Dream Theater Top 100 countdown - 2024 Version! (#01 Up!)

[Wim Kruithof]

WDaDU: 2 (surprised it was this many)

Lol...

[Indiscipline]

Sent!

[MirrorMask]

I hereby announce my list has been sent.


To stay vague:

My top 20 has several songs from Images and Words, Awake and Scenes from a Memory, and only a single song from Octavarium, Falling Into Infinity and Six Degrees each. Only one song of these last three albums made it into the top 10. Oh, and also A Change of Seasons is there somewhere.

To find the first song from another album, we have to go to the (bottom of) my 20-30: there comes the first songs from Dramatic, Black Clouds and Systematic Chaos.

In the 30-40 range there's the first song from Astonishing and the self titled.

In the 50-60 range there's the first non album track, and the first song from the debut album and d/t.

And while I don't particularly dislike the album, I find it quite decent in the end, it's only in the 80-90 range that we find my first song from View (the latest).

[Adami]

Sent in my list.

Deleted songs from the last 3 albums and ended up with 103 songs.

But man, that was a long and boring experience ranking them. About half way I was ready to quit but felt like I needed to get it done.

[Jamesman42]

I feel that, brother. It was not fun ranking 100 songs. Maybe 50 would have felt better.

[Dave_Manchester]

Earlier today I finally entered all 170-odd songs into the ranker and waded through the seven hundred and whatever it was match-ups. Took about 30 minutes, with some brutally close head-to-heads (Surrounded vs Lifting Shadows) and some less so (Voices vs Barf Bag). The top 25 will need a bit of tweaking but the rest can stay as it is, I'm not going to agonise over positions 73 and 74, and there's nothing that missed the top 100 I'll lose any sleep over.

DT are a band for which I've never really had a clear #1 song. In the end there were 6 songs vying for the top spot and for lack of any other rationale I'll be going with the nostalgia pick; the one that had the most powerful impact on me when I first heard it. In truth on any given day that whole top ten could be in any order depending on my mood.

Fun to revisit some of these songs that I hadn't heard in years, especially the very early stuff. On that note - does anyone (Setlist Scotty?) know why the band never properly recorded A Vision for the debut album? With a tad more discipline in the song-writing it would have been a freakin' gem.   

[MirrorMask]

Earlier today I finally entered all 170-odd songs into the ranker and waded through the seven hundred and whatever it was match-ups. Took about 30 minutes, with some brutally close head-to-heads (Surrounded vs Lifting Shadows) and some less so (Voices vs Barf Bag). The top 25 will need a bit of tweaking but the rest can stay as it is, I'm not going to agonise over positions 73 and 74, and there's nothing that missed the top 100 I'll lose any sleep over.

Yeah, that's the approach I took. I looked at songs from 101 onwards and wondered if I was sad that they would not make the cut, the answer was no, so I left the list like that.

I knew my top 3 already and I got comforted in knowing the system got 'em right. The top 10 was acceptable. I tweaked some things here and there but as you said, no need to spend forever wondering if a song deserves to be 73th or 79th.

[jingle.boy]

I tried mine today through the ranker, and the top 50 was pretty much in line with the Top 50 I manually did (only 1 song was more than 5 spots different than how I manually ranked them).  Spots 51-100 though... man, there were some that the ranking process spit out WILDLY different than my own ranking.  Seems I may massage some of those ratings.

[Wim Kruithof]

Nice post Dave, I'll agree totally on approach. Although I gave my list more time and thought, I never got annoyed or bored in the process. The list may be different on any given day, but there isn't one song that I feel that doesn't belong there, each time I revisit the outcome.

[wolfking]

Ah......not sure I have the motivation to bother with this.  Might just look through my list from last time and change anything glaring and submit that. 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Ah......not sure I have the motivation to bother with this.  Might just look through my list from last time and change anything glaring and submit that. 

Nothing from the newest album even a consideration? It's actually aged really well for me.

[wolfking]

Ah......not sure I have the motivation to bother with this.  Might just look through my list from last time and change anything glaring and submit that. 

Nothing from the newest album even a consideration? It's actually aged really well for me.

That's kind of what I was alluding to.  It's actually been slightly growing on me too.  I think though only the title track and ATC would see the 100.  Maybe TT.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Sent my list.

Uh oh. Did I eff up my list? I don't see my name in the second post...

[TAC]

Just submitted my list.

Here's my album breakdown..

WDADU...6
I&W...8
Awake...9
FII...4
SFAM...9
6 D's...3
ToT...4
8V...7
SC...6
BC&SL...4
MP Non Album Tracks...5
ADTOE...8
DT12...5
TA...13
DoT...5
View...4


MP Era...65
MM Era...35

[wolfking]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

[TAC]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

As soon as I tallied them up, I knew you'd have a comment.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

As soon as I tallied them up, I knew you'd have a comment.

Even I only have 5 in my top 100. Now I'm curious what got left out to fit in those TA songs on your list...

[wolfking]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

As soon as I tallied them up, I knew you'd have a comment.

   On cue.

Nah, actually, it makes me a little more eager to grab the CD and give it a spin.  View did slightly grow on me so you never know.

[TAC]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

As soon as I tallied them up, I knew you'd have a comment.

Even I only have 5 in my top 100. Now I'm curious what got left out to fit in those TA songs on your list...

Well, I'm not going to spotlight my list, but take The Walking Shadow. It has a wicked King Diamond vibe, and I find it way more interesting than...say..Constant Motion.

[wolfking]

Interesting....

[jingle.boy]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

As soon as I tallied them up, I knew you'd have a comment.

   On cue.

Nah, actually, it makes me a little more eager to grab the CD and give it a spin.  View did slightly grow on me so you never know.

I know!

I’d sooner have every song on WDADU, SC, and BC&SL before a 3rd song from TA.

[Wim Kruithof]

It's actually been slightly growing on me too.  I think though only the title track and ATC would see the 100.  Maybe TT.

So to you there are at least 100 songs better than Sleeping Giant and Awaken the Master... to me that's very interesting. You also eliminate the entire Astonishing, so basicly all the rest made the list. 😂

[jammindude]

I just finished my first pass through the ranker. As of now I freaking hate it. But I suppose I have a week to retool it.

[SwedishGoose]

I fail to do a real count album for album for some reason.

But I can tell you that I have over 20 songs from my favorite album but the highest ranked is at 26. The Sum is greater than the Parts.

Top 10 contains 7 albums.

3 non album songs snuck in.

The least represented are WDAU, SC, BC&SL and D/T with 3 or less.

[wolfking]

TA...13

Looks like you don't want to be friends anymore.

As soon as I tallied them up, I knew you'd have a comment.

   On cue.

Nah, actually, it makes me a little more eager to grab the CD and give it a spin.  View did slightly grow on me so you never know.

I know!

I’d sooner have every song on WDADU, SC, and BC&SL before a 3rd song from TA.

3rd song?!

[wolfking]

It's actually been slightly growing on me too.  I think though only the title track and ATC would see the 100.  Maybe TT.

So to you there are at least 100 songs better than Sleeping Giant and Awaken the Master... to me that's very interesting. You also eliminate the entire Astonishing, so basicly all the rest made the list. 😂

I'd easily take 100 other DT songs over those 2 personally.  TA I don't see any songs making it, but I'm committed to a relisten.

[Indiscipline]

My breakdown, since I seldom write about DT songs:

WDADU: 4
I&W: 8
Awake: 10
ACOS: 1
FII: 7
SFAM: 10
SDOIT: 4
TOT: 4
Octavarium: 2
SC: 2
BL&SL: 2
ADTOE: 7
DT12: 8
TA: 26
D/T: 5

[wolfking]

My breakdown, since I seldom write about DT songs:

TA: 26

[Indiscipline]

[Wim Kruithof]

TA I don't see any songs making it, but I'm committed to a relisten.

I am looking forward to your breakdown. And I am truly glad there's so much appreciation for The Astonishing, in this countdown thread. I might even gonna give the whole concept a christmas-eve spin.

[ReaperKK]

Sent my list.

Uh oh. Did I eff up my list? I don't see my name in the second post...

I got your list I just haven't entered it in the master spreadsheet, usually when I enter it and everything is good that's why I reply to the pm and add you to the tracker. It's just my weird way of doing things

[axeman90210]

My breakdown came out to:

When Dream and Day Unite   3
Images and Words   8
Awake   11
A Change of Seasons   1
Falling Into Infinity   6
Scenes from A Memory   9
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence   5
Train of Thought   6
Octavarium   6
Systematic Chaos   4
Black Clouds and Silver Linings   5
A Dramatic Turn of Events   8
Dream Theater   4
The Astonishing   12
Distance Over Time   6
A View from the Top of the World   2
N/A   4

Without getting too much into the nitty gritty, one observation that came out of making this list is that the two concept albums are basically opposites for me in terms of Scenes being greater than the sum of its parts and TA being worse than the sum of its parts. SFAM is my all time favorite album, but it's not one of the two albums where every song made the list (three if you count ACOS since the covers aren't options). I also awarded points to my list (100 for 1st place etc...) and came up with some basic stats and there are three albums that place higher that Scenes looking at either average points per number of songs on the list or average points per total number of songs on the album (though not the same three in both cases). Nonetheless, SFAM as a whole album experience is just special for me. TA on the other hand, is not something I listen to from start to finish very often. It's bloated and god are the lyrics/overall story cheesy to the point of being cringe. That said, when I took a lot of the songs in isolation I was able to enjoy them a lot more as single serving 4-6 minute experiences versus being one of many in a 2 hour plus listening marathon. Also, JLB straight up rules on TA. Anyway, that's how one of my least favorite DT albums ended up with a dozen songs making the list.

[Wim Kruithof]

My list sums up some interesting stats, like the difference between the Portnoy-era (74) and Mangini-era (26), although I do love Mangini and became Dream Theater-aware in his day and age. Figured it would be much closer, but from - and I do consider it a masterpiece - A Dramatic Turn of Events only 5 songs made the list. The Astonishing trowed two songs in the basket and then there's that fact that the era's are 10 to 5 studioalbums, which is a huge difference.

I wonder if there would be one list where the Mangini-era is at least 50 songs in.

[SwedishGoose]

I wonder if there would be one list where the Mangini-era is at least 50 songs in.

Mine has a 56 MP / 44 MM split

[axeman90210]

My split is 68/32, pretty much perfectly lines up with the 10/5 split of released albums. Though I guess technically I should expect MP to have more representation since his era also had ACOS and pretty much all of the material on the master list that wasn't an official release.