I keep meaning to do writeups on the top six and keep delaying... Here they finally are, in case anyone still cares:
6. Breaking All IllusionsMy ranking: #3 (tied for highest placement of this song)
I'm very happy with this landing spot for a song very late in the band's career. This has been one of my favorite Dream Theater songs since shortly after I first heard ADTOE. It stood out to me immediately as a special track, and pretty quickly reached elite status for me. What can I say about how great this one is? There are just so many wonderful melodies all over this song. It's grand and uplifiting, with beautiful lyrics that pair perfectly with the music. The first few minutes (from the intro through "My spirit brings me home") are especially wonderful, as is Petrucci's enchanting solo.
When I did my top 50 thread in 2014ish, this was my number one. And I could still make a case for it as my favorite song today. There are just two songs that I come back to a little more often.
5. VoicesMy ranking: #14
This is a fantastic song that just falls short of my top ten. Like a lot of their best songs, but to an even greater extent than most, this song is characterized by dynamics. There are some incredible quiet sections, like the first vocal part and the "I'm kneeling on the floor" section, and intense, heavy sections.
Awake is probably JLB's best album overall, and he definitely offers an incredibly varied performance here that hits the right tones for every part of the song. And then, of course, there's the JP solo.
The main thing that's holding this back from the top ten is probably the fact that I don't connect with the lyrics as well as I do on most of the songs that are higher. That's not a dealbreaker, but it's something that makes a difference when comparing songs that are very close.
4. Metropolis, Pt. 1: The Miracle and the SleeperMy ranking: #2
What can be said about Metropolis Pt. 1 that hasn't been said many times before? As Kev put it, this feels like the definitive Dream Theater song, the song that sums up everything great about them in under ten minutes. And it comes close to being the Dream Theater song for me. There are so many incredible twists and turns, changing melodies and rhythms moving in and out of one another, and yet the whole thing feels completely cohesive. The instrumental section is definitely the longest and most complex piece of instrumental music that I can imagine start to finish in my mind. It's so zany, yet there's a logic and a structure to it all. The best part in that section for me is definitely the keyboard/guitar unison, which is good melodically while also being incredibly impressive.
Amidst all those acrobatics, there's a lot of heart to this one, some really powerful emotional moments, even though the lyrics aren't fully sensical. "The night shed a tear to tell her of fear / And of sorrow and pain she'll never outgrow." "I was told there'd be no one to call on when I feel alone and afraid / I was told if you dream of the next world, you'll find yourself swimming in a lake of fire," and then the whole entire section after that. Those moments are really powerful. And JLB is straight-up dominant on this song. With no true chorus and seemingly one verse after another, he has to really put his voice through the paces, and does an incredible job of it.
This is a song I absolutely never get tired of, and always enjoy listening to. It's one of my favorite songs in the world.
And it's not my favorite song on
Images and Words.
3. OctavariumMy ranking: #4
Some people debate chocolate vs. vanilla, some people debate Ford vs. Chevy, we debate A Change of Seasons vs. Octavarium. Count me as a partisan on the Octavarium side of that debate. I'll explain why A Change of Seasons ends up outside my top ten on the writeup for that song, but as to why Octavarium lands at #4:
I love a good buildup. It's one of the things in music that excites me most, and the grandiosity of the buildups you hear in the genres is one of the reasons I love metal and prog. Octavarium, to me, is the ultimate build-up. If you know one that you think is better, please tell me what it is, either so I can tell you you're wrong or hear it myself. This song builds stage by stage for almost 20 minutes! Each stage is melodically interesting in its own right, but also clearly carries momentum forward into the next stage. Count me as a lover of every second of the three minute and twenty-six second continuum intro, the bass pedal solo, the moog solo, the jingle bells part, all of it. The transitions between sections are particularly excellent—just think of the magic in the transition from the continuum/steel guitar intro to Someone Like Him, the moment where the bass motif of Medicate kicks in, the moment where the Full Circle keys kick in, and, of course, the part where the song settles in for the Intervals vocal section.
The build is masterfully executed both over the course of the 20 minutes and within the Intervals section itself, structured perfectly to make "Trapped inside this Octavarium" a moment of incredible tension and release. And then Razor's Edge pays it off completely. The delay and the little keyboard moment after the last "this Oct- a- var- i- um," the kick in of the orchestral part, JLB's soaring vocal, and then that solo... it's perfect.
There are days when this could be my favorite Dream Theater song. The reason I have it at #4 is because I have a greater emotional connection with the top three songs. They touch me because of their lyrics and the paired music, while Octavarium doesn't have that emotional touch. It is a perfectly constructed thrill ride that makes me feel profound admiration for the musicians who made it, and there are moments that touch me (especially in the first two sections and Razor's Edge), but it doesn't speak to my life experiences the way that Breaking All Illusions and #1 do, and its touching moments aren't nearly as powerful as those in Metropolis. Still, it's an utterly amazing experience.
2. A Change of SeasonsMy ranking: #17 (interesting that my rankings of this and the next one are identical to TAC's)
This is a song I like a lot, but have never put in very highest class of Dream Theater songs. I think it's grown on me some over time; as I recall, I had it somewhere in the 30s back in 2014, but now have it in the top 20. It has a lot of parts that are very good or great, including some that are emotionally powerful (the end of Carpe Diem, Another World, The Crimson Sunset). But I think a lot of the parts are only very good, not great. For example, the Innocence section. It's good, I like listening to it, but it doesn't have that something extra.
Another World, on the other hand, is absolutely superb, easily the best part of the song. A great exercise in tension and emotion, with a wonderful JLB performance. And The Inevitable Summer is an excellent instrumental follow-up. Actually, the whole second half is superb, quite a bit stronger than the first half, in my opinion.
The whole song is greater than the sum of its parts, but only somewhat better. I think this is actually one of their less cohesive epics, certainly less cohesive than Octavarium or In the Presence of Enemies. That's not a mortal sin, but it's the sort of thing that translates to a top 20 placement instead of a top 10 one. (Incidentally, I find it interesting that people accuse Six Degrees of feeling like a bunch of songs put together, when I think that it and A Change of Seasons fall in about the same place on the spectrum of "smaller songs put together" to "unified long piece.")
This is definitely a piece that deserves a place in Dream Theater's hall of fame, but for the reasons I've given, I wouldn't put it in the inner circle.
1. Learning to LiveMy ranking: #1 (tied for highest placement of this song)
Yay, the right choice was made!
There were years where I would have named Breaking All Illusions my #1, but this is the song that means most to me (definitely by DT, probably by anyone), and this is the song that has to be #1.
Musically, I'll just say that this is a perfect song. It's brimming with melodies, it combines the technical and the emotional in a way that comes down a little closer to the emotional end of the spectrum than Metropolis, which is good, while still having plenty of fireworks (the solo right after the F#5? insane). All the players are clearly present and contribute important elements, including a lot of bass, which is cool. It also reprises another top five song, Wait for Sleep, casting its main piano part in a different context. JLB is incredible, and brings all the right emotions. The F#5 is a defining moment for him, and the solo section that contains it is a defining sequence for the band.
The lyrics here are amazing, and are in complete accord with the song emotionally. They've always struck a chord with me. They're uplifting and inspiring, acknowledging struggle while never treating it as the final word on human life. I have to say, events in the world and in my life in the last couple of years have made this song even more poignant to me. The common fear that's all spread out was, originally, the HIV epidemic, but now it's, well, you know. And there was a time for me recently where it felt all too real to say, "Once I reached for love and now I reach for life" (I'm doing better now).
That final line is perfect, too. "Through nature's inflexible grace I'm learning to live." "Inflexible grace" is just a perfect way of capturing it. Nature is what it is, it doesn't bend to satisfy our wishes. But the world isn't such a bad place for us if we "learn to live," and it certainly has its beauty.
I will never get tired of this song. It's the only choice for my #1.
Topic: Top 100 Dream Theater songs countdown (Top 2 revealed!!) (Read 53137 times)
