Second listen. Yeah I know, but I was kinda underwhelmed and had lots of other albums.
I'm almost ready to give it a "decent". But again, I need still more time to see the bigg... no puns this time.
False Awakening Suite is one of my favourites on the album. Great opener and something different. Wish it was more orchestra-heavy though.
The Enemy Inside is a kickass song. The verses are damn great. Don't care about the keyboard solo however.
The Looking Glass sounded a lot better than on the first time. It is a slight Limelight-ripoff (heck, the both even tell about fame, although from different points of view), but pretty enjoyable and unique enough.
Enigma Machine is a cool instrumental, not as good as Stream of Consciousness or The Ytsé Jam, but one of their best still. Lovely main riff. I think one of Jordan's lead sounds is similar to the one on The Great Debate and the slow guitar melody reminds me of TMOLS.
Everyone's hyping about The Bigger Picture. My CD must have some different song. All I hear is a fucking mess of a song with a great chorus, but nothing much else. Or, "What if caught in a moment..." is cool too. But hey, i.e. Voices took about two years to open, so I haven't given up hope with this one yet.
Behind the Veil is alright. Excellent intro, but the Metallica riff at 2:16 almost kills the song for me. One of the worst JP riffs ever, and I don't like the chords Jordan is playing over it in the verses. The chorus is nice.
Surrender to Reason... ehh. I want to like this song, but I can't. It's all over the place and lacks direction. In one and half minutes or so it has gone through three different sections which all feel like a different song to me. Again great chorus, but it doesn't help. The acoustic verse is one of my favourite parts on the whole album though.
Along for the Ride is very good, but I think it might have been even better if it was completely acoustic. And that would have given more variety to the album. Another thing I thought was, why the hell they didn't use the orchestra in the last chorus? Now that had been awesome. Anyway, one of the standouts on the album.
Illumination Theory is still the best song on the album, and the only song that has potential to become a classic to my mind. This time I wasn't that wild about the two first sections, but The Embracing Circle and The Pursuit of Truth (love the Cygnus X-1 kickstart) are now officially the best seven (?) minutes of the album. The wah-wah guitar solo in the latter is the best solo on the album.
If you don't care about my blabbering, here's my current song ranking in nutshell:
Illumination Theory
False Awakening Suite
Along for the Ride
Enigma Machine
The Enemy Inside
The Looking Glass
Behind the Veil
The Bigger Picture
Surrender to Reason