The first “proper” episode of The Divisive Albums Podcast, where I discuss an album by a band who are inherently pretty divisive: Dream Theater, and their 1997 album Falling Into Infinity!
In the episode, I discuss the following. SHOW NOTES!
0:00: Intro and About Me
0:26: Introducing our band: Dream Theater!
0:30: Who are Dream Theater, and what do they sound like?
1:31: Who are some bands you’d very broadly compare to Dream Theater?
1:54: How did Dream Theater first come into the public eye?
2:38: A digression on the technical definition of a “hit song” in the US.
3:27: On why I digressed, and how Dream Theater’s newfound fame affected them.
4:14: Discussion of the immediate followup, 1994’s Awake, and how the label rushed Dream Theater to release it.
4:35: Briefly discussing 1995’s “EP”, A Change of Seasons
4:50: Introducing the album: Falling Into Infinity! Also discussing the immediate circumstances around the album’s creation.
5:20: “New Millennium” excerpt #1.
6:08: “New Millennium” excerpt #2 and a lesson on time signatures.
7:04: Discussing the length of the album and its songs.
8:20: More song/album length discussion, and how the length compares to typical Dream Theater output (And answering why “EP” from earlier in the notes is in quotes).
8:55: Introducing the record company’s “ringer” to help Dream Theater get a hit: 80s and 90s hitmaker Desmond Child!
9:25: Excerpt from “You Not Me”, a song Child has co-writing credit on.
9:47: “You Not Me” excerpt #2, and discussing drummer Mike Portnoy’s pathological need to demonstrate his drumming prowess whenever he can.
10:50: My opinion of the song, and wondering why this wasn’t the lead single from the album.
11:36: Discussion of “Burning My Soul”, comparing it to “Pull Me Under”, and an excerpt from it.
12:40: Introducing an excerpt from the actual lead single: “Hollow Years”.
13:10: Thoughts on “Hollow Years”
14:02: An excerpt from and discussion of “Lines in the Sand”, one of the more prog songs on the album.
14:33: How Dream Theater could have made “Lines in the Sand” work as a single.
15:02: Discussing some of the record company shenanigans pulled with Falling Into Infinity.
15:35: Introducing and playing an excerpt from “Just Let Me Breathe”, or “Dream Theater Throw A Temper Tantrum At Their Record Label”
16:05: Elaborating a bit on what I mean by “Dream Theater Throw A Temper Tantrum At Their Record Label”.
16:35: How the album did sales-wise.
17:04: And what I think of the contemporary opinion of the album.
17:40: Acknowledging that Dream Theater probably shouldn’t have gone in the direction they did, even if I like most of the result.
18:11: What happened next for Dream Theater?
18:41: How I first discovered Dream Theater.
19:18: How Dream Theater are doing now.
19:51: Final thoughts on Falling Into Infinity.
20:15: Outro and social media: Twitter, Website, Discord
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