Album of the day (#2639): Images And Words by Dream Theater - Music

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Today's album of the day

Images And Words by Dream Theater (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1992.
Country:

Overall rank: 556
Average rating: 78/100 (from 297 votes).

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Tracks:
1. Pull Me Under
2. Another Day
3. Take The Time
4. Surrounded
5. Metropolis, Pt. I: The Miracle And The Sleeper
6. Under A Glass Moon
7. Wait For Sleep
8. Learning To Live

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

AAL2014

A classic with its main flaw being the production. Makes it sound very dated and the drums sound like fucking garbage. Song wise though, this album is great.
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YoungPunk

Listened to some of it... More a fan of Dream Theater's recent stuff like the amazing 2 hour + rock opera The Astonishing. I feel like in Images and Words they really aren't focusing on the most pleasant sounds.

Fischman
RockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMaster

Gender: Male
Location: Land of Enchantment

#2 on my all time list and there are times I think it should be #1.

By 1992 I was confident there'd never be another new album that would completely rock my musical world and redefine for me what music can be. I was wrong and Images and Words was the proof. This album was a genuine revelation.

I was driving to night school after work and WAAF (Boston) played "Pull Me Under" and I was blown away... almost had to pull over the car so I could process what I just heard.

To this day, it remains my favorite Dream Theater album. No matter how many times I listen, I never tire of it. It has the best ever combination of technical excellence and captivating melody, impossibly dense and complex arrangement, yet hummable tunes, sheer instrumental virtuosity and genuinely expressive presentation. Many like to say that progressive metal is just indulgent technical showing off at the expense of emotion and connection; this album blows that false stereotype right out of the water.

LaBrie's soaring vocals and incredible range and control throughout the full breadth of vocal pitches and sonics are a high watermark standard for any vocalist
Petrucci's guitar is recital worthy in its execution, yet marvelously expressive and presents a gorgeous tone
Myung's bass is creative, innovative, and adds layers of depth to already complex music.
Portnoy rightfully established himself as one of rock's elite drummers on this album and his added creativity further sets this album apart
Moore's keyboards round out the recipe perfectly in every way

The songwriting is unique, original, fresh, explores depths of the human experience, is often poignant, and blends in with the music in complex ways no others have ever been able to achieve.

The production is absolutely flawless, topping this off as an absolutely perfect album. Unassailable in any way.

Talk about standing the test of time; 26 years on and rather than fading with age and repetition, every time I hear it, its stature only grows further in my ears. I don't think there's a single other album about which I can say that after a quarter century of repeated listening.

AAL2014

Fischman wrote:

#2 on my all time list and there are times I think it should be #1.

By 1992 I was confident there'd never be another new album that would completely rock my musical world and redefine for me what music can be. I was wrong and Images and Words was the proof. This album was a genuine revelation.

I was driving to night school after work and WAAF (Boston) played "Pull Me Under" and I was blown away... almost had to pull over the car so I could process what I just heard.

To this day, it remains my favorite Dream Theater album. No matter how many times I listen, I never tire of it. It has the best ever combination of technical excellence and captivating melody, impossibly dense and complex arrangement, yet hummable tunes, sheer instrumental virtuosity and genuinely expressive presentation. Many like to say that progressive metal is just indulgent technical showing off at the expense of emotion and connection; this album blows that false stereotype right out of the water.

LaBrie's soaring vocals and incredible range and control throughout the full breadth of vocal pitches and sonics are a high watermark standard for any vocalist
Petrucci's guitar is recital worthy in its execution, yet marvelously expressive and presents a gorgeous tone
Myung's bass is creative, innovative, and adds layers of depth to already complex music.
Portnoy rightfully established himself as one of rock's elite drummers on this album and his added creativity further sets this album apart
Moore's keyboards round out the recipe perfectly in every way

The songwriting is unique, original, fresh, explores depths of the human experience, is often poignant, and blends in with the music in complex ways no others have ever been able to achieve.

The production is absolutely flawless, topping this off as an absolutely perfect album. Unassailable in any way.

Talk about standing the test of time; 26 years on and rather than fading with age and repetition, every time I hear it, its stature only grows further in my ears. I don't think there's a single other album about which I can say that after a quarter century of repeated listening.

This is a beautiful summation of a great album. I always appreciate seeing Dream Theater love. I've been a big fan of theirs for as long as I've been serious about music. However, I cannot agree with the production being flawless. My one main beef with this album and the reason I can say definitively this is not my favorite Dream Theater album is the production. I think the drums sound very inorganic. I heavily prefer SFAM on where the drums sounded live and natural. What are more of your thoughts on the production of this album?

Also, I was recently just talking to a drum student of mine about Dream Theater and particularly Pull Me Under. He said that when Pull Me Under came out it was very popular around here (Flint, Michigan. Yeah, that place in the new Netflix documentary) but people would call into the rock station at the time asking for "That new Def Leppard song, Pull Me Under." Laughing

I got quite the kick out of hearing that.
_________________
Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.

Fischman
RockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMaster

Gender: Male
Location: Land of Enchantment

AAL2014 wrote:

Fischman wrote:

#2 on my all time list and there are times I think it should be #1.

By 1992 I was confident there'd never be another new album that would completely rock my musical world and redefine for me what music can be. I was wrong and Images and Words was the proof. This album was a genuine revelation.

I was driving to night school after work and WAAF (Boston) played "Pull Me Under" and I was blown away... almost had to pull over the car so I could process what I just heard.

To this day, it remains my favorite Dream Theater album. No matter how many times I listen, I never tire of it. It has the best ever combination of technical excellence and captivating melody, impossibly dense and complex arrangement, yet hummable tunes, sheer instrumental virtuosity and genuinely expressive presentation. Many like to say that progressive metal is just indulgent technical showing off at the expense of emotion and connection; this album blows that false stereotype right out of the water.

LaBrie's soaring vocals and incredible range and control throughout the full breadth of vocal pitches and sonics are a high watermark standard for any vocalist
Petrucci's guitar is recital worthy in its execution, yet marvelously expressive and presents a gorgeous tone
Myung's bass is creative, innovative, and adds layers of depth to already complex music.
Portnoy rightfully established himself as one of rock's elite drummers on this album and his added creativity further sets this album apart
Moore's keyboards round out the recipe perfectly in every way

The songwriting is unique, original, fresh, explores depths of the human experience, is often poignant, and blends in with the music in complex ways no others have ever been able to achieve.

The production is absolutely flawless, topping this off as an absolutely perfect album. Unassailable in any way.

Talk about standing the test of time; 26 years on and rather than fading with age and repetition, every time I hear it, its stature only grows further in my ears. I don't think there's a single other album about which I can say that after a quarter century of repeated listening.

This is a beautiful summation of a great album. I always appreciate seeing Dream Theater love. I've been a big fan of theirs for as long as I've been serious about music. However, I cannot agree with the production being flawless. My one main beef with this album and the reason I can say definitively this is not my favorite Dream Theater album is the production. I think the drums sound very inorganic. I heavily prefer SFAM on where the drums sounded live and natural. What are more of your thoughts on the production of this album?

Also, I was recently just talking to a drum student of mine about Dream Theater and particularly Pull Me Under. He said that when Pull Me Under came out it was very popular around here (Flint, Michigan. Yeah, that place in the new Netflix documentary) but people would call into the rock station at the time asking for "That new Def Leppard song, Pull Me Under." Laughing

I got quite the kick out of hearing that.

I guess the sound hits my ear just right, including the drums. Whatever production qualities you're sensitive to here must not be reaching me. It is quite possible that I'm so enamored with every other aspect of the album that my brain just processes it as a whole and I don't hear what you hear as a flaw.

Now that you mention it, I guess I can hear a little production/drum sound similarity with Def Leppard, a group I have little tolerance for. I suspect that, given that what Portnoy is doing is so much more intricate, technical, and marvelously executed, that stands out to me more than the production/sound. Even if the entire group sounded exactly like Leppard, I couldn't ever see myself making that mistake given the difference in the quality of the musicianship. Kind of like Rush's Grace Under Pressure sounding like the Fixx, but there being no chance of anybody who's actually listening making that mistake.

YoungPunk

@Fischman

Yeah! I saw you liked it. Lots of this minor key stuff can definitely be growers for me, especially from prog groups. I think it is great and will finish eventually, but for now I like the Astonishing better.

Fischman
RockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMaster

Gender: Male
Location: Land of Enchantment

YoungPunk wrote:

@Fischman

Yeah! I saw you liked it. Lots of this minor key stuff can definitely be growers for me, especially from prog groups. I think it is great and will finish eventually, but for now I like the Astonishing better.

I actually saw The Astonishing live. So I've seen DT twice, separated by almost 25 years!

It was indeed Astonishing. I'm definitely not wanting in respect for that album. It is a huge time commitment, though!

YoungPunk

For me long is actually how I like my music! I used to listen to Met Opera radio (when satellite radio was big and not streaming) while I was working on college, which takes a long time, so I developed super concentration abilities for musical pieces.

TheHutts

Gender: Male

I'm not a big Dream Theater guy, but this album still has a lot of the production norms of the 1980s in place - it sounds quite synthetic.

On the other hand, James LaBrie's vocals sound great here. I think he lost the gorgeous high end on the group's later work.
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