On the whole, FII is a better connection for me musically.

Quote from: Lonk on August 06, 2024, 10:36:29 AMI mean, you also had Cover My Eyes at #1, and ACOS at #103, so there's that 

Interesting viewpoint....

Quote from: CraftyCaleb2483 on August 06, 2024, 10:41:46 AMInteresting viewpoint....

As Stadler put it, it's all about the songs that connect with you.

Quote from: Lonk on August 06, 2024, 10:44:58 AMAs Stadler put it, it's all about the songs that connect with you.

Indeed

Quote from: CraftyCaleb2483 on August 06, 2024, 10:41:46 AMInteresting viewpoint....

Certainly one way to word it


Luv ya Stads

I think as a general rule, if I take my list, and turn it upside down, I'll get Stadler's list.

Quote from: CraftyCaleb2483 on August 06, 2024, 10:46:12 AMIndeed

We don't know each other well (uh, at all) but I do not try to be an iconoclast, it's certainly not for shock value, it just works out that way.  I like what I like, and I don't apologize for it. When we do the song lists, I invariably have songs at the top that others don't, and I frequently skip songs that tend to energize the fan bases.  My Rush song list bears little resemblance to the consensus.  .

I LOVE "Cover My Eyes" and only really listen to the FII Director's Cut at this point. 

This was my Top Ten:
1   Cover My Eyes
2   Voices
3   Strange Deja Vu
4   Overture 1928
5   This is the Life
6   Misunderstood
7   This Dying Soul
8   Pull Me Under
9   Innocence Faded
10   Metropolis, Pt. 1: the Miracle and the Sleeper

To be fair, Cover My Eyes would make my reimagined FII, but in a Viper King added on kind of thing.

Quote from: Stadler on August 06, 2024, 11:52:17 AM7   This Dying Soul

Your Top 10 is actually filled with great classic tunes, but this legitimately surprises me. Not that it's not a great tune. It is, but I wouldn't expect to see it on your list.

Quote from: CraftyCaleb2483 on August 06, 2024, 10:36:49 AMI didn't realize that Learning to Live was the DTF favourite! It certainly is mine!

2021-22
1. Learning to Live
2. A Change of Seasons
3. Octavarium
4. Metropolis Part 1
5. Voices
6. Breaking All Illusions
7. Trial of Tears
8. Home
9. Scarred
10. Finally Free

2024
1. Learning to Live
2. Metropolis Part 1
3. A Change of Seasons
4. Octavarium
5. Home
6. Trial of Tears
7. Voices
8. Breaking All Illusions
9. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
10. The Count of Tuscany

Quote from: TAC on August 06, 2024, 12:47:20 PMTo be fair, Cover My Eyes would make my reimagined FII, but in a Viper King added on kind of thing.


Your Top 10 is actually filled with great classic tunes, but this legitimately surprises me. Not that it's not a great tune. It is, but I wouldn't expect to see it on your list.

It's kind of like the perfect intersection of all the things I like about DT without going too far into any one territory.  I love that part around 3:00 which John's guitar and that vocal line... it's also got a sort of mideastern vibe, a Blackmore/Schenker vibe, sort of.   The only part I don't care for and it's short is that rap-py part right after that.

Quote from: Stadler on August 06, 2024, 11:52:17 AMWe don't know each other well (uh, at all) but I do not try to be an iconoclast, it's certainly not for shock value, it just works out that way.  I like what I like, and I don't apologize for it. When we do the song lists, I invariably have songs at the top that others don't, and I frequently skip songs that tend to energize the fan bases.  My Rush song list bears little resemblance to the consensus.  .

I LOVE "Cover My Eyes" and only really listen to the FII Director's Cut at this point. 

This was my Top Ten:
1   Cover My Eyes
2   Voices
3   Strange Deja Vu
4   Overture 1928
5   This is the Life
6   Misunderstood
7   This Dying Soul
8   Pull Me Under
9   Innocence Faded
10   Metropolis, Pt. 1: the Miracle and the Sleeper

I would love to read your review on this song. I wanted to like it so much when it came out but it bores me still today. Glad you rank it this highly, someone oughta love it out there even if I don't.

I think This Is the Life is DT's most perfectly written song.

Quote from: TAC on August 06, 2024, 02:17:08 PMI think This Is the Life is DT's most perfectly written song.

yeah certainly one of them for me too

Quote from: Max Kuehnau on August 06, 2024, 02:23:50 PMyeah certainly one of them for me too

same

Quote from: TAC on August 06, 2024, 02:17:08 PMI think This Is the Life is DT's most perfectly written song.

It's a great one for sure.  Sadly, it got the one tour and done treatment, and I'd be shocked if it ever gets played again, as I think it was clearly about Portnoy's departure, although I know the band will never come out and say it.

Quote from: KevShmev on August 06, 2024, 06:42:48 PMIt's a great one for sure.  Sadly, it got the one tour and done treatment, and I'd be shocked if it ever gets played again, as I think it was clearly about Portnoy's departure, although I know the band will never come out and say it.

I said that at the time.

Quote from: TAC on August 06, 2024, 06:43:59 PMI said that at the time.

I am pretty sure I did as well.  Admittedly, I think it was so obvious that I am pretty sure we weren't the only two. 

Quote from: Lonk on August 06, 2024, 07:09:34 AMJumping in to point out that's not what legato is.

Re: the song. It's a top 10 for me (I think I ranked it 7 in the recent top 100). And the vocal parts after the solo is probably one of my favorite moments from Labrie (Lyrics and Melody).

We fabricate our demons
Invite them into our homes
Have supper with the aliens
And fight the war alone

We conjure up our skeletons
Enlist the den of thieves
Frightened from our closets
Then sewn upon our sleeves

In the stream of consciousness
There is a river crying
Living comes much easier
Once we admit
We're dying

This is my favorite moment in this song. It's a moment I want to see LITS live, but I also want them to include the demo verse that was cut, to me that verse adds more to the song as it transitions into the final chorus.

Quote from: Stadler on August 06, 2024, 11:52:17 AMWe don't know each other well (uh, at all)

Don't worry, I'm new!

Quote from: Stadler on August 06, 2024, 11:52:17 AMbut I do not try to be an iconoclast, it's certainly not for shock value, it just works out that way.  I like what I like, and I don't apologize for it.

I'm the same, I put New Millennium in my top 10, which earns some controversy!

FII has more songs I skip completely, but it also has higher highs, IMO. Ultimately I would probably choose Falling into Infinity because it has my favorite DT song, Trial of Tears.

Quote from: TAC on August 06, 2024, 02:17:08 PMI think This Is the Life is DT's most perfectly written song.

I'll second that emotion.

Quote from: KevShmev on August 06, 2024, 06:42:48 PMIt's a great one for sure.  Sadly, it got the one tour and done treatment, and I'd be shocked if it ever gets played again, as I think it was clearly about Portnoy's departure, although I know the band will never come out and say it.

EDIT: I wrote this about BENEATH THE SURFACE, not THIS IS THE LIFE, though what I wrote applies to both. 

I have no idea if I said that at the time or not, but when I was doing my list of DT songs, that was the unshakeable impression on re-hearing that song.  I don't doubt it at all.

(And while I am 100% the guy that rarely if ever tells "my bands" what they should do - I get my musical pleasure from the connection of them doing something I like without being told, if that makes sense - I would be over the moon for a post-reunion sequel of that song, or maybe even a "response" song from Mike.  Portnoy is no dummy and he has to know there are seeds there, and that now there are strings there to be pulled on in a good way.)

FII is the better album, but SC has aged remarkably well-- and certainly has its own unique identity in the DT catalogue. I remember it being very unpopular when initially released. I would have loved to see DT do at least one more album while Derek Sherinian was in the band.

FII Favorites:
New Millennium
You Not Me
Peruvian Skies
Hollow Years
Hell's Kitchen
Lines in the Sand
Anna Lee
Trial of Tears

This is basically the entire album: apart from Take Away My Pain (it's still great) and Burning my Soul (a very mediocre DT track).

SC Favorites:
In the Presence of Enemies Pt 1 + 2
The Ministry of Lost Souls

The Dark Eternal Night and Forsaken are (mostly) good. These days, I never listen to Constant Motion or Prophets of War (the absolute worst song on the album).

Not even close, but Anna Lee and Forsaken are two of my all-time least favorites.

Prophets Of War is a about the only song that can hang with most of the songs on Falling Into Infinity. Constant Motion and Repentance are close though.

Re: Lines in the Sand - I had it ranked 58th. It's a fine song, but I don't connect with it like others. The organ sound is the best part of the song. I think it's DS's best song on the album.

Lines in the Sand just finally clicked for me, I had it ranked almost as low as you could go once, now it's one of my modern favorites. Funny how this works

SC > FII by a little. FII has some incredible songs (Hell's Kitchen, Trial of Tears) but listening beginning to end takes too long to get to them. SC starts really strong, though it has a handful of meh songs I'd still prefer to listen to any of them then You Not Me.

2 of their weaker albums for me, both bottom-5 albums. If FII had some of its weaker songs replaced with some of the demo tracks it would be a different story.

Both of these are mid tier DT albums, which basically means that they're absolutely fantastic. I voted for SC, just barely. FII could've been the winner with a couple of changes to the tracklist. The FII demo album is a great listen in itself.

FII is a really strong album with a lovely organic and spacious vibe that isn't really matched elsewhere in DT's catalogue. There are some weaker tracks for sure, but others are fantastic and LITS is my favourite DT track. I feel like the negative reputation it has is largely a reaction to the fact that it was very different to the albums that preceded it. But if you listen to it after first having heard SFAM and 6DOIT the softer songs on FII do not sound like a departure. (E.g. Through Her Eyes is a very "soft pop" song but very few people seem bothered by it in the way they are bothered by some of the ballads on FII).

I don't really have anything positive to say about SC. It was the album that turned me off DT when it came out. I revisited it recently and did not enjoy any of it.

Quote from: DT05 on August 06, 2024, 02:11:03 PMI would love to read your review on this song. I wanted to like it so much when it came out but it bores me still today. Glad you rank it this highly, someone oughta love it out there even if I don't.

TAC has said on a couple occasions something like "this is their most well-written song" or something like that, and I agree. I'm a melody guy, and that melody just hits the spot. I'm a big fan of the doubled vocals, and the solo is IMO one of John's better ones. Finally, the lyric is one that I have shared with my daughter on a couple of occasions.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell...