I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to Pedro The Lion’s Control since it was first released in 2002, but even to this day, I never cease to be amazed at how elegantly constructed the entire affair is. This was the first album that convinced me literary rock music could sell an entire album-length narrative without ever sounding pretentious or oblique. Plus, it does so while delivering a churning blend of angular rock that actually meets and enhances the mix of acid observations and shitty self-serving metaphors from the unnamed protagonist, capturing its dark view of a disastrous marriage. [Alex McLevy]
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Probably a tie between Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Days of Future Past, and Tommy (though Tommy is more of an opera).
Pepper’s a brilliant and ground breaking album, but it’s not really a concept album, despite inspiring many albums that are.
In fairness, neither are half the albums mentioned in the article or the comments.
Days Of Future Passed is a great pick, although I will pedantically note that X-Men made it hard to remember the correct spelling. I’d pick The Who Sell Out over Tommy for this list but both are great.
The Wall came out 40 years ago…not 30
Mariner, by Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas, easily. An incredibly fun concept and amazing music and vocals.Also Panopticon, or whatever other Isis albums qualify as concept
I think “In the Absence of Truth” is my favorite ISIS album, but I don’t believe it counts as a concept album. I also really like Mastodon’s “Crack the Skye,” Nocturnus’s “The Key,” Cult of Luna’s “Vertikal,” Meshuggah’s “Catch 33,” Ahab’s “Call of the Wretched Sea,” Nevernore’s “Dreaming Neon Black”…
Crack the Skye is yet another amazing Mastodon concept album (along with Leviathan & Blood Mountain).I forgot about Catch 33, Meshuggah rules!
I only knew of Julie Christmas from Made Out of Babies/Battle of Mice, I guess I should check that out.
Panopticon and Oceanic are both great albums!
Would Mastadon’s “Leviathan” count as a concept album?
Dream Theater’s Scenes From A Memory. It’s about reincarnation!
Now that’s a band whose concepts were better than their songs.
Now that’s a band whose concepts were better than their songs.
I love that album but pretend “Spirit Carries On” isn’t on it. Barf.
Though it is an abandoned concept album, I have always had an affection towards “Wax Ecstatic” by Sponge.
No mention of Ziggy Stardust…interestingBut just to up the CanCon quotient, I’ll say John K Sampsons Provincial and Matt Goods Hospital Music both permanently reside on my playlist
30 years since the release of the wall? You might want to check that math.
It’s the 40th anniversary of ‘The Wall.’ 2019 – 1979 = 40.My favorite is ‘Quadrophenia.’
The 10’s have been kind of a shit decade though, maybe this is part of insisting hard enough that it’s really 2009 so we can have a do-over.
Thank you. I know editing is not a “thing” anymore but sweet baby Jesus the first sentence of the first article gets incorrectly the date that is the impetus of this article.
Nice one, I could never entirely decide if I liked Quadrophenia or Tommy more.
In the end I think the overall lead goes to Quadrophenia but I really love Go To the Mirror on Tommy.
I took a long, long time to like Quadrophenia, and I still prefer the overall sound on Tommy (for all that it’s nonsense subject & message-wise I just like the production and arrangements) and while I’ve come to love things like “The Real Me,” Tommy still has one of my all-time favorite Who tracks (I’m Free) and Quadrophenia one of my most hated (Love Reign O’er Me).
Is Who’s Next considered a concept album? Because even though the concept was abandoned, the songs were written with the ‘Lifehouse’ concept in mind.
I’d say yes just because even though it’s not sequenced like Lifehouse was meant to be, it has most of those songs.
Also a few of those tracks are concepts unto themselves like Baba O’Riley and Pure and Easy.
Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Super AE by Boredoms! Is it even a concept album? I don’t know! Probably!
I’m torn between Operation: Mindcrime by
Rush – 2112 (obvious) and Clockwork Angels (should be obvious)Big Wreck – Ghosts (criminally underrated album by critically underrated band)
Pink Floyd only gets a mention in the question!? I mean, there’s a reason why Dark Side Of The Moon was so popular.
Death Grips – Government Plates and Interview 2016 are the best concept albums of of the 2010s.
Deltron 3030 is where it’s at.
Yes! Deltron Zero and Automator.. Fantastic album.
Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Ziggy, for sure. My prog friends would be appalled at the lack of Operation: Mindcrime and 2112. And also: 40.
You wanna really upset your friends? Tell ‘em Operation: Mindcrime II made the list.
Bahaha! After Mindcrime they lost me. Some of their post Mindcrime songs are great but they stopped telling stories for the most part.
Operation Mindcrime is definitely on my top 5.
And it’s amazing how relevant it still is 30 years later. Just change a few names.
The live S&M shows in Times Square are still there though, just in a different form.
I appreciate the desire to showcase work by some lesser known bands, but Ziggy’s absence is ridiculous.
It’s a tossup between Ziggy and Black Parade for me, Hazards of Love in third.(Did you know every My Chemical Romance album is a concept album and the first two are two halves of the same story?)
2112 is a fantastic album, but it’s only that song that deals with the concept. The other songs are unrelated.
I’m not big in to the band outside of it, but “Operation: Mindcrime” is a great album and should be somewhere on this list. On the other hand, 2112 and Rush, in general, are like the Grateful Dead for prog fans – jamming for minutes on end with no end in sight. No thanks.
The wall is almost 40 years old. Edit: and it was released in May. Do you folks even try at your jobs?
Punk and politics often go hand in hand, but for most of their run, Green Day was never really that kind of outfit. But when they finally went there, it’s no surprise they were made the relevant again (if for a while). What is a surprise is that for a band that peaked in the 90s, it’s their 2004 album that might be their seminal work. The legacy of American Idiot is one of the most impressive I can recall, having even been turned into a stage musical. Now, I don’t know much about the concept of “rock operas” or whatever, but the story Green Day tells across these 13 tracks (some of which are divided into 5 acts) is worth a listen for fans of the genre.
I’m always pleasantly surprised when I unwittingly stumble upon something which features my roommate from 30+ years ago. Thank you.
The drummer lives around the corner from my mom!
I guess that I might not have been specific enough. Paul F. Tompkins, who plays the “Broadway impresario” character, was my roommate 30 years ago and I previously had no idea that he was in this video. Although Ted Leo did approach me once after one of his shows because he swore that he knew me. I was like “nope, we probably know some of the same people, but we’ve never met before this”. Patti Smith once sought me out in a similar fashion. She didn’t think that she knew me, but she was standing in an art gallery, surrounded by fans, and she left the group, walked over, put her hand on my shoulder, said “hi”, asked me how I was, and chatted with me for a few minutes. I’m pretty sure that was one of the most special moments I’ve ever experienced.
Exene Cervanka called me by my name once. I was helping my friend carry in equipment with his band. And X was the headliner. And I got to meet her. It was like 20 minutes later, she yelled, “Hey, ____, do you remember if they said shirts were going to be $10 or $15?”
My friend Matt interviewed Iggy Pop for the better part of an hour for his college radio station sometime around 1987 or so. I think Iggy was opening for the Pretenders (& promoting Blah Blah Blah) at the time. That interview was the sole extent of their interaction. Cut to 4 years later – Matt’s walking down the street in NYC for the day and is suddenly surprised by Iggy appearing out of the blue, approaching and sneering mock-threateningly “what the fuck’s going on, MATT?” and then continuing on his way.
Though it’s just one song I think NOFX did it way better (and earlier) with The Decline, but I also don’t like Green Day at all.
There were definitely snatches of it before American idiot. Welcome to Paradise or She on Dookie, Minority and the title track on Warning, but American Idiot was the first time they took aim at with that much fury and focus.
When it comes to Frank Sinatra’s concept albums, my favorite is “No One Cares,” which even Sinatra called an album of “suicide songs.” It also has both Johnny Carson’s and my favorite Sinatra ballad, “Here’s That Rainy Day.”
Hard not to stump for Ziggy Stardust (or any of Bowie’s concept albums), but in recent times I’m loving The Hazards Of Love by The Decemberists.
Either Leviathan or Blood Mountain by Mastodon for sure! m/Honorable mention to Antichrist Superstar by Marilyn Manson.
Mastodon, YES! (But I can’t see past Crack the Skye).
Well my favorite is Animals by Pink Floyd – and its a hard call after listening the fuck out of Meddle, Dark Side, The Wall, and Wish You Were Here. But the song “Dogs” puts it over the top. Animals didn’t even start out as a concept album, they pulled together three big tracks that didn’t find a home on previous works. But … Dogs. It’s the last song of theirs pressed – ever – to list all four band members as co-writers of the same track.
My favorites are Dark Side, Meddle, and Wish You Were Here. The Wall is good, but it is a bit too Roger Waters emo. That seeped into the Final Cut as well. I have Animals, but never really listened to it much.
Animals is great! I love the weird synths throughout and the lyrics calling out the political malfeasance that was causing the social and economic pain that the punk scene was rising from whilst making fun of ‘dinosaurs’ such as Pink Floyd showed the greatness of the band. Underrated gem.
I like “Sheep” but it is definitely dark.
It took me a long time to get there with Animals. You’re totally right about Waters & his emo tendencies. When they’re good – they’re Great! When they’re not good – skip track, skip track, skip track.
I just don’t listen to those last albums much, they get dark. I mean, I listen to a lot of dark music (metal, dark wave, etc…) but it just seemed to take over everything. He leaves and they carry on and the mood is not as dark as it was Waters there writing another song about his dad dying in WW II. There are some good songs on those albums, but it seems like the good songs had Gilmour’s hand in them. Maybe I am biased as I am on the Gilmour side. I liked his solo albums where as Waters decided to do the political bit.
For being Roger Water’s emo I’ll take The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. + you get Eric Clapton in place of David GIlmour.
Waters’ last Us and Them tour leant heavy on the Animals stuff (although no ‘Sheep’) and it was absolutely brilliant.
Dr. Johnny Fever:
[Mr. Carlson is inspecting Johnny in the DJ booth while Pink Floyd’s “Dogs” is playing, specifically the section with the barking dogs] Gripping music, ain’t it?Arthur ‘Big Guy’ Carlson:
Yeah, it’s good. What is the name of this orchestra?Dr. Johnny Fever:
It’s Pink Floyd.Arthur ‘Big Guy’ Carlson:
Oh. Is that Pink Floyd? …Do I hear dogs barking on that thing?Dr. Johnny Fever:
I do.Arthur ‘Big Guy’ Carlson:
They’re good, aren’t they? [Picks up the Animals album jacket] There’s something on here that’s called “Pigs On The Wing”. What does that sound like?Dr. Johnny Fever:
I don’t do requests.Arthur ‘Big Guy’ Carlson:
Well, keep up the good work.Dr. Johnny Fever:
I’m giving it all I’ve got.
Slight correction – you actually have to go all the way back to Dark Side of the Moon’s “Time” to find a track where all four members are credited for the same piece of music. Wish You Were Here credits “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” to Waters/Gilmour/Wright, and “Dogs” gives a dual credit to Waters/Gilmour. Bear in mind that I have no idea what constitutes a credit for music and what doesn’t; it’s possible that if “Dogs” were released just a few years earlier when the band was in a better headspace there would’ve been a shared group credit. (Similarly, if “Dogs” is a Waters/Gilmour credit, I don’t really see why “Sheep” isn’t credited to Waters/Wright. Credits are weird, man.)
Hmm, I had it burned in my head that Dogs was a “Gilmour/Waters/Wright/Mason”I might have mistook official credit for the song with the story of its origin. As I understood it, they worked out “You’ve Gotta Be Crazy” on tour for a year or two before recording it as “Dogs,” with all four members contributing and editing it as they went. Maybe it was the last song they road tested before recording.
Animals and Meddle for sure.
This deserves a mention:In a sense aren’t we all, each in our own way, bound for Mu Mu Land in an Ice Cream Van? I leave it here for history to decide.
A film about the life and art of Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond is well over due. I particularly like the story of the bidding war over Cauty’s iconic Lord of the Rings Poster.
I have two favorites: Queensrÿche’s Operation: MindcrimeArguably their most social and politically driven album but also their most creative and technically proficient, which finds the main character, Nikki, in a hospital struggling to remember how he got there until it all comes rushing back to him. He was a heroin addict, frustrated with all the problems with contemporary society until he meets the mysterious ‘Dr. X’ who manipulates him into joining a secret organization (Anarchy X) bent on revolution.Nikki becomes sort of Manchurian candidate to carry out assassinations, specifically a priest and the girl he falls in love with. When Nikki meets ‘Mary’ (the girl), he later decides he doesn’t want to be part of the organization anymore. Dr. X knows Nikki needs his fix and that Mary poses a threat to his plans and thus has her eliminated. Nikki begins to lose his mind before being picked up by the police and brought into a mental hospital where the story begins.My other favorite is King Diamond’s The Puppet MasterKing Diamond is no stranger to concept albums but I found this entry to be one his most tragic and compelling stories that begins with the narrator, hanging on the wall, reminiscing about a seemingly innocent Christmas puppet show in Budapest 18 years prior. There, he meets a girl, ‘Victoria’ and together, they become enchanted by the puppets and amazed by the show’s finale when the puppet master drops their strings as the puppets continue to stand and take a bow.
The two, ever so curious, sneak backstage to discover the horror of what really goes on. The puppet master and his wife ‘Emerencia’ perform sacrificial blood rituals off of transients to give the puppets life, as slaves to perform in his show. The narrator and Victoria are captured and suffer the same fate but something goes wrong during the ritual. The narrator comes to life inside the body of one of the puppets but he remains conscious and can see and hear everything but can’t move without subsequent drops of his own enchanted blood. After each show, he’s hung on a wall and is able to only look upon Victoria’s own enchanted puppet, unable to speak or move.Forced to perform in their shows, Victoria is fearfully unable to dance without her strings and the angry puppet master decides to send her away to another puppet theater (in Berlin). The narrator and Victoria stare at each other one more time and declare their love for each other. Heartbroken, the narrator performs ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ and purposely trips up and ruins the show. The furious puppet master sold the narrator to another shop where he remains nailed upon a wall, unable to move and deteriorating, watching the children come and go as they comment how awful-looking he is, never to be sold again and never to lay eyes on his beloved Victoria once more.
Operation: Mindcrime may be the best concept album ever. Thirty years later, it’s still in my regular rotation, and I listen to it from start to finish. Unleash the Archers “Apex” is similarly awesome with strong characters and epic music.
Was hoping for an endorsementof Zaireeka.
I immediately thought of that…as a cautionary tale of when concepts get too conceptual.
Zaireeka is available on vinyl, which is absolutely stupid and near impossible (unless everyone brings their Crosley portable lathe to play it). I’m curious how it would work through MP3s and standardized DACs, considering one of the charms of the original was the slight variation in CD speed causing the playbacks to slightly go in and out of sync.
Ziggy, Quadrophenia, Let it Beard by Boston Spaceships, The Wake by Voivod, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Foxtrot by Genesis, Starless and Bible Black by King Crimson, Double Nickels on The Dime by Minutemen. I listen to something from those albums every day.ETA: I forgot to mention Eldorado by ELO. I only recently listened to it after being a fan of their first 3 albums all my life. It’s kind of cheesy but if fully embraced the concept and I can’t believe I went my whole life without hearing Laredo Tornado.
My immediate thought was ELO’s Time. A vocoder narrator kicks off the story of a man from 1981 getting whisked into 2095, unable to connect with anything and longing for the loves and comforts of his own time.It’s actually a decent premise for growing old and watching the world change, but Jeff Lynne leaned fully into the sci-fi synthesizers to effectively create an OMNI Magazine rock album. Despite strong catchy songs for fans this was also ELO stepping away decisively from their Xanadu pop culture peak.
I have loved ELO for all my life when I heard them as a kid, but “Time” was the first album that I bought and loved it. It is really good. Damn, now you have me going down and ELO hole on Youtube…….
At risk of phrasing, it’s a magnificent hole. I was heading into a mini essay on how pop culture eventually re-embraced ELO from nostalgia (“Mr Blue Sky” everywhere) to appreciation; Jeff Lynne now tours performing their whole body of work, including Eldorado tracks, but still not much post-Xanadu. Tellingly, they perform Time songs in Europe where it was better received, but not in the US.
When TIme came out I was living in Europe lol. It’s weird hearing ELO in movies and stuff, though I think using “Mr. Blue Sky” is getting a bit overdone. The version of “Xanadu”, which he does play, is much better than the movie, not as poppy. One of these days I hope to catch him touring. He has a new album out so it may happen.
The new album is very good, too. Just like Zoom was when that came out. I also agree that Mr. Blue Sky is over used these days.
Me too!! A great unreleased song from Time:
I love that album. When it kicks into Twilight it still sounds superb. Very loudly produced song but it works. There isn’t a bad song on that one. When I was a kid I was torn between Time and Out Of The Blue as my favorites, but in the intervening years I’ve grown very partial to A New World Record.
I should add that I really like your take on Time.
Since you mentioned one Pollard project, I’ll mention another— The Harold Pig Memorial by Circus Devils is one of my favorite albums period, let alone concept albums.
Yay another Uncle Bob acolyte! Gringo is my favorite Circus Devils album but they are literally all great!
I LOVE Double Nickles on the Dime, but Minutemen’s inspiration/competition that inspired it (Husker Du’s Zen Arcade) just barely edges it out for my favorite concept album. But both are top notch classics.
Also, love the ELO pick!
Zen Arcade is also a favorite of mine. I was unaware of the influence on Minutemen, that’s pretty cool.
Yeah, on the inside of the gatefold of the vinyl copy (I’m not sure if its’ visible on other formats), there’s a little “Take that, Huskers!” message.
No Marillion on your prog rock list?
Hey! I like Marillion but I wouldn’t say I listen to any of their albums regularly or any of them are favorites for me. My brother on the other hand is a huge Marillion fan. I believe he has seen them live. He is also a big Porcupine Tree fan and I could never get into them.
Gotta go with Jesus Christ Superstar.
We watched the film adaptation senior year of Catholic HS and I was getting into late 60s music at the time. It definitely slaps.
I second Surf’s Up. I love that album and I’m happy to see it get a mention here.
Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger. Each song is like a chapter in a book. A lot of it isn’t even original material, he took existing standards and found ways to fit them into the story he was telling. Fun fact about that album: Columbia thought it was a demo when he first turned it in, because of how stripped down it sounded, and they tried to get Nelson to “punch it up”. Nelson, whose contract gave him total creative control, told Columbia to go pound sand and release it as is. It was an instant hit that eventually went multi-platinum and became so legendary that Nelson himself came to be called “the red headed stranger”.
Willie Nelson’s career is full of studio executives telling him that he shouldn’t do something, Nelson doing it anyway, and selling a shit ton of records as a result.
Yeah, this is the best country album of all time IMO & should be very high on any concept album list. It’s like listening to a great, moody western.
In the studio’s defense, here had been a guy tearing up the honky tonk circuit with a band that puts on a raucous live show and the album he produces is mostly just a guy and a guitar. Like, they were obviously wrong about how good it was and how well it would sell, but it was a hell of a curveball.
Interesting. I wonder if the unexpected success of Red Headed Stranger made it easier for Columbia to accept Nebraska from Bruce Springsteen a decade later.
My pick as well.
Willie to studio execs.
Sabtaon – Carolus Rex (2012)Great album with a historical focus on the history of the Carolean Kings of Sweden. Each song is a little bit different and overall has an interesting tale attached (plus you get both the English and Swedish versions on digital downloads).
Is there a distinction to be drawn between a “theme” album, like Sinatra’s Only the Lonely, and then a proper concept album? I always think that concept albums add up to a larger story. So yeah, I love a lot of Sinatra’s theme albums: Come Fly with Me, Swingin’ Lovers, No One Cares, etc. I’d put Beck’s Sea Change in that category also.Proper concept albums: 2112, The Suburbs
The best is Thick as Brick… IF you can find a jukebox that has the full version and will let you arrange for multiple plays in a row until the owners get fed up and turn it off.
I used to put on an entire Ministry album (Psalm 69) at a bar that didn’t quite appreciate it. Hey man you have the whole album on the jukebox I’m going for it.
Also known as Ian Anderson’s “Why does everybody keep lumping us in with Prog Rock? OK, if you want Prog Rock, I’ll give you Prog Rock!” album.
Actually, I thought that it was more specifically because everyone kept referring to Aqualung as a concept album when it wasn’t. I believe it was more “Here’s a concept album!”
Combination of the two I think, given the penchant for Prog Rock groups to release concept albums.
It’s also worth hunting down the original issue LP, for the full-size fold-out newspaper.
Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city. During a time when I was kind of experiencing burnout from popular music (I didn’t even buy the album, just borrowed it from my roommate at the time), I found myself listening to it on repeat for months. It was such a good balance of staying true to the concept (an out of sequence “day in the life” story, with various callbacks or allusions to other songs sprinkled throughout) while also consisting of really good (in some cases phenomenal) songs that stood on their own regardless of the larger theme. I haven’t been as big a fan of all his later stuff as others (I somehow just don’t “get” To Pimp a Butterfly), but good kid, m.A.A.d. city remains one of my favorite albums of the 2000s, period.
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis.
Murder Ballads from Nick Cave and the Bad SeedsYou know what you’re getting just based on the title and it doesn’t disappoint at all.-d
His duet with Kylie Minogue is mind blowing.
I was struggling to decide whether my choice is indeed a concept album, so I looked at the Wikipedia list of concept albums:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept_albumsand that confused things even more. Yes, i know wiki is editable by anyone, but why would someone put up Madonna’s Erotica a concept album, but not, say Something to Remember or Ray of Light. Yes Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite is obviously a concept album, but wouldn’t Embrya be too? Bjork’s Vulnicura is on the list but not Vespertine or, any of her other albums released between the two?Anyway, I’m picking Vespertine!
The Magnetic Fields’ The Charm of the Highway Strip: a bunch of miserable synth-country songs that are frequently about vampires.
General Inzanity -ZentipedeHonorable mentions:Dark Side of the Moon – Pink FloydQuadrophenia – The WhoBerlin – Lou ReedYes, these are concept albums:Tonight’s the Night – Neil YoungDiamond Dogs – David BowieThe Clash (UK version)Double Fantasy – John and YokoOriginal Pirate Material – The Streets
I wouldn’t classify Original Pirate Material as a concept album. It’s a great slice of early 00’s British urban life to be sure but there’s no more of an overall theme than really any other average hip-hop or grime album.
The follow-up LP ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ is most definitely a concept album however, albeit one that should be on trial at The Hague for the wince-inducing ‘Dry Your Eyes Mate’ and the utterly ludicrous conclusion to the story.
We probably could’ve used a bit of a definition of terms. By the loose standard that made Sgt. Pepper’s generally regarded as the first concept album, many, many contemporary ones would qualify. I’ll skip the many jazz/instrumental, electronica/ambient, and hip-hop albums I like that probably would. In the all-time, non-Beatles/Pink Floyd/Who rock category, I’d say Ziggy, The Band, or Bookends. Among more contemporary options, Radiohead says OK Computer doesn’t count (Billy Corgan says Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness doesn’t either) but I consider The Lonesome Crowded West enough of one to probably be my top pick, followed by Hospice. Others which might qualify that come to mind: For Emma, Forever Ago, 69 Love Songs, Discovery, Transatlanticsim, Parklife, Illinois, Funeral, The Crane Wife.
I’ll add Hazards of Love (since you listed Crane Wife). There’s a coherent, absorbing story in there once you figure out what’s going on.
Hazards of Love was originally conceived as a rock opera, and I still hold out hope that they’ll stage it as one some day.
Aren’t all operas kind of like the concept album of thier days?
I’d add ‘The Moon and Antarctica’ on there. An examination of the human condition before, during and after life that concludes with ‘We ain’t made of nothing but water and shit’? Masterpiece.
I think you could only count side 1 of Bookends, but it is a terrific album.
Modest Mouse’s first three undoubtedly deal with enough common thematic material to qualify here even if they’re not three-act strict narratives. God The Moon & Antarctica is just incredible
I need to listen to 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields again.
Love The Moon and Antarctica and Lonesome Crowded West. Those are some prime road trip albums to just put on and roll.I’d nominate ‘Giedi Primes’ by Grimes because I love Dune and ‘David Comes to Life’ by Fucked Up.
“The Band” is my favorite album of all time, and it wouldn’t occur to me in a million years that it’s a concept album.
“Radiohead says OK Computer doesn’t count”Pfft. You don’t really have to go by what a band declares about its own work. Look at the shit Townshend was saying last week.
My favorite concept album is the same as my favorite album: Julia Holter’s Loud City Song. It’s based off of Gigi by Colette, but you don’t need to have read the book to enjoy the album–it’s this beautifully ethereal, dreamy, ambient-classical-jazz-pop thing.
Re: What is your favorite concept album?Huh? Wha? And limit myself to only Rush album?;-)Caress of Steel [1975]2112 [1976]Farewell to Kings [1977]Hemispheres [1978]
I’d argue that none of those are true concept records. They all contain one long, multi-sectioned story-based concept piece, but they also all have a second side that’s essentially unrelated (The Trees adds nothing to the Cygnus X-1 story, for instance). Rush, for all their status as one of the big prog bands, have only ever released one true concept album – Clockwork Angels – and it’s deadly.
Clockwork Angels [2012]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clockwork_Angels
This list needs a Lloyd-Webber style rock opera about Waco.This list needs DAVID KORESH SUPERSTAR by The Indelicates.
I liked the first couple Indelicates albums (albeit with reservations) but had no idea this existed. Sounds at least interesting.
The Residents Not Available which I have sang the praises of here before. On the surface it seems to be poking fun at the idea of overarching concept albums but dig a little deeper it’s probably the most honest depiction of dealing with depression I’ve encountered.Or it could be about a college student and her pet porcupine. Who really knows?
Imma have to dig that out of the CD piles I have. Great album.
“thick as a brick.” yeah, i went there. i’m old.
I always thought of Ivy’s “Apartment Life” as a concept album, and I still think it’s one of the better albums (start-to-finish) of the 90s.
Rasputina, Oh Perilous World
Separation Sunday by The Hold Steady is one of my favorite modern concept albums.
Ziggy and Zen Arcade
Literally the last comment ungreyed and FINALLY someone mentions Zen Arcade. It’s brilliant if you like punk rock. Maybe not if you don’t, but luckily I do.
I’ve heard Zen Arcade referred to as a concept album, but I’m not convinced that it is. If that concept’s “adolescence is difficult,” that doesn’t count, because that’s the concept behind every second rock album.
I’ve heard Zen Arcade referred to as a concept album, but I’m not convinced that it is. If that concept’s “adolescence is difficult,” that doesn’t count, because that’s the concept behind every second rock album.
I’d say Lou Reed’s Berlin or Edge of Sanity’s Crimson are two of my favorites.The first one is a beautiful story which conflates all of Lou Reed’s lyrical themes and ideas into one set narrative. Musically, it’s very much epic, but never falls into art rock pretention by having 20 minute odysseys or instrumental wankery – it’s a tight selection of songs which have beginnings, middles and ends and contrary to a lot of concept albums, they survive on their own and work when looped. It was, of course, disregarded by Rolling Stone during release, because they’re a bunch of sad fucks.The other one, Crimson, is probably one of the few metal records to truly understand the epic poem – both in terms of content and lyricism (there are few more epic and chilling verses in all of metal than “They found a way to blind her / And it could cost some lives”). It’s also a cool post-apocalyptic fantasy story and it could be adapted into another medium without breaking it. And it rocks.
Funny you mention The Wall. Just had a recent reevaluation after listening – I used to love it, still think that some of the music is near transcendent, but overall… dear god, man. You lost your father and became famous then fairly wealthy. Life’s not that bad, and spending time as a (then) apex member of the music industry whining about how bad it is for you because you neglect your wife and she cheats on you, so you cheat on her and… GAAAAH shitbags the lot of them.I’m afraid to go back and listen to Electroshock Therapy Blues by The Eels now. Album helped me through some serious black times (‘concept’ – sister commits suicide, mom dies of cancer, singer spends some time under serious treatment to deal with it, sorta comes out at the end, all more biography than story time), now I’m afraid of how it’ll have weathered the intervening decade or so.
Yes, because clearly being wealthy and famous means you should be immune to depression, anxiety, and disillusionment.Dear God. man, indeed.
And clearly shitty snark is your only recourse.I’m down with working through your issues – it’s the “poor me” when most of them are self inflicted.
Also how shitty he treated the rest of the band while making it like firing Wright and keeping him on as a paid session musician. I used to love meddle and dark side of the moon when I was a 70s rock obsessed teenager (this was the years of boy bands and nu metal) but I never liked The Wall much.
Are you me? Because you just described my junior and senior years of high school, 1999-2001. I also don’t think The Wall is that great.
Class of ‘98 here. I had some friends, ostensibly musicians who were in band class and formed their own band and all that stuff, and looking back, it was clear that they were going to make everyone around them listen to The Wall or else make them miserable by complaining about not getting to listen to The Wall.
I understand the themes. It just that it’s so high school poetry, all earnest and empty. Dark Side of the Moon ran over the same old ground with more nuance and better music. Quadrophenia still blows The Wall out of the water. And then there’s the same themes in Tommy…
Pretty sure music doesn’t always have to be autobiographical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall“Bassist Roger Waters conceived The Wall during Pink Floyd’s 1977 In The Flesh tour, modeling the character of Pink after himself and former bandmate Syd Barrett.”“Ezrin broadened the storyline, distancing it from the autobiographical work Waters had written, and instead basing it on a composite character named Pink.”
It goes on. Not all music is autobiographical. This is.
The three part saga that is Mothership Connection, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, and Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome
Let us dance underwater and not get wet, as well.
Yeah I should have included that one too. Another great album.
They’re all pretty great, even Osmium in its own way.
If you get a chance watch “Parliament-Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove” a documentary about George Clinton and whole US Funk Mob. Shows a lot of their early concert footage, there’s one clip where George is wearing a sheet and nothing else.Or read “George Clinton and P-Funk: An Oral History (For the Record)“ by David Mills. My favorite part in it is how Bootsy and most of James Brown’s backing band, after they got fired, went looking for Funkadelic, met George, he hired them, and they essentially became Funkadelic.
“Funkenstein” has arguably the greatest album cover ever printed.I love how relentlesly silly they are as a band, and despite that they present with a completely straight face these preposterous narratives about the funk being a supernatural force that not only has some form of sentience but also can be stolen and the only way to defeat the villain who stole it is to get him to dance, as if it was the most commonplace event in the world.
Favourite concept album? Hands down, it’s Hotel Valentine by Cibo Matto. A weird, dreamy, jazzy, poppy album about a hotel of ghosts? Count me in 1000%.
and if Murder Was The Case can be considered such(and totally should be), that too.
Brave by Marillion. So concept that the vinyl edition has a dual groove for the last track that completely changes how it ends depending on the whim of the needle.
I have to admit I lost interest in Marillion about the same time Fish did (ie halfway through Clutching at Straws) so can’t comment on Brave. But I’d have Misplaced Childhood very close to the top of this list. I once went 20 years without listening to it, and still knew it pretty much word for word when I came back to it.
I didn’t get into them until way after Fish was gone, but I’m a fan of both eras. Misplaced Childhood is absolutely fantastic, one of my favorites of theirs, but I didn’t put it here because I’m not sure it qualifies as a “concept album.” same for FEAR, which has a very strong theme, but isn’t really so much a story.
I’d say MC is far more of a concept album than a lot of the albums mentioned here.
Saw their Misplaced Childhood tour at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver back in the day. Pretty much every audience member knew and sang every word to every single song. Marillion fans are generally a dedicated bunch. They did the usual play-a-bunch-of-songs then Fish announced that they only had time for one more… cue Misplaced Childhood in its entirety! And cue over-the-top audience approval! So… so… awesome. 🙂
I heard they used to do that – back in the day when that wasn’t yet a thing.
Wohoo… scrolled far enough and found Marillion. Fav band of all time for me… well, Fish era anyway although I do love the hell out of Easter. /worship
Deltron 3030 has to be on the list. Just a terrific pulpy sci-fi rap story.A little under the radar, but Goldfrapp’s Tales of Us was one of my favorite releases in 2013. I thought she did a great job of telling all the tales.I could take or leave The Wall, but I find myself (especially lately) listening to Roger Waters’ Amused to Death a whole lot. It might be self-indulgent, but it’s not wrong.
All of Dan the Automator’s early albums were good concept albums. Dr. Octogon, Deltron, Lovage. They’re all top notch.
Yeah, I was super into Lovage as a big fan of Faith No More and Elysian Fields. Great stuff.
A question about Goldfrapp. I think she’s great and really enjoy her music. I went to see her live and live I found her disappointing. It was fine, but ultimately just ehhhh. I even went again, not by choice exactly my bf at the time bought tickets, against my advice because he loved her and he really wanted to go. Fine fine it was at Radio City and that’s always a fun venue and the sound is usually done well. My opinion didn’t change and he agreed. Did you feel the same way?
I’ve never seen her live in person, but I’ve seen footage of her performing live & I think she sounds great, but she is not the most exciting performer for sure. Her music videos / films are way more entertaining.
Amused to Death is my favourite!
3030 is great
Styx released Kilroy Was Here during peak early MTV when I was just old enough to appreciate the audacity of their touring rock opera about a near future robot-enforced dystopia where the Rock And Roll has been banned by hypocritical moral conservatives. At least Mr Roboto gets some ironic appreciation for its ebullient unfiltered cheese.What amazes me today is that it hasn’t been revived as a Broadway jukebox musical.
That album might just be the Room of concept albums. Actually, it might just be the Room of music
One of my favorite episodes of “Behind The Music” was the episode about Styx and the recounting of the band ripped asunder after Mr Roboto. The cheese stands alone.
Thanks for the recommendation. That was great fun and surprisingly uplifting at the end.
Wow, glad you enjoyed it. I have to think it is representative of what happens to many bands. Good intentions at the start then something causes strife, tastes change, pathways are split, etc. I can’t imagine starting out in a rock band then all of a sudden you are performing in what is essentially a stage production of a concept album. I loved the interviews with band members who were not unreasonable but had zero interest in bending one inch toward the ideas of the other member (s).
My brother and I used to listen to Kilroy Was Here while we played ColecoVision
Big Big Train’s The Underfall Yard. An extended lament for the great builders that stretches from Master James of St. George, to William Walker (the Winchester diver), to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Contrary to stereotypes, it’s a prog album whose unifying quality is vulnerable, mature emotion.
The Downward Spiral
Good one.
It took way too many “load more comments” hits to find this
Yeah I was surprised earlier that it hadn’t been posted yet.
Some of my Favorites:
David Comes to Life – Fucked Up
The Monitor – Titus Andronicus
Dirty Computer – Janelle Monae
American Idiot – Green Day
The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
Discovery – Daft Punk
Transatlanticism – Death Cab for Cutie
Nonagon Infinity – King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizards
Goths – The Mountain Goats
it’s appalling how far down i had to scroll to see someone post Discovery
I had no idea that Discovery was a concept album, but I never really paid attention to the lyrics.
I implore you to check out Interstellar 5555. You will have a good time.
Scrolled all the way down here to see if anyone likes David Comes to Life
Well, there are at least three of us!
David Comes to Life is also in my album of the decade list. It is just perfect. Dose Your Dreams is also a great album, but since it came out somewhat recently, I need to let it grow on me more.
I love that album. So much i bought the vinyl
This post/the comments are sorely lacking any King Gizzard and I am sad.
I’ve only heard a few tracks off it, but “David Comes to Life” seems to be a punk rock opera that doesn’t suck. I mean, that shouldn’t exist, but it apparently does. “Queen of Hearts” is great.
I’ve only heard a few tracks off it, but “David Comes to Life” seems to be a punk rock opera that doesn’t suck. I mean, that shouldn’t exist, but it apparently does. “Queen of Hearts” is great.
David Comes to Life and The Monitor are both excellent choices. In my experience, neither of those bands’ other output is anywhere near as good as those two masterpiece albums.I admit that I didn’t know that Discovery was a concept album.
Honest question because I still love the album, but how is Transatlanticism a concept album?
I’m pretty sure Astral Weeks – Van Morrison is considered a concept album. That’s where my vote goes.
I still go with the classic “the wall” by pink floyd
Aphrodite’s Child 666Randy Newman’s Good Old BoysJoe’s Garage
Evergrey – In Search of Truth
Both the Neon Neon albums manage to be actual concept albums with a narrative beginning, middle and end, and have great tunes on.
Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian is pure nerd. It’s a concept album based on the The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Although I’m not a huge fan of The Silmarillion, I’m impressed that it was turned into an album full of some nice power metal.
The story makes no sense, and the album drags a touch in places, but Mars Volta ‘Francis the Mute’ whips ass.
YES. Surprised to see no love for Deloused in the comments, but Francis beats it for me by just a smidge (and is followed very closely by Bedlam in Goliath, which arguably has the most fun/easiest concept to parse).
Pink Floyd’s AnimalsBob Frank’s and John Murry’s World without end (my favorite murder ballads compilation—and I own many of them)Tom Waits’ Alice Recently really been enjoying Nick Cave’s Ghosteen too, though I wouldn’t necessarily say it was my favorite concept album or even my favorite Nick Cave album.
I think it is Tom Waits’ “Alice” for me too, especially for “Fish & Bird” and “Lost in the Harbour”
Southern Rock Opera by Drive-By Truckers
Quantum Immortality by a Sacramento band called Las Pesadillas
Bjork’s first true concept album, Medulla, was probably her best.
Sleep’s Dopesmoker
Im a Quadrophenia-is-better-than-anything guy…but are we drawing a line between “concept album” and “album with an actual narrative”?
Mother Mother’s The Sticks. Although I like all their stuff, and as far as I can tell, all their albums are concept albums.
The Wall is hideously overrated. It has a few good tracks, but those all have Gilmour in the writing credits. Anything that is credited solely to Waters is pompous overblown crap. It is the album that killed the second Pink Floyd. For a good example, how about Pink World by Planet P Project?
Does Beck’s “Sea Change” qualify? If not then I’m going Local H’s “Pack Up The Cats”.
The Monitor by Titus Andronicus, Seperation Sunday by The Hold Steady, all the Mountain Goats ones, In the Aeroplane Over Sea, that Aaron West album
Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü
Happy to see The Protomen listed above, but I just skimmed through 99 comments and Cursives The Ugly Organ wasn’t mentioned in a single one of them. I guess it’s up to me and comment #100. Such a brilliant album. I got to see Cursive live a few weeks ago and they have a cellist in the band again now, so the Ugly Organ stuff sounds amazing live.
Cursive’s Domestica is a great one, too.
Shocked it took this long. Honestly, would throw in Album of the Year as well, though does Domestica count?
Not sure. I’d say it’s more of a breakup album than a concept album, but there’s definitely a linear thread between the songs.
Of course Domestica counts. It has a narrative and characters — it’s probably more of a concept album than The Ugly Organ is, really.
Is Village Green Preservation Society a concept album?
That’s a good question! I think Arthur is a stronger candidate for a concept album than Village Green, but VG does work pretty well around a theme.I know The Wall is sort of the proto-typical concept album dealing with the ups and downs of being a famous rock star (and dead daddy issues as well), my favorite concept-ish album about all that is The Kinks’ Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround. It may not be as cohesive of a concept album as others, but it’s probably my favorite Kinks ablum by far (Muswell Hillbillies being 2nd place).But, back to the question at hand, Village Green is such a great album and with absolutely no authority what-so-ever, I declare that it does count as a concept album (personal favorite track is “Big Sky”)
I have cried many times listening to “Big Sky.”
It’s all about the Mindcrime.
Not a single mention of Neil’s Heavy Concept Album?I mean, it’s got, like, the words “concept album” right there in the title, so you can, like, find it even when you’re stoned, yeah? Brilliant.And, of course, it has the classic:
Gwen won.
Correct.
Jointly, I choose Crack the Skye by Mastodon and What’s Goin’ On by Marvin Gaye.You could almost call Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible a concept album, in which case it would be that… but I’ll stick to the first two.
I thought of two more favorites:Ludo’s Broken Bride. Time Travel, Dragons, Zombies, and Celestials! It works in just 28 minutes. Here’s the whole thing, but listen to the first track at least:Then, the great Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde. Yes, Joey got the radio play. But here’s this:
The Kinks – Arthur. I listened to it incessantly in my young and innocent days.
So little metal. Burn in Hell, the lot of you
Okay, fine, twerps – one that I don’t think has been mentioned yet, Nevermore, Dreaming Neon Black. Basically The Vanishing, with cults. Also, twice as scary and heavy as shit, as close as melodic metal ever got to death metal.
edit Man, make up your mind formatting, FUCK
Dreaming Neon Black is an amazing album.
The best concept album I have come across is Djodje Balašević’s Diary of an Old Bachelor. Now the guy was already a legend in ex-Yugoslavia before this album came out in the early 2000s, but this album easily blows out of the water anything he did before. He was having maritial problems at the time, so he wrote an album dedicated to his wife. Each song is dedicated to a different woman, but the initial letters of their names combine to write ‘’Olja je najbolja’’ meaning ‘’Olja [his wife] is the best’’. Each song is absolutely perfect, stylistically distinct, yet absolutely contributes to the overall feel and thematic unity of the album. The album is an absolutely rich depiction of how masculinity experiences the feminine.
You’ve got:
Otilia- describing a pre-martial affair one cold winter night.
Ljerka- a humorous song extolling the superiority of his wife’s short cherry-decorated dress over all the other eye candy at the main town walkway.
Ankica- describes an old bachelor hoping to just once glance at his ex on the streets of Novi Sad and recognize her coat but to no avail.
Jaroslava- the guy is lamenting for his princess to return, that the mold of her neck is still on his pillow and that they’re hostages of spite for 2.5 years already.
Eleonora- is a song about how the guy’s mates at the annual Epiphany gathering at the local kafana (pub) know never to breach the subject of his ex and how nothing touches him and nothing else matters now that she is gone.
Nevena- is a song about a guy who died alone, without anyone or anything, spending the bulk of his days drinking, and how no one even knows the name of the girl whose departure long ago, in his youth, caused his downward spiral.
Anita- depicts the long lost memory of a girl who showed him around Budapest in winter, kissed him and how they unfortunately never kept in touch.
Julia- depicts dreams of a warm pine-covered Greece, where there is no snow and his love got taken by another.
Branislava- during a cold autumn day in Novi Sad, walking along the Danube coast, a guy reminisces about an old flame who often reacted to his romanticism with cynicism, but later fell into drug addiction.
Ognjena- is a sexy and suave blues ballad.
Ljudmila- describes a tryst on or along the Tisa river between the guy and the ferryman’s daughter…. and finally,
Andjela- depicts the guy’s wife (in a positive way) as sassy and not to be messed with, like a witch carrying a whole bunch of spells.
This sounds marvelous.
A lot of great albums have been nominated here, but the first one that jumped to my mind was Hospice by The Antlers.
I’m a big fan of The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips. Killer jams, great artwork and packaging, and an interesting Sci-fi story.
Big fan of Lorde’s Melodrama. I’m about four years older than her, and her two albums come out right as she’s entering a life phase that I’m leaving (Pure Heroine drops my freshman year of college, Melodrama my first year after graduating). Somehow, she is able to perfectly encapsulate the emotions of high school and college without fully experiencing it. Melodrama takes it a step further and makes the album about a single night at a party, and really takes you through to the next morning. It’s got the whole arc of it perfectly explained
Correction, it’s the 40th anniversary of “The Wall”.
40 years (not 30) since Wall dropped. If that record came out in 90s Floyd era – it would be much, much lamer.
This is some King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard territory. They have at least four albums that fit the bill, and I think they’re all pretty good. I think the best concept album of 2019 is Infest the Rats Nest, where a band primarily known for psych rock went full metal. The concept is prescient as well, given it’s about climate change gone full apocalypse, class struggle and burning yourself to death (wanting to die is all the rage right now). The final track has a great coda as well.
The Wall came out in late 1979, which was FORTY YEARS AGO!
I was just listening to Electra Heart this morning while I was cleaning house and hadn’t seen this article. It is such a great album.
Nilsson: The PointJefferson Starship: Blows Against the Empire
Blows Against The Empire was going to be my pick. So many great moments on that album.
Lots of albums needing some love here, in no particular order:The Kinks — Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)Kendrick Lamar – good kid, mAAd cityTitus Andronicus – The Monitor and The Most Lamentable Tragedy (seriously underrated, tracks 7-13 make a perfect album on their own.)The first two The Hold Steady albumsMadvillain — MadvillainyMF DOOM — MM…FOODDe La Soul — Three Feet High and Rising (and the arguably concepty De La Soul is Dead, Buhloone Mindstate, and the GOAT Stakes is High)Drive By Truckers – Southern Rock OperaDavid Bowie – pretty much everythingThe Wu Tang Clan — also pretty much everythingJay Z — American Gangster
Kanye West — 808s and HeartbreaksBob Dylan — Nashville SkylineRaphael Saadiq — Ray RayWillie Nelson — Red Headed StrangerDeltron 3030Masta Ace — MA_DOOM: Son of YvonneGorillaz — Plastic BeachThe Mountain Goats: Goths and Tallahassee Chris Gaines — The Life of Chris Gaines
Its interesting to see “Dirty Computer” listed here since my favorite concept album is “The Archandroid”
Same here. I’m up for a Cindi Mayweather musical. The songs of ArchAndroid also span a lot of genres yet complement each other really well.
Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness and Disintegration – my two favorite albums of all time – even though neither is a true concept album.
I don’t know if it’s a concept album, but Spacemen 3’s “The Perfect Prescription” sure seems to mimic the stages of a drug trip, from rush to ecstasy to brutal comedown. Of course, I think it’s one of the best albums ever put on tape by anyone, anywhere, but I suppose if I had to choose a fave concept album — and I hate concept albums — it’d be that one.
I don’t know if it’s a concept album, but Spacemen 3’s “The Perfect Prescription” sure seems to mimic the stages of a drug trip, from rush to ecstasy to brutal comedown. Of course, I think it’s one of the best albums ever put on tape by anyone, anywhere, but I suppose if I had to choose a fave concept album — and I hate concept albums — it’d be that one.
Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed.
Quite frankly, “What’s your least favorite concept album” would also have lead to some pretty interesting responses.
Tons of great suggestions in here already, but I’ll throw in Mike Watt’s ‘Contemplating The Engine Room’. It’s basically a collection of stories about his dad growing up, joining the Navy, and having kids, but it’s also interspersed with tales of how Mike met D. Boon, got into punk rock, formed the Minutemen, and dealt with the deaths of both his dad and D. Boon. It’s a seriously great record if you haven’t heard it. Still my favorite Watt record. I got to see him perform it live four times, once right after some Mexican wrestlers performed on New Year’s Eve. Thank you, Mr. Mike.
The Kinks:
Arthur Village Green Preservation SocietyXTC:SkylarkingThe Pretty Things:SF Sorrow
I was started to wonder if XTC had been cancelled or something or maybe the kids just don’t listen to them anymore…Anyway, the story as I heard it was that the guys in XTC didn’t even realize they had written a batch of songs with a running theme of the changing of the seasons until producer Todd Rundgren pointed it out and played it up. It’s hard to believe it wasn’t part of the album’s conception from the beginning when you listen to it. Though apparently Andy Partridge wasn’t happy about it, but when has Andy Partridge ever been happy about anything?
THANK YOU. I love Skylarking.
“Gumbo” by Dr. John.
I don’t know if it’s counted as a concept album, but Jeff Wayne’s “The War Of The Worlds” should be high on anyone’s list.Also “Operation: Mindcrime”, but that’s already been discussed at length in other comments.
Scanning the comments for War of the Worlds here. Thank you.
Flaming Lips – YoshimiLifter Puller – Fiestas Fiascos
Side two of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love album, The Ninth Wave. Every bit as astonishing now as it was in 1985.
Meshuggah – Catch Thirtythree
Dirty Computer is one of my favourite albums of recent years. It’s release also happened to be a month or so before a referendum in Ireland (where I live) to remove the constitutional ban on abortion rights so I associate it a lot with that. It passed, btw, by a considerable margin.
Thick As a Brick by Jethro Tull.Many critics mistook Aqualung for a concept album (admittedly many of its songs do share thematic elements and the titular “character” is references in two songs) which annoyed Ian Anderson to no end because he generally disliked the idea of concept albums. He decided to respond to these critics by creating a parody of a concept album that is really just one long song.Honorable mention would probably be Deltron 3030 which manages to do some pretty impressive world building in a relatively (considering many concept albums can often run so long they have to be released as “double albums”) short album length of just over an hour of music.
Already noted: Ziggy, Francis Albert’s amazing creation of the, um, concept, Floyd, Marvin (dayum that album sounds like it came out last week), Dirty Computer (no, she is NOT the Black Bowie, she is Janelle GD Monae, thank you very damn much)…
Don’t know why this one didn’t pop up…
I feel like lumping together Janelle Monáe’s Metropolis EP with ArchAndroid. Her post-debut albums wouldn’t have that singular focus and style without Suite I and the music video of “Many Moons”.
She is IMHO a genius.
Can’t argue with that statement.
Yep, this is my favorite concept album. Phenomenal, epic work
What’s Going On was Marvin Gaye’s best album, but I prefer his worst: Here, My Dear. Marvin Gaye was divorcing Anna Gordy to be with (I think) Tammy Terrell, and Anna was out for blood. Unfortunately, Marvin was broke-he partially blamed Anna’s lifestyle for this, but he was by all accounts strung out and fucking up, so who knows? Anyway, somebody came up with a nice compromise: Marvin was to make a new album, Anna would keep the profits from it as a divorce settlement, and everybody’s happy! Right? Well… Marvin did exactly what any of us would have done-he set out to make the worst album possible, purely out of spite! The results are definitely Marvin Gaye’s worst album. The songs are all sparsely produced, poorly mixed and lazily written, but Marvin Gaye is still Marvin Gaye and you can feel him getting into it despite himself on more than one occasion. His plan worked better than he thought it would-the album is largely forgotten by even Marvin’s fans, produced no singles and got the man sued by Anna, who called the album ‘insulting’ and ‘bizarre’, which, YA THINK?!-but there’s a lot of atmosphere to it, and Marvin’s bitter, detatched lyrics often say much more than he means to (Of particular note: during “Everybody Needs Love”, he hits a plaintive high note and switches to a wounded falsetto as he notes that his father needs love as well. Considering the fact that his father later killed him in an argument, it kind of scares you to hear it) as they carry you from one lazy backbeat to the next. A bad album from a great musician is better than a decent album by a crap one, and this is proof.
Disregard all of the above, and I apologize to Marvin for besmirching his memory and Tammi Terrell’s. He considered her a little sister, and her death by cancer is largely considered the starting point of Marvin’s downward spiral. Marvin was getting divorced, and he did owe half the proceeds of Here, My Dear to Anna, but he didn’t intend to make a lazy album-he was just in a really bad place, and the album became his catharsis. Ironically enough, he also recorded and released Got To Give It Up around this time, which was an intentionally goofy one-take Bee Gees parody he made as a big fuck you to disco while still fulfilling his obligations to ‘make a disco record’. It was a massive fucking hit, particularly on the disco scene, proving once and for all that Marvin Gaye couldn’t make a bad song if he tried… But its playful, light, upbeat tone probably set Here, My Dear’s morose catharsis up for failure in retrospect.For the record, Village Voice liked it at the time, although they noted that it was a weird listen. Nobody else agreed until the early 2000s,when everybody decided it didn’t suck and actually, it’s one of Marvin’s best albums! PROTIP: It’s not. Here, My Dear is end-to-end listenable in a way that most albums today aren’t, but it sucks because Marvin Gaye was at an all-time low and you can FEEL that shit. Embarrassed and paranoid by the publicity of being divorced, bitter and morose about losing his wife AND paying for it, he shut himself off from most of the world with a skeleton crew of musicians(This is the ONLY album he ever played his own keyboards on, and it was his fifteenth!) for three months and threw his emotions at a microphone as soon as he could put them into words, then held onto it until he couldn’t anymore because he KNEW people wouldn’t understand it, or want to, and he was right. It’s pure pain, and purity doesn’t need to be good to be great, but you have to be in a bad place for it to make sense.
This post and the one preceding it are really well written, I would love to hear more.
Here, My Dear
This is it, for me. Listened to it so many times. As great as what’s Going On is, few albums carry the emotional weight of Here, My Dear
I didn’t see it at all in the comments so I will nominate I Robot by The Allen Parsons Project. I wouldn’t want to be like you and Breakdown are fantastic.
Todd Rundgren – Healer.
The Hold Steady – “Almost Killed Me”, “Separation Sunday”, “Boys and Girls in America”, and “Stay Positive” — tell the story of a love quadrangle and either 1 or 2 (or zero) murders.It’s told from 4 perspectives (one of whom is an unreliable narrator), in a nonlinear fashion AND with branching timelines bc one girl who can predict the future stops using her power to pick ponies and starts getting visions of her boyfriend getting stabbed and tries to prevent it. Plot threads get dangled and then pay off two albums later. Lyrics resurface on subsequent albums with extremely minor tweaks that change their meaning. The whole thing crashes down with a a coda set back in Ybor city with Catholic imagery and the final lyric:“we’re the directors / our hands will Hold Steady / I’ll be John Cassavetes / let me know when you’re ready / man… we make our own movies.”
A 4-album concept album was such an audacious thing to pull off, I’m not sure how the band managed to continue after it was over.
I’ve only heard songs here and there by the Hold Steady so I never knew there was a coherent story by the band. All the more reason to hear it all together finally.
I don’t think anybody’s mentioned The Mekons Rock ‘n Roll, most of which is an indictment of the music industry that imagines rock and roll as an offshoot of the slave trade and suggests it’s best used as literal fuel for fires.
For an act who appear to be the antithesis of bloated concept albums, Saint Etienne managed to release three in ‘So Tough’, ‘Words and Music by Saint Etienne’ and their masterpiece ‘Tales from Turnpike House’, which not even the reordering of tracks on the US issue could ruin.
Would it be too much to suggest that Ready to Die and Only Built For Cuban Linx are both contenders here?
“Arthur” by The Kinks. And really any number of their albums after that. “Preservation Acts 1 & 2”, “Soap Opera”…“Battle of the Bands” by the Turtles. Every song, they adopted the persona of a different band.“The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy” by Of Montreal. This was Of Montreal’s second album. It charts the entire course of a relationship.
I’m not sure what a concept album is, but Astronautalis’s Pomegranate, where each song is based on a title of one of the books he found in a box in his grandfather’s attic, is one my favorite non-Sgt. Pepper albums with an easily described throughline.
Wyclef’s The Carnival was a pretty seminal one for me, too.
Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
Thank you for including “In the Wee Small Hours”…I never considered this a concept album, but now do. It is an amazing album, and if the opening (title) song doesn’t kick you right in the gut, you have no heart. I was never a huge Frank Sinatra fan, despite growing up with “Sundays with Sinatra” every weekend, but this album made me a fan. You can hear this guy’s heart falling apart throughout…there is more soul in this one album than three Memphis’s. And the arrangements are just perfect…not overwrought like so many of his other albums, but not too stripped down, either. As you said, a darkened room, this record on the hi-fi (Harbeth speakers do great justice to Frank’s pain), a couple of fingers of bourbon…yeah, wallowing in sorrow can be pretty awesome on occasion.
NOW YOU ARE ONE OF US by The Paperchase, because it is sinister and insidious and has some of the best lyrics I’ve ever heard:Speaking of lyrics, my other top pick would be Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ MURDER BALLARDS for, well, the lyrics (some of which come from old/traditional songs), but also because the music doesn’t stick to one strict genre, yet remains coherent:
Thank you for including Paper Chase! This album is so slept on!
You’re welcome! John Congleton is one of my favourite musicians/lyricists. Have you heard his Nighty Nite stuff?
I hate to even mention it (Billy Corgan, ugh…), but thoughts on The Smashing Pumpkins’ MACHINA/The Machines of God and MACHINA II?
Sleep – Dopesmoker66 mins of stoner metal about “The Weedian” who “drops out of life with bong in hand” and “follows the smoke to the riff filled land” of Jerusalem.
Does Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds count?
Poe’s Haunted—such a great album, and such a tragedy it got poleaxed by the industry.
The Kinks. Village Green Preservation Society and, even more so, Arthur.Out of leftfield (pun intended), The Lonely Island, The Bash Brothers Experience.
It may not be many people’s go-to concept album, but The Streets’ “A Grand Don’t Come For Free,” is a really great album. You could really argue that every Streets album is a concept album of sorts. There’s something refreshing about a guy telling a simple story about a bad day. I’ve always admired Mike Skinner’s Dickensian ability to spin a tale about British youths.
Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy is a concept album. I never would have known if I hadn’t read the liner notes. The concept may not come through, but hell if it doesn’t rock.
Byrne and Eno’s My , no question.
Marillion – Misplaced Childhood
a lot of my faves have been mentioned… Brave, Mindcrime… SF Sorrow… I don’t know that I saw thee best unknown/little known concept album Sundown on Venus by the Jet Black Berries (if you know them it’s from Return of the Living Dead or you lived in upstate NY in the 80s) mentioned.. but I don’t expect to…
before they were the Jet Black Berries the band was called New Math and they issued a 5 song EP called… They Walk Among You that is likely the best concept EP of the New Wave Era…
Marina is great, but my favorite concept album is “The Mollusk” by Ween
Is that album by Alan Parsons Project where they just sing Edgar Allan Poe lyrics a concept one? Cause it is great.
So hard to pick a favourite, but my mention goes to Witch’s self titled (‘06)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbA66jyyyTU
I’ve been listening to The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance nonstop since thier reunion. If you miss queen or bowie or glam, you have to listen at least once. It’s my go to concept album to offer people
I was tempted to say Janelle Monae’s Electric Lady (Dirty Computer is a fine album, but just doesn’t hit as hard).But the correct answer is the most beautiful and moving album I have ever heard: Mike Oldfield’s The Songs of Distant Earth. Here’s the opening.
Kraftwerk’s 2003 ‘Tour De France Soundtracks’ ticks all the boxes for me.
Also Tom Waits’ entire career.
Love a good concept album! Definitely check out Fiery Furnaces’ Blueberry Boat or Widow City
For me it is a toss-up between Rush 2112 and Lou Reed’s The Raven. And thank you so much to WFMU in Jesrey City for playing The Raven, otherwise I may never have heard of it.
ArchAndroid – Janelle Monae
I don’t quite know how to answer “favorite,” but here’s one I both love and grew up with: Peter Schickele’s P.D.Q. BACH: WTWP CLASSICAL TALKITY-TALK RADIO.Peter Schickele is a comedian and musician who parodies classical music, most often through his “research” on the work of “P.D.Q. Bach”, the “twenty-first of Johann Sebastian Bach’s twenty children,” and quite possibly the worst classical musician who ever “lived.” He’s incredibly knowledgeable about the form, and he’s damn funny: one of his more notable tracks is an “attempt” to make classical music more accessible for general audiences by presenting a performance of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5″ with two commentators commenting on it like it’s a football game (“And they’re off with the four-note theme!”).This album takes the form of an episode of “WTWP: Classical Talkity-Talk Radio”, a parody of the type of “classical music radio programs” that try and please mainstream audiences with easy-listening selections (“WTWP: WE PLAY THE MUSIC YOU DON’T MIND HEARING”) and “wacky” host interplay; it goes through an increasingly weird evening with Professor Peter Schickele and his co-hosts Jocko and Blondie, with awkward phone calls, contests, and a selection of parody-classical pieces written by Schickele. The jokes are hilarious (in particular a moment when someone calls in requesting that they play Pachelbel’s Canon all the way through), the interplay between the hosts is fantastic, and because Schickele is actually a very good composer, the music is both intentionally derivative and “bad”, and actually beautiful.Also, Peter Schickele loves puns. The more painful, the better.Blondie: “-today is the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s bat mitzvah!”Schickele: (in a ‘Why are we talking about this on a classical radio station?’ voice) “ELVIS PRESLEY?”Jocko: “Oh come off it, Blondie, Elvis Presley wasn’t Jewish!”Blondie: “He certainly was. His given name was Aron. And he changed it to Elvis because he was such an admirer of Elvis Costello.”Jocko: “Now, wait a minute: I thought Elvis Costello’s real name was Lou!”Blondie: “It was, but Presley didn’t know that.”Schickele: “Blondie, what is all this-”Blondie: “And, if you wanna play trivia, here’s another little-known fact! Did you know that Elvis Costello originally wanted to be a monk?”Schickele: “I don’t even know who Elvis Costello is! Or ‘Lou,’ or whatever-”Jocko: “A MONK? Costello wanted to be a monk?!”Blondie: “That’s right! Not only that: he wanted to be the head of a monastery.”Jocko: “The head monk!”Blondie: “Now, there’s a series of monasteries in Germany – and each one of them is famous for making a different kind of beer. The beers are sent out all over the world, you know: one of the monasteries makes Michelob, one makes Schlitz, one makes Rolling Rock-”Jocko: “Okay okay okay. Are you about to tell me… that Lou Costello wanted to be the Bud Abbot?”Blondie: “That’s what I’m telling you.”Jocko: “How ‘bout that!”Unfortunately there’s not much from the album on YouTube, but if you want some examples of Schickele’s work, here’s a few links: “New Horizons in Music Appreciation” (the Beethoven I mentioned): -a live performance he did with Itzhak Perlman, the first part of which, where he talks to the audience about his “research,” is here: -and finally, an introduction he wrote for a recording of “Kangaroos” from CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS:“When a check bounces, it’s very bad news
The same is not true of Kangaroos
Their bounce, their pounce, their nickname “Roo”
Is why we love them—if we do.There are some folks, it must be said
Who call them pests, and want them dead
When someone mentions a kangaroo
These folks say, “Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! BOO!
Such hateful people, it seems to me
Should all be sent to Hungary
And made to stay
‘Till they’ve confessed
That they were wrong
When they booed a pest.”
Would Tori Amos’ Strange Little Girls count here? The concept seems thin, but it’s there. Still love the songs, though.
“Gentleman” by Afghan Whigs.Solid story from beginning to end. There is no filler, except for maybe the last song which is just a way to come down after a pretty dark insight to a how a gentleman can think of a relationship.
No love for “Skylarking” by XTC here?
Two big ones I don’t see getting any love in the comments:
Devin Townsend’s Ziltoid the Omniscient. The sequel failed to live up to expectations, but you can’t find a better one-man metal album about a coffee-seeking 4th dimensional alien, produced in the artist’s living room while getting sober after a lifetime of writing while fucked up.
The Dear Hunter – Color Spectrum or Acts I-V. I wouldn’t classify either as my favorite, but releasing 9 EPs / 5 albums across the span of an entire career is mindbogglingly impressive, and surprisingly consistent to boot. Their best songs are in the last two Acts albums, but I almost always introduce people to them via the color spectrum. Each EP is 4 songs of a different genre corresponding to the color! Fun! Orange is the best IMO but Indigo is up there as well.
Janelle Monae “ArchAndroid” and Malcolm McLaren “Paris”
Red Headed Stranger, man
I’d like to add something I think I picked up from an old AV Club article.
Home by Gavin Castleton. It’s a great album about a zombie apocalypse that turns out to be a metaphor for something else. Each song is a chapter in the story and drifts from some really catchy surf rock to growled spoken word poetry to a buzzing chorus of ladybugs. His turns of phrase are inspired and it’s just…fun.
No Deltron 3030?!? No Prince Among Thieves?!?
That David Byrne album about Imelda Marcos has some of the best guest musicians on it and it absolutely slaps, especially the track with Santigold
Boys Night Out – Trainwrecka pop-punk rock opera about mental illness and murder, I love it.
I had never heard of The Protomen before this, but checked them out on spotify. I’ve listed to there self-titled album (Act I) at least a dozen times this week. Its terrific. Act II is good too, but its as cohesive to me. Their album of Queen covers is great though. Beyond that I love, David Comes to Lift – Fucked Up; The Wall-Pink Floyd; and Antichrist Superstar-Marilyn Manson.
Queensryche’s Operation:Mindcrime
You should all be ashamed. Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera is the only answer.
No Red Headed Stranger by Willie? For shame…
“Looking out the window, the trees are getting closer it seems.
Thinking bout you, darling,
Adding up the cost of these dreams.Strapped to this projectile, just a blink ago I was back in school,
Smoking by the gym door, practicing my rock-star attitudeAnd I’m scared shitless of what’s coming next.
I’m scared shitless, these angels I see in the trees are waiting for me.The engines have stopped now. We all know we are going down. Last call for alcohol.
Sure wish I could have another round.And I’m scared shitless of what’s coming next.
Scared shitless, these angels I see in the trees are waiting for me.
Waiting for me.Friends in the swamp.
Friends on the ground, in the trees.
Angels and fuselage.”
It’s ” Welcome To My Nightmare” by Alice Cooper for me.
Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid M.A.A.D. City
Prince Paul – Psychoanalysis or Prince among Thieves
Dan the Automator – Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By
Handsome Boy Modeling School – Hows Your Girl