Brian where do those those two albums rank on your all time Fates Warning list? Nothing Fates ever did before or after compared to the triple threat of Perfect Symmetry, Parallels and Inside Out for me.
It's weird. Disconnected has my favorite two FW songs of all time in "Still Remains" and "One." Yet as an album listening experience, it's below Parallels, No Exit, and Theories of Flight for me. Not sure how far below those, but it is. And it's not that I don't enjoy the other songs on Disconnected - I do. It's just strange for me.
As for FWX, I really enjoy that album a great deal. Again, not sure where it sits in the Alder-fronted catalog for me in comparison, but probably someone in the range of Inside Out (for me, which means five, six, seven, somewhere there). I'd have to think about it a bit.
My top-3 are: Parallels, No Exit, Theories of Flight.