IMAGES AND WORDS

I'm willing to admit I'm not the biggest expert on Dream Theater; by and far, I found IMAGES AND WORDS to be the greatest of their achievements. For some reason, I feel the band exonerated an urgency here that is not present in any other release that I've heard. It's where their technical soloing blended well with whatever they did compositionally, barring a few length issues.

Some of their finest pieces of work are here, including ''Metropolis'', ''Under a Glass Moon'', ''Surrounded'' and the softer ''Wait for Sleep''. ''Learning to Live'' gets plenty of kudos too; if only it wasn't as long as it is, I'd enjoy it more. However, it is the first two tracks that ruin any hopes of this album being a masterpiece, the worst being the lame attempt at a smooth jazz hit in ''Another Day''.

For me, this is THE Dream Theater album; their talents are at their best here, and I feel the songs here are proof of that.