Catching up..
Finally Free (#10)My #27. A Great way to end the album, but not a song I think of as highly outside of the album. That said, listening to this one did give me goosebumps recently (while listening to the whole album). It's great, but everything up here is, really.
Scarred (#9)My #15, but it could have been higher. Awake is my second favourite DT album and this is certainly a highlight. It's one of DT's strangest songs, because it goes lots of places without repeating a whole lot, but it contains so many fantastic moments. Glad to see this one higher than I had it.
Home (#8)The 'big' one from Metropolis, my personal #13 One of the first songs I learned on guitar (the main riff thing, to be fair), but one that I revisit often still. This is the song that, to me, is mostly tied to the song that spawned this album, partly due to the glorious callbacks in the lyric, but probably also its placement on the album and its general structure. Love this one.
Trial of Tears (#7)My #22, so this one is a little higher, but I can understand why. This is a fantastic track, but not one I listen to all too often.
Breaking All Illusions (#6)This was my #37, and I've aways found this to be the weakest of the big 4 tracks on ADTOE, but I also realise I'm in the minority there, so it's not at all surprising to see this one up high.
Voices (#5)My #11 and third favourite from Awake. This is one of their tracks that actually goes beyond their usual formula of (verse-chorus)x2-instrumental madness - chorus (exaggerating, of course), and it's great for that fact alone; this is actually a nine-minute song that brings you on a journey and it's a fantastic one. I can easily understand why someone would have this one as their #1. Also, did you know this song has one of John Petrucci's best 5 solos ever?
Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle in the Sleeper (#4)Nooooo! This is my #1 - and it's strange to see only one other person having it as theirs. Always has been and I can't imagine it not being. This is THE quintessential Dream Theater song. This is progressive metal at its peak, as far as I'm concerned. Everything about this track is 'flawless' (because nothing ever is).
Octavarium (#3)My #12. It probably used to be higher once, but there's too much in there that doesn't really justify its runtime (I prefer the other big one that's yet to come). Everything from 'Intervals' onwards is prog rock gold, though. Good stuff.
My #2 and #6 are left. (Rooting for my #2!) One of these two got a ton of #1 placements, I suppose, if it finished with 120 more points that number 2. Very interesting to see which one actually got left off one of the lists