Dream Theater New Single

moshkito wrote: Grumpyprogfan wrote: ^Just watched Scott, The Prog Corner, YT review and he gives "Parasonmia" 9.5 out of 10. I have to admit that I would rather listen to the folks on PA when they express their opinions ... at the very least I know that many of them are much more "educated" in terms of what we all listen to and check out. We might, still, do a few too many old and tired, but goodies, but that's the nature of the art form.

Scott has an account on PA, and he's interacted with forum members a lot. He's busy now with his show. He has great enthusiasm.

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - February 06 2025 at 04:15

^ To ignore streaming is a suicidal move for artists. Platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp are promotional devices, and it comes across as incredibly greedy and petty when one in 100 artists says "No! You have to pay up front before you can listen to my music, because I AM SPECIAL!". 

Pete Pardo gives "Parasonmia" 4.5 out of 5 stars. Says it's heavier than 'Train of Thought' and praises LaBrie's vocals and Portnoy's busy drum work. He mentions great production but he forgot to mention if you can hear Myung in the mix.

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - February 06 2025 at 07:45

^You're right but in my eyes that's wrong and not helpful.

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - February 06 2025 at 08:07

It shows them to be disingenuous tools. The YouTube guy i have shown interest in, and even then not that much as I have not got into these youtube reviewers, is the very popular and influential Anthony Fantano of The Needledrop. He has come across as sincere in his reviews to me.

I would not want to receive promo copies if it was not clear that I was going to share my honest impressions. But I still do think I would soften it else I seem ungrateful and rude. That said, easy enough to share a stream or download (I don't care about phyycical product other than vinyl commonly).

But of course the labels/bands do it for promotional purposes and those who would not praise might well not get those promos anymore. "I've come to bury Dream Theater, not to praise them."

Those people then just become part of the marketing and hype machine and I would not trust them nor want to support them if I did not think that they were putting out thoughtful and sincere appraisals of the music. I am prone to a bit of hype, but one should be wary of it. In these post-truth years, truth matters, and we don't need more lackeys or yes men afraid to share their honest appraisals (not saying one should not try to be at all tactful).

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ To ignore streaming is a suicidal move for artists. Platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp are promotional devices, and it comes across as incredibly greedy and petty when one in 100 artists says "No! You have to pay up front before you can listen to my music, because I AM SPECIAL!".  It's their choice, of course.

I think the music industry has put artists in a trap with streaming. Yeah, it's suicidal to ignore it. Yet, it's widely said that artists just don't make enough money out of streaming. And at the same time, the music industry is apparently doing all they can to kill the physical format, making it ever more difficult and expensive to get. However, since most artists are available, people consider that streaming can give them all they want from music and they don't need to buy albums any more. And if any artist decides they don't want to support that media, then they would likely be forgotten... it would be needed most artists to back out from streaming to make albums come back in force, or some other format that would be better for them. I don't know, perhaps they should use streaming only for singles, and whole albums perhaps just for a limited time just at the time of release to give us the chance to hear it before buying it, but then have it available at a reasonable price, preferably still at local music shops or something. I would think streaming should have been designed as a substitute to radio, not to physical media (just as with movies it should have been considered as a substitute to cable TV, and perhaps rental places like Blockbuster, but to to buying the movies).

^ Yet, as far as I know Bandcamp is more limited in the artists they have available. I'm not so sure about the big companies really wanting to go back to the physical model... I mean, it would make sense for them to want to, but it would seem to me they have working to make it go away. I mean, it's the market for physical copies has decreased, but say, I just went to my local music shop (what's left of it), and it still has people browsing what little they still have available, looking for what they like, and the people from the shop themselves have told me they did keep on selling, only they have ever less material available (they already got rid of all their movies). A little while ago some people made some sort of one day market for vinyls (mostly used) and CDs, and announced in on FB. They had lines of people looking for music, I was actually rather impressed. If the companies had a good strategy I believe they could have a market for both formats. At least for a while longer.