty solo is, IMHO MM's best moment on DT12. I just absolutely love his drumming there. Classy, groovy, love it. I hate to make comparisons, but it's got the same elements that I love from MP during New Millenium's instrumental section - great cymbal work accenting everything. Anyway I never know if I should pay attention to JM, MM or JP during this section of the song.
Also the first guitar solo is awesome.
Love StR!
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This is actually one of the few songs on DT12 that hasn't aged well for me so far. I thought it was great at first but now I find myself wanting to skip it as soon as the acoustic section ends (which I still think is an amazing part)
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A few things:
I really like this song... I think it's one of the best tracks off DT12.
Let's start with the negative: Don't like the intro and the acoustic verse doesn't add much for me --- The song could've started after that acoustic verse and I would've been OK with it.
But.... BIG BUT....
The instrumental section, particularly during JP's dirty solo is, IMHO MM's best moment on DT12. I just absolutely love his drumming there. Classy, groovy, love it. I hate to make comparisons, but it's got the same elements that I love from MP during New Millenium's instrumental section - great cymbal work accenting everything. Anyway I never know if I should pay attention to JM, MM or JP during this section of the song.
Also the first guitar solo is awesome.
Love StR!
I love the acoustic verse, and it's one of my favourite parts. You can't remove that!
It's nice to just hear JP strumming on an acoustic, with JLB's vocals over the top. Simple and beautiful, and it builds up into the rest of the song nicely.
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I went out with my sister a couple of weeks ago for a birthday dinner-mine, Jaq's getting old-and I took DT12 with me to play on her car's CD player (We have a long running, good natured battle about that, going back to a period in the 90s where she would play country music in my car) and when it got to Surrender to Reason, she looked at the CD player and asked me "did this just turn to a Rush album?" :lol
Great song. Undeniable Rush vibe at times, especially the second solo, which might as well be the one from Free Will, and JP's tone is amazingly like Alex Lifeson's, great lyrics, and while it has many moments that scream Rush, it's also clearly a DT song. Higher end of the album song for me.
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A few things:
I really like this song... I think it's one of the best tracks off DT12.
Let's start with the negative: Don't like the intro and the acoustic verse doesn't add much for me --- The song could've started after that acoustic verse and I would've been OK with it.
But.... BIG BUT....
The instrumental section, particularly during JP's dirty solo is, IMHO MM's best moment on DT12. I just absolutely love his drumming there. Classy, groovy, love it. I hate to make comparisons, but it's got the same elements that I love from MP during New Millenium's instrumental section - great cymbal work accenting everything. Anyway I never know if I should pay attention to JM, MM or JP during this section of the song.
Also the first guitar solo is awesome.
Love StR!
I love the acoustic verse, and it's one of my favourite parts. You can't remove that!
It's nice to just hear JP strumming on an acoustic, with JLB's vocals over the top. Simple and beautiful, and it builds up into the rest of the song nicely.
Agree with you, Blob.
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I donīt like the song but I love the lyrics. It shows Myung reads a lot, he likes philosophy, he is a liberal and probably an Ayn Rand reader. He really should have more space in DT concerning writing lyrics.
The melody of the song sounds too artificial to me. Seems like it was made to fit the lyrics not the other way around (specially the chorus). But, anyway, it is strong as text, as poetry.
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I donīt like the song but I love the lyrics. It shows Myung reads a lot, he likes philosophy, he is a liberal and probably an Ayn Rand reader. He really should have more space in DT concerning writing lyrics.
The melody of the song sounds too artificial to me. Seems like it was made to fit the lyrics not the other way around (specially the chorus). But, anyway, it is strong as text, as poetry.
Interesting interpretation of Myung's lyrics. To me.....judging not only from this songs lyrics but his entire catalog of lyrical contributions to DT....I don't think there is any question that his lyrics are Christian or 'believer' based.
Whatever his influence one thing is for certain. He is by far the most poetic lyricist in DT and all his songs are 'beautiful'
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he is a liberal and probably an Ayn Rand reader
You are confused.
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It's on of my favourites from the album. I tend to feel like this song reminds me of Scarred quite a bit, especially the riff after the acoustic verse (it should be called chorus technically because it uses the chorus chord progression but with different lyrics).
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The riff after the chorus is one of the most amazing moments of this year.
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The riff after the chorus is one of the most amazing moments of this year.
There are so many absolutely amazing moments in STR (that riff, the acoustic verse/chorus, the vocal melodies, the Restless Angels guitar melody after the first chorus, the chorus in general, Restless Angels), that I seriously have to rethink my rankings.
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he is a liberal and probably an Ayn Rand reader
You are confused.
So much win here. I too was like WTF! :facepalm:
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A few things:
I really like this song... I think it's one of the best tracks off DT12.
Let's start with the negative: Don't like the intro and the acoustic verse doesn't add much for me --- The song could've started after that acoustic verse and I would've been OK with it.
But.... BIG BUT....
The instrumental section, particularly during JP's dirty solo is, IMHO MM's best moment on DT12. I just absolutely love his drumming there. Classy, groovy, love it. I hate to make comparisons, but it's got the same elements that I love from MP during New Millenium's instrumental section - great cymbal work accenting everything. Anyway I never know if I should pay attention to JM, MM or JP during this section of the song.
Also the first guitar solo is awesome.
Love StR!
I love the acoustic verse, and it's one of my favourite parts. You can't remove that!
It's nice to just hear JP strumming on an acoustic, with JLB's vocals over the top. Simple and beautiful, and it builds up into the rest of the song nicely.
Agreed, it works really well as a first verse, with the second verse being heavier.
I do think the intro is pretty pointless though, which is the only thing holding the song back. I still love it, and it remains my number 3 on the album, but that Rush-esque intro is so irrelevant to the rest of the song.
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I do think the intro is pretty pointless though, which is the only thing holding the song back. I still love it, and it remains my number 3 on the album, but that Rush-esque intro is so irrelevant to the rest of the song.
Agreed.
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I do think the intro is pretty pointless though, which is the only thing holding the song back. I still love it, and it remains my number 3 on the album, but that Rush-esque intro is so irrelevant to the rest of the song.
Agreed.
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I feel like the first minute is just meh. But that's my opinion...
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Am I the only one who likes the intro, even if it serves no purpose?
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I think the intro is great.
I also think saying it is pointless or serves no purpose makes little sense. If the song began with the acoustic verse, it would sound weird, so the intro does serve a purpose. And does it well.
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I think the intro (and the way it acts as a bookend at the finish line) is superb.
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Not a fan of the intro. Then again, I find MOST of Rush's work to be emotionless, so no surprises there. But the solo -> "Restless Angels" :tup :tup :tup
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I really do like the intro of this song. I feel that the acoustic verse is cool, but it wouldn't be a good way to start the tune. So the intro serves it's purpose well I think.
Overall, this is a great song, took me a little while to begin to fully appreciate everything thats going on, but I'm getting there!
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I do think the intro is pretty pointless though, which is the only thing holding the song back. I still love it, and it remains my number 3 on the album, but that Rush-esque intro is so irrelevant to the rest of the song.
Agreed.
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I do think the intro is pretty pointless though, which is the only thing holding the song back. I still love it, and it remains my number 3 on the album, but that Rush-esque intro is so irrelevant to the rest of the song.
Agreed.
But the intro is reprised at the very end of the song. D:
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he is a liberal and probably an Ayn Rand reader
You are confused.
So much win here. I too was like WTF! :facepalm:
Ayn Rand was a pacifist and a supporter of abortion.
Just sayin' :lol
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I gotta admit, this is the song that has grown on me the most since the release. This has to be one of the better songs on the album.
Negatives:
- Not a fan of John's guitar work in this track, or in the rest of the album for that matter.
- The intro, as others have said is pretty pointless.
Positives:
- JLB deliver's a damn good performance, he's vocals along MM's drumming is the best thing in this album.
- I'm not completely convinced by MM's drumming yet, but he does a great job.
- Nice lyrics by JMX.
Pretty damn nice song, all things considered!
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I think the intro is great.
I also think saying it is pointless or serves no purpose makes little sense. If the song began with the acoustic verse, it would sound weird, so the intro does serve a purpose. And does it well.
...and the intro is also the outro :D
i find it beautiful and so full of some sort of positive energy. transcedental could be the word. i don't know how to describe it. it sounds as if those restless angels are descending from heavens :D
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This is by far and without a doubt (for me), the best song on DT12 . I fucking love it so much! :yarr
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This is by far and without a doubt (for me), the best song on DT12 . I fucking love it so much! :yarr
I must say, its my favorite as well!
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This is by far and without a doubt (for me), the best song on DT12 . I fucking love it so much! :yarr
I must say, its my favorite as well!
Yep....same here. It's a beautiful song. Can't wait to hear it live.
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So awesome. I really like Jordan's sounds and effects. Top 20 for me.
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Just listening to this song on the way to work today. These lyrics are absolutely amazing. They really open your eyes and push you to look at life and your emotions in a different way. Thank you, Myung.
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This is the one song on the album that made the least of an impression on me when I first heard it, and the more I listen to it, the more I love it. It's a grower and a half.
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This is the one song on the album that made the least of an impression on me when I first heard it, and the more I listen to it, the more I love it. It's a grower and a half.
Same here. I 'liked' it initially....but with each successive listen it cemented its place as my favorite.
And just seeing this post from you makes me near certain your comment in the 'controversial' thread about RTK being better than TOT was posted just to play shenanigans.
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This was prob the last song to grow on me. Now,I love it. :heart
This.
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This was prob the last song to grow on me. Now,I love it. :heart
This.
This2
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And just seeing this post from you makes me near certain your comment in the 'controversial' thread about RTK being better than TOT was posted just to play shenanigans.
Not at all.
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'Tis my favorite of the LP. Great song! :metal
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Also, although I love epics this song is about perfect length too....and that's what she said! :o
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he is a liberal and probably an Ayn Rand reader
You are confused.
Precisely.