Grand CD Listen Through, Part 18

[the_eggwhite]

Dark Star - Twenty Twenty Sound
This is a band that span off after Levitation broke up, and consists of three of the members of that band. It's a bit more straight up rocky than levitation were, but it doesn't suffer for that. Opener "96 Days" does a good job of getting things moving and "I Am The Sun" keeps things moving along... although clearly the band still want to be "Levitation" at this point.

The difference is that Levitation were best described as prog-indie or prog-psychedelic-shoegaze, whilst this lot have stepped back from the proggier end of things and a bit towards the straight up guitar rock. So whilst this lot are okay, they just don't leap out at me the same way that levitation (or Dragons, a later spin off) did.

Other stand out tracks to me are Graceadelica (which has a bit of a madchester scene feel to it) and lies.

I'd keep it if I wasn't trying to clear space, but I am, so this goes into the "letting it go" pile. It's good, but not good enough that I think I'll listen to it much. The original slipcase got damaged a while back, so I salvaged the front of it to use in a normal jewel case... so it's not in the original packaging, but some of the original packaging is with it.

Verdict: letting it go...


Deexpus - The King of Number 33
This lot are a prog band who managed to gain Marillion's Mark Kelly as a keyboard player for their second album, and thus managed to gain my attention (when we get to the M section of this listen through, get ready for a fair bit of Marillion). Whilst he's a good addition to the band, they're actually prettty damned fine anyway. I think this album was one of my finds of 2011.

Opening track "Me and My Downfall" is at the punchy, rocky end of prog... which is right about the centre of my prog comfort zone (it's not all I like, but it's where I'm most likely to find music I like). "Maybe September" is more of a mellow number, but kicks in about halfway through with some quite meaty guitar and keyboard... Once it kicks in, it gets into my preferred territory, but until that point... I'm afraid it's a little bit boring.

Track number 3, titled "Marty and the Magic Moose" has a fair bit of 1980s to it, but throws a bit of 90s/00s style rocky prog on top of it. It works. I like. It's also the shortest song on the album and an instrumental. The keyboard solos (unsurprisingly) hark back to "Misplaced Childhood" and "Clutching at Straws" era Marillion, which I must admit I was quite pleased to hear.

Then, because this is a prog album, we embark upon a 27 minute, six part epic called "The King of Number 33". It's epic. It's proggy. It's rocky. It has mumbling spoken word bits, and I heard sound effects of horses hooves. Proper prog epics are less common these days, but I do still have a soft spot for a good one, and this is a good one.

It's proggy, but rocky and meaty at the same time. I like it a lot, and will be ripping it to my mp3 player shortly to remind myself of this fact when I'm out and about. When I've finished listening, that is.

The album closes out with "Memo", which I must confess turned a different direction to the one I expected as it built up at the start. Not a bad direction, though. It's a more sparse song than the others, but I think that works as a bit of change after the previous epic.

I should track down their first album at some point, but that doesn't help me get rid of CDs!

Verdict: Very much keeping this one thankyou!


Dragons - Here Are The Roses
I don't think that this ever manages to live up to the title track, but it's a blinder of a title track. I've listened to this one quite a lot recently anyway, so I'm not going to re-listen now. If you like Levitation and Joy Division, imagine that they had sex and nine months later, Dragons appeared. You won't be far off.

The title track is a blinder, by the way, even if the singer does look like a bit of a nubbin in the video. He delivers the goods, though, so he's allowed.

Verdict: It's got "Here are the Roses" on it. I'm keeping it.


Dream Theater - When Dream And Day Unite
You'd think that, given my main problem with Dream Theater, an album without James "The Cheese!" LaBrie would be better. Oh well. There's some good songs on here anyway, though. The question is... are they good enough?

Musically, the album's fine, although suffers from sounding a little murky in the production. Murky enough that I can tell. "A Fortune in Lies" reminds me why I bought the album in the first place, knowing it was Dream Theater before they found their forumla. Then Charlie Dominici opens his mouth... and it actually works pretty well. Better than I remember, on this song at least.

"Status Seeker" works pretty well as well, but is still bit of a straighforward rock number. The vocals aren't bad, but they do lack the punch of Mr LaBrie. They're also less shrieky, though, so it's a bit of a tough one to call.

"The Ytse Jam" is classic Dream Theater, though. Through and Through. It's also an intrumental, so whichever singer they have, it's going to work pretty well for me! Lots of changes and widdly bits of the kind that this bunch are famous for. All good stuff.

In general, this is an album that's very much of it's time. I was going to say that Charlie Dominici was a very 80s metal vocalist, but then I realised that this wasn't very surprising. This album came out in 1989. Here is the evidence of them being very 80s.

Unfortunately, it's certainly the vocals that let down "The Killing Hand". The rest of the song's good, solid prog metal... but the vocals just can't keep up. This remains a common theme through the rest of the album, alas. They're not bad - in fact, they're pretty decent... but it's clear that even with that, they're the weak link in the band.

You've got to feel a bit sorry for somebody when they're merely "good" in a band full of geniuses.

In all, I think I prefer this album to some of their later stuff (where I think they were performing a trick best described as a "rectal ouroboros"). They did go back to more my kind of thing later on, but I've had too much other good stuff to listen to... so haven't really caught up.

Other standouts: Afterlife, Only a Matter of Time.

Verdict: Surprisingly, keep.


Dream Theater - Images & Words
I HAVE A CASE BUT NO CD! WHERE IS THE CD!
(I'm looking suspiciously in your direction here, izzy_stradlin, you cd-in-the-wrong-case miscreant!)

However, this is the album that got me into Dream Theatre. I played it to death at the time, and it took me a long time to get back to being able to listen to it again. So I can review it from memory & the tracklist. Also, I can review it from my handy mp3 copy.

"Pull Me Under" will always be an excellent, meaty song. It's a favourite, if an overplayed one. Just putting it on brings it right back. Compared to the previous album, this one just reaches out and slaps you in the face. In fact, it also reaches out and slaps you in the guts with the bassline if you're not careful (turns down the subwoofer a bit). I also like the decision they made on how to end the song, which is basically to just stop mid bar. It actually works, surprisingly

"Another Day" is another fan favourite, and I can see why... but it's also the start of the one thing that puts me off Dream Theatre - the James LaBrie shriek! We know your voice can go up quite high, James. Sometimes I'd quite like it to come down again. The "help somebody's trapped my testicles in a vice whilst squeezing a cat nearby" vocal method just isn't quite my thing. When he's not doing it, it's an awesome prog metal ballad, but when he does it, it's like nails on a chalkboard. Pain. I'd love the song if it wasn't for that.

Other standouts are... well, basically everything except the moments where the vocals try to stab me in the eyes via my eardrums. Those moments are still relatively few and far between at this point.

Verdict: I'd say "keep" but I've already lost it!


Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons
This is an odd one, as it's basically a Dream Theatre EP, fleshed out with a number of covers to turn it into a full album.

A Change of Seasons is another massive prog epic, weighing in at 23 minutes. It's also the only Dream Theater song on the album. It's not bad, but doesn't leap out at me as vastly memorable.

The covers, though, are mostly awesome. The cover of "Love Lies Bleeding / Funeral For A Friend" gave me a huge amount of respect for Elton John. This little medley is just plain awesome.

The cover of Perfect Strangers is also damned fine, and made me hanker for some Deep Purple. Then there's a pile of Led Zep (done pretty well) and a bit of a medley from which I recognise more now than I did when I bought the CD. In particular, I now know "Carry on My Wayward Son". I think they should have left out the cover of "Turn it on again", though. I don't think that one quite worked.

Verdict: Keep