Falling behind...

It looks like I'm going to miss my 5 updates per month goal. I've got at least five more albums to write about but I haven't gotten the chance to write about them yet. I'm still digesting them. It is fairly progressive music after all.

How's about you enjoy this song from Sixpence None the Richer slated to be on the new album (due August 7th! Yay!) It's "Sooner Than Later" - it was on My Dear Machine but I'm glad it's going to be on Lost in Transition. 

Dream Theater - "Awake"

Dream Theater - Awake
1994, Atlantic

1. 6:00
2. Caught in a Web
3. Innocence Faded
4. Erotomania
5. Voices
6. The Silent Man
7. The Mirror
8. Lie
9. Lifting Shadows of a Dream
10. Scarred
11. Space Dye Vest

Awake is a lot heavier and a lot darker than Images and Words. I also think it's a good deal more dense. Gone is the commercial sheen that brightened up the last album and in its place is heavy sludge. When I was in college I tried listening to this album again and again and I'd fall asleep every time. How did I like it after not listening to it for years? Well... I did manage to stay awake this time (no pun intended!). However, I still don't really like this album. Most DT fans go bonkers for this one but it's actually boring for me. It doesn't seem like the songs are as interesting. I'd take Octavarium or Black Clouds & Silver Linings over this one any day. I do like "Lifting Shadows of a Dream" and the morose album closer "Space Dye Vest." I suppose it's par for the course for me - I usually don't like albums everyone goes ga-ga over and Awake is, unfortunately, no exception.

Useless Fact: "The Mirror" is about drummer Mike Portnoy's struggle with alcoholism. Eventually he would turn his experiences in Alcoholics Anonymous into a five song sweet that begins with "The Glass Prison" on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

Dream Theater - "Images and Words"

Dream Theater - Images and Words
1992, Atlantic

1. Pull Me Under
2. Another Day
3. Take the Time
4. Surrounded
5. Metropolis, Pt. 1 (The Miracle and the Sleeper)
6. Under a Glass Moon
7. Wait for Sleep
8. Learning to Live

You know what a good day is? Suddenly remembering that you have two Dream Theater CDs that for some reason never went on the ipod. In my Octavarium review I mentioned that Images and Words was the only Dream Theater CD that I really, really liked (that's changing, however). Hearing it again after a few years reminds me of why I liked it in the first place - it's dang near perfect. Everything is in place, not one note is wasted. It even has sort of a commercial sound to the production. I downloaded "Pull Me Under" on Kazaa way back when and it was so powerful, yet so melodic that I immediately went out and bought this disc. Thankfully, the entire album is full of cool parts. I love the drum part in the beginning of "Under a Glass Moon." It's still a pretty tight disc despite the epic length of some of the songs. If you've ever wondered what Dream Theater was all about, Images and Words is a great place to start. I still can't believe I've had this for years and not listened to it until now!

Useless Fact: Metropolis Pt. 2 did happen as a huge concept album. I don't know any more than that though.

Okay Progressive Peeps...

Got a comment yesterday on my review of Dream Theater's Octavarium questioning my dislike of the band and the CD. That's cool. Usually things like that make me take a second look at whoever it is and see if I can't connect with it somehow. I think my problem with some of the more progressive stuff is that I get bored with it because, really, it's like listening to classical music. You have to be paying attention and sometimes that just makes me tired.

However, nothing cool comes out until August 7th (Sixpence's new album) so I'm gonna give some more progressive stuff a try. Here's what YOU can do, gentle reader - suggest your favorite progressive metal or rock albums and I'll try to check them out (money permitting). At the very least I will track down samples and put them on my want list if I like them.

Suggest away!