Liquid Tension Experiment

Some of the members of Dream Theater (and one from King Crimson) got together, jammed a lot and released two albums with the name Liquid Tension Experiment.

It would be a stretch to call the album Liquid, in the sense that I think of it: flowing from one song to the next, smooth etc. The songs are distinct, many different styles are covered and very little of it is smooth (though some of it is). Styles and time signatures jump in the middle of songs and it's only after I heard the album a few times that I stopped thinking of these changes as abrupt. Scales go up and down and round and round, but I'm not qualified to comment on their complexity. The drumming is awesome and very impressive if you can keep count. These guys play awesome stuff. I no longer think of them or even Mike Portnoy (the drummer) as the best at this, but they're still far cleverer than me and so it's still a lot of fun to try and keep up with them.

The word Tension suits the album pretty well, especially in the fast songs. I hold my breath whenever Acid Rain or Paradigm Shift plays. The word Experiment is kind of obvious and if you think of other albums by Dream Theater, you would think of the characteristic as obvious.

The problem with the albums is in the mood swings. The songs where they maintain a consistent feel, like Acid Rain and most of Universal Mind are excellent. But, these guys don't seem to care much for mood. I'm sure if they sat down and thought about it for a few minutes even, they would do the jump from happy to sad or from angry to funny in a way that wouldn't leave me behind. The jumps are abrupt and make me suddenly lose track of the music. It could be said that they were jamming, but that's no excuse.

The styles, instruments and sounds on the album are very varied. Mike Portnoy uses everything from watery sounds to xylophones to whatever else that he uses. The sounds of the keyboard (or the piano, whenever it's used) seem to have been chosen well in each song, so it doesn't sound as out of place as it could. The guitar sounds funny in a few songs, but good overall. The bass sounds like a bass, and it sounds like it's being played very, very well.

So overall, points to remember:

• The musicians playing this stuff are awesome. It would do you (or at least me) a great deal of good to keep track. Even count along. That's a lot of fun too.
• The mood swings are a little jarring at times. They even take the fun out of a few songs and all that's left is awesome musical ability, no emotion. Sometimes (and in some moods) that's okay. But it robs the album of the greatness that it could have had.
• There are many styles, sounds and instruments involved. 

Overoverall, the album is enjoyable more from the point of view of the side of me that's trying to learn music than from the side that's trying to listen to music. Some albums are great enough to appeal to both, but this set isn't one of them.