posted
Here's something we can vote on that hopefully won't be as polarizing.
In case you've lived in a Siberian prison camp for the last 40 years, a concept album is one where all the songs are meant to be played in order to achieve some sort of unified effect rather than just heard as a group of random songs. Many concept albums tell a story that continues from song to song, although some albums have songs related by a common theme or musical effect. I'm not sure if Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band is considered to be the first concept album, but as I understand it that's the time period when they started popping up.
Here are a few of what I consider to be the best concept albums, although I won't rank them or preclude myself from including something later that I forget now.
**Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick. A whole album that consists of a single song. You can't get more concept-y than that. And the surprising thing is that they really pulled it off. It's fascinating from start to finish and I never get tired of it.
**Frank Zappa: Joe's Garage Acts 1-3. A concept double-album presented as a big-government PSA convincing kids not to start bands. The story isn't too gripping, but the lyrics are hilarious (if extremely filthy) and the music is some of the most brilliant ever composed.
**Pink Floyd: Animals. A concept album that doesn't tell a specific story, but all the songs examine humanity through animal analogues, namely pigs sheep and dogs. Their views of humanity as sheep and dogs are completely diametrically opposite, but each captured so beautifully that it makes sense in a chilling oxymoronic fashion. And, again, the music is flawlessly composed and performed. Every note is in place, and there's nothing that could be added, removed or changed that wouldn't diminish the work.
**Rush: 2112. Actually, it's only a half concept album. Side 2 is a normal album, but side 1 is a seven-movement piece telling a story that is a musical version of Anthem by Ayn Rand, a dystopic future in which art is banned. It's a perfect fusion of heavy metal and progressive rock. Just pretentious enough to make a statement, but with the hard rock chops to make the music smoke. This was, in my opinion, the peak of their creative genius.
**Alan Parsons Project: I, Robot. Their best album (in my opinion) presents a musical version of the Asimov stories. I have to believe that Isaac would have appreciated this somewhat more than certain other adaptations *cough*willsmith*cough*.
**John Coltrane: A Love Supreme. I don't know if there's such thing as a jazz concept album, but if there is, this is the one. John was perhaps the greatest saxophone player that has ever lived, and he almost lost everything in a battle with drug addiction. He was finally able to reclaim his life through the strength that his Christian faith gave him, so he composed this, his most famous work, as a tribute to God. It's a four part suite that musically tells the story of his experience finding faith, and whether you believe in the premise or not, it's hard to deny that it's one of the most moving pieces of music you'll ever hear.
Okay, that's a few of my favorites that I can come up with off the top of my head. Anyone else like these? Hate them? Have I forgotten any? Or do you know some good ones that I've never heard of?
posted
I'd add another Allen Parson Project album: Tales of Mystery and Imagination. This album is a collection of songs inspired by Edgar Allen Poe. I also think that Tommy by the Who probably deserves mention.
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posted
Tommy's a classic, but I personally kind of prefer Quadrophenia as a Who rock opera. And although I think I, Robot is a better album, I love Tales of Mystery and Imagination. I think I've mentioned before on this forum that I have some particularly strong memories associated with that album.
posted
I really liked Everclear's "Songs From An American Movie". Songs about the effects of divorce.
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posted
Me too Ralphie. Now I have to listen to that album. Hmmm...and I *just* took it out of my car.
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posted
Fables of the Reconstruction (Actually it's an infinitely recursive name) - REM. Indie/College rock strongly adhering to southern sensibilities. An album that is a story about the roots of this quintessential rock band.
EDIT: I should add, the album is basically a wistful love letter to their home; the album was written and recorded in England.
posted
Wow Ralphie. I literally got goosebumps when reading those lyrics. I'll definitely have to go listen to it now. And I agree with you. I prefer Hemespheres to 2112, though 2112 is an awesome album.
Speed: Technically Sgt. Pepper's is not a concept album even though many consider it to be the first. It was originally intended to be a concept album, but the concept only got fleshed out in the first 2 songs and the last 2 songs. It was supposed to be a concert hosted by Sgt. Pepper's. They sang the first song and then introduced Billy Shears singing "With a Little Help from out Friends". Then Sgt. Pepper's came back to lead into "A Day in the Life". The concept got too big, so the rest of the songs were random songs that don't have anything to do with the topic.
As for my vote, the Pink Floyd albums from "Dark Side of the Moon" to "The Wall" are 4 of the greatest concept albums of all time. Two of which have already been mentioned and my favorite being "Wish You Were Here".
Patrick Brown
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posted
When I was in high school I thought that Ultravox's Bloodied Sword was incredibly cool, but a teacher stole my copy of it, so I haven't heard it since.
posted
Thank you for mentioning Dark Side, cause i was about to do it.
I don't know if you would call that a concept album, i guess depending on what you think about the whole Dark Side of the Rainbow thing. But in either case, that's an album that MUST be listened to all the way through. I can't take one song and seperate it out.
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posted
I was just listening to some of my tunes on random today, and I realized that I made a glaring omission in my first post. One of my favorite albums of all time is a concept album, and I totally overlooked it. So here it is:
**Sting: The Soul Cages. This is (in my opinion) the best solo album, and the last really good solo album, by Sting. He had as good a reason as anyone for writing it, too. His father had died. He had never shown his parents much respect while they were alive, distancing himself from them at every opportunity, and when they passed he had an especially hard time coming to terms with it, particularly in light of his actions. This traumatic experience led to the longest case of writers block he ever had in his life. Finally he overcame it by writing an entire album telling the story of his father, and his fictitious journey to save him from death. I've always considered the album the high point of his post-Police career and his last truly great artistic work before he sold out. This thread wouldn't have been complete without it.
So that's the reason that I resurrected this thread, but as long as I'm here, let me add a couple more that I forgot.
**Dave Brubeck: Time Out. Again, I don't know if there's such a thing as a jazz concept album. But if there is, it's this one. It's one of the concept albums that is held together by a musical idea rather than a story. Dave Brubeck is one of the great innovators of jazz. He really broke a lot of rules with this one, and it almost didn't get released because it was considered so bizarre in so many ways. The most obvious of the many deviations he took from mainstream jazz was the time signatures. Most jazz was composed in 4/4, and he wanted to do an entire album with alternate time signatures. Seems like a stunt, but he pulled it off with such grace that you could listen to the entire album and love it without ever noticing this. Under almost anyone else's hand, it probably never even would have been noticed. But Dave pulled it off so masterfully that it became an enormous hit, a staple of the intellectual coffee-house crowd of the time. And one of the tracks, "Take Five" (named because it's played in 5/4 time), is the best selling jazz single of all time and one of the genre's most immediately recognizable pieces. If you're going to start a jazz collection, this is one of maybe five albums that you should pick up before anything else. In fact, with the exception of Kind of Blue, I can't think of another one that would be more immediately essential.
**Willie Nelson: Red-Headed Stranger. Just wanted to throw this in because it's the only country concept album I've ever heard of. It also happens to be one of the best country albums I've ever heard. The beginning of the Outlaw Country movement and the defining moment of one of country music's icons.
**Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. A story that spreads over a double album. I never found the story especially gripping... kind of a stream of consciousness fantasy thing. But the music is fantastic. Easily my favorite Genesis album. It helps that Phil Collins is behind the drums where he belongs.
**Vangelis: The City. My personal favorite New Age album of all time. The album paints a sonic picture of a futuristic big city. Vangelis also wrote the soundtrack to Blade Runner. This album gives me a feeling of that type of city, but the music is, in my opinion, ten times as gripping, fascinating and moving. As different as the pieces are, they present a great whole, and it has one of the three most satisfying endings of any album I've ever heard. (In case anyone's interested, the other two are the endings to New Chautauqua by Pat Metheny and Big Science by Laurie Anderson).
**Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Reinhold Messner. Ben Folds is one of the best musicians to have come along in the past decade, and this album, concerning a fictitious redneck trying to outgrow his roots, is arguably his finest work to date. Unique and beautiful.
That's all I can think of now. Although it doesn't mean enough to me personally to add, I'm surprised no one included any albums by one of the most prolific concept album producing bands of all time: Radiohead. Most puzzling...
posted
Perhaps this is just the tequila-inspired nostalgia talking, but I'm just going to give Operation: MindCrime a nod here, too.
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posted
I always want to participate in these threads, but my favorites - Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater and The Wall by Pink Floyd - are always mentioned before I have time to open my mouth.
I also like the newest Green Day CD, which I think counts...
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posted
Speed, I was just going to weigh in with The Soul Cages.
A vote too for Robbie Robertson on Storyville. The story of a naive small-town boy with hopes and dreams going to the city (New Orleans), the naivete and longing of first love, the loss of innocence, reality of danger and wickedness, finding one's own soul. Haunting, sweet, coarse and unearthly all at once. "Peacefully tense."
quote:One of the least heard-of or appreciated albums of the last 20 years. Robertson takes the dark imagry of his debut album's "Somewhere Down the Crazy River," puts a decidedly New Orleans-style spin on it, and expands it into this hauntingly beautiful recording. The assistance of the talented Neville Brothers, Bruce Hornesby, and Neil Young blend beautifly with Robertson's evocotive style.
quote:Just an indescribable masterpiece that's easily on par with Dark Side Of The Moon. I have given this to countless people who later ask me "Who IS this guy?!!!". Great songs, amazingly well produced, with Robertson's voice and guitar adding the perfect blend of warmth and mystery (struggling to find the words here...). Turn your stereo WAY up and try NOT to get goosebumps as you listen to tunes like Soap Box Preacher, What About Now, and Hold Back The Dawn. You can't do it. You just can't do it. This is moody, vibrant, passionate music that deserves a serious sit-down-and-LISTEN. Whoever said "turn out the lights and listen" nailed it on the head. You don't know how good your stereo is until you listen to this one.
quote:Highlights for me are "Day of Reckoning", about a first time love gone astray ("Tangled twisted strands of love / Hanging from above"), and "Sign of the Rainbow", an atmospheric, mystical song about knowing "The silence between the words".
Two singles culled from this album were "Go Back to Your Woods" ("Come here trying to make a connection / Must have a bad sense of direction"), and "What about Now" ("We grow up so slowly and grow old so fast").
Robertson's creative genius has flourished since The Band's "The Last Waltz", and continues to grow with film scores and several solo CDs to his credit. His music is always marked by excellence, and a singular vision.
[ November 09, 2004, 08:17 AM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
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posted
Husker Du:Zen Arcade. Great, great, great album, concept album about a kid running away.
Sham 69:That's Life. Possibly the first punk concept album, it's a day in the life of a typical suburban punker in the 1970s UK.
XTC recording as Dukes of the StratosphearChips from the Chocolate Fireball. Concept album by british art-rock phenoms XTC. Recorded as a long-lost 60s psychedelia album. Some of XTC's best work, curiously enough.
posted
I'd like to think that U2's Zooropa is a concept album. It was created out of (and in between legs of) their ZooTV tour. There aren't really any songs that stand out as singles - they're all a part of the general theme of television and modern Europe and the fall of communism. It's actually my favorite album of theirs.
posted
Zen Arcade is a concept album? I haven't listened to it since I was in 7th grade or so, but I used to love that album, and I never thought of it as a concept album. I'll have to dig it out and listen to it next time I visit my parents.
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posted
Harry Nilsson "A Little Touch of Scmilsson in the Night" A gorgeous album from the early 70s, featuring the beautiful voice of (the late) Harry Nilsson singing pre WW2 songs, lushly arranged by Sinatra arranger Gordon Jenkins, plus a couple of Jenkins originals. This is a wonderful album, drippingly romantic without being syrupy. The concept is that the order and lyrics of the songs track the rise and fall of a relationship. Never get sick of listening to it. 36 minutes of musical perection.
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posted
Well, two of my favorites are from the band Horslips, an Irish rock band.
The Book of Invasions - "The Book of Invasions is a twelfth century chronicle of the various pre-Christian colonisations of Ireland. The race who occupied the country before our Gaelic ancestors were the Tuatha De Danann - The Peoples of the Goddess Danann." (excerpted from link)
quote:Aliens deals with the problems of immigration (always a hot topic in Ireland), from the excitement of the opportunities in The New World to the sadness of the American Wake to the prejudices and hardships actually faced by the immigrants when they go to look for work.
"Aliens" is essentially a Rock album, but with a strong trad/folk influence mostly evident in the use of flute and mandolin. Flute particularly plays a important role in the album, taking on the parts of main melody, harmony, rhythm and counterpoint (sometimes all eeven in the same song).
The albums are both over 25 years old!!!
I must have heard them in kindergarten. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote: Deloused In The Comatorium by The Mars Volta is a more recent one about a friend of the band members suicide.
That's what I was going to say. Best album, as a whole, that I have ever heard. It can be hard to listen to the songs individually, but if you listen to the entire album straight through it will blow your mind.
(P.S. The Mars Volta is my favorite band, too *glances down...is wearing a shirt from The Comatorium )
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posted
If Sgt. Pepper's doesn't count, how about Magical Mystery Tour? I think that qualifies as a concept album.
Most of my favorites have been mentioned. All Pink Floyd nominations are hereby seconded.
I'll also second "Thick as a Brick," "Joe's Garage" and "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway."
Another half concept album is Mike Rutherford's "Smallcreep's Day." His best solo album by a long shot.
Rick Wakeman's "The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Round Table" I've heard people say that "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is better, but I've never heard it.
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posted
As someone who owns all of Rick's first three albums, and a few of his later ones, I'd have to agree that both Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Six Wives of Henry VIII are better than King Arthur (with Henry VIII being my personal favorite). They've all got their share of groovy moments (and not a little pretentious cheesiness), but he was kind of losing steam on the concept by the time he hit King Arthur. However, I'm pretty sure that The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is the longest album title that I own, so that's got to count for something.
Good call, though. Those are some definitive records there.
Oh, and Elizabeth, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just not the person to ask about Springsteen. His music seems like a good match for me on paper, but I've never been able to get into him, no matter how hard I've tried (and I have tried). So I don't know much about Nebraska. Hope someone else does.
posted
Okay, Glenn is getting pretty good at provoking response from me. I've got to mention something about a couple albums he brought up.
First, Magical Mystery Tour isn't a very highly regarded album, but it was what got me into the Beatles. When I was a kid, I used to hear a bunch of stuff from their I Wanna Hold Your Hand era, and it always kind of annoyed me. I could never understand what the big deal about this band was. So one of my friends finally bought me Magical Mystery Tour for my birthday, and it opened my eyes. Sure, he could have started me on Abbey Road or The White Album or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or Revolver. Maybe he should have. But Magical Mystery Tour was quite enough. I was hooked. So I'll always dig that album something fierce.
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Second, I've mentioned before what a monster Yes fan I was when I was a kid. When I was in high school I bought all their albums, and many solo albums by the members of the band. I remember buying The Six Wives of Henry VIII. It was keyboard virtuoso Rick Wakeman's first real solo album, and it lacked a bunch of the pretentious orchestral/narrative trappings that would make some of his later albums seem a little cheesy. It's just six instrumental jams, three to a side, each named after a wife. It's still my favorite of his albums.
So I bought the tape and dug it. But I only had one critique. Some musicians write a theme and experiment with it in different ways, and this is apparently what he had done. He had three different sounding songs on side 1 of the tape, and apparently he did slightly different versions of those songs for the tracks on side 2. I have no problem with that, but it sounded really repetitive. I always listened to the album all the way through, but I sort of came away with the feeling that Rick just had enough material for three songs and tried to stretch it into a full album, and I wasn't too impressed.
After I had the tape for several years, I went into a record store one day and saw a mint condition original pressing of the record for a quarter. Sure I already had the tape, but this was a collector's item. So I bought it and took it home. I put on side 1 and listened to it while I read, hearing the songs I'd come to know and love over the previous several years. Side 1 ended, so I flipped it over to side 2 and from the first note I could tell that this was music I'd never heard before in my life. I played passages from each of the songs on side 2 and none of them sounded remotely familiar. It slowly dawned on me that I'd misjudged Rick. He hadn't used slight variations on the first three tracks to make the last three tracks. The people who manufactured the tape just recorded side 1 on both sides. I'd been listening to the first half of the album twice in a row for years and never even noticed.
So if you've ever wondered why I'm not a private detective, that's the reason.
posted
Well, ok, then. I'll just have to get copies of Rick's other two albums.
Magical Mystery Tour may not be highly regarded as a Beatles album. But then again, just about every Beatles album is highly regarded. It's the movie that was a flop. My question is whether it counts as a concept album. 'Cause if it is, then just being a Beatles album makes it a great concept album.
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posted
Okay, I finally got on the Sufjan Stevens bandwagon, and I had to add Illinois to this list. I got it a few months ago. The first time I listened to it I thought it was okay, but after repeated listens it got under my skin something fierce and now it's one of my favorites.
When I heard it was a concept album about the state of Illinois, I thought it was going to be songs he was going to write anyway that he found some way of tying in as a gimmick, or songs that reminded him of Illinois in a way that people other than him wouldn't be able to get. But this really is a concept album in the truest sense of the word. Songs about Lincoln and Andrew Jackson and John Wayne Gacy and (in one of my favorite lyrical puns) The Sears Tower => "The Seer's Tower". I've never been to Illinois, but I feel like I understand it a little better from this album. And a lot of the references I didn't get were presented in an interesting enough way that I looked them up and schooled myself.
And the music is incredible. Lush, driving and poignant, it's one of the most compelling 75 minute albums I've ever heard. There are so many different, interesting ideas going on, and they're so well executed, that it never feels bloated or over-extended. It's unique and fascinating, and it really connects on an emotional level as well.
I just had to add this to the list before I forgot about it again. I know it's become a bit of a cliche in the last couple years, but I was surprised how well it lived up to its considerable buzz.
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posted
Damn you, Speed, for making me think Ralphie was posting again.
*shakes fist*
I own a couple of albums mentioned here, but it never occurred to me to think of them that way. I don't know if Nebraska counts. I mean, if Nebraska counts, then I guess so does Billy Joel's Nylon Curtain, but that seems to be stretching things to me.
I do own Styx's Killroy Was Here, which I guess is pretty clearly a concept album. Some of those songs are embarrasingly bad, though. (But then, some of them are a lot of fun. )
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posted
Ooh, and Harry Chapin's Last Protest Singer must count, but A) it's posthumous, and 2) it's pretty much his worst album. Or not exactly worst, but least good.
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posted
There's another one I was just listening to at work and I should throw it on before I forget, as long as the thread is resurrected.
I always heard how good Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours was, so I picked it up several years ago. It was pretty good, but I always felt it was a little over-rated. I understand the mellow post-midnight atmosphere he was going for, but most of the album seemed so slowed down and drenched in atmosphere that it devolved into droning, meandering tones that barely qualified as melodies. Kind of like listening to Brian Eno on morphine.
So I almost gave up on Frank, since that was supposed to be his best album and it was, as Randy Jackson would say, just all right for me.
Then I picked up another one of his concept albums, Come Fly With Me. All the songs are about traveling to exotic locations, and they're brilliant. Not as moody or pretentious as In the Wee Small Hours, just loads of good fun that keeps you smiling for 45 solid minutes. Classic songs, spot-on technique, and infectiously joyful interpretation. And it always makes me want to buy a plane ticket, so the concept really works.
I guess that's my answer to the people that like Hemispheres or Magical Mystery Tour. It may not be as smart or high-brow as some of his other stuff, but it's so much more fun to listen to, and that, as Mal Reynolds would say, ain't nothin'.
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quote:Originally posted by Speed: That's all I can think of now. Although it doesn't mean enough to me personally to add, I'm surprised no one included any albums by one of the most prolific concept album producing bands of all time: Radiohead. Most puzzling...
I missed this thread the first time around, but I noticed that too. Kid A and OK Computer aren't my favourite albums or even my favourite Radiohead albums, but they're probably my favourite concept albums.
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posted
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy has been astounding me recently.
quote:And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they’d dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they’re unable to know.
And when that queen’s daughter came of age, I think she’d be lovely and stubborn and brave, and suitors would journey from kingdoms away to make themselves known.
And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day when she turned him away to remember some knave who once gave just one rose, one day, years ago.
Takes my breath away.
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posted
OOh, how about "Purple Rain?" Prince. Weren;t all those songs tied together?
And I take back "Nebraska" and replace it with any early Springsteen album, particularly "Born to Run," but also "Greetings from Asbury Park," which were all aoutobiographical, I believe. Icarus? That is still my favorite Springsteen album, hands down.
His latest album is also a concepot album. Supposedly, the songs are Pete Seeger songs. Pete may have sung those songs, but they are all American folk songs. And it is incredibly well done.
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posted
Well, I'm really the wrong person to ask, but it seems like if so, we are working (as a thread) on two levels, because some people are including albums where there is a common theme on all the songs, and some are including albums that are almost like soundtracks to a movie that doesn't exist. To me, the latter seem more like what we're talking about, but what do I know? (Except that I seem to like similar music to you, Liz. ) I have all of Springsteen's albums, and maybe I need to give them another, more thorough listening, but it never occurred to me to consider them concept albums, even if they contain songs that are all autobiographical. Bringing up the Nylon Curtain comparison again, I would say that all or most of those songs focus on the shift in the early 1960s from urban (and rural) living to cookiecutter suburban living, and the stultifying pressure to conform. Or broadening a little bit, early to mid 1960s life taken as a whole. But I wouldn't consider it a concept album because of a common theme. I would think that, as in some of the more "out there" concept albums mentioned earlier, the songs need to show some "awareness" of each other. Like if the songs were autobiographical and arranged chronologically, then maybe. Or if they referenced each other. Or if they were all voiced by the same character (and being narrated by the singer doesn't count, because some singers are very autobiographical, and so it is generally presumed that they are the speaker). Does that make sense?
I haven't listened to Purple Rain, but isn't it basically the soundtrack to the movie? Which came first? If they came out together, then I wouldn't consider it a concept album, but simply a soundtrack. Like I wouldn't count Rick Springfield's Hard to Hold, either.
Again, though, before I sound too pedantic, I really don't know and I'm just going by my instincts here. Some of these posters who have lots of concept albums could say better than I. I'm just posting because nobody had addressed Nebraska, and now because you addressed me directly. Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I'll second (or fifth, whatever) 2112 and Hemispheres. Animal (Pink Floyd) was priddy good too. I think Face to Face by the Kinks and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars are both good early examples.
Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral was concept-y, Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater also fits and Radiohead's OK Computer fits the genre (I think).
Posts: 1594 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Cool! another music thread. Can't have enough of those... So here's some of my suggestions...
*Ayreon - The Human Equation : A double CD album that tells the story of a man that falls into a coma and learns to be a better person because the things he sees during that period. All the songs have single words for titles p.e. Love, Pain, School, Isolation and so on and so forth.
*The Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow : This album tells the story of one man's journey through life. (oh yeah, the S.F. in the title are his initials, so no immmediate sci-fi connection) In the booklet the lyrics of the songs are intertwined with short pieces of prose that form it into one story.
*The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed : An album built around the different stages of the day.
I'll second the nominations for 'Thick As A Brick' and any of the Pink Floyd albums. Also, IMO, Wakeman's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' is his best work, but that's mostly because of the Verne connection.
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