Released: 1995
Tracks: A Change of Seasons; Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding; Perfect Strangers; The Rover/Achilles Last Stand/The Song Remains the Same; The Big Medley (In the Flesh?/Carry On Wayward Son/Bohemian Rhapsody/Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’/Cruise Control/Turn It On Again)
Best track: Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Track to skip: none
Dream Theater’s follow up to the excellent Awake was a different sort of an album. Really this release is an EP, even if it does clock in at just under an hour. Yes, there are 5 tracks here. What else would you expect from Dream Theater? The release is basically for the title track, a 23-minute massive epic that opens the EP. The rest is filled out with cover songs taken from a few gigs they did where they only performed other people’s material. So, it’s nice to get those two sides of the band: the one that plays a 23-minute long song and then the one that plays other people’s songs they love, and do them quite well actually. The song, A Change of Seasons, is a pretty cool track that naturally goes through about a hundred different moods and changes during its course. I think if you don’t care for bands who write a bunch of changes and textures and moods within each song, then of course you won’t care for Dream Theater. They’re *musicians*, so they’re really doing the type of songs they want to do and aren’t worrying about writing 3-minute boring pop songs. I do like this track and surprisingly, it doesn’t feel like it’s 23 minutes long. They manage to keep it interesting enough so that you don’t sit there and look at the time and wonder, “when do they start to play the covers?”.
As for the covers, the band picks some great choices starting off with Elton John’s Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. This is a *killer* version of this track and the band nails it. I was initially surprised they’d even play an Elton John song (being that they’re a prog-metal band and all), but they brought me around with their performance. Excellent tune. Then we have Deep Purple’s Perfect Strangers and another excellent cover. When I first heard this version it made me laugh because I immediately thought it sounded like Iron Maiden, which of course it would since Maiden are hugely influenced by Deep Purple. Dream Theater’s version rocks and it’s pretty heavy. The keyboards especially sound great on here. The Led Zep medley they do is decent enough. I mean, they play the songs just fine, but I just prefer the rawness of the original version. Well, and I just prefer Zeppelin anyway. But they do play good versions. The “Big Medley” finishes out the disc and it’s a good cross-selection of bands that inspired Dream Theater: Pink Floyd – Kansas (bleh) – Queen – Journey – Dixie Dregs – Genesis. It’s a fun track and it exposed me to the Dixie Dregs and also to Genesis. Both Cruise Control and Turn it On Again are great tracks and DT does great jobs on both. In the Flesh? is too short to really matter and I don’t care too much for Carry On My Wayward Song or Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’. All in all this track is fun, but I sometimes like to skip ahead to the Dregs’ and Genesis sections.
A Change of Seasons was the first album appearance of new keyboardist Derek Sherinian, although he was actually hired prior to the Awake tour…that’s where I first saw him. I think he was a great addition to the band and is actually a more tasteful keyboardist than Kevin Moore or Jordan Rudess. Sherinian isn’t a typical ‘prog’ keyboardist and he tends to shy away from the usual wanking that prog keyboardists usually do. He’s a great player, and although he didn’t contribute any lyrics to the band’s music, I still prefer him of the 3 keyboardists Dream Theater’s had. Unfortunately, he’d only last through the next album and tour before being sacked. While he’s here though, he’s a nice addition. If you like Dream Theater this album is essential, but it’s probably not going to convert any new fans, especially ones who can’t get past songs over 4 minutes long.
Rating: 90
Write a comment