Black Clouds & Silver Linings: Reactions

[Zydar]

This was my first "new" DT album since I became a fan in 2007 after the release of SC. I had high expectations for this one, and I was really excited when it came out. I ranked it as #4 on my DT album list (after I&W, SFAM, and 6DOIT), but it quickly got stale and nowadays I barely listen to it anymore. I listened to AROP way too much when it was released as a single, so I got tired of it pretty quick. The highlights for me are ANTR, Wither, TBOT (I can totally relate to the lyrics, and I love the music), and TCOT is a great song. TSF is not one of my favourites at all, and AROP is a catchy song, nothing more. Now the album is somewhere in the middle of my album list (although I much prefer it to SC).

[jayvee3]

I like BC&SL. Good album with some amazing parts, but also has a few parts that either havn't aged that well, or I was always a little not sold on. I think the biggest issue is only having 6 tracks, and most of the songs having parts that range from excellent to fairly standard. This means if you aren't feeling a particular song or songs, there isnt to many other options to go to..

ANTR - Always liked it, and still do, just think the section after beautiful agony could have been shortened, and had another song added to the playlist. But overall, I like it

AROP - Cool, nothing breathtaking, but nothing completely horrible either. quite good in concert actually, but just a fairly standard song.

Wither - Meh, its okay, but as far as power ballads go, fairly forgettable for me - From the sounds of the ballad snippits on ADTOE, I think they are going to show just how standard Wither actually is..

TSF - Now, I was a bit more into the others at first, and sort of dismissed this song, but funnily, it has been the one song on this album that for me has aged well, and I am constantly finding new things I like about it all the time..

TBOT - Odd one for me. Love the rush intro, and acoustic guitar, but the main theme has always sounded very 'Aladdin' to me, and i have never been able to get fully past that. It is quite epic sounding, but it's also one I dont have a huge urge to listn to all that often..

TCOT - I love the Count. Awesome song, great intro and outro, but I actually love the dreamy music through the middle too. Easily the album highlight.

So overall, Very much like The Count, ANTR and TSF, while the others tend to be just okay for me, which illustrates my overall issue with the album - with only 3 out of 6 songs im a big fan of, there isn't really that much music overall to listen to. I honestly feel by cutting some unnecessary parts from some songs, adding another track, and maybe an instrumental, that this had the potential to be stunning. Not quite there, but from the snippits, ADTOE has me pumped..

[nobloodyname]

-I'm really happy that ADTOE has 11 tracks.

Someone's going to be disappointed. Will you tell him, or shall I?

[BlobVanDam]

-I'm really happy that ADTOE has 11 tracks.

Someone's going to be disappointed. Will you tell him, or shall I?

Shhhh. When the album comes out, we'll just make him a copy that has Far From Heaven split into a 3 part suite. 11 tracks. No need to crush his dreams.

[Implode]

I wasn't here for this thread originally, but for me, BC&SL is definitely down in my ranks from where I put it when I first heard it. Now, my rankings are as follows:

1. SFAM
2. I&W
3. SDOIT
4. Awake

5. FII
6. BC&SL
7. Octavarium
8. WDADU

9. TOT
10. SC

[LCArenas]

-I'm really happy that ADTOE has 11 tracks.

Someone's going to be disappointed. Will you tell him, or shall I?

Shhhh. When the album comes out, we'll just make him a copy that has Far From Heaven split into a 3 part suite. 11 tracks. No need to crush his dreams.

[berrege]

I wasn't here for this thread originally, but for me, BC&SL is definitely down in my ranks from where I put it when I first heard it. Now, my rankings are as follows:

1. SFAM
2. I&W
3. SDOIT
4. Awake

5. FII
6. BC&SL
7. Octavarium
8. WDADU

9. TOT
10. SC

Same for me.

My ranking:
1) Scenes From A Memory
2) Images & Words
3) Awake
4) Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
5) Train Of Thought
6) Systematic Chaos
7) Octavarium
8) When Dream And Day Unite
9) Black Clouds & Silver Linings
10) Falling Into Infinity

In the beginning BC&SL was around the 5th-6th spot I think

[krands85]

I like BC&SL. Good album with some amazing parts, but also has a few parts that either havn't aged that well, or I was always a little not sold on. I think the biggest issue is only having 6 tracks, and most of the songs having parts that range from excellent to fairly standard. This means if you aren't feeling a particular song or songs, there isnt to many other options to go to..

ANTR - Always liked it, and still do, just think the section after beautiful agony could have been shortened, and had another song added to the playlist. But overall, I like it

AROP - Cool, nothing breathtaking, but nothing completely horrible either. quite good in concert actually, but just a fairly standard song.

Wither - Meh, its okay, but as far as power ballads go, fairly forgettable for me - From the sounds of the ballad snippits on ADTOE, I think they are going to show just how standard Wither actually is..

TSF - Now, I was a bit more into the others at first, and sort of dismissed this song, but funnily, it has been the one song on this album that for me has aged well, and I am constantly finding new things I like about it all the time..

TBOT - Odd one for me. Love the rush intro, and acoustic guitar, but the main theme has always sounded very 'Aladdin' to me, and i have never been able to get fully past that. It is quite epic sounding, but it's also one I dont have a huge urge to listn to all that often..

TCOT - I love the Count. Awesome song, great intro and outro, but I actually love the dreamy music through the middle too. Easily the album highlight.

So overall, Very much like The Count, ANTR and TSF, while the others tend to be just okay for me, which illustrates my overall issue with the album - with only 3 out of 6 songs im a big fan of, there isn't really that much music overall to listen to. I honestly feel by cutting some unnecessary parts from some songs, adding another track, and maybe an instrumental, that this had the potential to be stunning. Not quite there, but from the snippits, ADTOE has me pumped..

A lot of this post sums up how I feel about the album, especially the small number of songs and trimming some sections to make room for a 7th track.

I've always loved TCOT and really enjoyed ANTR after a few listens. AROP, Wither and TBOT have always been weak for me. The only song where my feelings have changed a bit is TSF. I was disappointed with it at first because I was expecting something totally new, rather than a sort of summary of the previous parts of the suite, but it's grown on me quite a bit.

This was really their first album to come out since I became a big fan of the band (I wasn't listening to them that much before Systematic Chaos came out) and I was a bit disappointed. I guess if I'd voted in this poll when it initially came out I'd have voted for 'It's O.K.' and that's still pretty much how I feel about it.

[Tumdace]

To be honest, not a huge fan of it.

Sure, A Nightmare to Remember is good, and The Count of Tuscany has an amazing start, but falls short of what I would define as "epic".

My ranking would be more like:

1. I&W
2. SFAM
3. Awake
4. SDOIT
5. ACoS
6.ToT
7.Octavarium
8.WDADU
9.BC&SL
10.FIF
11.SC

[MasterShakezula]

Um, I dunno, I don't love it, but it's a good album with all good songs, a couple of them being great.

ANTR has a lot of great moments; I dunno if it warrents 16 minutes worth, but it's well worth at least 10.  Definitely one of the better HEVY METHVL DT tunes.

AROP is pretty groovy.  I don't dig the chorus, but the rest is good.  Nothing specacular.

I feel about the same for Wither.  It doesn't do a lot, but is good.

TSF is better than the last 2 and succeeds at what it does, which is wrapping up the 12 step suite.  I prefer the other movements, but when the others are as good as they are and TSF still succeeds as an epilogue in their context, you've got a good song there.

TBOT is excellent; it's very Rush-like, has the best lyrics on the album, and really makes great use of the softer side of DT.  If I had to list my top 10 songs from 6 Degrees onwards, it just might make it.  It'd definitely make it on a 10 ten for TOT onwards, though.

And finally, TCOT is the epic it's hyped up to be.  Like TBOT, a lot of wonderful soft stuff, though the HEVY METHVL is around, as well.  Like ANTR, it does work quite well.  I also love the lyrics; definitely show that JP has a sense of humor, a good one at that.  Probably a top 10 song right there. 

My ranking would go like this:

1. Awake
2. 6
3. 8
4. I&W
5. FII
6. TOT
7. BC&SL
8. SC
9. WD&DU
10. SFAM

Though I say it's a very good album, and has 2 amazing tunes, it doesn't quite stack up to my top 5.  Even though I feel I&W and FII have lower lowpoints than BC, they also have many defining DT songs, and lots of great to go around.  I feel TOT and BC are about at similar levels of goodness.
Both have 2 huge, awesome, songs at the end, following a few really good tunes with some greatness.  I'd say Vacant+SOC is about = to TBOT, same for ITNOG and TCOT.  I give TOT the nod, because as great as ANTR is, TSF is not as good as TDS, which is about equal with ANTR, and overall, TOT's first 4 just make for more interest than BC's.  Though it's a really close comparison.  And they both are very good, often great, albums.

[j]

TBOT [...] has the best lyrics on the album [...]

lol?

-J

[Perpetual Change]

Wow, I can't believe this thread is still here. With that said,

Final Verdict:

1.)Scenes From a Memory
2.)Six Degrees
3.)Awake

4.)Black Clouds & Silver Linings
4.)Images and Words

Fucking LOL

[MasterShakezula]

TBOT [...] has the best lyrics on the album [...]

lol?

-J

Okay, it has my favorite lyrics on the album.  I dunno which song would have the best lyrics, objectively. 

[FlyingBIZKIT]

I don't think any lyrics in BCSL are bad tbh.

[Perpetual Change]

Black Clouds has aged pretty well for me, though. It's nothing special, but it's certainly something you can pretty much just throw on when you don't know what to listen to.

[bosk1]

I don't think any lyrics in BCSL are bad tbh.

This.

Black Clouds has aged pretty well for me, though. ...it's certainly something you can pretty much just throw on when you don't know what to listen to.

And that.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

alot of people hate TCOT lyrics, I actually like them. It's a personal experience JP went through, I wouldn't expect some Shakespeare poetry here.

[MasterShakezula]

alot of people hate TCOT lyrics, I actually like them. It's a personal experience JP went through, I wouldn't expect some Shakespeare poetry here.

This.  Plus, you know, it's not meant to be dead serious.  I don't see why DT (or any artist, really) should be expected to have no sense of humor; even Neil Peart threw in a joke here or there. 

[FlyingBIZKIT]

alot of people hate TCOT lyrics, I actually like them. It's a personal experience JP went through, I wouldn't expect some Shakespeare poetry here.

This.  Plus, you know, it's not meant to be dead serious.  I don't see why DT (or any artist, really) should be expected to have no sense of humor; even Neil Peart threw in a joke here or there. 

Exactly.

[tjanuranus]

Images
Awake
Scenes
Octavarium
Six Degrees
FII
Black Clouds
Train of Thought
WDADU
Systematic Chaos

[orcus116]

alot of people hate TCOT lyrics, I actually like them. It's a personal experience JP went through, I wouldn't expect some Shakespeare poetry here.

This.  Plus, you know, it's not meant to be dead serious.  I don't see why DT (or any artist, really) should be expected to have no sense of humor; even Neil Peart threw in a joke here or there. 

Even if TCOT was meant to be tongue-in-cheek the way it was presented never really leads itself to that unless you really, truly want to believe that it is supposed to be a joke. In a vacuum the Portnoy/Labrie tradeoffs in the "Let me introduce..." section might lend to a bit of humor but this is the same album where the exact same gruff tone was used in two songs (ANTR, TSF) concerning more serious subject matter so it's hard to tell if it was intentional all along or merely "after the fact".

[Hanz Gruber]

It is pretty interesting to see the initial reactions.  I like every Dream Theater album but I was disappointed with this one from the start.  I began to like it more over time.  I love long songs but I would have rather had some of them trimmed down to fit a few more songs on the record.  It felt like they were going through the motions to me and like they felt obliged to make multiple 10 minute plus songs when they could have been cut down to 7-8 minutes.  That is just my opinion though.

[Cranky]

BC&SL turned into one of my most cherished DT albums only after moments of getting it... From the opening track on, I was just hooked. I am a fan of their more metal sound, so generally, most of the album spoke to me. I can understand how some of fans that are more prog oriented were turned off, though.

There isn't much to be said about the album that hasn't already been said, but I enjoy every aspect of every song, even including the lyrics. (Though, some were a little cringe-worthy on the first couple of listens)
Initially, the tracks that just immediately stuck on me were.. Well, every song besides The Best of Times, which was more of an acquired taste that I ended up enjoying. But, everything that DT put into the music felt like it should be there, and every song on the album felt like it should be there aswell, in my opinion.
It's right in the top of my list, under Awake, Images & Words, and SFAM, maybe even surpassing SFAM?

I'd give the album a 8.5/10

[emindead]

I would like to change my "It's up there with the best of 'em" option to the "It's OK" one.

[Ravenheart]

Awake
I&W
SFAM
6DOIT
Octavarium
FII
WDADU
SC
BC&SL
TOT

[Orthogonal]

Album hasn't aged too well with me. I still give it frequent spins, but it's just ok overall. I understand people who complain about the quality of the lyrics, but that has never really been a big beef of mine. I usually don't even pay attention to lyrics. I care about the hooks, melodies, arrangement and structure. I do however get a bit nit picky on the phrasing of the lyrics. In this regard DT has gotten a little sloppy in the last few releases, but it's just a minor nit pick.

The main flaw I find with the newer albums is the poor song flow and structure. They still have all the technical wizardry and jaw dropping virtuosity of their early days, but the focus seems to be lacking. Songs move from one section to the next arbitrarily with rough transitions. TCOT has the most outstanding intro they've created in over a decade but it just ends and doesn't go anywhere, the song feels like a lot of great ideas stitched together without any real goal in mind, yet I still rock out to it. ANTR suffers from the same thing.

TBOT is the only track that bucks this trend and comes together quite nicely. It may be a little overlong, but considering the context of the backstory it seems appropriate.

In the end, I try not to take it too seriously and can still enjoy it in the moment.

[Icebear]

It's weird - I only really (really) like ANTR and The Count, but I still think of this album as one of the better ones. I don't know why. The parts that are good are simply awesome. The rest is ok. It was like a breath of fresh air after SC. I guess what I'm saying is that I like the album because of the atmosphere it creates, although I'm not crazy about a majority of the songs.
Same thing with 8vm, come to think of it.

For the new one, I'm really hoping that the songs themselves are killer.

[VioletS16]

I do NOT like BCASL at all actually. TCOT, ANTR and TSF are all cringe-worthy songs, especially the first two. Don't hate me, but it won't grow on me no matter how hard I try to like it. I like ADTOE much more, even though I've only gotten through the first few tracks. A change was due and the result is great!

[7thHanyou]

I don't think any lyrics in BCSL are bad tbh.

I guess the problem I have with it is that the DT album which gets the most spins from me is Images and Words.  I instinctively relate Dream Theater to poetic, graceful lyrics.  It's hard to go from "The smile of dawn..." to "Now wait a minute man..."  Thing is, I don't even have a problem with all of their literal lyrics.  SFAM is nothing exceptional like I&W, but it just doesn't seem as clumsy and graceless as something like TCoT.  Most of the album just seems lazy in that department.  I wonder why the band seems to have been collectively deteriorating, lyrically, since FII.  I hardly expect the same thing from every album, but I'd like to really see some effort put into painting pictures rather than just relating experiences.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings was one of the more unpleasant experiences I've had with a Dream Theater album, but the trouble is I haven't listened to it enough to give it a fair assessment.  Unlike many people posting in this thread, lyrics really do get in the way for me, but there's more to it than that.  Every song on this album--save Wither, which is very listenable but also quite boring to me--has incredible moments.  Trouble is, those moments are surrounded with a lot of uninteresting stuff.  The album can be unnecessarily aggressive, I guess.

One thing I will say is that The Best of Times is a good song.  I like it.  I just can't bring myself to listen to it very much.  As for The Count of Tuscany?  If I could sit through it without laughing, I might listen to it more often, but I'd rather invest my 19 minutes in something I can take seriously.  The fact that my two favorite songs here elicit this reaction just goes to show how "meh" my impressions of this album are.  I need to listen to it more, but I know it will never, ever be "up there."

Since everyone else is doing it:

1. Images and Words
2. SFaM
3. Awake
4. WDaDU
5. Octavarium
6. FII

7.SDoIT
8.ToT

9. BC&SL
10. SC

Yep.  The first six are albums I keep going back to, consistently, that hold my interest even when I binge on them.  The middle group...there are a couple of songs on those albums that are great, but the albums as a whole certainly far from perfect.  The last group, meh.  I don't listen to them.  But even if I did, they would, at best, trade spots with each other (the same is true of the other two groups--they're very close to each other, but not to albums in other groups).  BC&SL doesn't even seem to exist in the same universe as those first six.  Weird thing is SC has two songs I love (Forsaken and TMoLS), but it's not nearly as consistent as BC&SL.  Too bad BC&SL is consistently meh.

[BlackInk]

BC&SL has aged poorly for me, I loved it at first 'cause of all the hype and it was my first DT release and all that. Now I'd say it's one of their bottom albums.

[54_diplomats]

I actually really like this album and the only song I don't really like from it is TBoT. I feel like the reason I rank it lower than the rest of the albums is because there are only 6 songs. If there were more songs on the album I probably would've liked it more.

[darkshade]

I still like BC&SL, and it's still a top 5 or 6 DT album for me. The 4 big songs are classics IMO, and Wither is a good song. AROP is ok; I do not like it in context of the album, but it's still ok.

[kirksnosehair]

I listened to this album back to back with ADTOE at the gym this morning and two things struck me:

1. BC&SL still sounds pretty damned good.  I always considered it an album that was "In The Top 5" and -for me at least- I think it's aged well.

2. I think the criticism about how ADTOE sounds is overblown.  My albums are all ripped at 320kbps and I listen with these ear buds, and while there was definitely a difference between how BC&SL and ADTOE sounds, it wasn't all that.....dramatic to me.

[lyfeternl]

I listened to this album back to back with ADTOE at the gym this morning and two things struck me:

1. BC&SL still sounds pretty damned good.  I always considered it an album that was "In The Top 5" and -for me at least- I think it's aged well.

2. I think the criticism about how ADTOE sounds is overblown.  My albums are all ripped at 320kbps and I listen with these ear buds, and while there was definitely a difference between how BC&SL and ADTOE sounds, it wasn't all that.....dramatic to me.

It's funny that you mentioned this... I was just listening to both in my car (7 speaker, 1 sub system) and I agree both that BC&SL ages well and ADTOE does sound better than most let on. I was particularly listening to the drums being that they receive the most criticism from the lack of proper leveling with the others.

Oh, and those head phones have changed my life... It's impossible to use anything else.

[kirksnosehair]

Yeah, I actually left them at work on day last week and had to revert back to the plain old vanilla iPod earbuds and I was horrified at how bad they sound