Concept Albums

Hey I just wanted to hear what everyone's favorite concept albums are! What their story is, how the artist structures it, etc. Mainly because I can't seem to isolate them here on PA and I'm always curious to hear a new story.

Thanks!

For me, it would have to be Wish You Were Here. As a freshman in college, I spent a week sitting outside the student union, in line for tickets for the Grateful Dead. At the time, I had no idea who the Grateful Dead were, nor did I know what their music sounded like. We got tickets, and then I listened to some Grateful Dead music. Hated them, so I sold my ticket. The night of the concert, with all my friends gone, I sat in a darkened dorm room, beer in hand, and put the needle down onto an album a friend had loaned me - Wish You Were Here. I was instantly mesmerized. To this day, every time I listen to this album, I am immediately transported back to that darkened dorm room...

Triumvirat-Illusions On A Double Dimple
Triumvirat-Spartacus

                     You can relate to Illusions if you have ever been "down and out", it being the story of someone who loses their job, and feels like hell afterwards.
                        If ever there was a concept album about an individual fighting a rotten and decayed "system", Spartacus fits the bill. The effort of the true life gladiator who led a revolt against Imperial Rome is depicted, but  he and his followers are defeated in the end. Sad, but heroic and moving are the lyrics and music.


Edited by presdoug - March 22 2014 at 09:46

Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Devin Townsend presents Ziltoid The Omniscient
The Who - Quadrophenia
Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans
Blur - 13
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
Camel - The Snow Goose
Carach Angren - Where The Corpses Sink Forever
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
Cradle Of Filth - Cruelty And The Beast
Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 2
Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade Of Gray
Gentle Giant - Three Friends, Power And Glory, Interview, In A Glass House
Haken - Visions
Iron Maiden - 7th Son Of A 7th Son
Judas Priest - Nostradamus
The Kinks - Preservation Act 1 and 2
Magma - most of them
Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium
Mastodon - Crack The Skye
Men WIthout Hats - Pop Goes The World
Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antactica
Nocturnus - The Key
Pink Floyd - Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing, Fear Of A...
Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
Radiohead - OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac
The Tubes - Remote Control
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life
Zappa - Thing-Fish, Absolutely Free and more!

Just a few i like but hardly everything. Some of these are only mildly conceptional but count

moshkito wrote: Hi,   I'm all for these and I can add many to the list, but there are way too many rock bands that create a "concept album" and it is not, and just has a bunch of songs that supposedly add up to this idea or whatever, and I don't think that "fits" the description or the wording for the "concept" within a literary context, let's say! In other words, very few of these are really meaningful and valid as a true story/concept per proper/concise definition.

I sorta see why this disappoints you Pedro but your expectations of form are completely unrealistic. Music is music and literature is stubbornly...always literature. Not even Opera/Ballet* has managed to synthesize the sonic, theatrical, dance and textual realms into a completely satisfying whole that does justice to all four disciplines (Have you ever read one of Mozart's Operas? the music's great but the librettos make Chitty Chitty Bang Bang appear labyrinthine.) Unfortunately you are not in a literary context you are in a musical context with Progressive Rock.
The heart of Prog's innate weakness was being largely populated by long winded instrumentalists who couldn't string two words together. *You'll notice I've left Cinema out of my list (because that's your stated realm and I ain't gonna go there)
Yes, there are quite a few pseudo concept albums which are just a selection of songs hastily sheltering under a flimsy thematic umbrella but most of these appear to be deemed so only by their fans who clearly need a weather man to tell them which way the wind blows/sucks.

moshkito wrote: ExittheLemming wrote: moshkito wrote: Hi,   I'm all for these and I can add many to the list, but there are way too many rock bands that create a "concept album" and it is not, and just has a bunch of songs that supposedly add up to this idea or whatever, and I don't think that "fits" the description or the wording for the "concept" within a literary context, let's say! In other words, very few of these are really meaningful and valid as a true story/concept per proper/concise definition.   I sorta see why this disappoints you Pedro but your expectations of form are completely unrealistic. Music is music and literature is stubbornly...always literature. Not even Opera/Ballet* has managed to synthesize the sonic, theatrical, dance and textual realms into a completely satisfying whole that does justice to all four disciplines (Have you ever read one of Mozart's Operas? the music's great but the librettos make Chitty Chitty Bang Bang appear labyrinthine.) Unfortunately you are not in a literary context you are in a musical context with Progressive Rock. The heart of Prog's innate weakness was being largely populated by long winded instrumentalists who couldn't string two words together. *You'll notice I've left Cinema out of my list (because that's your stated realm and I ain't gonna go there)...   And you are suggesting that other "classical" instrumentalists and musicians could? I'll tell you what! A Vivaldi, Bach or Albinoni, wouldn't be as good today as the Rolling Stones or most rock'n'roll bands, musically!   Music is also ... stubbornly always "music". An IDEA.   Literature is also an IDEA, and I accept that.   The point is that what has been considered a part of the history of music, of art (get Jensen's History of Art), and or literature, is there for a reason, and that usually points out to a lot more than we give credit for in here (for example) for any of the music, and I want to elevate that because there is a lot of stuff that was, and IS, being done that stands up to the history of the art form extremelly well, except that some of us don't think that "pop" music fits. What we're on about, is NOT, "pop music".   The standards are different, just not stupid and stuck up like the local symphony that thinks Frank Zappa is a sheep dip! But then it also means they never heard anything except the enemma bandeet or something like it!

No, I'm actually saying the exact opposite and without any ambivalence either: I don't believe anyone from either the classical or popular music spheres has fused the disparate elements of dance/music/theatre and literature into a satisfying whole that does justice to all four elements. We're talking about concept albums by Progressive Rock groups remember, which divorced from the live performance realm, are a fusion of textual and musical ingredients. If Vivaldi, Bach or Albinoni were still alive today they would all still conspire to look younger and better dressed than Keith Richards, but I digress: to suggest that the Stones are better musically than these composers when the former haven't released an album of credible merit for over 30 years rather beggars belief. I'm a huge Stones fan but would be the first to admit that their oeuvre is that of a distillation and refinement of primitive blues, folk and pop forms. Why does pop music you like cease to be pop music Pedro? (is it because you simply cannot bear the thought that those with half your intellect enjoy it just as much, if not more than you do and for all the right reasons?) I think I'll pass on Jensen's History of Art because I suspect it's full of the sort of self serving academia that the counter culture you profess to have lived through, was designed to eradicate. Sometimes a person's pride can be greater than their love. So here's a joke by Martin Amis to illustrate:


…Did you ever hear the one about the Jewish mother who ran along the beach shouting, “Help, help, my son the doctor is drowning!”?

I also agree with Octopus-4. Although all Ayreon albums are concept albums. Explorers' Club made 2 decent concept albums. Riverside has a few great concept albums. I don't know any Glass Hammer album which isn't a concept album. Hawkwind is a bit more psychedelic but has also great concept albums.How about the New York-based band Izz? Their last 3 albums all have a concept or story to tell. Kaipa has a couple of great concept albums too! The list is a bit long so I think I'll stop there for now!

I love a lot of the albums mentioned thus far. Great examples! Lamb was my first thought too.

Ones I love and haven't seen listed yet are:

The Perfect Element Pt. 1 and Remedy Lane - Pain of Salvation.

Still Life and Ghost Reveries - Opeth

Second Life Syndrome, Anno Domini High Definition, and Shrine of New Generation Slaves - Riverside

The Mountain - Haken

tboyd1802 wrote: For me, it would have to be Wish You Were Here. As a freshman in college, I spent a week sitting outside the student union, in line for tickets for the Grateful Dead. At the time, I had no idea who the Grateful Dead were, nor did I know what their music sounded like. We got tickets, and then I listened to some Grateful Dead music. Hated them, so I sold my ticket. The night of the concert, with all my friends gone, I sat in a darkened dorm room, beer in hand, and put the needle down onto an album a friend had loaned me - Wish You Were Here. I was instantly mesmerized. To this day, every time I listen to this album, I am immediately transported back to that darkened dorm room...

That's a really cool story