So is this a good "first" DT album to buy?
Not sure what you mean. I wouldn't by any stretch of the imagination recommend this as a first album for a new listener.
Really? This was my first album. The first song I ever heard from Dream Theater was the live version of Home.
Funny story about how I came to like Dream Theater. My friend gave me the Live Scenes CDs after I heard some of Home in his car. I was like woah you're telling me that is a keyboard and not a guitar?? I was like wow these are really cool sounds and these songs make absolutely no sense to me!
So I took the CDs home and I started listening to disc 1 of LSFNY. I listened to that disc a whole bunch of times. I liked it a lot, but it confused the shit out of me because there were no choruses really in the songs. And the songs were wild with instrumental sections that I couldn't wrap my brain around.
Soon disc 1 started to become familiar to me, but I never went on to disc 2. I did not realize that the album continued onto the second disc. One day my friend told me, dude you need to listen to the rest of the album!!! So I did. And all the reprises blew me the fuck away. When all the melodies from the overture came back, chills everywhere and it was easily cemented as the most amazing piece of music I have ever heard.
Having delayed the last part of the album, made it that much more prolific when I finally got around to listening to it. My god.