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.