METROPOLIS PART 2 - SCENES FROM A MEMORY

The true test of an album's quality is not how good it seems at first, but how well it ages. Dream Theater's Scenes from a Memory, the first album co-produced by band members John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy, has not aged well, and gets duller and duller with every listen. To be sure, there is great material scattered throughout the record, but the work as a whole is not consistent and falls flat on its face more often than you'd like.

The biggest problem with the album is its focus on instrumental breaks. Songs like "Beyond This Life" and "Home" start out great but lose most of their momentum by their mid-points because they become plagued by underwhelming instrumental segments. One would be correct to argue that Dream Theater has always been about long instrumental sections, but when their solos begin incorporating trumpet patches and erotic (guitar) sound effects, it's safe to say that something has gone wrong. The bottom line is that Scenes marked the first time in the band's career that Dream Theater decided that any song, regardless of tone or feel, could be used as an anchor for showing off virtuosism, and it is greatly hindered by this disregard for songwriting.

Because Scenes from a Memory is a concept album, the lyrical matter is of a heightened importance. In this regard, the record fails miserably. The story - featuring reincarnation, murder, and, ultimately, hope - is difficult to understand. Once you've grasped the story it isn't all that complicated; however, grasping it can be a tedious experience. James LaBrie's intentionally (and unintentionally) feminine, slurring vocal performance doesn't help matters.

Ironically, the album is best listened to when broken up into individual tracks. One would think that a concept album is most enjoyable when taken in as the sum of its parts, but in this case, listening to the album from start to finish is not nearly as rewarding as jumping straight to its highlights. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the middle third of the album is as weak a stretch of music as you're likely to find in the Dream Theater catalog. Secondly, the musical themes that are repeated throughout the album's (overlong) near-80 minute running length are overused.

Where Scenes excels most is in its bookends. The first five tracks on the album range from good to near-masterful, whereas the final three songs on the album range from good to great. The best song on the album is "Fatal Tragedy", which features excellent melodies, ample riffage, and boasts a wild but thoroughly entertaining instrumental ride-out that is perhaps the king of its kind in the DT cannon. "One Last Time", the first song of the stellar trilogy that ends the record, proves that a Dream Theater song can be excellent without being long or flamboyant.

Before I conclude this review, I'd like to share my opinion regarding then-new keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Rudess, who was originally asked to join the band in 1994, was brought on board for Scenes from a Memory after two albums with John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy in instrumental rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment. While his contributions are sometimes questionable, Rudess's upbeat personality often radiates through his compositions and wins the listener over. I can't help but smile everytime Rudess breaks into his ragtime piano solo in "The Dance of Eternity" because, even though the song itself is pointless in the framework of the album's concept, it is a rare example of Dream Theater not taking themselves too seriously.

And that is what is most unsettling about Scenes from a Memory - it takes itself too damned seriously. Former Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore has been quoted as saying that progressive rock artists don't have enough fun with their brand, and this here is a fine example. One can't help but feel that most of the album sounds forced, its corny concept trying to succeed through the veil of technicality that the listener will inevitably focus on. If the band had had more fun with this effort, something grand might have resulted, but alas, they tried too hard (which is understandable considering this was do-or-die for them) and the result is an enjoyable but lacking output.

© Kevin Martell (TheOutlawXanadu)