LOL. ToT is still remembered and liked just as well as ever, meanwhile WDADU is already largely ignored or forgotten by many fans.
That's not a fair thing to say, though. By the time Train of Thought came out, DT was already well established and had produced a bunch of albums that were already being compared to WDADU. I'd say that forums like this one give new fans (and, even old fans who never really checked out WDADU) a negative feeling toward it and that thing kind of sticks. When you go to a forum and a bunch of people are saying, "that album sucks," you're going to get that stuck in your head and have a bad opinion of it before you even give it a chance.
I have been listening to DT since 1992, first heard WDADU around 1996 or 1997 and bought Train of Thought when it first came out in 2003. I'll only speak for myself here: I think WDADU is a FAR better album, songwriting-wise than ToT and has held up way better. WDADU was a band making sincere, genuine music. Flawed, yes, but genuine. ToT, on the other hand, was the beginning of "poser-DT" -- i.e., DT trying to be all "heavy" and "tough." I think As I am and Honor thy Father are terrible songs and that most of the songs on WDADU are better than those two alone. And, I think Ytse Jam is a WAY better instrumental than SoC.
In the case of WDADU, "classic" just means early, not necessarily good. Ytse Jam is cool, but the rest are just far too flawed to ever be ranked as unquestionable classics like other older songs like Metropolis/LTL/TTT, which consistently rank very high with most DT fans. I can't say the same for anything from WDADU.
So, "classic" only means "early, not necessarily good" in the case of DT? LOL
And, I wasn't comparing WDADU to Images, I was comparing it to newer DT music, hence why I brought up Train of Thought. I think WDADU sounds pretty similar to Images, so there's no use "comparing" it. The only difference is the production, the singing (which is the same style, just better with James) and more polished arrangements. Stylistically, it's pretty much exactly the same.
Songwriting-wise, WDADU is just by far their weakest album imo.
That's fine, that's your opinion. I personally think ToT and SC are the weakest albums in that area.
The best songs are only decent at best, and the worst songs are literally unlistenable to me. I'm talking so bad that it makes never Enough sound like UAGM by comparison. So for me it's half awful, and half ok.
Really? You don't think Fortune in Lies and Afterlife are just completely, ridiculously awesome? I do....
As much as some people would love to explain WDADU's poor reputation entirely away by the raw production, or the less than stellar vocals, that's just wishful thinking for the most part, and insulting to all the fans who gave it a fair chance, and just think it's a weak album. Even with the songs existing in other forms such as WDADRU, or LATM, I don't see fans going nuts for it.
I'm not trying to explain its poor reputation with those things. I'm saying that people who don't like the album give it a bad name and people who know it's kind of the bastard of the band's albums pretty much don't give it the chance that it deserves. I honestly think that if WDADU came out now, in 2012 and had James singing on it with better production and some tweaking in the songwriting/ arrangement, it wouldn't be NEARLY as criticized. That's kind of my point.