Review: Images and Words

Images and Words (1992)

Dream Theater

After listening to Dream Theater's Images and Words in its entirety for the first time, I felt neither bored nor entertained, but confused. I had put it on as a sort of background music for a train ride, expecting the music to carry itself without much effort on my part. No such luck; for even though I learned to love a few other Dream Theater tracks without giving them my full attention, this album just sounded like a long mish-mash of various musical elements, with none of the pieces particularly standing out. When I got home, I took out a pen and paper and decided to give it another go with a more critical ear.

Folks, this isn't easy listening music. Here are a couple of bullet point observations, because I can't be bothered to string sentences together:

• These guys are rhythmic sadists. Seriously, try tapping your foot to one of their longer pieces; I almost guarantee you'll quickly give up, unless maybe you're a drummer. Complex meters, mixed meters, and polyrhythms appear in almost every piece, and the safety of 4/4 rarely lasts for more than a minute. Even in the simple metered sections, there are occasional rhythmic "hiccups": an extra beat here and there, or an instrument entering on a slightly different beat than before. I remember trying to tap along to a conventional-sounding verse in "Learning to Live", only to realize that it was alternating between 6/4 and 7/4 every other measure! Indeed, this vast rhythmic ecosystem is almost overwhelming, and I often found myself grasping for just a little more stability.
• Most of the pieces have fairly complicated structures, with several unique verses and instrumental sections. I suppose this would be called "through-composed" in classical terminology. As with the rhythms, this can make the music sound overwrought, sometimes to the point of incongruity. (This is especially a problem in the last instrumental section of "Metropolis", where it almost sounds like the band is turning the dial on a radio.)
• (With all that said, the rhythmic and structural variety adds a lot of interest and keeps you on your toes, though it requires more active listening than with most rock music.)
• There's an abundance of guitar effects: distorted power chords, Metallica-like echoes, "soaring" solos, and others I don't yet have the vocabulary to describe. No complaints here — the variety really livens up the music!
• The performances are all blazingly virtuosic, from the soaring and forceful vocals to the stunning, rapid-fire guitar solos. These solos in particular are worth the price of admission alone, and there are two or more in each of the longer pieces. (More bang for your buck!)

The album has two types of pieces: 8-12 minute-long epics which closely follow the above bullet points, and a handful of shorter songs with much simpler structures. (Namely: "Another Day", "Surrounded", and "Wait for Sleep".) For me, these shorter songs are the low points of the album: from the schmaltzy piano and synths to the saccharine lyrics, they sound more like soft rock or easy listening numbers than their progressive, towering brothers. If it weren't for the great instrumental playing (and the unexpected sax in "Another Day"), I would have suggested avoiding them altogether.

Aside from the issues of incongruity mentioned above, there are a few other problems with this album. Although James LaBrie's vocals are masterful, I find his register and vibrato to be rather irritating. It would be great if he sung a little lower more often. The melodies are also not particularly memorable. The track that got me into the album in the first place, "Under a Glass Moon", has a really great tune in the introductory verse, but then discards it for most of the rest of the piece. Few of the other pieces on the album have even that, making them more difficult to enjoy. Finally, I'm not happy with the lyrics. As with so many bands writing music today, much of the writing is needlessly cryptic and overly symbolic, often to the point of sounding kitschy. ("And from an ivory tower hears her call / 'Let light surround you'")

Despite all this, "Images and Words" is an excellent album, if not for everyone. It seems that my initial apprehension only confirms that even the best albums may take several listens to appreciate. My favorite tracks are "Pull Me Under", "Take the Time", and "Under a Glass Moon". I give it 3.5/5 stars; if anything, listen to it for the insane instrumental virtuosity!