The Count of Tuscany
My ranking: #5. One of the greatest song Dream Theater has ever made. The intro and outro are truly spectacular, but the same can be said for every other part of the song. The first verse has this adventurous and magical feel to it, and it really feels like a journey across the countryside. The pre-chorus is suitably ominous, and the chorus itself perfectly captures all the emotions it's trying to convey. The ambient section is so nice to listen to, and the end of it leads perfectly into the acoustic section, and from there it builds up to one of the greatest endings Dream Theater has ever created. The lyrics are really well-written in this song, and I see nothing wrong with them. Maybe if this story was fictitious I could understand them coming across as overdramatic, but if I went through the exact scenario that John Petrucci did here, I'd probably feel the exact same way. I also really like the lyrics in the first verse that talk about the ride to the castle, and what everything looks like ("At last we came upon / A picturesque estate / On sprawling emerald fields / An ancient world of times gone by"). I mean no exaggeration when I say everything in this song is perfect. This song even used to be #3 on my list, and for it to only go down two spots since then, that's evident enough of how well this song holds up for me after all this time.
The Glass Prison
My ranking: #9. What else can I say about this song that hasn't been said by anyone else? It's one of Dream Theater's heaviest and most aggressive songs, and they pull it off magnificently. It's an intense and awesome 13 minutes of music, all the way through. Now, normally I'd have this somewhere in the Top 20; using my 2019 rankings as a comparison, it was #17. However, now it's shot straight up to #9, the top of Tier 2 of my DT rankings. Why? This song is already one of Dream Theater's best works, but my main reason for putting it this high is because of the lyrics, of all things. The lyrics and what they're talking about, combined with the intensity of James' and Mike's vocals and the music surrounding them, are so powerful that they've affected me on a personal level. I won't go into detail, but to put it simply, listening to it a few months ago filled me with the motivation to try to make a conscious effort to put an end to a problem I've had for a while. There are certainly songs I like more than this one, even when just talking about Dream Theater, but I think a song that can affect something about a person for the better is one of the highest compliments a song could ever possibly receive.