The thing with TGM is that it's their most random album by far. Some of the criticism towards the band in general is that there are no structures and that the songs move between parts that doesn't belong together, and in that aspect, TGM is the "worst" album. Most of the songs (pretty much all except for Mirrors and Desert of Song) are very disjointed and structure-wise it's very much all over the place. While I do like the album myself (would probably say it's their third best), it's not weird that some people dislike it.
To me, the potpourri of styles is certainly more random than anything that they had done before...but I find the individual songs to be *A LOT* more structured than Colors. Even though I have grown to love Colors...with the exception of Veridian/White Walls...I cannot make heads or tails of that album. The first 6 tracks don't sound like songs to me at all. It sounds more like a suite of 20 different two-minute ideas put in a blender.
You know, I was getting ready to disagree with you here, but you're right. Colors flows much better as an album, while TGM flows better on an individual song basis (save for Swim to the Moon). Maybe that's part of why I hold Colors at such a higher level than TGM. Once you've heard TGM, you pretty much know what you got. All the songs are quite set up in what they are. You have the two prog-metal epics in Obfuscation and Swim to the Moon, the more subdued opener and Desert of Song, and then the longer form tracks that seem like 6 songs crammed down into 2.
But Colors, holy piss. That album is like getting hit in the face with a box of chocolates. You don't know what you're going to get, and it hurts a little bit but it's chocolate so fuck yeah. Yeah, it seems disjointed as all holy fuck (and it is), but there's something so massively endearing about it. Listening to that album, it's almost like a badge of honor. Seriously, People should walk around with little stickers that say "I can listen to Colors while actually being able to follow it." It's like packing up your friends and going on a road trip. You have no idea where you're going, but you're going to have the best god damn time.
Really, I think that's the ultimate key. Colors is so
adventurous, not to say that TGM isn't. But, TGM has more of a "trip to Grandma's" feel to it. You know where you're going, and fuck yeah it's going to be great, but there's something that can't be replicated when it comes to the spontaneity and the pure off-the-cuff feeling of not knowing what's happening. I think with Parallax they did a really good job of mixing those two ideas. There's a ton of great adventurous stuff going on with the random breaks and left-field breakdowns, but there's still enough structure to each individual song that you can latch onto it and remember what the catchiest parts are.
Alright, that's enough obtuse simile. Fuck yeah BTBAM.