Jarsve
I thought this was just the keepers tracks....

I'm sure it was for them! 

Bought this last week and have listened to the first 10 or so tracks.
 
it's a different direction for them, but I still reckon nothing compares to "A Night to Remember"

I don't care either!!!!   Ha!!!!
 
Jesse Q. Screed

I had another go at listening to DT last night;
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0fPY9PPB2E
 
 Serious question; is that what LaBrie usually sounds like live? I can't imagine it is, no-one would put up with that for long, surely? I turned it off right at 5:00.
 
Am I missing something?

That IS the number one complaint with DT.  Not sure why, but his voice doesn't bother me as much as it does others though I'd love to hear them with a better singer.

If the band is good, I can tolerate some "eccentricity" in the vocalist. I mean, I like Rush. When James goes for his "soft" tone and gets incredibly breathy with a glacially slow vibrato, he stretches my ability to tolerate him. I struggle sometimes to understand him due to his inability to enunciate, but that's a trait he shares with many other singers. When I find myself irritated with his vocal, I try instead to focus on the other parts being played at that time. It's not just with DT. I do that with other bands, too.

UbiquitousBubba
If the band is good, I can tolerate some "eccentricity" in the vocalist. I mean, I like Rush. When James goes for his "soft" tone and gets incredibly breathy with a glacially slow vibrato, he stretches my ability to tolerate him. I struggle sometimes to understand him due to his inability to enunciate, but that's a trait he shares with many other singers. When I find myself irritated with his vocal, I try instead to focus on the other parts being played at that time. It's not just with DT. I do that with other bands, too.

Including some that play in the Coffee House? 

UbiquitousBubba
If the band is good, I can tolerate some "eccentricity" in the vocalist. I mean, I like Rush.

I agree, but honestly, that performance I linked to is dreadful...isn't it?
 
I knew nothing about DT until I saw a copy of 'Scenes From a Memory' at cut price and took a chance. Loved the music, but I thought then that the singer wasn't up to the standard of the band. Since then I try periodically to get into them but just hit a wall when he starts howling away.

He's better than Cookie Monster vocals which I will never understand.  Why people would want to listen to someone puking into a microphone is beyond me...

Hi,
 

Jarsve

Moshkito Hi,   Bought it ... on the way home to my ears!

Good. This album us more on the prog side, but i like it. I think its great.

 
All in all, the first CD, is actually exceptional on its own, and would not need to add just about anything that is from the 2nd CD, a lot of which did not have the character and tone and continuity that the first CD did.
 
I would say that the 1st CD is prog, and the 2nd CD is more copy and not as well designed and thought out as the first half was. I tend to think that the 2nd part/half was rushed a lot more than before.
 
Some nice things ... this is the first time that I actually can HEAR the keyboard work by Jordan Rudess, instead of always thinking he is just secondary to the guitar all the time. And he is quite visible and very nice on the 1st CD and almost invisible on the 2nd CD ... when most of the stuff in the 2nd CD does not have the lively feel that the 1st CD did because of the keyboards. James LaBrie can do some soft stuff. Though not as sensuous or as viable as others in terms of the "standard" for softer and lyrics that require a more significant lyrical edge ... which it could be said that james lacks, but then, no one here or anyone else has stated that Peter Hammill also lacks the lyrical and the soft edge ... and he's much harder than James ever will be in terms of comprehension and appreciation for the music and work ... and I have known folks tell me that PH can't sing ... but if James can't sing, he has the pipes to last 2 to 3 hours and also the mental ability to concentrate for that long ... and that's a very valuable part of what they do at Dream Theater.
 
Compositionally, I have no issues with the band. What they do, and consitently so, is always a treat and worth a listen, provided we get past the generalizations that many of us have a tendency to fall into/with. I don't look at DT as "prog", any more than I do "rio", anymore than I do "classic", any more than I do "progressive". To me this is an excellent band, and the longer pieces are alomst always very well defined. And they are, compositionally, fairly strong, compared to many other bands, and we can go as far up the lists as we wish. These, do not sound like the same songs, rehashed.
 
If I have a note to make on their work, is that we need more from the bass, more from the keyboards, and a bit less of the lead guitar, and that would make for music that would be probably "trippier" and not so "metal'ized" a sound, as to alienate a lot of folks out there, that would, otherwise, enjoy this band and their work.
 
For me, the two CD's could be cut into one CD, and make this an outstanding album of music, and most of the 2nd CD, would probably fall off. I listened to the first CD about 5 times, before I actually put on the 2nc CD, and at that point, the 2nd CD, just did not sound good at all.
 
Still ... it is Dream Theater! And a good band it is and deserves that credit!