Pale Blue Dot - Appreciation & Discussion Thread

[The Letter M]

Since I just recently updated my pinned Index Of Albums & Songs thread and added some entries for d/t, I realized there wasn't a dedicated thread for PBD yet, so I decided to start it here!

I've been enjoying this song since day one, and there's a LOT to love about it. The atmospheric opening complete with radio chatter really sets the mood for the idea of the song. Then we get that blistering riff in 19/16, with some tasty druMMing and a crunchy guitar riff from JP. The whole intro sounds like it could've been a LOT long if this were a 15-minute epic, but it's cut down quite nicely and flows well.

The verse and chorus area pretty strong, too, especially the last line of the chorus, which really makes us ponder our place in the universe, if we are truly alone, are we then doomed to our own failures? Then we move into the bridge and instrumental break, which is probably some of the best on the album! They dive back into the 19/16 riff before going into a 5/4 in triplets, which transforms into 3 groups of triplets as quintuplets in 3 (gotta love metric modulation), a trick they used before in the middle of "In The Name Of God". Then we get the jarring, but awesome climbing riff that then has a weird slow-down riff followed by it, with Mangini doing some fills around the tempo and time, very spacey stuff! The rest of the instrumental break continues with another fast climbing riff before heading back into familiar grooves before the final chorus!

Ahhh what a song, the closing epic this album deserves, especially with that closing guitar solo! Those near eight-and-a-half minutes are something special, and I'm sure it'll be a real treat if/when it's played live! I hope this one becomes a concert staple, and that we get one good live release of it!

So, who else wants to gush about this song?

-Marc.

[Fritzinger]

Pale Blue Dot is probably my favorite song on Distance! Mangini's playing is out of this world. I think the lyrics are very interesting, too.
I love The Astonishing, but 1 or 2 songs of PBD's caliber could have made that album even more awesome

[Architeuthis]

Then we get the jarring, but awesome climbing riff that then has a weird slow-down riff followed by it

If that weird slow down riff is the one I'm thinking of, that's one of the most bad-ass moments on the record. It only goes one measure then they go back into a chaotic section immediately and that dark heavy riff is gone forever. I was hoping to hear at least one or two more times.
PBD is just what we needed from Dream Theater,  probably will end up being my favorite track in the long run and a top tier DT song!   

[Lax]

I love PBD, but it's as complicated to explain all the reasons why than to play it

-Mostly it's dance of eternity quality to me
-The Space + sinister ambiance is great, they didn't go half way
-The solo section is the kind of prog pandemonium I like
-The "god creators" chorus is epic and gloriously grim

I can understand the "too short" vibe, but perhaps diluting in over 20 minutes would have been "tiring" or adding a movement to the song that feels unrelated etc...

[illusionist]

The song is technical and played on a 7 string,which i like both.Some great riffs as well.
But i can't 'get' it (yet..??)
It seems to me that it's one dimensional.It lacks dynamics,which i clearly don't like.
And it's the only song on DoT which falls under this category.
Plus,on my first listens it sounded like some parts were put together with some other parts,without these parts mix well.
But i think i am over this by now.
Maybe live it will sound better to my ears or more cohesive.
I am glad for those who already like it,it's just that i expected/wanted something a tad more emotional for the closer.

[erciccio]

Masterpiece.

It took me a long time to digest it, and the initial reaction was "meeeeehhhh"

The intro is super amazing. A 19/16 riff with incredible dynamics and groove.
Mangin's drumming is phenomenal throughout the song
The melodies are very sinister but once you get used to them they are just beautiful
The instrumental section just feels like a trip on a spaceship going adrift...

And THERE IS a structure...there are basically 4 themes/ riffs throughout  the song that reappear, and they are actually well connected. It just takes a while to get it.

Super thumbs up!

v

[oceanic156]

Pale Blue Dot is incredible; my favorite on the album, narrowly ahead of At Wit's End.

Very heavy yet very dynamic and fresh in its presentation. Instead of being built around a 'riff' like Room 137, the rhythm section takes hold early on and drives the evolution of the track (which is quite complex, yet never loses its intensity). It feels like a powerful, lean DT epic that's been stripped of all repetition and superfluous writing.

Drum-wise, I think this is Mangini's best composition ever with the band. So many creative ideas played so well. It easily stacks up with the best drum work of the band's career.

Love the imagery of the song too.

[erwinrafael]

If you watch how Pale Blue Dot's drums is played, you would notice that a lot of the drumming in the instrumental are elements of Mangini's drum solos in concerts.

[erciccio]

If you watch how Pale Blue Dot's drums is played, you would notice that a lot of the drumming in the instrumental are elements of Mangini's drum solos in concerts.

Yeah, correct. I was watching a "fake"* drum cover and I noticed that...
There is also another nice example of "double snare roll"..

* The guy actually mimicked the song almost perfectly, but his mics were clearly off and used the original drum track...a couple of misses revealed the cheat
Pity, because he can clearly play it but probably was not happy still with his dynamics, but rushed to be the 1st on the web..

[wolfking]

This song is the biggest grower of the album.  It's a weird one in relation to structure and melodies but it works.

I don't get why they didn't make James redo the word 'worship' in the first chorus.  Did everyone miss his voice waver?

[krands85]

My favourite song on the album thus far and unlike a lot of others, I liked it from the start, whereas a lot of the other tracks have had to grow on me. I guess there's just a lot of what I love about the band in there, more than any of the other tracks. I also really like what Jordan's doing in this one and the sounds he's using, especially after the rest of the album where he isn't quite as prominent.

Would have been nice if it was longer (though I could say that for lots of DT songs  ), though that doesn't necessarily mean it should have been a 15 or 20 minute+ song. Even just a couple more minutes would have been great, but it works very well as it is.

[Fritzinger]

It has been said before here, but I just wanted to add that that "mini drum solo" with the slow down-part is one of my favorite parts of the album as well. The way how MM just introduces a new metrum/tempo for like 2-3 seconds and then immediately went back to the original tempo is just amazing. When I heard that for the first time, I was all "oh man I REALLY want to know where he's going with this!".

[Progmetty]

Great song.
With consequent listens I got to see what everybody's saying about similarities to The Dance of Eternity.
The only flaw I see in Pale Blue Dot is an annoying one; the transition between the piece at 6:05 to the one at 6:06. I think it's reminiscent of the transition in The Dance of Eternity between 3:34 to 3:35, only the transition in Pale Blue Dot fails horribly, it needed minor tweaking to be as amazing as The Dance of Eternity one, which I consider to be one of their best transitions ever.

[Lonk]

2nd favorite from the album, and possibly top 20 overall in terms of DT discography (That might change).

To be honest, it's not at all what I expected the song to be. When i saw the title "Pale Blue Dot" I got very excited because of Carl Sagan. Then I heard people talking about it. I got a chance to talk to Petrucci during NAMM and he told me it was his favorite from the album. Because of all this I was expecting something heavy, but not as technical.

But then I listened to the song and it was different, but in an awesome way. It takes a dark vibe from Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot and turns it into an awesome, powerful, riff driven masterpiece. I understand why some here don't like it but it sure is a great song.

Favorite part is at 1:46, that riff feels so powerful 

[mikeyd23]

This song is the biggest grower of the album.  It's a weird one in relation to structure and melodies but it works.

That's how I feel about this one too. Definitely a grower for me, and I really like it now.

[Destiny Of Chaos]

This song is one of their greatest. It's that good.

[erwinrafael]

It has been said before here, but I just wanted to add that that "mini drum solo" with the slow down-part is one of my favorite parts of the album as well. The way how MM just introduces a new metrum/tempo for like 2-3 seconds and then immediately went back to the original tempo is just amazing. When I heard that for the first time, I was all "oh man I REALLY want to know where he's going with this!".

Yup, that's the highlight of the song for me. It has this raw energy, some sort of improvisational feel that I really did not expect in a highly technical song..

[the_silent_man]

Love the song. It's epic, heavy, technical as hell. The chorus has one of the darkest/most evil vibes they've had in years.

However...
The one thing I feel about this song (and to a lesser extent At Wits End) is that they feel almost incomplete. This in particular is so awesome but I feel it had much more to give - which with another 2-3 minutes could be achieved. After the crazy instrumental section is complete, we're straight back into the last chorus and only 2 mins left. I would have liked maybe 1 more verse then a chorus reprise before the solo.
Maybe I'm just being greedy. To me this song is screaming to be 10-12mins.

Ironically, I was initially concerned about the all track lengths being short, but it works perfectly in almost every song EXCEPT the 2 'epics' for me. I think the short songs on the disk are a perfect length, and do a better job than DT12's similarly length songs in being more ballsy, inspired and packing more classic DT into their lengths.
The 2 longer songs seem *slightly* underdeveloped to me, as if their potential has been cut short by aiming for shorter songs.

This is a minor gripe for me, however. I probably am just being greedy as I do love both PBD and AWE.

[DoctorAction]

I love it. It's taken me a week to get there but it might be my favourite on the album.

[Bertielee]

I love it. It's taken me a week to get there but ...

...AWE is still my favorite. Anyways, PBD is a fantastic song as well.


B.Lee

[Fritzinger]

Great song.
With consequent listens I got to see what everybody's saying about similarities to The Dance of Eternity.
The only flaw I see in Pale Blue Dot is an annoying one; the transition between the piece at 6:05 to the one at 6:06. I think it's reminiscent of the transition in The Dance of Eternity between 3:34 to 3:35, only the transition in Pale Blue Dot fails horribly, it needed minor tweaking to be as amazing as The Dance of Eternity one, which I consider to be one of their best transitions ever.

Interesting. That (or the few seconds before that) is exactly the part I was talking about. And I called it the best part of the song 

[Dreamer]

It took me a while too but now I think this is a great track.

[RAIN]

I love the Star Wars Imperial March riff at 2:03.....that sells it totally for me.

[Dave_Manchester]

Favourite song on the album. I wasn't keen on it for the first few listens (largely because it was so different to what I was expecting; if anything I expected this song would be what Barstool Warrior sounds like). But there's so much in here and it's the song I keep coming back to. Like a lot of people have said, I initially wished it had been a couple of minutes longer. Now I don't. Its 'compactness' is a large part of its brilliance. When it's over I want to play it again, in fact I usually end up spinning this tune 3 or 4 times in a row (as I'm doing now as I write this).

[Progmetty]

Great song.
With consequent listens I got to see what everybody's saying about similarities to The Dance of Eternity.
The only flaw I see in Pale Blue Dot is an annoying one; the transition between the piece at 6:05 to the one at 6:06. I think it's reminiscent of the transition in The Dance of Eternity between 3:34 to 3:35, only the transition in Pale Blue Dot fails horribly, it needed minor tweaking to be as amazing as The Dance of Eternity one, which I consider to be one of their best transitions ever.

Interesting. That (or the few seconds before that) is exactly the part I was talking about. And I called it the best part of the song 

Haha naah don't get me wrong, the part you're talking about and the one after that are both awesome, it's the bad/lack of transition that bugs me.

[Logain Ablar]

I really like it, but for sure it's been the track that's taken me longest to appreciate.

Perhaps it was my expectation of what an album closing epic should be, but at first listen, I found the sinister vibe a little off putting. I was expecting something that presented the wonder of space travel, the size of the universe and all that. Instead, it's more of a stark reminder of how insignificant we are, and how it's up to us to sort out our own squabbles etc.

Once I got my head around the theme, it helped to appreciate the song a lot better.  The music is great. I love the intro, with the samples and synth, then the thundering drums and guitar.

It feels to me like a condensed mini-epic. It's like DT took their usual formula for an album closing epic and turned it in its head.

[Stewie]

It's terrible. Absolute garbage. None of the transitions make sense, at all. None of it flows. It all feels very forced. Technical for technical sake, and shitty songwriting. One of the worst songs they've ever released. It's embarrasing.

[Learning2Live]

This one hasn't hit with me yet. I think it's one of the weakest album closers in their catalog of the longer/epic closers (this and In the Presence of Enemies 2 are probably at the bottom of my closers list). Not to say it's a bad song. But just not one that has wow'd me to this point.

[lovethedrake]

I love it now... at first I thought and even said on this board "what were they thinking" but it's really clicked for me. 

The whole mood of the song is very cool and the space vibe is well done.  The instrumental section feels like spiraling out of control in space, I love it now.  The only thing I don't love in the song is the chorus as it reminds me of systematic chaos too much but outside of that it's awesome.

[Ben_Jamin]

This one hasn't hit with me yet. I think it's one of the weakest album closers in their catalog of the longer/epic closers (this and In the Presence of Enemies 2 are probably at the bottom of my closers list). Not to say it's a bad song. But just not one that has wow'd me to this point.

Its likely since 8vm (might even be 6DOIT) we've been given 20-min epics as the last on the albums. This is the first album since Scenes where we haven't had an album closer over 10 min.

It's almost a shock to us DT fans...

[TAC]

I just think that we've heard that "epic outro" solo from JP a million times. 8V, ITPOE, IT...

There's just no climax. They should've called it Pale Blue Balls.

[bl5150]

 

[bill1971]

It's terrible. Absolute garbage. None of the transitions make sense, at all. None of it flows. It all feels very forced. Technical for technical sake, and shitty songwriting. One of the worst songs they've ever released. It's embarrasing.

Plus I feel like I'm listening to a Disney movie soundtrack.
Seriously though I can see not liking it but embarrassing?? I don't think any group of musicians that can come up with that song should be embarrassed.

[bill1971]

Pale Blue Dot is incredible; my favorite on the album, narrowly ahead of At Wit's End.

Very heavy yet very dynamic and fresh in its presentation. Instead of being built around a 'riff' like Room 137, the rhythm section takes hold early on and drives the evolution of the track (which is quite complex, yet never loses its intensity). It feels like a powerful, lean DT epic that's been stripped of all repetition and superfluous writing.

Drum-wise, I think this is Mangini's best composition ever with the band. So many creative ideas played so well. It easily stacks up with the best drum work of the band's career.

Love the imagery of the song too.

Well said. It's such a fantastic mix of heavy and complex. I'd say the best drumming on any DT song. Plus I love Labrie's singing. So sinister. Really the perfect song.

[KevShmev]

I like this song, but I can't say I love it.  I agree with the sentiment that it feels a bit undercooked, almost like it is missing a verse or something.  As is, like I said, I like it, but it is definitely a song that leaves you with a bit of musical blue balls.