Images and Words (1992)
Moving right along, let’s get to the real thing already. This is the crux of the band’s legend, the one that firmly embedded itself as the eternal classic amongst DT and progressive metal in general. And you know what, I happen to really love it. It’s a complete shocker, I know. The music is miles more sophisticated than it ever was on the first album. DT obviously gave this sophomore effort a great deal thought of going in, since they were intent on improving themselves over a naive, shaky debut. And it shows everywhere. This is a vast upgrade in basically every category, especially the vocals now that James Labrie has made his magnificent presence known. The production issues are still kinda there, seeing as the drum sound is...uhhh, polarizing, but this album sounds pretty great all across the board aside from that.
Okay, let’s get to those songs…
1. Pull Me Under
This song saved Dream Theater. That gives it massive bonus points right off the bat. But it’s a very effective reintroduction to the band as the intro captures you with its iconic acoustic guitar riff and slowly envelops you in its mystique before turning heavy and starts pounding away on you. Given that the guitar work on the debut sounded like absolute mud, this is immediately noticeable. I can see why the song caused so much splash in the metal community and on the charts. Anyway, I do like this song, even though I feel the matters surrounding it have overshadowed the actual content of it. The song is almost entirely in 4/4 since the band are clearly intent on first easily capturing an audience who will then be ready for their more complex material afterwards, so the song really is very simple. But for what it is, it works wonders. I guess it could be considered overrated, but that’s pretty much only by the DT fans who are strangely sick of it introducing people to DT despite being a basically perfect way to lure in new fans. I’d say it gets a high 8/10.
2. Another Day
Pull Me Under cuts off abruptly into this little ballad which is quite lifted from the 80s playbook. That may be slightly jarring to some, but I dig it anyways. The saxophone bit is a huge sticking point for detractors of the song, since it’s definitely not something you would expect from DT. Albeit considering this is the second song on their reintroduction album, what expectations could there have been? Listeners back then had no idea of what to expect from this band since most people did not even pay any attention to their debut. So, this isn’t as much DT selling out or being inherently sappy and mainstream, it’s moreso a curveball for the audience to show that DT has more sides to it than heavy 4/4 rocker guys. It’s a smart move, since a lot of other bands wouldn’t want to take such a risk and just do Pull Me Under-like stuff for an full album. That would work fine, but it’s not nearly as exciting. That’s what makes DT such a good PROGRESSIVE band. This isn’t something I feel a lot of fans really think about when it comes to this song. Aside from all that stuff, this song feels a bit brief, like there was more to it that they cut out for time purposes. But it’s a good one nonetheless and a solid 7/10.
3. Take the Time
See what I mean? This song, after two attention-grabbing songs not really representing DT’s actual sound, throws you right into the deep end with a progressive ride that never gets boring for all its eight-minute runtime. There’s just so much to this one and it fires on all cylinders. Quite fittingly, this song’s lyrics talk about DT’s struggles between the debut leading up to this. Now that those struggles are over and done with (for the time being), they are free to do exactly what they want. And I adore it. It’s just a lot of stinkin’ fun. This song is DT at their very, very best. So I suppose a 10/10 is only warranted!
4. Surrounded
This song is absolutely linear in its structure in that it pretty much only features verses, making it another journey of a song that IS a straight line. But it leans heavily onto that structure and is filled to the brim with different dynamic moments to vary it up at every step of the way. So it sounds very progressive yet it’s not at all at the same time. That’s great songwriting right there and this is a song that’s grown on me immensely since I first got into DT. LaBrie’s performance here is topnotch and really where he truly begins shining on this album. He carries the rest of the band through and he’s the main show here. I mean, that’s almost unthinkable nowadays! That earns this one a 10/10 easily.
5. Metropolis Pt. 1 “The Miracle and The Sleeper”
This is where it began for me - this was the first DT song I heard and what a introduction it was! And it’s the quintessential one, the one that has everything that makes DT so unique. Best of all, it manages to do this feat in just short of ten minutes! That’s damned impressive and I love this song. While the lyrics are indeed extremely memorable, it’s the musical content that gives this one its reputation. It’s the first big example of DT really going crazy on the instrumental stuff and it’s still amongst their best. That instrumental section goes on and on but it keeps throwing new stuff at you until you reach the end of it where it trounces you with a intense finisher. Then it wraps up with LaBrie and the band delivering a suitably grandiose finale. That’s how you do it, folks, that’s how you craft the perfect DT song. Third 10/10 in a row, baby!
6. Under a Glass Moon
It still surprises me how actual little lyrics there is on this song. There’s one verse and one bridge, but three choruses which are all the same. It’s something I began really noticing on repeat listenings and it’s more than a little jarring to me. The song comes off sounding brief despite being seven minutes. Anyway, tons of people gravitate to this one due to Petrucci’s solo but I’ve never really been a big fan of the solo. It just never really captured my attention, despite being indeed a good solo. Considering that and everything else I said, I think this song is pretty half-baked yet far from anything I would call bad. 6/10.
7. Wait for Sleep
Best lyrics on the album, although Surrounded is a very close second in that regard. Not surprisingly, it just so happens both are written by Moore. Aside from that, this is little more than a intro for the epic closer that does its job particularly well. Lovely work from both LaBrie and Moore on here. It’s nothing truly special, but it’s still a 8/10.
8. Learning to Live
And here we go - the grand finale! This song really solidifies the album as a stone-cold classic. Myung’s lyrics here are excellent and LaBrie helps to live up to them with his career-defining performance. That F# is nothing to sneeze at, people! And the rest of the band launch this song into the stratosphere and makes damn sure that it wraps up the entire album in a pretty little bow. I can imagine that listeners back in 1992 were instantly demanding more from the band, given that DT made their point clear and shown what they can do. Now they just had to live up to those promises. Regardless of whether they do that or not, this song earns the album its final 10/10 rating from me. Good show, guys!
The Final Score: 8.6/10
That score is a bit lower than I was expecting, but it’s still a respectable one.
