So I listened two times to the whole thing and watched the DVD now. So far I can say I love it. It could be my second favourite Ayreon album, right after the THE, but of course only time will tell — I really liked 01011001 on the release, was very much into it and thought of it as of my second favourite but after several years it started to bore me a bit. Before the TTOE my rating was:
1) The Human Equation (no, its not overrated for me at all, I think it's great)
2) The Dream Sequencer (really like this one, and it only grew for me with years more and more)
3) Into the Electric Castle / 01011001 (I like ITEC, I think it's good but quite far from my favourite, and 01 didn't really aged that well)
4) The Final Experiment
5) Flight of the Migrator / Actual Fantasy (I almost never listen to those)
For now I think TTOE could beat TDS. I really think Arjen did well with picking the musicians for their roles (of course not as great as at THE, but). The best representation for me is John Wetton, of course. He fulfilled and proved my expectations in a great way. When I listened to this thing for the second time I was eager to get to the second track where he is mostly singing.
JB I think did amazing job too. Some people here say all singers are dull and boring, I don't agree at all. IMO JB shows a lot of emotion on this record, he fits into his role really well, he has this deep, full, maybe even sophisticated voice that really suits the teacher.
Other roles, hm, I like Marco's Rival (especially on the DVD, he really does the great faces when he sings all that stuff — at Nightwish's End of an Era I always laugh how he can sing and make that faces without laughing — and I'm a fan of his voice, so), I quite like Cristina's Mother (the voice is good, nothing really outstanding, but her role and text is great — it's really, dunno, convincing). Oh yes, I love Michael Mills as a father. His voice might sound a bit too young for a, well, father, but it's so, I don't know, airy, inspiring — he's really like a quite young scientist and I think his performance on this album is awesome.
Now, the other two roles: I felt like Tommy hasn't got his moment to shine. Some of his lines are great (the ones in The Prodigy's World and The Note), some aren't and in the end I felt like there wasn't enough space for him. I loved Silverthorn (the last Kamelot album) and I'm quite fond of Seventh Wonder work, so I was eager to hear Tommy on this one, and, well, I was kinda disappointed by the amount of his presence (weird phrase, I know). And Sara Squadrani, well, she was... just there, I think. Can't say nothing good or bad about her, and that's something that you don't usually end up saying listening to Ayreon. So, yeah, The Girl was probably my least favourite role.
The music is, well, standard for Ayreon, which I really liked. Nothing outstanding but completely satisfying for me. The lyrics I think are like 01 — there are some good moments, once I even had to look up the dictionary (I'm not native English speaker, you know) for the "savant" word, and there are some over the edge cheesy moments: some I could expect, like in The Breakthrough (I laughed at this one but, well, I expected something like that from Arjen when I heard what the story will be about), and some had come out of nowhere (like this in Love and Envy one — you're falling for this loser — and I'm so much cooler one). I've also laughed when the father tells his son he's been drugging him for over a year now. Don't know, that was just something in this phrase in the booklet "Son, I have to tell you... I've been giving you a drug..." that made me laugh. Like, yeah, a drug, you drugged your own son, no big deal. Great.
Shit, I'm still laughing when I'm writing this. I'm strange.
But, yeah, the whole story is great I think. For me it's on par with THE, can't decide now which one is the best. It's conveyed really beautifully with the music, the moment when the main melody at the TTOE pt. 3 came back was awesome for me. While there's some cringeworthy moments (but you can find them on every Ayreon album), I think this record was really good. DVD I didn't that like (I don't like dogs, especially these small ones), but the album itself I liked. Definitely up there for an album of the year, if you ask me.
Wow, I wrote a lot. Wonder if anyone'll ever bother to read it.
Topic: Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen Thread (Star Three on the way) (Read 383492 times)
