Randalf
Ancient Mariner
Very hard to choose, really. His contributions are, usually, very solid but there's a lot of variance between the role they play on their representative records. E.g on Dance of Death there's Montsegur & Dance of Death which are one hell of a duo and kind of a album centerpieces. A Matter of Life and Death, The Final Frontier and The Book of Souls also got one very significant "Janick song" that can be considered as album centerpieces.
On Fear of the Dark you get Be Quick or be Dead and Wasting Love that are part of the album's backbone, but he also co-wrote some of the weaker tracks on that album...
The X-Factor and Brave New World have probably the best quantity & quality ratio when it comes to Janick's contribution! On The X-Factor he's significantly upfront, holding the torch high after two major songwriter contributors have left the band within five years or so. So in that sense, his significance might be biggest on that particular record.
On Brave New World he delivers Ghost of the Navigator and Out of the Silent Planet, which I love. The Mercenary is... alright and while Dream of Mirrors has never been among my biggest favourites, I like it a lot too so...
On Fear of the Dark you get Be Quick or be Dead and Wasting Love that are part of the album's backbone, but he also co-wrote some of the weaker tracks on that album...
The X-Factor and Brave New World have probably the best quantity & quality ratio when it comes to Janick's contribution! On The X-Factor he's significantly upfront, holding the torch high after two major songwriter contributors have left the band within five years or so. So in that sense, his significance might be biggest on that particular record.
On Brave New World he delivers Ghost of the Navigator and Out of the Silent Planet, which I love. The Mercenary is... alright and while Dream of Mirrors has never been among my biggest favourites, I like it a lot too so...