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Title: Serious listeners only need apply
Review: LTE 1, written in about a week, was an interesting work, with several curious musical concepts and a couple of pieces that actually managed to come together as songs. LTE 2, however, is MUCH more deeply satisfying listen than LTE 1 for several reasons. (1) The richness of musical ideas is much deeper - with much more variation. (2) There is much more emphasis on jazz and prog rock themes. Call it King Crimson meets Al DiMeola. (3) If anything, it is more experimental and improvisational, and less song-oriented than LTE 1 and far moreso than anything Dream Theater has done. If you think Live at the Marquee is DT's best work, you'll love this CD. If you are looking for great, well structured five-minute songs, buy a DT album; if you are looking for one of the best improvisional and experimental jazz-prog fusion albums ever recorded, despite its occasional lapses into Heraclitean musical trances of self-awe, buy LTE 2.
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