album began on June 2 at The Power Station recording studio, known then as Avatar Studios from 1996 to 2017 (and reopening in 2020 as Power Station at BerkleeNYC), located at 441 West 53rd Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. In contrast to the difficult writing and pre-production stages, the band considered the recording sessions trouble free and enjoyable. The album, titled Falling into Infinity, was completed on July 30. Originally, Petrucci and Portnoy wanted to call it Stream of Consciousness, but the rest of the band rejected the name because they felt it was too pompous (although the phrase "Stream of Consciousness" is found in the song "Lines in the Sand" and would later become the title of the instrumental piece on Train of Thought). Its eventual title was proposed by Petrucci, and its cover art was designed by Storm Thorgerson. Composition Falling into Infinity is the first Dream Theater album to feature multiple songs with lyrics by Mike Portnoy. Portnoy and the rest of the band were forced to write more lyrics following the departure of Kevin Moore. All of Portnoy's lyrics were inspired by his frustration with Elektra Records: "New Millennium" and "Just Let Me Breathe" are aimed at the music industry and label, and "Burning My Soul" targets A&R man Derek Oliver. John Petrucci wrote six lyrics for the album, including those for "Peruvian Skies"; lead singer James LaBrie and bassist John Myung each contributed lyrics to one song each, "Anna Lee" and "Trial of Tears" respectively; while "Hell's Kitchen" is an instrumental. Both "Peruvian Skies" and "Anna Lee" deal with the subject of child abuse. As is the case with most Dream Theater albums, the songs were given working titles during production; for example, "Lines in the Sand" and "Burning My Soul" were originally called "Cat's Tail" and "Carnival of Clams", respectively. In the official Dream Theater biography Lifting Shadows, author Rich Wilson described Falling into Infinitys musical style as having an "accessible nature". In his review of the album for AllMusic, Jeremy Ulrey noted of the album: "Like many other progressive bands playing difficult music, Dream Theater inevitably chose to trim down both their bombastic production and intricate songwriting for a more laid-back approach, both live and in the studio." Its writing was inspired by a multitude of artists including Elton John. Release Falling