AWAKE

I agree with the general population that Awake is one of Dream Theater's best efforts. It belongs in the top five, and deserves at least four stars. "Erotomania" is the first Dream Theater song I ever heard, and I was hooked. It was also the first video I watched on Prog Archives, shortly after I joyously discovered our favorite website! I live in central Illinois, and the FM radio situation here is pretty dire. If It wasn't for PA, I would never even have heard of Dream Theater!

Besides "Erotomania", I also love "Caught in a Web" and "Innocence Faded". In fact, I think the whole first half of the album is brilliant. There isn't a bad song on Awake. If Dream Theater weren't the fine songwriters that they are, I wouldn't care about them. The choice of Kevin Moore versus Jordan Rudess isn't really an issue for me, since neither of them has written much of the material. Awake contains some of DT's best songs IMO, and is worth at least four stars.