Every so often, I tend to infuriate the legions of progressive
\nrock by saying something that isn’t totally positive about a group
\nor a specific album. It’s not that I’m looking for a fight, or that
\nI particularly like getting hate mail on a regular basis. It’s just
\nthat, for some reason, I’m not able to see that cosmic oneness or
\nsome other hare-brained stuff that others claim is so obviously
\nvisible.<\/p>\n
I’m in that kind of a situation today, as I sit here with
\nImages And Words<\/i>, the 1992 release from modern-day prog-rock
\ngods Dream Theater, staring at me from the desk, just minutes after
\nmy third complete listen to the album in two days. Fire up the
\ne-mail forms, and get ready to sling abuse at me, ’cause here comes
\nmy damning comment:
\nImages And Words<\/i> is a decent album, but it’s boring.<\/p>\n
This album marked the debut of lead singer James LaBrie in the
\nfold, as well as the group’s first major-label release. But
\nsomewhere in between the recording of their debut album
\nWhen Dream And Day Unite<\/i> and the writing\/recording of this
\ndisc, something got lost in the shuffle – and that was
\nspontaneousness. It’s one thing to put five virtuosos together —
\nand “virtuoso” is the right word to describe LaBrie, guitarist John
\nPetrucci, bassist John Myung, keyboardist Kevin Moore and drummer
\nMike Portnoy. But it’s another to make music that doesn’t sound
\nlike virtuosos demonstrating their superior abilities – and that’s
\nsomething that can’t be forced. Just one album previous, the group
\nwas writing songs like “The YTSE Jam” and “Light Fuse And Get
\nAway”. ‘Nuff said.<\/p>\n
\nImages And Words<\/i> has the closest thing to a “hit single”
\nthat Dream Theater has in their repertoire: “Pull Me Under,” a
\ntrack that does successfully capture the talent and power of this
\nband. It is a wonderful track for LaBrie to get settled in with,
\nand is rightfully still a track that thrills audiences at live
\nshows. I still remember the reaction the band got when I saw them
\nperform this song in 1998 in concert — and even though I wasn’t
\ntotally familiar with it, I loved it from the start. My one
\ncomplaint: I don’t like the way the track ends suddenly, as if the
\ntape machine ran out during recording.<\/p>\n
The only other time that Dream Theater gets even remotely close
\nto this magic is on the disc’s 11-minute closing track “Learning To
\nLive,” another track that shows the absolute power and mastery that
\nthe group has over the genre and the material. (I do also like the
\nlead-in track “Wait For Sleep,” though its brevity almost makes it
\nseem like it’s underdeveloped compared to some of the other opuses
\non this disc.)<\/p>\n
The problem with the bulk of
\nImages And Words<\/i> is that the songwriting fails to highlight
\nthe artistry, instead dragging it down to a more mediocre level.
\nThere are moments, like Myung’s brief bass solo on “Metropolis –
\nPart I,” but not many — or, more correctly, not enough. I won’t
\npretend to know the answer of how Dream Theater could have fixed
\nthis. All I do know is that it takes skilled songwriting to truly
\nhighlight extraordinary work of bandmates. Yes knows how to do this
\nfrom time to time; Rush knows how to do this more consistently. And
\nwhile I’m still very much in the learning curve of Dream Theater’s
\nmusic, I think it’s safe to say that they would learn this with the
\npassage of time.<\/p>\n
And by no means is LaBrie at fault here; his more controlled
\nvocals seems to be exactly what was called for by Dream Theater. If
\nanything, adding him to the band was a smart move, and one that
\nwould briefly serve as some consistency for the band. (This
\nparticular lineup would remain intact for one more album,
\nAwake<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
\nImages And Words<\/i> does have some material that is absolutely
\nincredible, but when you expect the whole album to be of this
\ncaliber, it only serves to highlight the weaker tracks that much
\nmore. And while the album is a sign of things to come, it is still
\na very tentative step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5988],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36331","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dream-theater","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36331"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36331"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}