I'll be playing along with FII momentarily, but wanted to chime in with some thoughts on Awake...
"playing Parkinson Jenga on a plane driven by Stevie Wonder." I nearly pissed myself laughing - maybe because I first read it as "Parkinson Jenna", and was picturing a spastic Ms. Jameson
I'm now resigned to only doing this while drunk - though, it only takes a double to get me a hangover these days, so I may downgrade that to 'tipsy'.
And yet, here I am at the ass-crack of dawn on Boxing Day with a cup of coffee newly minted in my Thor coffee mug (Christmas present).
<Edit... and here I am on Dec 28th at 8am drinking coffee while about to fire up FII
>
6:00 - oh sweet baby Jesus, the Winter Rose reference made my morning. I also blame grunge - but there is only a dash of grunge in this album. With the benefit of nearly 30 years now, I prefer the comparison that this album is to Images and Words as Slave to the Grind is to Skid Row. I can dig this song; the next two however …
<to play along with the comments… the 1st few songs of Awake was a big ass WTF for me. I'd discovered DT in late '96, so I snatched all of the first four albums on the shelves, so I was already in a state of bliss that I was (other than Queensryche) ostensibly discovering Prog Metal for the first time. And I concur with Tim (sacre bleu!)… Awake starts with Erotomania. Boy I wish I had a Bowmore Gold poured atm.
Caught in a Web … and since I can spotlight the fuck out of songs in this thread, here's the lowest ranking song on the album for me - barely cracking my DT Top 100, primarily because WHAT FUCKING LANGUAGE IS JAMES SINGING IN was uttered aloud 4 times too many (and still is to this day). I can't heal the wounds in my ears.
Innocence Faded… my biggest disappointment in this song is that *it* was the represented song from Awake on Score. But at least they dropped the 'grunge' vibes from the first two tracks. 0:30… the reprise of the Hardcastle&McCormick still couldn't salvage this song, and the world salad of barely English lyrics @2:00. Even the Beyonder couldn't make sense of those lyrics without the liner notes. Never would I have expected a Decadence Dance reference in any scene from your memory
The outro is the only thing that elevates this song out of mediocrity.
<and fock me, I'm lock step with Tim again thru the first 3 songs of the album - except for the well-aged / 'sneaky good' part of IF>
A Mind Beside Itself … and now we jump forward about 70 spots in our countdown - 71 to be precise.
Eurotomania… this is when I knew all was right in DT-Land In fact, better than alright.
Voices … the 'boomerang' guitar at 1:26 gives me goosebumps every … damn … time. 2:43 - it moved. And God bless you for the Wilkinson inclusion in your Pantheon
The Silent Man … Well fock me.. Now I need to revise my placement of this song on the Top 100 - but, I just submitted it. Never noticed the JP (Zeppelin) influence in here before. Totally fits on Zeppelin III though, not the later stuff (imo). Also, fock More Than Words and To Be With You - worst ballads ever (if not for Love Bites).
The Mirror / Lie … they lost the plot with me here (or maybe I lost the plot with them?). I was never into the more 'thrashy' side of 80s/90s METAL (ie, Pantera, Megadeth, Anthrax and the like) - I suppose these are the origins of my soft cockery. I've grown to appreciate these two tracks over the years - Mirror>>>>Lie. For me, Lie is ruined by the 2 minutes before the solo outro.
Lifting Shadows… completely unoffensive (as Ruslan would say nowadays), while also giving the listener a nice warm hug.
Scarred… before I even start to follow along with Indi's memory, I just gotta say to hell with Blob and Kev (and any other Scarred hater), this is the song of the album, and (insert hot take here) better than the best of I&W. The passage leading up to "It calms me to know that I woooooooooon't" > the passage leading up to "Whoa Whooaa Whooooooaaa" Come at me. The comparisons are NOT blasphemy. They're warranted. I wouldn't say I thought this back when first listening to it, but this song continued to get better with every passing listen, and still does to this day. Oh, and The Usual Suspects is my #2 Movie of All Time.
<Fock me once again… I'm in perfect alignment with Tim's ranking of Scarred>
Space-Dye Vest…. I never understood the hate for this tune. I always thought it was an incredibly unique, well written, well performed melancholic ballad. Given what we know about the state of the band (and Kevin's lack of space in it), it's a great end to the KM-era. And now I want to re-rank this one.
And yes... Mike's lyrics from Raise the Knife became the biggest slice of hypocritical irony in 2010. I never thought about or realized it until I read Tim posting those stanzas.