**** Greatest Hit (...and 21 other pretty cool songs) by Dream Theater - Great for Fans of Mellow DT

Though I would give most every Dream Theater album 5 stars, it always seemed that on every album there was one song that stuck out like a sore thumb. These songs where often released as singles for some reason, as they never gave the band any popularity.

Most of Dream Theater’s fans like it complex, heavy, and fast. Most of the songs on songs on this album have a modest amount of complexity, but no heaviness or speed, and when I say heaviness I mean strictly slammin’ riffs, and not emotional heaviness, as one could perhaps conclude that these songs are in fact heavier than the others, according to personal taste.

Prior to this album, however, these songs were not among my favorites by DT. In fact, they were my least favorite prior, as I liked the more complex and heavy side of Dream Theater. However, the mix on these songs sounds like they have been redone, rerecorded, and that the general quality of the music was increased.

What I can say for this album is that in an amazingly coherent and well put together way, these kinds of songs on the albums that seemed as loners fit together very well. And, frankly I was surprised at this, but Dream Theater usually does surprise me. I was surprised because when I heard that when Dream Theater said that they were going to come out with a greatest hit like package, I had no clue what that would consist of, as to me every song on most every album belonged in that a package.

Also, it is worthy to note that finally the song, “To Live Forever,” made its way onto a major album, as prior to this release it had been kicked around and reworked several times on bootlegs prior to this release.

**** Greatest Hit (… and 20 Other Pretty Cool Songs) by Dream Theater – Strikingly Complete

When I first heard Dream Theater was going to put together a greatest hits package, I thought, “That’s impossible because almost all their songs are good.”  I couldn’t even imagine how they were going to pull this one off, but they did!

They put all the songs that in my opinion didn’t fit well on their albums, it seemed as if every album had one extra song, but I was not conscious of this when I thought of what they would do for a greatest hits package.  Well, you may wonder how these songs all fit together; the answer is that the songs are more mild than most of the other stuff on their albums.  It was always as if Dream Theater always had a token slow song, and what’s more they even released that song though usually it would get no attention for radio airplay.

Perhaps, I should have thought otherwise, but because I usually thought the released song was weaker than the rest of the album, it never occurred to me that they would put them all on 2 cds and repackage it.  As far as I know, this album, repackaging all the slow songs together ends up hitting the sonic spot on certain days, and is well worth listening to.  You just have to be in the mood for it.  Even for people that love the heaviest music, I imagine there can come a time when you feel like you need a rest.  Let me tell you, or even warn you, there are many musical rests about on this collection, as this is not the typical busy, hard hitting music I think of most when I think of Dream Theater.