Please, don’t crucify me, but…
Recently I have grown to like not only WDADU, but also
The Astonishing as well. I have been listening to it a lot the past two weeks or so. However, it's still a tad overlong and ballad heavy and so on. Since my wife feels that much more than me (she was complaining it's overlong and too plodding etc), I've decided to do some cuts.
In the end I have decided to do a personal tracklists. Kind of a ... well, a "director's cut", so to speak. Two CDs/parts, some shuffling around (so the story is very non-linear, because I had to switch some songs even between the acts). In the end there are 22 songs and the length is 1 hour and 41 minutes. But the most important is the flow, which is now much better, I believe. I have repeatedly tried and deleted and tried and added until I was satisfied at last.
Part 1 / CD 11. Dystopian Overture
2. The Gift of Music
3. A Savior in the Square
4. When Your Time Has Come
5. Three Days
6. Act of Faythe
7. A Tempting Offer
8. The X Aspect
9. Heaven's Cove
10. A New Beginning
11. The Road to Revolution
Part 2 / CD 21. 2285 Entr'acte
2. Brother Can You Hear Me?
3. Ravenskill
4. Our New World
5. Chosen
6. Moment of Betrayal
7. The Walking Shadow
8. My Last Farewell
9. A Life Left Behind
10. Hymn of a Thousand Voices
11. The Astonishing
(At least my wife prefers it to the official version, so the hours put into it were not spent in vain
)
I'm actually quite proud of this one - I am listening to it again and I really enjoy it more and more. Especially the second part/act, the sequence Ravenskill -> Our New World -> Chosen -> Moment of Betrayal -> The Walking Shadow is really cool, at least from the musical point of view.
Of course you're free to criticise and discuss it. I just want to stress I really like the album as a whole, but it's a lot to take in in one listen. This is more like a "short" version for those already initiated.