Ayreon, 01011001

Let’s just start by saying that I am a HUGE Ayreon fangirl, 01011001 is one of my all-time favourite albums and this will be populated with adjectives like mind-blowing, incredible, great, awesome and brilliant and it will severely lack criticism. You have been warned.

It has some of my favourite singers, Anneke van Giersbergen, Floor Jansen, Hansi Kursch, Jorn Lande and Daniel Gildenlow and it made me discover tons of other amazing singers, like Tom Englund, Steve Lee, Bob Catley or Magali Lyuten. It has one of the most captivating stories of a concept album and I love how Arjen gets me to pay attention to the story, even though I normally don’t invest in the lyrics anywhere near as much as I invest in the music. And the music is just mind-blowing from beginning till end. What’s not to love?

The age of shadows is one of my favourite tracks and a great beginning for a great album. The vocals are amazing, it’s complex, it’s varied, it’s compelling and it immediately sets the tone and standard for the rest of the album. I love the transitions from the industrial loud sound to the softness and etherealness of the bridge in the middle and the “forever we yearn” part is just to die for. The essence of the album is that the Forevers have become completely dependent on the machines, but are longing for the time when they used to have feelings and in this context, to have such an electronic and alien instrumental and yet such emotional and moving vocal line and singing is an even more amazing mix then if it were done on any other album.

As a duet (or should I say “duel”?) between Jorn and Anneke, Comatose cannot be anything less than awesome. The song is great in itself, but these two bring it to life like I can’t imagine anyone else doing it, just listening to their voices is enough to fascinate me. 

I can’t say I’m particularly a fan of electronic or industrial music, but I love those parts in Ayreon and Liquid eternity makes no exception. And the vocals are again top-notch, for all of Floor Jansen’s impressive and varied catalogue, I think this song is the best she’s ever pulled out of her mouth, even though she’s just a tiny drop in a sea of awesomeness. In fact, even though the compositions are really really good, I dare say that the vocals are this album’s greatest achievement (I put a lot of emphasis on this aspect in music and I personally consider it Arjen’s strongest point). 

A lot of people have complained that Connect the dots breaks the feeling of the album, but I think that’s exactly the point of it: to put the greatness of the Forevers in contrast with the smallness of humans and to show what idiots humans are for not appreciating what they have. I can almost feel the sadness and frustrations of the Forevers who are looking at humans making the same mistakes they have, relying solely on technology and forgetting how lucky they are for being able to feel and be free. Conceptually it’s a beautiful song. Musically… not so much, it is indeed rather boring.

Beneath the waves is probably my favourite song from this album, everything about it is perfect. The way it starts gently with Daniel’s vocals (he might be the most emotional male singer I have ever heard, I can almost feel my heart break listening to him and his anguish), the regret so powerful you can almost feel it yourself, that guitar that almost cries, the way it grows and grows, reaching that incredible “face the facts” part that I could put on repeat forever! Seriously, I adore that moment, it’s so intense and… well, perfect. This is one song you have to be completely numb to not feel and appreciate.

The newborn race is a nice enough song for the first half, then it turns into a typical Ayreon festival of instruments and characters debating about who has the most awesome voice… uh, I mean whether they should live vicariously through the humans under the pretext of saving them or if it’s wrong to play God with another race.

Ride the comet has a pretty repetitive verse, but the instrumental intro and chorus are really cool and Magali Lyuten is such a gem!

Web of lies is… I almost feel bad demolishing an Ayreon song, but oh God, the cheese. The song is not *that* bad, I heard it performed by Floor and it was tolerable, but Simone’s vocals are so sickeningly sweet and so whiny they ruin a song that was mediocre to begin with. Again, I get the point of the song in the context of the album, but I think I could’ve lived with only Connect the dots to show how silly the humans are.

Thankfully, The fifth extinction is here to erase the bad taste. I LOVE this song, if only for that “ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEEE, SOOOOOO ALIIIIIIVE” moment and it would still be worth listening to the whole 10 minutes! And it’s not like the rest of the song is any less amazing. It’s one of the best songs of the album, musically, instrumentally, vocally, lyrically… you name it. I love how ominous the ending is, with “now the die is cast”, in contrast to all the hope from the previous part where everyone is so enthusiastic about the plan. 

Waking dreams sounds like the older Ayreon albums, marked by the theme of a journey into space. Jonas’ part is like a trance and Anneke’s is so enchanting, I can almost feel I’m in those waking dreams, like they’re trying to bewitch me.

The only “human” song that I actually like is The truth is here. I have no idea why Arjen keeps saying he’s not a good vocalist, you can’t compare him with the others who are obviously extremely talented and among the best of their genre, but I actually like his voice, it’s very recognisable and I can already picture that slightly disturbed hippie that believes in aliens and is upset no one will believe him. To be able to bring a character to life in such a way is a bigger sign of talent then reaching E6. And if I love concept albums, you can imagine how I feel about a concept discography! I remember how stupidly excited I was when I discovered that Mr. L is the hippie from Electric Castle, it’s great how this album not only ties in with the story of the previous albums, but also actually has characters from them.

Unnatural selection has the distinct honor of being one of the few songs in the world I love for the lyrics and story more than I love it for the music. Not that the music isn’t very good (it is, VERY good, like most of the songs from this album), but the Forevers’ childish excitement when they look at humans and go “can you see the fire in their eyes?” is just adorable and “don’t want to live in a world that’s dying/I want to die in a world that’s living!” is such a beautiful message. And my favourite part is, of course “we gave them dreams and what did they dream?”, both as a message that perfectly represents humanity in real life and musically (I miss Steve Lee only listening to that verse).

The river of time is such a welcome ray of positivity in the middle of that whole frustration at humanity, I love the folkish intro and the violin bridge and there’s a ton of Hansi (Hansi always makes me happy).

I’m not really a fan of E=mc2, the chorus is too repetitive and the whole song lacks that grabbing and captivating feel of the rest of the album. I guess not every song can be a masterpiece, some albums go without having at least one masterpiece and this album already has four.

The sixth extinction more than makes up for it, though. I guess it’s an “extinction” thing, to blow you away after a less interesting song 😛 I love the way this album ends, it’s a beautiful ending thematically for the whole Ayreon journey, so hopeful and positive and oh God those voices!!! Floor’s operatic high vocals on top of Jonas’ grunts, the “the meaning of life is to give life meaning” message, To the planet of the red sequence and Daniel’s vocals are the highlights of the song, and of course the part where they all join voices and… complete the circleeeee!