I rank it very low. The production isn't very good, and Charlie's voice grates on my ears. Also, while there are some bright spots, a lot of the songwriting is amateurish and derivative, and many of the lyrics are laughable. A lot of the songs come off much better in a live setting with JLB singing, but not all of them.
The band made a quantum leap from this album to I&W.
This about sum it up for me. But a few additional comments:
Regarding Charlie, I do not like his voice on this album
at all. To this day, I have a hard time separating out how much of it is simply the fact that his voice is not a good match for these songs and how much of it is just not liking his general singing voice
at that point in time. I think it is a little of both. When he came out with the band on the WDADRU show, I was actually impressed with how full and warm his voice sounded. I think he actually sounded pretty good on To Live Forever. He sounded less good on Metropolis, but he added an interesting dimension to it. And I think his voice actually sounded very good on his solo O3 trilogy that he released afterward. So far of it, IMO, is his voice maturing and him learning to do some different things with his voice. But a HUGE part of it, and I think the main part, is that the songs on WDADU were not written to his strengths as a singer. Even if they were to re-record those songs with him today, I do not think he would sound much better on them. Again, contrast that with the songs on his solo albums, where I think his voice fits very well and he is able to sound very good.
The production issues are what they are, unfortunately. The album sounds flat as a result, and there isn't much to be done about that.
I am really glad the band decided to do WDADRU. Although it is not a perfect performance, James isn't bad, and the songs just sound so much better with the live energy and better sound overall. Before this performance, I had heard WDADU, but did not like it and had written it off. WDADRU got me to actually listen to the songs again, reevaluate, and find a lot in many of them that I actually like. I still almost never listen to the original album, but I really enjoy live versions of many of the songs now.