DREAM THEATER RE-MIX THEIR “GREATEST HIT” FOR GREATEST HITS COLLECTION; WHY?

March 21st, 2008 at 11:53am
Vince Neilstein
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Dream Theater have a “best of” album of sorts coming out on April 1st entitled Greatest Hit and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs. The title, of course, is a nod to the fact that the band really only ever had one song that could even loosely qualify as a hit, the classic “Pull Me Under” from 1992’s Images & Words. So it certainly comes as a surprise that the band went out of their way to re-mix perhaps the most important track of their entire career for inclusion with this two-disc set.

The remixed version of “Pull Me Under” basically amounts to a de-’80s-ification, but the end effect is that all of the life and character of the original mix have been sucked out. The first thing that jumps out at you is that the keyboards in the intro (and elsewhere) now sound completely lifeless and devoid of character. Worst of all, that trademark reverbed snare has been de-reverbed — or even sound-replaced, god forbid — robbing the recording of the life and character the original had. Petrucci’s guitars sound clearer and crisper and James LaBrie’s voice sounds better too, but it’s hard to care given this song basically sounds nothing like it once did.

What the fuck? Why mess with the original? I understand the band probably resented the ‘80s sound of the whole thing, but you can’t re-write history, and those dated old nuances are endearing to me. In short; this mix is fucked. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if you’re going out of your way to tout this song as your “Greatest Hit” sure as hell don’t go altering it, because this is not the song that was a hit in the first place.

Listen to the re-mixed version of “Pull Me Under” at the Rhino website, or listen below.

Dream Theater – “Pull me Under” (remix)

-VN