Reconsidering 01011001
Mar. 9th, 2008 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsA few weeks ago, I sorta panned Ayreon's latest album, 01011001. I said that there were two songs on the album that weakened it badly, "Connect the Dots" and "Web of Lies."
The album can be saved! Just delete "Web of Lies." "Connect the Dots" isn't that bad; it has its weaknesses and fans of Singularity fiction will find the theme poorly implemented, but it sustains itself okay and describes one of the Y's counter-experiments heard on an earlier album and mentioned in the song before it, "Liquid Eternity."
On the other hand, having now listened to the album all the way through with no interruptions and doing nothing else, I think it's much better than my initial opinions. The best parts of the album are the Y dialogues, where different political factions among the posthuman Y argue about what to do next. They really are quite compelling. Hell, you could put together a great Posthuman Rock Opera just by stringing together tracks 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.7, 2.1. But the other pieces (aside from "Web of Lies," which is so bad I just can't figure out what it's doing there) do provide some good support.
(On the other hand, I'll add "The Truth Is In Here" to songs where Arjen just wimped out and took the easy tack, lyrically.)
The album can be saved! Just delete "Web of Lies." "Connect the Dots" isn't that bad; it has its weaknesses and fans of Singularity fiction will find the theme poorly implemented, but it sustains itself okay and describes one of the Y's counter-experiments heard on an earlier album and mentioned in the song before it, "Liquid Eternity."
On the other hand, having now listened to the album all the way through with no interruptions and doing nothing else, I think it's much better than my initial opinions. The best parts of the album are the Y dialogues, where different political factions among the posthuman Y argue about what to do next. They really are quite compelling. Hell, you could put together a great Posthuman Rock Opera just by stringing together tracks 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.6, 1.7, 2.1. But the other pieces (aside from "Web of Lies," which is so bad I just can't figure out what it's doing there) do provide some good support.
(On the other hand, I'll add "The Truth Is In Here" to songs where Arjen just wimped out and took the easy tack, lyrically.)
