For this relisten I will be listening to this version of the album:
http://dreamtheater.wikia.com/wiki/The_Making_of_Scenes_from_a_Memory I've never been a huge fan of the Scenes production, so I'm very interested in an alternate version.
Anyway, I agree with Knick that it's important to separate each song from the album and judge it critically on its own.
Regression: Awesome way to start the album, but is nothing special by itself. Obviously gets a vote.
Overture 1928: One of the great DT instrumentals. I love the way it recalls Metropolis Part 1 as well as other themes on the album. I'm a sucker for a good overture and this is one I won't skip when it comes up on shuffle.
Strange Deja Vu: As awesome as it is on the album, I actually don't go for it that much out of context. It has a great chorus though and I love how the song switches gears in the middle, which fits the lyrical narrative really well. This song is also notable for being the first time we get prominent backing vocals from MP on a studio recording. He was starting to sing more live and there are backup vocals on the previous two albums, but here it's really upfront. I had the opposite reaction to Judas when listening to the album the first few times. This and Overture 1928 had me really excited. A triumphant and awesome way to open the album.
Through My Words: Until very recently, this was the shortest DT song. Nice melody but obviously meant to be an interlude and nothing more. It gets a vote!
Fatal Tragedy: Listening to this alternate mix really shows how instrumental Kevin Shirley was in making this a great album. There is a lot of extra unnecessary stuff in this song that Kevin Shirley cut out. Anyway, this song is really cool. It goes in so many different directions while still being relatively short. I really like how the chorus switches the same melody between 4/4 and 6/8. And of course the legendary "shrink and grow" instrumental section. Really creative way of doing a solo section. Also some of JP's craziest guitar work. You really hear right away that having JR in the band immediately made JP push himself as a player. Until JR came along, he was arguably the most technically skilled member of the band, so he probably didn't have as much of an urge to push himself. The guitar work on Scenes is lightyears ahead of anything on the previous DT albums. The "AC/DC" outro is intense. Definitely one of the best songs out of context.
Beyond This Life: Really creative lyric on this one, basically being a newspaper article. I like this one because it shows DT pushing the limits not just on the technical stuff, but also sonically. Lots of weird stuff on this song. I really love the psychedelic chorus in this one, haunting stuff. Structurally this is a precursor to the 00s extended DT songs: basic verse/chorus stuff followed by a huge extended instrumental section with solos and keyboard/guitar duels. This one really nails that though, as it stays unpredictable. Lots of atonal/arhythmic stuff, much more creative than a lot of their later extended pieces. My favorite part of the instrumental is when JR starts using these Zappa keyboard sounds, playing in a different time signature than everyone else until it comes together in the Zappa unison. They totally nailed the Zappa vibe. Also, the way the instrumental builds into the final chorus is epic. Despite having so many different parts, everything really flows together nicely and doesn't feel disjointed. At this point you also really have to give JR credit. This kind of stuff wouldn't have been possible without him.
Also, maybe I'm crazy, but BTL sounds to me a bit like improved Lines in the Sand from the last album. I don't know whether it's the structure or something else altogether, but lately this thought has been bugging me each time I listen to the song.
I think it's because they're both bluesier guitar driven tunes, especially in the solo sections. Sticking with more pentatonic stuff and straight beats (although BTL has a lot of odd time signature stuff, it's a bit masked usually).
As a side note, after the Zappa section I always expect to hear JLB shouting "YEAAAAA!" because of the Budokan dvd.
Through Her Eyes: I kind of agree with Judas on this one, although I don't hate the song. It has a lot of nice melodies but it does feel a bit "plastic". I typically like DT ballads as long as they're not generic. As far as that goes, this is one of the worst. I really dislike that late 90s r&b/power ballad sound they seem to be emulating. Although I do really like Myung's bass playing on this, I can enjoy this song throughout if I just focus on that. The lyrics are not good, which I normally don't mind, but they are so prominent in this song that it is hard to ignore them. Honestly I usually skip this song, it doesn't really segue to or from anything and doesn't contribute much to the whole album experience besides being a break between the heavy and prog. I get that they needed something mellower to close Act I, but this is one of the few things that The Astonishing does better than Scenes: The Road To Revolution is the perfect way to close an Act and is a much better song. That said, Scenes isn't really a two act structure, though it does have a clear first and second half. It's more like side 1 & 2 on a vinyl record (Awake and I&W are like this too anyway). Through Her Eyes gets a vote!
Home: My introduction to DT was the 2010 tour with Iron Maiden and while most of that concert is a blur now, there are several things I remember really well still and Home is one of them. That song really grabbed me even then. I really love the heavy Tool flavored riffs in this and the Eastern sound. I also love all the Metropolis references. They had to do a song that was filled with Metropolis call backs and this one does it perfectly. The main riff appearing after the first chorus is an epic moment. I do agree with Judas that it is a bit bloated, which keeps it from being my favorite, though I really like the live versions where they shortened the intro and middle parts. Probably the first DT song that goes on a little too long. I used to dislike the outro too but I've come to appreciate it, with all its odd rhythms. Sounds like they were really influenced by Mahavishnu Orchestra there. I also really dig the background vocals by MP during the chorus. It really works well as texture thing and doesn't overwhelm JLB's lead vocals the way some of his later backing vocals do.
The Dance of Eternity: The musician killer! I love this song. Here's the thing with the Dance: People spend way too much time focusing on the 100s of time signature changes and the instrumental acrobatics while forgetting to appreciate what actually makes this song work. Anybody can throw a bunch of highly technical sections together and call it a song, but Dream Theater wanks with class. It's obviously mirroring the instrumental section of the original Metropolis and taking it to the next level, and it stays really faithful to the original. It has the intro, the bass solo, the Steve Morse inspired guitar section, the climax. They moved the parts around a little bit, but the beginning and end mirror the original instrumental section perfectly and everything in between stays close enough. It also recalls other themes from the album really well. The whole thing is so coherent, it isn't a bunch of random parts strung together, everything has a purpose. It's a mixture of an "intermission" type piece and a sequel to the original Metropolis. They really nailed both. Plus it's just a lot of fun to listen to. The best DT instrumental.
Now not only does TDOE mirror the Metropolis instrumental section, but what gets talked about less is how One Last Time mirrors the end of the original Metropolis. Which brings me to this:
Mosh said:
There are actually a lot of things special about those two tracks. Not only are they good songs, but they're really good examples of the clever arranging that went into this album (beyond just simply reprising themes and segues). But I'll get more into that in an unreasonably long post that I'll write while listening to the album.
One Last Time is essentially the end of the story and the end of the Metropolis callbacks. After that you have the final ballad and then what is essentially a 12 minute epilogue explaining to the audience what really happened. But One Last Time is the end of Victoria's story from Nicholas' perspective, so it makes sense that it pretty much mirrors the ending to the original Metropolis. The last chord of TDOE dictates the key signature for the first verse of One Last Time (just like the last chord of the Metropolis instrumental is the key to the next verse) and then there's a soft verse followed by a reprise of an early verse (in OLT's case: Strange Deja Vu) and then a tag at the end. It's so subtle that you won't notice unless you pay really close attention, but that's what makes these things worse. They didn't have to force it.
As a song itself, I still stand by OLT being really good on its own. It has some nice melodies, a really cool guitar solo, and the Strange Deja Vu chorus is awesome and well worth hearing again. I won't be voting for it.
Spirit Carries On: Here comes my controversial pick for this round, I will be voting for this song. I don't dislike the song and it has a great guitar solo/ending, but as a whole it never really did anything for me. I think it would've made sense to go from OLT straight into Finally Free anyway, partially because of what I was talking about up there with OLT. It's just too generic Floydian ballad for me and I've gotten tired of hearing it on all the DVDs. That song, along with War Inside My Head/Test That Stumped Them All is probably one of the most over represented on the DVDs. It's kinda like Fear of the Dark for me. I'm sure it's fun live (well, I know FOTD is fun live at least, never seen Spirit) but doesn't do anything for me on the album.
Finally Free is awesome. Like I said earlier, it's more of an epilogue to the story, letting the listener learn things about the plot that the main character doesn't know. It's an interesting way to tell the story and the actual song is really cool and unique. I love how it starts with this orchestral thing from Jordan and slowly builds into its main themes. It's almost like a mini concept album within a concept album. This is why it works as its own song. It's so separate from the rest of the album, it's like a summary of what happens . You don't need to hear the rest of the album to get it, but if you listen to it in context it's even more effective. Lots of parts give me chills here. I also like that we get one epic that is more focused on being cinematic and atmospheric than being proggy and technical. They already gave us several songs of that, I want something different for the 3rd song to exceed ten minutes. I also love the ending. I can see the curtain falling on the stage as the band rocks out on that outro.
Also, the end of Finally Free is one of MP's greatest moments.
Some thoughts on the alternate mix: Definitely give this one a listen! It's not like many other alt mixes where the differences are so minor only the most hardcore fans will notice. There's a lot of differences here that are really blatant, including solos and vocal passages that were removed entirely (usually for the better). Regression, TDOE, Finally Free, and One Last Time are all the versions of the songs that ended up on the album, but everything else is different, including an "opening scene". Like most demos/alt mixes, there are things that I wish remained on the final version but most of the stuff that was cut was for good reason.
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