Dream Theater covering Queen on their new album!

Favouring "BTTL" over any Queen album hardly invalidates Sebastian's comment on the DT performance.  But while certainly understanding that opinions are personal and thank God we don't all share the same ones (apart from thinking Treasure Moment is horrid), but Sebastian: BTTL better than any Queen album???  That is incomprehensible given your musical knowledge and insight!
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[/QUOTE]Track 1: I'll give that "The Dark" overture is a good piece of music, perhaps great, perhaps awesome.  Track 2: "BTTL" is one of Brian's better solo efforts.  Well played and well sung and as a solo career opener, not particularly "Queen" like.  Track 3: "Love Token" is okay, with lyrics that follow the Sweet Lady template, and we all know how well loved they are.  Plus, Brian can't sing heavier stuff very well.  Track 4: "Resurrection" is very heavy, very well played, with horrible lyrics, plus Brian can't sing heavier stuff very well.  Track 5: "TMLWKY" is fantastic, and IMHO the definitive version which destroys Queen's in every way.  Track 6: "Driven by you" is a music-by-numbers, cliche filled commercial for Ford cars.  Track 7: "Nothing but blue" is, apart from the mid song flourish where Brian has to add a Brian MAy/Queen moment, what I wished his solo career is/was.  Not a very typical songfor him, which is what solo stuff should be.  Track 8:  "I'm scared", and we are all scared by this, arguably his worst track ever in any setting.  Track 9: "Last Horizon" is nice, typical Brian effort where keys and guitar are involved.  Track 10: LYHRYH" is '39 in '91.  Liked this song better when it was on ANATO.  Track 11: "Just one life" is another gem and type of song I'd like to have seen Brian do more.  Roger's Fun in space was great because it was Roger music, not Roger/Queen music.  Really honest heartfelt song.  Track 12: "Rollin' Over" is an obscure cover, not bad, not great, plus Brian can't sing heavier stuff.  Please tell me this in not better than all Queen stuff.[/QUOTE]

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[b]Sheer Brass Neck wrote: [/b]

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[/QUOTE] Track 8:  "I'm scared", and we are all scared by this, arguably his worst track ever in any setting.   [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]

Ha! One of those "funny because it's true" moments.

But, overall, Brian's solo work is quite good. It stands up pretty well as an individual artists's work. The weakness in his voice that you mention can be mostly glossed over in the studio (not so much live). His singing really improved for Another World and you could see how much effort he put in. Besides, both of his solo efforts are better than TCR, which is a bloody shame given the circumstances.

That's a nice post, with a respectful way to disagree and interesting points. Well, of course there's a lot of personal opinion at the end of the day (as with the Spice Girls case), but here are my main points:

- I don't think Brian's bad for the heavier stuff. I do think he's not as good as Freddie, Roger, Halford, Dickinson, etc., but he's not bad. His exquisite performance on [i]Resurrection[/i] is IMO as good as what Fred would've done in the same song, and for the others it's at least 'almost as good'.

- Vocal-wise, of course just Brian (or Brian + Chris + a couple of birds) can't hold a candle to some of the great harmonies done by Freddie alone (e.g. [i]Love of My Life[/i]), Fred + Brian (e.g. [i]Killer Queen[/i]), Fred + Rog (e.g. parts of [i]Bo Rhap[/i]'s opera), or the three of them (e.g. [i]Somebody to Love, '39[/i]), but some of 'BttL' bits are actually very, very well made. [i]Too Much Love [/i]for instance, or the [i]Driven By You [/i]intro (machine-generated, but the bottomline's that it sounds wonderful). The second chorus in [i]Too Much Love[/i] is, both in terms of performance and projection, at least almost as great as any Queen harmony vocal part.

- Guitar-wise, I think some of Bri's best work is found here: great choirs (e.g. [i]The Dark, Back to the Light[/i]), great soloing (e.g. [i]Resurrection[/i]), great acoustic bits (e.g. [i]Too Much Love[/i]), great rough rhythm (e.g. [i]Love Token[/i]).

- Drum-wise, Roger's great, but Cozy's a hell of a lot better.

- Bass-wise, John's great, but Neil's a hell of a lot better.

- Of course Freddie's a better pianist than Brian, but for [i]Too Much Love[/i], I think May's performance is second to none: people who play much better than him (Freddie included) wouldn't be able to do it that way. And of course, Mike Moran's and Don Airey's skills beat the hell out of Mercury's.

- I adore the songwriting in 'BttL', the only song I hate is [i]I'm Scared[/i], but otherwise it's marvellous, and the fact it's mostly co-written by the same person is reflected in a very nice sense of unity. When it comes to classical music, I prefer a Mozart symphony or a Haydn symphony than a compilation of movements by different composers, or a full opera by one composer than a collection of arias from different ones, no matter how great they are; same here: I prefer a full album of May gems (or Mercury gems for that matter) than a compromise of pieces by both. Not all the time, but most of the time at least.

- Production-wise, I also love 'BttL', again, the fact it was only one person's choice gave the whole thing a much clearer and stronger fulfilment than when you've got to put four people to agree, or each one to take control of his own material.

Last but not least, I'm not trying to convince anybody to think like I do, but since you asked: I consider that 'BttL' tops any Queen album in terms of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, production and songwriting, and it only 'loses' (and not by far) vocally. Six out of seven is good enough for me!

Its an awesome cover, the best queen cover ive heard.

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[b]Treasure Moment wrote: [/b]

Its an awesome cover, the best queen cover ive heard.
[/QUOTE] Say WHAT? Congratulations TM, finally you have made a ordinary, sane post. One that is 100 true aswell. Are you feeling ok?

[QUOTE]

[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]

That's a nice post, with a respectful way to disagree and interesting points. Well, of course there's a lot of personal opinion at the end of the day (as with the Spice Girls case), but here are my main points:

- I don't think Brian's bad for the heavier stuff. I do think he's not as good as Freddie, Roger, Halford, Dickinson, etc., but he's not bad. His exquisite performance on [i]Resurrection[/i] is IMO as good as what Fred would've done in the same song, and for the others it's at least 'almost as good'.

- Vocal-wise, of course just Brian (or Brian + Chris + a couple of birds) can't hold a candle to some of the great harmonies done by Freddie alone (e.g. [i]Love of My Life[/i]), Fred + Brian (e.g. [i]Killer Queen[/i]), Fred + Rog (e.g. parts of [i]Bo Rhap[/i]'s opera), or the three of them (e.g. [i]Somebody to Love, '39[/i]), but some of 'BttL' bits are actually very, very well made. [i]Too Much Love [/i]for instance, or the [i]Driven By You [/i]intro (machine-generated, but the bottomline's that it sounds wonderful). The second chorus in [i]Too Much Love[/i] is, both in terms of performance and projection, at least almost as great as any Queen harmony vocal part.

- Guitar-wise, I think some of Bri's best work is found here: great choirs (e.g. [i]The Dark, Back to the Light[/i]), great soloing (e.g. [i]Resurrection[/i]), great acoustic bits (e.g. [i]Too Much Love[/i]), great rough rhythm (e.g. [i]Love Token[/i]).

- Drum-wise, Roger's great, but Cozy's a hell of a lot better.

- Bass-wise, John's great, but Neil's a hell of a lot better.

- Of course Freddie's a better pianist than Brian, but for [i]Too Much Love[/i], I think May's performance is second to none: people who play much better than him (Freddie included) wouldn't be able to do it that way. And of course, Mike Moran's and Don Airey's skills beat the hell out of Mercury's.

- I adore the songwriting in 'BttL', the only song I hate is [i]I'm Scared[/i], but otherwise it's marvellous, and the fact it's mostly co-written by the same person is reflected in a very nice sense of unity. When it comes to classical music, I prefer a Mozart symphony or a Haydn symphony than a compilation of movements by different composers, or a full opera by one composer than a collection of arias from different ones, no matter how great they are; same here: I prefer a full album of May gems (or Mercury gems for that matter) than a compromise of pieces by both. Not all the time, but most of the time at least.

- Production-wise, I also love 'BttL', again, the fact it was only one person's choice gave the whole thing a much clearer and stronger fulfilment than when you've got to put four people to agree, or each one to take control of his own material.

Last but not least, I'm not trying to convince anybody to think like I do, but since you asked: I consider that 'BttL' tops any Queen album in terms of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, production and songwriting, and it only 'loses' (and not by far) vocally. Six out of seven is good enough for me!
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Something is wrong with you, lol.  I'm serious.

Just heard the covers, good performance. My least favorite out of the 3 is "funster" the vocals lose it for me. flick of the wrist is solid. Probably the best queen cover ever along with metallica's stone cold crazy.

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[b]Treasure Moment wrote: [/b]

Its an awesome cover, the best queen cover ive heard.
[/QUOTE]





Ha!!!

OK, I just listened to it. Not bad, although Lily of the Valley is weak. Cool of them to give it a go, though.

I listened to the covers. Even tho I love DT as players, they still have a long way to go when it comes to putting a song together. I think the songs just don't work their way.

First of all, they lack 82376128374612834621834 of the arrangements. I thought the changes they added to the piano actually worsened the lines. The bass is correct, to say the least.

Tenement Funster is escentially the same. The solo is utter shit, shred doesn't fit the song at all. It's an up-tempo rock but kinda moderate, you know. It doesn't fit, altought I do think the last scale run over Eb before the last verse was pretty good. The vocals were... correct, I guess. Some notes out of tune but nothing too wrong overall. The backing vocals did an excepcionally good in the job of NOT BEING FUCKING THERE. And the 'young and you're crazy' part sucked balls.

Flick of the Wrist was quite a surprise, for all the changes they added. They did it DT style, which is positive I guess. But I don't agree with any of the changes. Those little tempo changes between sections, changing breaks and fills... it sounds like too flat, too basic, rhythmically. Specially the verses. I absolutely loved Petrucci's guitar work here. Perfect playing and the overall phrasing was amazing. The song really worked with his ideas. The vocals are kinda weaker than in Tenement Funster. The backing vocals did both better and worse than in TF.

Lily of the Valley is the best number. LaBrie's performance was quite good here. The piano was ok but the changes I thought were really poor. And something very important: you can't replace great backing vocals with a stupid pad of strings. The guitars were great tho.


So, that's what I thought.



Cheers!

[b]"But I was also, by one of those strange alignments of the planets, able to see the band who have just delivered
what my mate Rog called (totally unprompted last week) "The best Queen cover job ever". Yes, the redoubtable Dream Theatre. IT was a revelation. Their scope is way beyond covering Ancient Rock Bands, of course ... and actually way beyond Rock, I'd say." (Brian May)[/b]

[b]Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/b] 



 

[QUOTE]

[b]Freddie Mercurois wrote: [/b]

I listened to the covers. Even tho I love DT as players, they still have a long way to go when it comes to putting a song together. I think the songs just don't work their way.

First of all, they lack 82376128374612834621834 of the arrangements. I thought the changes they added to the piano actually worsened the lines. The bass is correct, to say the least.

Tenement Funster is escentially the same. The solo is utter shit, shred doesn't fit the song at all. It's an up-tempo rock but kinda moderate, you know. It doesn't fit, altought I do think the last scale run over Eb before the last verse was pretty good. The vocals were... correct, I guess. Some notes out of tune but nothing too wrong overall. The backing vocals did an excepcionally good in the job of NOT BEING FUCKING THERE. And the 'young and you're crazy' part sucked balls.

Flick of the Wrist was quite a surprise, for all the changes they added. They did it DT style, which is positive I guess. But I don't agree with any of the changes. Those little tempo changes between sections, changing breaks and fills... it sounds like too flat, too basic, rhythmically. Specially the verses. I absolutely loved Petrucci's guitar work here. Perfect playing and the overall phrasing was amazing. The song really worked with his ideas. The vocals are kinda weaker than in Tenement Funster. The backing vocals did both better and worse than in TF.

Lily of the Valley is the best number. LaBrie's performance was quite good here. The piano was ok but the changes I thought were really poor. And something very important: you can't replace great backing vocals with a stupid pad of strings. The guitars were great tho.


So, that's what I thought.



Cheers!
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Best cover ever!

[QUOTE]

[b]Richard Orchard wrote: [/b]

Best cover ever![/QUOTE]

Sarcastic? I hope so, because this would easily create a massive debate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdYRzH10L2M

Dream Theater on the album charts:

#3 in Holland
#3 in Germany

probably #8 or something in the U.S. (according to the Billboard Company)

and probably #1 or #2 considering "Systematic Chaos" (2007) went on #2 in Italy

#6 on the U.S. Billboard charts
#1 in Finland
#3 in German
#3 in Holland
#7 in Canada
#7 in Norway
#5 in Italy (just behind 4 italian artists)
#2 in Hungary
#2 in Japan
#3 in Sweden
#7 in Mexico
#9 in France

and ...

#1 on European album charts (according to Billboard)