Author Topic: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 5. Six O'Clock on a Christmas Morning  (Read 24777 times)

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Offline Accelerando

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Let's take a detour before finishing this.
« Reply #140 on: July 21, 2018, 03:37:38 PM »
Wow, I didn’t realize you did not finish this! Sometimes life gets in the way...happened to me doing my Top Movies years ago while I was in the middle of moving to California. I finished it, but never jotted down my thoughts, just listed them. It takes time, especially when you have a busy life!

I’m digging The Last Hero (of course  ;)) and Owl City selections.

I wonder what could be your Number 1  :lol

Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 5. Six O'Clock on a Christmas Morning
« Reply #141 on: April 24, 2019, 12:06:13 AM »
All right, guys.  Post #2000.  To commemorate this, I’m going to go ahead and commit to finish this thing.  For real.  Plus, I needed to get this post out of the way so I can go ahead and post on a lot of stuff (cellphones in concerts, new concerts that I bought tickets for, and playoff hockey).  So that last post I made in this thread didn’t pan out well in terms of finishing my list due to the same reasons as the last time I finished my list (work, WoW, laziness, etc.).  Don’t worry, I actually written out the last few albums writeups so therefore, I know I can finish this within the span of a week. So let’s finish this well.

5. Dream Theater - Awake (1994)



Progressive Metal.

For the longest time, I really wanted to put DT12 as the 5th spot and there was good reasons to that.  It was the latest album that Dream Theater released when I started getting into them around 2013.  It was the album in promotion when I started posting in DTF.  The songs was well-crafted.  The lyrics in songs like The Bigger Picture and Behind the Veil really resonated with me at the time as it relates to my personal problems with relationships and stuff.  I didn’t even mind the instrumental track, Enigma Machine as much as people disliked it at the time.  Plus, they delivered a tremendous epic in the form of Illumination Theory.  All in all makes this an easy album to include and rate highly in my Top 50.

That stated, when I first really listened to Awake, in full, probably around late 2017 or so, this was one of the rare albums pre-2000s that I didn’t dislike.  Everyone that have read my posts here knows that I’m not much of a classic rock guy and that I only listed three albums pre-2000s in this list before I went on the hiatus (Led Zeppelin IV, Moving Pictures, Superunknown), but dang it, Awake was really good and I think it still holds up in terms of enjoyment factor for me better than DT’s other classic albums in the 90s (Images and Words and Scenes From a Memory).

To me, this was one of the albums that DT really delivered that has just the right amount of everything that makes them great (lyric-writing, going heavy at the right moments, instrumental sections that doesn't seem bloated, ballads with some vivid lyrics, etc.)  Everything in this album has a nice blend of everything.  6:00 is a great opener, plus how can you not love “6:00 on a Christmas morning” opening line?  Caught in a Web sounds like it would have been a tremendous radio single that wouldn't bore mainstream rock listeners if people were more into metal than the grunge bands.  Innocence Faded sounded like it would have belonged as a theme song on TV dramas like Beverly Hills 90210, but the lyrical topic about losing innocence and relationships deteriorating as you get older hits so hard.  It had that sound that has that “that’s so 90s” vibe, but I still like it.

I loved the A Mind Beside Itself series and I think I would pegged Erotomania as my favorite DT instrumental.  I loved how they seamlessly went from one section to another section in that instrumental so smoothly.  I think Voices was not really one of my faves, but still a good song, but A Silent Man really showed what they can do in a non-heavy acoustic setting and not make the song feel out of place with their discography.  Plus, JP's guitar work on the bridge is so well-crafted.

The latter half of the album I think I already discussed in the Breaking the Fourth Wall album, but I still enjoy The Mirror/Lie combo.  Lifting Shadows off a Dream is a great song.  John Myung wrote some great lyrics in that one (we all know he has such a great track record when it comes to lyric-writing) and the last chorus with the backing vocals was well done.  Scarred is a solid 11 minutes song, and Space-Dye Vest is a weird song, but a very potent song since it was a Kevin Moore song and he left the band not soon after the album was done.  I enjoyed when they did the live version of it better than the studio album though.  I feel like they really nailed the last section of it with the JP’s solo.

Anyway, Images and Words and Scenes from a Memory may get all the praise, and rightfully so, in the DT lore as their best albums, but I feel like Awake really highlights the absolute best of DT.  It’s a bloody shame what happened in the aftermath that causes this album to be more of the unsung hero of albums (Kevin Moore leaving, JLB blowing his voice out in the food poisoning incident, album sales wasn’t as hot as Images and Words, which as a result, caused their record label to want them to go another direction, etc.).  Still, looking back now, Awake still holds up nicely in the now which is quite a feat since this album was 25 years ago and I have no argument rating this as my favorite Dream Theater album.

Favorites: 6:00, Innocence Faded, Erotomania, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, and Space-Dye Vest

All right, that's out of the way.  I got #4 already written and #3 in process of being written.  These posts moving forward are going to be long like my posts always are in that stream of consciousness kinda vibe.  Hope I can make it to the end this time.

Offline Crow

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 5. Six O'Clock on a Christmas Morning
« Reply #142 on: April 24, 2019, 12:12:52 AM »
eagerly awaiting your next update in 2020  :corn