Oh, here's the thread I was looking for!
So here's my ranking of the albums at the moment, except for The Final Experiment and Actual Fantasy which I have yet to give a listen to. Also, I have Guilt Machine's On this perfect day and it would surely be somewhere between n°5 and n°4.
7) Flight of the migrator
A great album but if suffers from the fact that some tracks aren't really that memorable taken out of context. Chaos followed by Dawn of a million souls is a great start even though the keyboards at the beginning of DOAMS are a little too much I think, but the song rocks. Surprisingly I enjoy listening to songs like To the Quasar or To the Solar System from time to time even though they did not impress me that much, I guess they are grower. I really like what he did with Timo Kotipelto, Stratovarius' singer, on Out of the white hole, one of the best tracks. Into the black hole is also a highlight and I really like the kind of oppressing/ominous tone there is to it, even though it gets too repetitive in the end. Finally, The New Migrator is a really fine ending, a great 'orchestral' intro/outro, powerful vocal lines even though the singer is completely unknown to me and maybe the best kind of speed metal solo section Arjen has done. But overall, I have to rank this one last.
6) The Source
Ok, with this one each album starts getting pretty strong. I don't have a lot of issues with it and I would have liked to rank it higher, but I've realised that it's one that I enjoy the less as a whole out of the ones that remain, I tend to listen to the songs separately most of the time. The Day that the World Breaks Down is obviously the masterpiece out there, and one of the best songs Arjen has ever written in my opinion. The other big highlights for me are Aquatic race, The Dream Dissolves, Deathcry of a race and The Source will flow, so mostly disc 2. I enjoy all of the other songs and they all have great melodies and vocal performance and are very fun to listen to, but they lack the something that makes them grower and that makes me listen to them over and over. I think this one might lack a bit of variety but I could easily see it as the starting point to introduce someone to Arjen's world, it even makes sense story-wise.
5) 01011001
My first Ayreon album, my first prog album. It has 5 songs which I consider absolute classics in Arjen's discography, namely Age of Shadows, Liquid Eternity, Beneath the Waves (my personal fave), The 5th and the 6th extinction. This album is awesome at least for those 5. But I enjoy the others too and there are some real growers out there like Newborn race, Waking dreams... I think this one also has some really strong vocal performance even though it can get quite messy with the huge number of singers. Overall it is a really good record with some beautiful highlights, however disc 1 suffers from 'Connect the dots' which is just cringeworthy even though I know it serves a purpose... I don't dislike the song that much and it is even pretty catchy but it does feel a little out of place. 'Web of lies' does a better job at that even though this one is kind of forgettable.
4) The Dream Sequencer
This one was a real grower - I did not expect to like it that much. Just like Flight of the migrator it is only one side of the thing, here the ambient one, but unlike Flight, it does succeed much better. There is a real sense of sadness, despair but also of wonder that comes out of that one, and pretty much every song helps conveying that kind of feeling in its own way. I guarantee a song like 2084 can hit pretty hard when listened to alone in the dark on a rainy day... Or it is really easy to let your mind wander along the waves of Dragon on the Sea at the end of a long day. I love every song on here except for Temple of the Cat which is the only one that dissapoints. My favorite is surely One small step because it does associate that sense of despair and of wonder in such a beautiful way. The verse 'As I lie here in this cold tank, living a dream/I'm the last on the planets/I decided this morning I don't want to be/The man on Mars' is so powerful. I think all the singers here did a really great job.
3) The Human Equation
I think it is a fine blend of everything Ayreon is about and it really works well as a whole. There is enough diversity but it does not feel disconnected and there is no plain bad song. The cast shines on this one. The story is also well told and the interaction between 'Me' and the different emotions is quite impressive, a feeling reinforced by the amazing performance delivered on The Theater Equation. The reason it is 'only' number 3 is because I don't feel that connected to it in some parts and because there are not that much songs that I would consider favorites of mine among the whole discography, outside of the album. It's like each song's got at least one impressive moment and a unique distinctive thing, but no song 'dares' to stand out and be significantly better than the others. Still, if I had to name some, I think Day 2, 7, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18 and 20 are maybe a bit stronger. Also, I want to point out James Labrie' superb vocals, really smooth and with a gentle warm, sensitive tone that is not used that much in DT. Arjen's really got the thing to bring out the best of the people he works with!
2) Into the Electric Castle
At first, I thought I was going to like this one the least for some unexplainable reason. But it has slowly grown on me and now I really, really dig it. It has the same qualities that The Human Equation, but here each song is really unique and they are almost all highlights, except for 3 more forgettable ones (Decision Tree, Tunnel of Light, Tower of Hope) but those don't really come in the way of my enjoyment. I like to listen to it as a whole, it has a real journey-like feel, but I also like to listen to it out of context. There are a lot of incredible moments on which I won't elaborate or I will write at least 300 more words. The cast is also shiny on this one and the characters quite likeable even though they can be cliché. It's like Arjen just did what the hell he wanted on this one and thanks to some magic it worked. Of course, it is not perfect, it's damn cheesy, but it provides a real experience that will stick with me for quite a while I believe. It's on this one that you can find some of the most experimental tunes by Arjen, and I like that a lot. Isis and Osiris, Amazing Flight, The Garden of Emotions, Cosmic Fusion come to mind and they are incredible in my opinion. If I had to rank my favorite Ayreon songs, I guess a fair share of ITeC would be ranked be pretty high.
1) THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Of course, it is my avatar. The reason why I love this one so much is because it takes the absolute best out of Ayreon and there's nothing that brings down my enjoyment (or that would be the pause between tracks, but that can be solved). Its structure in 4 phases allows for 4 big epics that are very promising, but the fact that it is divided in 42 tracks makes me think of it as a play with 4 acts and 42 scenes. Each scene serves a purpose, is incredible and fits well with the rest. The story is very compelling, when you discover it for the first time you want to know what happens next. There is also a real work on the characters, and they are all beautifully interprated. The Teacher comes to mind, but of course this applies to all the characters. The twist at the end could have even worked in a great movie I think. The fact that I can somehow relate to it on a personal level (nothing dramatic) makes it even better. Musically, it is pure perfection. Every goddamn melody is awesome and brings out the excitement to a next level and the 'main theme' is in my opinion one of the best musical hooks ever written and arranged. There is a perfect balance and chemistry between the instruments and some really incredible keyboards parts, I am so glad the instrument was so well-used. Arjen uses to its best his ability to create what I call 'musical landscape' with all his sound effects because here it is really subtle and never seems out of place nor does it drag on. I am never bored when listening to it, I'm just amazed at every little twist and turn. Each of the 4 epics has its own highlights and they are all equally awesome. And as if all of that was not enough, the music always follows the emotions of the story, which is something that is really impressive (when I think of it, that's not always the case for the others). At the end of the day, TToE really sums up everyhting that makes a great concept album and shines in every possible way. It was without a doubt that it is my favorite, I liked it upon the first listening and it only kept growing on me to like it even more.
So, what do you think of my ranking and of my thoughts? How much do you think I would enjoy The Final Experiment and Actual Fantasy based on what I wrote? Do you completely disagree on some points? I'd be very glad to discuss it with you all!
Topic: Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen Thread (Star Three on the way) (Read 381935 times)
