GREATEST HIT (...AND 21 OTHER PRETTY COOL SONGS)

This is one of the oddest collections I have ever seen from a band. Normally, a compilation is released for one of two groups of people: either 1) for the diehard fans or 2) for newcomers to the band. And quite frankly, this collection doesn't seem to appeal to either group of people. In fact, I would say that it detracts both groups of listeners. If I happened to listen to this compilation when I first discovered Dream Theater, I would have personally been turned off immediately.

The weakness lies right in the song choices that were made for this album. Granted, having Pull Me Under as the first song helps to make the album title clever, but I fail to see how so many of the songs on this collection are either subpar or average choices. While I don't mind there not being anything from the band's debut on here, the fact that at least Ytse Jam is absent is very disappointing. And not seeing Metropolis Part 1 as one of the three songs is a major disappointment as well.

The songs from Awake on here are Lie, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, and The Silent Man. I find those three songs to be very good, but I'm not sure if a compilation album is a good place for them. For the Falling Into Infinity material, I would have gone with any of the following two: Peruvian Skies, Lines in the Sand, and Trial of Tears. The fact that only a couple of songs from SFAM are on here and that nothing from Systematic Chaos is on this album seems criminal to me. I agree with Harry in that if SFAM is going to be put on this album, ALL of the songs should be present. I would have replaced all the SFAM songs and put some material from SC on here.

The sections on here from 6 Degrees title track also suffer from the same problem as the SFAM tracks. Again, if you're including parts of that song, you had better include every part of it. A song like The Glass Prison would make more sense with it being a fan favorite at least. And lastly, for Octavarium, Root of All Evil might be the only pick that I find okay on this entire compilation, but Sacrificed Sons?! Give me a break. The title track on here would improve this compilation to 3 stars alone for me. Either that or their other fabulous epic, A Change of Seasons, would have had much better results in my opinion.

So like I said, I can't recommend this album to Dream Theater fans or those interested in checking them out. Having the studio albums instead would be so much more worthwhile, plus you'd get much better song selection that you could hope to find on here. I'm almost glad to give this atrocious piece of garbage (I don't like referring to most music as that but this compilation almost deserves it) a single star. Get the studio albums if you don't have any or all of them yet and avoid this like the plague.

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