Dream Theater Top 100 countdown - 2024 Version!

[pg1067]

My first pass got me down to 133. I think I removed another 10 tracks.

This is already painful.

As soon as I hit enter, I knocked out two more songs:  a short intro track and a song that I have long regarded as DT's worst album track.  So I'm now down to 129 (which includes two of the songs on Scotty's list of YouTube links, although I'm skeptical that either will make the top 100.

[Setlist Scotty]

As soon as I hit enter, I knocked out two more songs:  a short intro track and a song that I have long regarded as DT's worst album track.  So I'm now down to 129 (which includes two of the songs on Scotty's list of YouTube links, although I'm skeptical that either will make the top 100.

Gee, I wonder which one...   

Don't worry, it's in my top 5 to offset it missing from yours! 

[KevShmev]

As soon as I hit enter, I knocked out two more songs:  a short intro track and a song that I have long regarded as DT's worst album track.  So I'm now down to 129 (which includes two of the songs on Scotty's list of YouTube links, although I'm skeptical that either will make the top 100.

Gee, I wonder which one...   

Don't worry, it's in my top 5 to offset it missing from yours! 

I know you are just messing with him, but if I had the sense that anyone was putting songs too high or too low simply to help or hurt their ranking, I would disqualify that user from participating.  That totally goes against the point of this, and it would be trying to rig the results.

[Wim Kruithof]

It took a couple of hundred rank-choices, took a lot of time and surely some serious doubts along the way, but it turned out to be a very nice list. Will double check it these days and then send it to you Kevin.

Scotty, thank you for all the links... didn't rank them for their new-car-smell to me, but three I already knew of made my top 40. And the others I really enjoyed listening to (mostly).

Can't wait for the countdown.

[jeff_kinsley]

Excited to work on this. I won't be easy!

[Mladen]

List sent. That was tough, but fun. 

[bardic_tortoise]

This will be a fun opportunity to relisten to a lot of tracks that I haven't heard in years. I'm planning to use the ranking program for most if not all of the list because I really like the idea of the head-to-head system revealing some potentially surprising results. I want to see what I actually like to listen to right now, rather than what I remember liking or what I feel "should" be on the list.

[TAC]

Well, I have my 100 songs divvied up into 5 tiers of 18-22 songs.

[jingle.boy]

I've never participated in this one before - largely cuz I don't frequent DT-side.  I'll give this a go - it'll give me a reason to do a run through of their discography.

I really hope there are 100 songs when discounting for The Astonishing and A View - because precisely 0 of those songs will make my list.  Well, TA might have 1 or 2 that sneak in.

[Setlist Scotty]

I really hope there are 100 songs when discounting for The Astonishing and A View - because precisely 0 of those songs will make my list.  Well, TA might have 1 or 2 that sneak in.

Don't worry - there's 178 songs listed, so you can discount both albums automatically if you so choose to, and you'll still have to scratch off another 30 or so beyond that!   

Just as a warning though, break your list up into tiers like I suggested as it will make the sorting process much easier and faster, unless you wanna go the tedious route! Have fun! 

[jingle.boy]

I really hope there are 100 songs when discounting for The Astonishing and A View - because precisely 0 of those songs will make my list.  Well, TA might have 1 or 2 that sneak in.

Don't worry - there's 178 songs listed, so you can discount both albums automatically if you so choose to, and you'll still have to scratch off another 30 or so beyond that!   

Just as a warning though, break your list up into tiers like I suggested as it will make the sorting process much easier and faster, unless you wanna go the tedious route! Have fun! 

Thanks for the tip... when I stack rank, I usually break things down in thirds (top/middle/bottom), then thirds again.  That ought to get me to 9 lists of 11 in just two passes, which is pretty manageable.

[jingle.boy]

Forgive me if this has been brought up in past countdowns, and I'm going to give Tim a pre-emptive "fuck off already", but is there a reason You OR Me is not on the list?  I mean, I personally find it to be distinctive enough from You Not Me, but maybe not.

Just asking.

Got it Tim?  I'm just fucking asking a simple question. 

[TAC]

Forgive me if this has been brought up in past countdowns, and I'm going to give Tim a pre-emptive "fuck off already", but is there a reason You OR Me is not on the list?  I mean, I personally find it to be distinctive enough from You Not Me, but maybe not.

Just asking.

Got it Tim?  I'm just fucking asking a simple question. 

I mean, who gives a shit? It's the difference between coming in at 170 or 172. 

[Setlist Scotty]

Forgive me if this has been brought up in past countdowns, and I'm going to give Tim a pre-emptive "fuck off already", but is there a reason You OR Me is not on the list?  I mean, I personally find it to be distinctive enough from You Not Me, but maybe not.

Kev's rules. But I can understand why. While there are some differences between YoM and YNM, they are basically the same song with some changes. If that was included, then that means not only HY should be included, but also HY'04 (as featured on L@B). In fact, you could take it even a step further by including the demo version of HY and HY'09 as well. Same with Surrounded, the demo and Surrounded '07 (as featured on CiM). So best to keep it to just one version of each song.

However, you can rank them according to whatever version of the song you like. So if you want to rank YNM with the YoM version in mind, go for it. If you highly rate HY'04 and want to rank that version instead of the album version, no problem. But there will still only be the one version of the song listed.

Does that make sense?

[TAC]

However, you can rank them according to whatever version of the song you like. So if you want to rank YNM with the YoM version in mind, go for it. If you highly rate HY'04 and want to rank that version instead of the album version, no problem. But there will still only be the one version of the song listed.

Right. I have HY up there pretty high, and when it gets posted, I'll just make a mention of how great  the LaB version is and how boring the FII version is.

[Cool Chris]

I did the previous DT countdown, and only really remember my top 2, which may still be my top 2 this go around. When I break down the tiers I was a little surprised there were only 9 songs in my top tier. Having a hard time placing the View songs in this iteration. I enjoy them all quite a bit, save one, but struggling to place them in their appropriate tiers.

[jingle.boy]

Forgive me if this has been brought up in past countdowns, and I'm going to give Tim a pre-emptive "fuck off already", but is there a reason You OR Me is not on the list?  I mean, I personally find it to be distinctive enough from You Not Me, but maybe not.

Kev's rules. But I can understand why. While there are some differences between YoM and YNM, they are basically the same song with some changes. If that was included, then that means not only HY should be included, but also HY'04 (as featured on L@B). In fact, you could take it even a step further by including the demo version of HY and HY'09 as well. Same with Surrounded, the demo and Surrounded '07 (as featured on CiM). So best to keep it to just one version of each song.

However, you can rank them according to whatever version of the song you like. So if you want to rank YNM with the YoM version in mind, go for it. If you highly rate HY'04 and want to rank that version instead of the album version, no problem. But there will still only be the one version of the song listed.

Does that make sense?

Totally fair.  For some reason, YOM has a completely different feel to me.  I'm not griping at all, it was just an observation.  And given how obscure some of the track's listed are (I'd never heard of the Awake Jam before), I just thought I'd ask.  Also surprised O Holy Night isn't on here given Holiday Spirit Carries on is.  Not griping or giving a hard time to Kev, just making observations.

[KevShmev]

Right. I have HY up there pretty high, and when it gets posted, I'll just make a mention of how great  the LaB version is and how boring the FII version is.

Why would you make mention of something that is oh so wrong?

[Setlist Scotty]

Totally fair.  For some reason, YOM has a completely different feel to me.  I'm not griping at all, it was just an observation.  And given how obscure some of the track's listed are (I'd never heard of the Awake Jam before), I just thought I'd ask.  Also surprised O Holy Night isn't on here given Holiday Spirit Carries on is.  Not griping or giving a hard time to Kev, just making observations.

Totally cool. But you're not familiar with the Awake Jam? Aren't you like a super old-skool fan, too? Either way, hopefully you saw the post I made about all the non-album tracks on the list so that you can give them a listen and see what you think.   

As for OHN not being on there, it's a straight up cover, and covers have been excluded from the list. THSCO was included because it's not a flat out cover in the same way. Last time Kev did this, there was some discussion whether it should be included or not, and ultimately Kev decided to include it.

[Wim Kruithof]

Kevin, pm'ed you my list.

Although I really look forward to the countdown, I also have a lot of trouble ranking the songs. Two years ago I didn't used the ranking machine, now I did and it made a huge difference. But still... the spectrum of the songs is wide as the ocean and very often I just can't choose one another. It is also so 'bundeld' in the moment, the emotion and life-event. I tried to make sublists, but then again, failed in making those. Which song to put where is also a mindbreaker to me. And then there's those conceptual albums which are even harder to rank as sub-songs. Especially The Astonishing but also Scenes I usually listen to only as a whole. And that's so much better than the sum of it's parts.

So I went with a list I feel comfortable with. At least top-tier songs will probably remain in the highest part forever and low-tier might fall off one day and do not make the top 100 list in 2030, or they seem to age very well and sneak in the 40's or so. I can't imagine Dream Theater will ever compose a song to sneak in my top 3 again, but I will surely hope they do.

[MirrorMask]

So I went with a list I feel comfortable with. At least top-tier songs will probably remain in the highest part forever and low-tier might fall off one day and do not make the top 100 list in 2030, or they seem to age very well and sneak in the 40's or so. I can't imagine Dream Theater will ever compose a song to sneak in my top 3 again, but I will surely hope they do.

No, they won't.

Not because they don't have it in them, it's mainly the human and psychological factor - no song, no matter how good it is, can rival against decades of memories and "intimacy" with the song.

Let's pick a fan favorite, Metropolis - it's been out since 31 years, it's been played live many times. Which song can replace three decades, let's say even just 20 if you discovered them later, of good memories? listening to the song hundred of times, hearing it live, hearing the variations when performed live, the speech James makes before the end etc etc.... how can any modern song rival with THAT?

[wolfking]

So I went with a list I feel comfortable with. At least top-tier songs will probably remain in the highest part forever and low-tier might fall off one day and do not make the top 100 list in 2030, or they seem to age very well and sneak in the 40's or so. I can't imagine Dream Theater will ever compose a song to sneak in my top 3 again, but I will surely hope they do.

No, they won't.

Not because they don't have it in them, it's mainly the human and psychological factor - no song, no matter how good it is, can rival against decades of memories and "intimacy" with the song.

Let's pick a fan favorite, Metropolis - it's been out since 31 years, it's been played live many times. Which song can replace three decades, let's say even just 20 if you discovered them later, of good memories? listening to the song hundred of times, hearing it live, hearing the variations when performed live, the speech James makes before the end etc etc.... how can any modern song rival with THAT?

Yeah, it's all subjective but the nostalgia, the moment in time, the moment in your life, what you were going through all holds weight in the favourites.  It us rare a band of DTs legacy can do this but it's not impossible.  Maiden did it with me with three Senjutsu songs cracking my top 10 and the Parchment at 2.  So not impossible but rare I do admit.

[Stadler]

So I went with a list I feel comfortable with. At least top-tier songs will probably remain in the highest part forever and low-tier might fall off one day and do not make the top 100 list in 2030, or they seem to age very well and sneak in the 40's or so. I can't imagine Dream Theater will ever compose a song to sneak in my top 3 again, but I will surely hope they do.

No, they won't.

Not because they don't have it in them, it's mainly the human and psychological factor - no song, no matter how good it is, can rival against decades of memories and "intimacy" with the song.

Let's pick a fan favorite, Metropolis - it's been out since 31 years, it's been played live many times. Which song can replace three decades, let's say even just 20 if you discovered them later, of good memories? listening to the song hundred of times, hearing it live, hearing the variations when performed live, the speech James makes before the end etc etc.... how can any modern song rival with THAT?

Yeah, it's all subjective but the nostalgia, the moment in time, the moment in your life, what you were going through all holds weight in the favourites.  It us rare a band of DTs legacy can do this but it's not impossible.  Maiden did it with me with three Senjutsu songs cracking my top 10 and the Parchment at 2.  So not impossible but rare I do admit.

I'm with Wolfie.   "This is The Life" hit the right message in the right format at the right time.  It's probably a top five song and always will be.  I'm listening through now and I'm not sure anything in the Mangini era will get to top 25 for the reasons above, but that song did (there was another song too, and I relistened and I was like "what was I thinking?")

[WilliamMunny]

Yeah, I will filly admit to being in the minority, but part of what elevates DT to the 'next level' of my fandom is that the potential still exists for them to write something that will resonate with me in the same way all those classics do.

Case in point: while I haven't done it in a while, songs like "This is the Life," "Bridges in the Sky," "Breaking All Illusions," "At Wit's End," and "A Life Left Behind" would all make my top-20, edging out songs that came from the golden era. Hell, three of those would probably be in my top-10.

Now, the odds of the band dropping an album that immediately becomes a top-3 album for me are low, but just the fact that the possibility exists is a huge part of my continued fandom. There are few, if any, bands where that is the case after all of these years and albums.

[Wim Kruithof]

No, they won't.

I do really follow what you're saying and if I was a fan back then, no way this was ever likely to happen. But I became a fan in just a couple of years ago and only saw them releasing two new studioalbums. So that time-emotion-bias is not mine to comprehend in this Dream Theater-case.

(As was very the case with Pink Floyd).

But Dream Theater took over my musical taste completely and I rarely - if ever - listen to anything but Dream Theater. But still, it's all fresh in a kind of way, that seven years ago I didn't knew a single song.

[KevShmev]

I have been a pretty big fan at one point or another of most of their work in the last 20 years (even the albums that maybe haven't aged so well for me), yet 24 of my top 25 are from 2002 or earlier*.  The highest ranked song for me from the Mangini era (which I really dug) finished 28th (actually the top 3 songs from that era for me finished 28th, 29th and 30th).

*it's 25 of 25 if I say 2003 or earlier (no, Octavarium did not make my top 25)

[TAC]

This Is The Life is one of the best written songs in their catalog. It's practically perfect.

[Wim Kruithof]

(no, Octavarium did not make my top 25)

Medicate me, please...

This Is The Life is one of the best written songs in their catalog. It's practically perfect.

It didn't even made my list (#101).

[Dream Team]

This Is The Life is one of the best written songs in their catalog. It's practically perfect.

Truth! A great non-sappy ballad.

[Jamesman42]

(no, Octavarium did not make my top 25)

[KevShmev]

Fear not, Octavarium didn't finish too far past my top 25. 

[Zydar]

I haven't done my ranking yet, but I'm not so sure Octavarium will reach my Top 25. We'll see.

[Evermind]

I haven't done my list yet (not sure I will, but I'd like to as it'll give me incentive to re-listen to all DT albums), but speaking of epics, I'm not sure ACOS will even crack my Top 75. Just getting it out there so I don't get disqualified for rigging the rankings.

[TAC]

This Is The Life is one of the best written songs in their catalog. It's practically perfect.

It didn't even made my list (#101).

Well I wasn't really commenting on its likability. Im just saying it is structurally perfect.

[Jamesman42]

This is the Life is underrated.