Well it's a personal response, so if you're asking me to quantify it you're gonna be gutted, but it doesn't make me feel feelings. It doesn't invite me to invest in it, it provides me nothing that I especially want to latch onto... bar the fantastic intro!
If you want me to try and quantify it, then hey. I'll oblige. Natch, your mileage may - and probably does - vary. But as you asked.
When the loud bit comes in ("na nur na NA na, na nur na NA na, na nur na NA na, na nur na daddle dee") it doesn't feel like a surprise, when it ebbs to the soft bit it doesn't feel like a respite. It doesn't fill the speakers with sound nor immerse the listener in mood; it doesn't whisk you away to another planet nor does it provide anything you can see yourself in and go "that's ME!" There are no melodies that stick out as replayable, no gnarled riffs that grind you down to your soul. It doesn't make me feel at peace or feel angry, or even both at different times. It's a puddle of song and that's about it.
There's nothing technically wrong with it, but there's nothing technically right with it either. It eats up twelve minutes and then goes away. Dream Theater have forged a career in mindbending. But Scarred is subtle - and subtle like a shadow, not subtle like a repressed thought or a hint.
"No spirit" doesn't mean anything. It's not a thing. There's not a fella on standby with a barrel of spirit. (Actually, there might be, but that's a completely different spirit.) But to me, nor does Scarred, particularly. It's something you project onto something, but with Scarred I'm clutching at straws trying to find anything particularly striking that I can see myself in - and god knows I've tried.
Topic: Dream Theater's 11th Album v. Play Nice (Read 31850 times)
