which is good. time change for the sake of time change is boring. that is one of the reasons why I prefer their newer stuff. I think they totally have mastered the time change art.
Yeah, they seem more integrated, although are certainly still there just a lot more subtle in the latest album. They kind of fit with the groove of the songs instead of abruptly breaking the pace for the sake of doing something unexpected.
Yes, Behind the Veil, Enigma Machine and The Enemy Inside, for example, had a lot of changing time signatures being played over a groove that sometimes you would think the song is in 4/4. The odd time signatures in The Looking Glass and The Bigger Picture is also subtle, that I laugh when somebody I know doesn't notice it and just gets a sort-of-annoyed look because his headbanging suddenly becomes out of time.
I think people seem to be understating Mangini's effect on the songwriting because his effect is subtle. It's the application of what Jordan called Mangini's "rhythmic math brain," which Jordan once described as "so he was kind of able to conceptualise these kind of concepts that we would just take and try to compose around. We got some really interesting results from doing that – it was fascinating for us because everyone in Dream Theater has a good sense of rhythm, but we never before in our history have had this kind of input where someone would say ‘Petrucci if you play a bar of seven ten times, and Jordan if you repeat something in five and I play this it’ll all come together’ – you know we would all just smile, because it was some pretty cool wacky stuff that was just purely conceptualised by Mike."
Now as to creating a playlist that is a good intro to the band, I would go with this:
The Root of All Evil (representative of DT's metal side)
Peruvian Skies (the DT staple of a song that is mellow at the start then goes heavy at the end)
Ytse Jam (the instrumental)
The Looking Glass (representative of the pop Rush-influenced DT)
Metropolis Part 1 (because you really just have to introduce the listener to the quintessential DT)
These Walls (representative of DT's slow heavy hitting songs that is not a ballad)
Caught in A Web (representative of DT's short drum-led fast heavy songs with aggressive vocals)
The Spirit Carries On (the ballad)
Trial of Tears (let's just ease the new guy to the concept of an epic)
That's just below one hour and ten minutes. Only one song above ten minutes. I think it also would give the guy an idea of the breadth of styles of DT but also what a "signature DT sound" is like. Also, with the exception of production issues with Ytse Jam and Metropolis Pt. 1, none of these songs sounds dated and I think could appeal to people from a younger generation.