First of all, kudos on the blog and the gentleman way you offer your ideas, even if I don't agree.
Yes. Absolutely, this.
I feel The Astonishing is more of a movie score than a stage production.
*smiles* I disagree. The Astonishing, structurally speaking, is a rigorously by the numbers stage production score, even more than a lot of current canonical stage productions. I Am Songs, I Want Songs, End of Act Concertatos, Change of Scene Tunes (NOMACS) and so on. Every traditional staple is covered painstakingly, everything is strictly taylored on the blueprint perfectioned by 70's and 80's pop-rock musicals.
Noxon nails it with the JCS (fun fact: it started as a concept album) and LesMiz (ditto!) comparisons, and not only musically speaking.
Yes, exactly. OptionalPlayer, you are certainly free to have any opinion you choose about the album and its music. But, really, it ISN'T a "score" in any sense, and it absolutely IS musical theater. That is true of both the intent behind it, and the execution in terms of its structure and many other elements. Of course, whether or not you or I or anyone else subjectively feels that it succeeded in being
good musical theater is entirely up for debate. I do. As do others. Many feel it did not. And that's okay too. But that does not change what the album actually
is.
The thing is: I find is that I shouldn't be told or suggested how to perceive art to enjoy it (and I know you're not telling me and I appreciate your suggestions!) I just find that I should enjoy it off the bat - regardless if I "got it" or not. (Of course I'll still re-listen to the album with your suggestions).
I get what you are saying. But I think the point is that context matters. Noxon's example with Schindler's List. Nobody should tell you have you have to perceive it. But if you go into it holding it to the standards of what makes a good romantic comedy, for example, you are going to be missing the point and judging it in a way that doesn't really make sense. Or if I, for example, look at an abstract painting and judge it using standards of realism, I may very well be one of those who miss the point and simply dismiss it as "eh, my kindergartener's finger painting is better than this." Whether I enjoy it and relate to it is a different issue than me missing the point of what it is trying to convey and how it is trying to convey it, so my standard of judging it would be off base in that example.
I don't think anybody, the band included, is telling you you have to enjoy The Astonishing. And I don't think anyone is telling you
how to enjoy it. Just that
understanding what it is is important to how it is evaluated.
That said, I think DT did a very good job realizing their vision. I think they are indeed very good at doing this sort of thing. The music is great. The story is great. The lyrics are
mostly great. The overall execution and realization of what they were trying to accomplish are mostly great. If this were a broadway show rather than a rock album, I would see it in a heartbeat, and would like enjoy it immensely and put it up there with a lot of the better ones I have seen.
And that pretty much brings us back to the topic. I view TA as a very good and perhaps great album. And I would put every album released after TOT in either the "very good" or "great" categories, with perhaps the only exception being Black Clouds, which is a
good album, but also somewhat of a disappointment. I would also put every one of those albums other than Black Clouds ahead of TOT. So...TOT as the "last 'great' album?" Nope. Not in my opinion. I still love it. But I disagree with your thesis because (1) I rank TOT more toward the bottom of DT's discography, despite loving it, and (2) regardless of point #1, I feel they have released several great or near-great albums since.