Top 100 Dream Theater songs countdown (Top 2 revealed!!)

[jammindude]

I used the ranking engine, and that worked pretty well except it somehow spit out Lines in the Sand at like 30 something. I ended up ranking it number 2. I think I just had a brain fart and picked something else over it by mistake at some point. I feel pretty certain about my top 10 being the top 10, but I'm not sure I'd give you the same order if you asked me again next week. Could probably say the same for the next 15 songs or so.

Also, I bet I'm the only person with The Way It Used to Be in their top 10, but it's one of the DT songs I listen to most often these days, really.

Love TWIUTB. But it was a quite a bit lower down. But other Cleaning Out the Closet tracks went higher. Raise the Knife and Eve both made my top 20.

[jammindude]

Curious if I’m the only one who has a Majesty demo in their top 100?

[425]

Honestly, I have no assessment of the Cleaning Out the Closet tracks outside of those that have been released in non-demo versions elsewhere. I have the FII Demos, but the low demo quality is too noticeable to listen to them as more than a curiosity.

[Cool Chris]

I think A Change of Seasons and Eve were the only non-album track that made my list.

[Laughingplace56]

Glad a lot of you guys found that ranking engine I posted helpful! There’s no way I could actually rank 100 songs, so I wouldn’t have been able to do it without it. I feel confident about what songs I’d consider to be my 20 or so favorite, but the order of those songs can vary depending on my mood. The rest of the list is kinda the same-they’re for sure the songs I’d put in my top 100, but the order is not definitive by any means.

Disappear and Ravenskill are great tunes.

I personally feel that the 6D's album is brutally overrated.

Ravenskill is my second favorite song on TA behind The Path That Divides, I’ve always loved that song. And Disappear is beautiful as well, just my least favorite on 6DOIT.

The 4 long songs on disc 1 all make my top 20 (2 of them being my top 2) and all 6 songs made the list so can’t say I agree on that album being overrated lmao

[jammindude]

Interesting because to me Ravenskill was the one track that just wasn’t doing it for me on the re-listen.  It just across as a bit disjointed. Like they has stuck a few different bits together to make a 6-ish minute track.

But after spinning some of the individual tracks, I am going to give TA a full spin in the near future

[jammindude]

Interesting in looking through my list again. No TA songs made my top 50, but 12 songs made my bottom 50 with A Life Left Behind placing highest.

[425]

A Life Left Behind is also my favorite TA song, it turns out, which is interesting because I couldn't have told you what anything but the chorus sounded like before going through it for this thread.

[jammindude]

A Life Left Behind is also my favorite TA song, it turns out, which is interesting because I couldn't have told you what anything but the chorus sounded like before going through it for this thread.

But WHAT A CHORUS!!! 

[Wim Kruithof]

Laughingplace, I have some difficulty to appreciate the first disc of Six Degrees. To me, the Glass Prison is fantastic (top 10 all time), but especially the Great Debate is like Repentance, it’s just not my kind of piece. Listen it is all about wrestling through the endless flow of vain. Blind Faith, Dissapear and Misunderstood all make my top 100, but nearly as high as yours.

[Setlist Scotty]

Curious if I’m the only one who has a Majesty demo in their top 100?

Nope. I've got 3! 

[425]

A Life Left Behind is also my favorite TA song, it turns out, which is interesting because I couldn't have told you what anything but the chorus sounded like before going through it for this thread.

But WHAT A CHORUS!!! 

True, especially the last one with the two-part vocals! But I hadn't remembered how much good instrumental material there is on that song, and that it has the closing verses with "Did I fail to mention my honest intentions?"

[Elite]

Curious if I’m the only one who has a Majesty demo in their top 100?

You’re not



I also have a few from Cleaning out the Closet

[TAC]

Curious if I’m the only one who has a Majesty demo in their top 100?

Nope. I've got 3! 

I have Another Won, but that's based on the Score version.

[Elite]

Curious if I’m the only one who has a Majesty demo in their top 100?

Nope. I've got 3! 

I have Another Won, but that's based on the Score version.

[lovethedrake]

I personally feel that the 6D's album is brutally overrated.

I've been singing this tune for years. It's a good album, but it's definitely bottom half of their discography. People praise it for being experimental, but many of the experiments do not work, IMO. I included a lot of the songs, but the majority of them are in the bottom of half of my list.

I just finalized and submitted my list, hopefully right under the wire. Doing some album-count stats seems interesting, so I'll toss mine out there:

WDADU: 5 (out of 8)
IAW: 8 (out of 8)
Awake: 10 (out of 11)
FII: 6 (out of 11)
SFAM: 10 (out of 12)
SDOIT: 5 (out of 6)
ToT: 6 (out of 7)
8VM: 5 (out of 8)
SC: 4 (out of 7)
BC&SL: 4 (out of 6)
ADTOE: 8 (out of 9)
DT12: 5 (out of 9)
TA: 16 (out of 29 non-NOMAC)
DOT: 4 (out of 9)
Non-album: 4

Ranking these by percentages is interesting. It approximately matches up with how I'd rank the albums in consistency, as you'd expect, while overrating some albums (SDOIT) and underrating others (FII) in terms of how I'd rank them in overall preference:
1. IAW: 100%
2. Awake: 91%
3. ADTOE: 89%
4. ToT: 86%
5. SFAM: 83%
5. SDOIT: 83%
7. BC&SL: 67%
8. WDADU: 63%
8. 8VM: 63%
10. SC: 57%
11. DT12: 56%
12. TA: 55%
13. FII: 55%
14. DOT: 44%

Personally I think six degrees is underrated if anything.  Incredible album.  DT at their peak.

[KevShmev]

Hmmm, adding these up and putting them in order took far less time than I thought it would.  I may start this tonight, if no one objects...

[KevShmev]

Also, I want to give a shout-out to all 25 who submitted lists to me.  Thanks again for participating! 

The top 100 will be based off of the lists from the 26 posters:

bosk1
Revenge319
Dream Team
Vmadera00
devieira73
BRGM
toro
Setlist Scotty
Laughingplace56
erciccio
DragonAttack
ZirconBlue
wolfking
Ben_Jamin
jammindude
Elite
NoFred
TAC
Wim Kruithof
marztacy
geeeemo
Cool Chris
HOF
AnotherDimension
425
KevShmev

[KevShmev]

I will probably start off by listing 2-4 a day, give or take, and see how that pace works as far as discussion and whatnot goes.

Away we go...

100  The X Aspect
Appeared on 15 of 26 entrees
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 18 (TAC)

Very nice song.  And how can you not like a song that features bagpipes??

[Ben_Jamin]

[KevShmev]

99 Never Enough
Appeared on 14 of 26 entrees
Top 10 finishes: 1
Highest Ranking: 8 (DragonAttack)

This is one of the rare DT songs where the lyrics are a major detriment, which is a shame cause it's musically really, really good.

[Revenge319]

I don't have any problems with the lyrics of Never Enough. I mean, I can definitely understand why people don't like them, they've just personally never bothered me.

[Lonk]

I had those songs at 59, and 76, respectively. I never had an issue with lyrics for NE. The X Aspect has some of Labries best moments from TA.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I somehow completely missed this thread. Would have liked to submit a list, but oh well. Next time.

Also, I never would have thought to put The X Aspect in my top 100. It's such a "non-event" song. There are some cool aspects, but nothing special, imo.

[Ben_Jamin]

So happy to see The X Aspect make it, even if it is number 100. I feel I rated it too low, but that's how I am with all of these songs on my list. 

I think it'll be fun to compare my list to the top rankings of the song. That's a great ranking TAC. I personally enjoy it a lot and think it's a track that is deserving of top 20.

I enjoy how the song builds from a piano/vocal into a big epic moment of desperation as Arhys struggles with his justification for betraying his brother, his vow to his dying wife to protect and provide the best for his son. 

[devieira73]

Cool way to present the top 100!
I think these 2 songs didn't enter my top 100, and that just already shows how good is the DT's body of work.
Anyway, I agree that X Aspect has a great JLB performances - one of the best from a stellar album for him and, although Never Enough is really cool - the lyrics never bothered me, I kind of agree with them  - unfortunately is the song that is on my top list from all the songs in DT's discography that people see as almost a plagiarism - it's really too close to Muse's Stockholm Syndrome.

[KevShmev]

I guess enough time has passed now to where I don't even notice the similarity to Stockholm Syndrome anymore, even though it is pretty obvious if you listen for it (the main riff).  I don't really seek this song out on its own, but if it pops up on shuffle and I am in the car, I will usually leave it on as it does rock when you are driving. 

[HOF]

Never Enough is in “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” territory for me. :-)

[Cool Chris]

I like Never Enough, I don't take the lyrics as a personal condemnation from one of the band members. They are good lyrics that convey a message, and since I don't take it as one directed at me, I find them satisfactory. I like the music and never listened to Muse so wouldn't have even known it was a ripoff/homage/whatever if I hadn't read about it here.

[jammindude]

I’m with the crowd that totally agreed with MP when he wrote that song. I was just so over the moon with everything DT had done since SFAM, and couldn’t believe the amount of criticism that was leveled at Mike every time he tried to do something that was a really special gift for the fans.

MP is in no way perfect, and I’m not blind to his flaws, but I definitely shared his frustration when he released that song. He needed to vent, and he did. The people who should have taken the “if you can’t say something nice” road were the ones whining about the wonderful extras they were getting that almost no other band was doing.

[HOF]

I’m with the crowd that totally agreed with MP when he wrote that song. I was just so over the moon with everything DT had done since SFAM, and couldn’t believe the amount of criticism that was leveled at Mike every time he tried to do something that was a really special gift for the fans.

MP is in no way perfect, and I’m not blind to his flaws, but I definitely shared his frustration when he released that song. He needed to vent, and he did. The people who should have taken the “if you can’t say something nice” road were the ones whining about the wonderful extras they were getting that almost no other band was doing.

I will say the lyrics are not the main reason I dislike the song. The dreadful noises Muse make are the main reason I dislike the song.

[jammindude]

I’m with the crowd that totally agreed with MP when he wrote that song. I was just so over the moon with everything DT had done since SFAM, and couldn’t believe the amount of criticism that was leveled at Mike every time he tried to do something that was a really special gift for the fans.

MP is in no way perfect, and I’m not blind to his flaws, but I definitely shared his frustration when he released that song. He needed to vent, and he did. The people who should have taken the “if you can’t say something nice” road were the ones whining about the wonderful extras they were getting that almost no other band was doing.

I will say the lyrics are not the main reason I dislike the song. The dreadful noises Muse make are the main reason I dislike the song.

Fair enough.

Oddly enough, I have trouble getting into Muse’s older material…but fell in love with Drones which I guess most Muse fans consider to be just OK. Go figure.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I’m with the crowd that totally agreed with MP when he wrote that song. I was just so over the moon with everything DT had done since SFAM, and couldn’t believe the amount of criticism that was leveled at Mike every time he tried to do something that was a really special gift for the fans.

MP is in no way perfect, and I’m not blind to his flaws, but I definitely shared his frustration when he released that song. He needed to vent, and he did. The people who should have taken the “if you can’t say something nice” road were the ones whining about the wonderful extras they were getting that almost no other band was doing.

I will say the lyrics are not the main reason I dislike the song. The dreadful noises Muse make are the main reason I dislike the song.

Fair enough.

Oddly enough, I have trouble getting into Muse’s older material…but fell in love with Drones which I guess most Muse fans consider to be just OK. Go figure.

See, I'm the opposite. I liked everything Muse did up until The Resistance. Everything after that was boring to me.

[425]

Cool, excited to see how this goes! I'm planning to listen along with these as they're posted and give some comments.

The X Aspect
My Ranking: #70

I've long held this as among my favorite songs from The Astonishing. A few additional songs eclipsed it on my recent review of the album, but I still think this is a really good piece.

Musically, it leans pretty heavily on one motif, but that motif is really good. The best part is the first few lines after the distorted guitar kicks in: "Abandon all our plans for revolution / Will hope and freedom die by morning light?" And the bagpipes are a nice touch.

I also really like this song as a piece of storytelling. I think the Arhys/Daryus/Xavier story is the strongest arc of The Astonishing, and that's in large part because of the dilemma Arhys struggles with, as presented in this song.


Never Enough
My ranking: Unranked (approximately #137)

I don't think Dream Theater have more than one or two bad songs, at least on their studio albums. The ones that are toward the bottom of the barrel are the ones that I don't find interesting enough, ones that I never even consider listening to outside of the context of their respective albums.

Never Enough is definitely one of those. I agree with those who are saying it's not the lyrics that are the problem. I don't mind them at all. In fact, I agree with the sentiment as a general commentary on a certain type of entitled fan. I find people who act as though they are owed something by musicians, authors, filmmakers, etc. offputting in the extreme.

The problem is that the song just doesn't grab me musically as much as most other DT songs. The best moment is the unison at about 4:15, which is pretty cool. It's a song I enjoy listening to when it's on, but never pay much attention to when it isn't.

I'd be interested to hear from DragonAttack about what made them put this song at #8. Not from a perspective of "justify your opinion to me," but because it's interesting to hear why people are drawn to very different songs.

[jammindude]

Nice idea to include our own rankings.

My ranking:
The X Factor - 99
Never Enough - 61