TENEMENT FUNSTER/FLICK OF THE WRIST/LILY OF THE VALLEY

100 words to review one track? That's a few too many. Oh well. Better pad it out, I guess.

Well, as you can expect, this is DT covering some Queen songs. The tracks themselves appeared together on the album Sheer Heart Attack so ti was logical to play them together.

Sadly DT don't do such a good job as they did with Stargazer. The songs feel too "dark" due to the metal style being transported into the song. The originals are much more "mellow-dramatic", and DT's style doesn't suit it, really.

Also, backing vocals are done by Mike. Whoops. They're not that bad... but compared to the backing vocals of the original version they are far less colourful.

Besides these problems, it's a good cover - LaBrie does well, as well as John. The last two parts are better than the first.

I knew this one would be quite difficult for them to pull off. They have done well, but not as well as you might hope. It's still good, though.

Another cover, another awesome choice. I am sure the average fan isn't completely familiar with these songs but those of us who love Queen (Dream Theater obviously do) know this was a great idea. The songs do fit the band well. Jordan shines as does James. Even the backing vocals are great, maybe not as great as Queen but come on, who is?

It's funny. "Stargazer" was a slight surprise for me but "Tenement Funster/Flick Of The Wrist/Lily Of The Valley"??? Wow. It's a wonder they didn't just go into "Now I'm Here"! Regardless, this proves these guys know their music. I mean more from a fan perspective than just pure chops. It makes you wonder what the next cover is.

The second Dream Theater cover single is here, and it is quite a fun one! Covering three of Queen's lesser known songs from the album Shear Heart Attack, I was a little bit skeptical. I am a huge Queen fan, and am of the belief that nobody does Queen like Queen themselves. My biggest reservations about it all had to be vocal wise, and I'm not entirely nagging on James LaBrie. Queen is amazingly well known for their vocal harmonies, and I was frightened at the concept of Mike Portnoy tackling those.

All around this cover really does deliver. The instrumentation is amazing, and James' vocals actually sound quite superb! I do have a few complaints, but they are nothing major. I was expecting more of a "medley", not Dream Theater playing tracks 3, 4, and 5 off of a Queen album. Dream Theater has shown their creativity, and I know they're capable of really playing with songs. It sounds like Dream Theater just playing Queen the way they wrote it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I wanted more experimentation. The third and final complaint will have to be Mike Portnoy and his annoying background vocals. They do sound "decent" here, but I personally have never liked his voice. At the same time, the songs wouldn't be the same if they weren't there, so I'd rather have them than not have them.

The bottom line...

Dream Theater and/or Queen lovers ***** Casual Dream Theater fans or OLD Dream Theater fans **** Everyone else ***

I would probably give it closer to 3.5 stars, because people who just DON'T like Dream Theater are not going to like this, while people who are a fan will really enjoy it. I would say that it is "An excellent addition, but not essential."

I'm a huge Queen fan, and I really don't like new versions of their songs, cause 90% of them are really bad versions.

Here we have a band I really like, Dream Theater, but since I heard their bootlegs playing Metallica, Pink Floyd and Iron Maiden I was afraid of it. They have a really nice meddley in A Change Of Seasons that was really good, but the scales are not on their side.

For me the great problem is the James vocals, his voice are not bad, at all, I like his voice, but he is the kind of singer who ajust only for HIS sound, and hey, we're talink about Freddie Mercury here, one of (if not the ONE) the great voices in Rock History.

But I really like the effort of Mike Portnoy doing all the vocals, and Flick Of The Wrist is really cool.

But I don't think was necessary John Petrucci ruined Brian May's master guitar work with his thousand notes for second, everybody who listen a single song from Queen notice that Brian like David Gilmour, for example, is a man of melody, not a virtuoso (at least not in notes).

But hey, nice work, and nice choice of songs, it is one of the great sequence of songs from a Queen album, the 74 Sheer Heart Attack.

Dream Theater plays Queen.

And of course they add shred solos and "their" brand of progressive metal. But, I don't find this track any better than their take on Stargazer, overall. They don't do much to spice things up, they just try to "metal" it up a bit. This is fine and dandy, but it is highly uncreative.

I do like this song, but I won't say it is brilliant. It is just Dream Theater making Queen sound heavier. the soloing is alright, and they stay rather close to the original music. IT gets pretty menacing halfway through, and they make the arrangement somewhat complex. Still, they aren't the masters of vocal harmony like Queen could be. This sounds like a fun song, and Dream Theater certainly do a competent job. Nothing fails to impress, but these covers in general don't really strike me as welcome or necessary. I know they have a wide history of covering other people's work, but I just wished they put more work into making things more unpredictably interesting. Labrie is the surprise spotlight, here, though. He really channels Mercury's singing capabilities for a truly inspired performance.

Nothing to complain about, though. For a cover, it is of high quality, and the instrumentation is diverse. Worth listening, and that thick sludgy section is grand. Not an essential listen by any means, though.

***

'Queen Medley' - Dream Theater (N/A)

Many Dream Theater fans will have at least heard of 'A Change of Seasons EP' and it's corresponding collection of covers. Performed live in front of a small audience of friends and invitees, Dream Theater paid a worthy homage to some of the other greats of music; musicians that the band themselves revere.

Now, 15 years later, the band has released the unofficial sequel to that covers EP. Possibly most anticipated of these covers was this Queen medley...

Featuring some of the b-sides off of Queen's album 'Sheer Heart Attack,' this is possibly my favourite song off of the 'Uncovered' EP.

The EP really shows what a talented singer James LaBrie is. He is able to perfectly tribute Freddie Mercury (in 'Lily Of The Valley,' there is a very operatic-Mercuryesque vocal styling) while maintaining his own personality throughout.

The transitions between songs during the medley is practically seamless.

This is one kickass cover.

I intentionally write a review down here from the Deluxe Edition (3 CD set) of the band's latest release 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings' album officially released in Jun 23, 2009. This cover version of Queen, taken from 'Sheer Heart Attack' album, was actually available as download version but I only got this version when the CD package came to my address last week. I practically never done a download task because I don't like MP3 with bad bitrate while I typically make MP3 from CD with quality bit rate (320 or a bit lesser). That's why I can only make my review now.

I have to thank Dream Theater for picking 'Tenement Funster / Flick of The Wrist / Lily of The Valley' - three songs that are performed in one entirety as original version by Queen - due to the fact that I love this track very much. In fact, I knew Queen for the first time from this song which blew me away at the first time I heard it when I was teenager. The reason I upgraded my cassette to digitally remastered CD version was because of this song and 'Brighton Rock'.

Original version of the song starts with guitar fills followed with vocal line singing 'My new purple shoes. Bin amazin' the people next door...' and the music flows nicely to another segment and next track in seamless way. Dream Theater version does not differ so much from the original version. Petrucci guitar sound has been set to emulate unique guitar sound of Brian May. Unfortunately what comes out is the guitar sound that similar to Kenny Wayne Shepperd's (blues guitarist). He tries his best to emulate including the shot at minute 6:24 - a shot that was originally there in original version. I actually expected that Mr Rudess provides his inventive fills as this song is originally no keyboard work. However, overall I am quite happy with this cover even though not much innovatively different from original version. Keep on proggin' ..! because proggin' is healthy.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Wonderful cover. Period.

As the song interpretation, performance, sound, spirit and originality, both, the original version and this cover are impressive and great. This guys really knows their thing and to choose these three obscure songs it's really a great thing to do. James Labrie is in the top of his game and the song has a great spirit that is rarely found in cover version.

As the song value, of course is an excellent addition to your collection, but as long as it's included in the special 3 CD special edition of the album Black Clouds & Silver Linings, this promo is not that necessary really. The song worth a 5 over 5, but being practical, it's just a 2 stars, for fans of both bands. Go and get their 3 CD special edition. You won't regret it.

Dream Theater's cover of the medley from Side 1 of Queen's 1974 album 'Sheer Heart Attack' is the second of five covers that Dream Theater released in the build up to their tenth album 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings'. To me, this wouldn't have been the obvious choice of Queen song to cover. Not that there are any though; there are so many Queen tracks that Dream Theater could have played with, and Bohemian Rhapsody had already been covered on 1995's 'A Change Of Season'. Nevertheless, the band chose a particularly obscure track to cover, implying that it may have been somebody's particular favourite.

This is a silly cover of an already silly medley. Petrucci peppers the track with solos, and Portnoy does all the backing vocals. Fortunately, this is actually a track that suits LaBrie's voice, who sings with all his heart. This is definitely a cover that will please fans of both groups.

8/10

Here it is: one of my favorite bands doing a cover of another of my favorite bands.

Dream Theater released attached to your Black Clouds and Silver Linnings album an extra disc with multiple and diverse covers, including this one. Tenement Funster, Flick of the Wrist and Lily of the Valley are three songs from the album Sheer Heart Attack by Queen which together seem to form a single song (something the band did very often in their early albums). Dream Theater cover this really amounts that impression by adding the three maximum.

But what a great tribute! Is not the first time they perform a song from the Queen (on the EP A Change of Seasons where they perform a medley of classic touch shares Bohemiam Rhapsody), but I'm not here to complain! Mainly because of Flick of the Wrist, which was already heavy in the original version here is awesome! Okay, James Labrie does not (and never will be) the voice of Freddie Mercury, but the band really does a decent job here!

4 stars!