the silent man

I just finished watching the bonus material from "Train of Thought". I
liked it more than I thought I would; normally that kind of thing bores
me a bit. I'm not as concerned as some that it might by spyware; I have
so many walls of security on my PC to go through that little, if no,
information leaves this PC that I don't specifically give permission to
leave. Call me paranoid.

I think it's a little contrived in being on the CD, or having the CD be
the link to it. Tori Amos did the same thing with her most recent
release "Scarlet's Walk". I have to say, though, that the bonus
material on DT's new disc is a little more significant and relevant than
the bonus material on Tori's most recent disc was.

But it seems contrived to me, as I mentioned, only because DT took the
time to include this as an encouragement for people to actually purchase
the CD instead of just downloading the MP3s. You aren't going to stop
that from happening; while I want to support the band as much as I can,
I'm also a fan who's impatient enough to want to hear the music as soon
as I possibly can. Because of this, I've had the MP3s for "Train of
Thought" since about a week before the CD actually was released in the
stores.

The thing to note about the bonus material is that James seems to be
VERY absent through most of it. I realize that his is about the last
contribution to the album before it's mastered and sent off to the
record label, but even so... His only lyrical contribution to the album
was the album's shortest track, which doesn't really seem to serve any
purpose other than as an intro to "Stream of Consciousness". He had


Turbulence". That's twice what he normally gets. It almost seems like
the vocalist is an afterthought to them, when in reality the vocalist
should be as significant as the other instrumentalists; in addition, the
vocalist is the one who has to act as the intermediary between the band
and the audience at live shows. One wonders why James doesn't have more
significant contributions to the band. I don't think it's because
they're somehow trying to "hold him back" or something so silly, but
it's still worth noting his relative lack of presence in the bonus
material.

Finally, did anyone else notice that the design of the CD itself almost
identically mirrors the design of the CD for "Images & Words"? I almost
thought I had gotten a factory mistake (is "I&W" still being printed?)
until I saw the album and song names on the disc!

The Silent Man