concept albums

all clash = conc albs which makes sense cuz i h8 the clash
pistols bollox = monumental art/anti-art/concept/anti-concept statement/fart = fine by me = scariest most important piece of lazy can't-be-bothered crap evah released = fine by me
buzzcox 3 = hmmmm i have not made my mind up
damned = clash w. a sense of humour = i h8 them too

Did not work: Sloan's Between The Bridges as the band couldnt decide if it was a concept album about leaving Halifax or not.

First off, Operation: Mindcrime follows a story line, much like The Wall. The story revolves around a character named Nikki. He joins an underground organization that intends to overthrow the government by assasinating politicians and replacing them. Nikki, seduced by "the needle", finds himself doing this dirty work for them. This itself makes it a concept album, but it also has a theme to it. The album discusses the weak threads in our government.

Then, there is Pink Floyd, who released 5 concept albums in the seventies and early eighties. There is Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut. While The Wall follows a story line, the rest are songs with a common theme. The Wall is about a fictional character named Pink who builds an emotional wall because of school teachers, absence of father, cheating wife, etc. Dark Side of the Moon discusses how the pressures of life can lead to insanity. Wish You Were Here is about the absense of the founder of Pink Floyd, Syd Barret. It is also about absense in general. Animals is based on the novel, Animal Farm. It clasifies humans in to three groups: Dogs, Pigs, and Sheep. The Final Cut is a Requiem for the Postwar Dream(Britain) (1945). It was dedicated to Roger Waters'(bassist/lyricist)father who died in WWII.

IMFO, these are all true concept albums.

No mention of Arthur or VGPS? And didn't Bruce Haack make a lot of "concept" albums? Does Venom's Black Metal count?

Most concept albums have succeeded. Musically, anyway.

"Succeeding" isn't the same as being enjoyable, I guess. And who ultimately decides whether or not an actual concept is present: The performer or the critic? And who used the term first, anyways?

conceptual albums: http://www.dnp.co.jp/artscape/eng/focus/0708_01.html

Thinking of concept albums I like <i>Tales of Mystery and Imagination</i>, the first album by the Alan Parsons Project comes back to mind. I find it captures the doomed atmosphere ("The House of Usher"), the twisted-mindedness ("The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether") and the surrealism ("A Dream Within a Dream") of Poe's short stories quite well. It would definitely be in the top ten of my fave concept albums.

TARKUS

IT IS ALWAYS AND FOREVER ALL ABOUT TARKUS

It has always struck me as weird that the "concept" in "concept album" tends to always mean "narrative". To me, "concept album" ought to imply something far closer to the way that in conceptual art, according to Sol Lewitt, "the concept is a machine that creates the work", i.e. a conceptual commitment is made and then you execute that concept in a manner that largely brackets the specifics of execution. The point is to foreground a certain conceptual rigor that drives everything: sound and form should be determined by a concept that forces the artist to avoid making personal/expressive choices. Conceptual art was conceptual insofar as it was no longer about personal expression and individual feeling and instead was aspiring towards a (pseudo)philosophical stance of dispassionate investigation. But in the wake of prog rock and 70s rock culture generally, "concept album" means something closer to rock LP as light opera, with lyrics as librettos expressing the feelings of characters. This seems like a pretty limited notion of what the phrase "concept album" *could* mean, if its parameters were set wide enough to take in an expanded field.

Early concept album that never gets mentioned: Beach Boys Party!

Just listening to it for the first time- it's actually a pretty fun, good time kinda record. Really sounds like dudes sittin' around playing off-the-cuff versions of some of their favorite tunes. Definitely better than I expected. Short but sweet.

Most concept albums have succeeded. Musically, anyway.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, October 22, 2007 11:40 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

???

Thinking of criticisms of the Janelle Monae album made me wonder what narrative concept albums actually make any kind of coherent sense, apart from the obvious Tommy and Quadrophenia. I feel like I'm always reading reviews which make fun of big concepts - normally rightly so - and struggle to think of any which really tell a comprehensible story without the listener having to turn to sleevenotes, interviews, etc for explanation. But I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

SF Sorrow?

Well, there's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway of course. People say the story is incomprehensible from the lyrics but they forget it's printed on the inner sleeve. Saying that, I'm not sure how comprehensible it would be without the printed story.

The Kinks, "Preservation Act II", but why bother, tbh.

None of them make much sense tho, incl. Tommy and Quadrophenia.

Yeah, I was being generous even with the Who albums.

Actually, I've just remembered Prince Paul's Prince Among Thieves. That makes sense, albeit with the aid of copious skits to move the action on. It's more like a stage musical.

Actually the Kinks, "A Soap Opera", tells a comprehensible story too, despite a couple of unrelated diversions

http://pood.rahvaraamat.ee/Content/ProductImages/product_5/47/M813847.jpg

i'm really anticipating the new diddy/dirty money album!

fucking love me a good concept album. no matter how ridiculous. that is all.

The Jam - Setting Sons is a concept album invoking the fall of the British empire & the UK's attempt to find something to replace the gallantry of war. At least it seems that way to me. In the same area, Pink Floyd - The Final Cut has a similar but even more bleak concept.

But neither are "narrative concept albums actually make any kind of coherent sense"

The Orb - U.F.Orb is pretty straightforward if you see Towers of Dub as either an intermission or that the aliens smoke you out w/ Venusian Ganja.

Robert Calvert "Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters"

I can't stress enough, but if you are a fan of concept albums you can do far worse than check out "Long Live Pere Ubu!" by Pere Ubu. It's a musical version of Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry based on the hum of 20 decaying apple macs as played down the phoneline from across the atlantic.

There's this thing by Chris Judge Smith (ex-Van der Graaf Generator) called Curly's Airships, a narrative concept album about the R101 airship. It's not terribly good, despite a guest vocal appearance by Peter Hammill.

Hammill himself did an adaptation of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher which retains and amplifies the text of the story very well.

I think records with a narrative, plot, or story you can follow [or not, as with The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway's dada lunacy] fall into a sub-set of concept albums often referred to as "rock opera." I still believe that Setting Sons & The Final Cut qualify as concept albums because they were conceived under a thematic umbrella from jump. This would also qualify Jad & David Fair - 26 Monster Songs For Children as a concept album.

Prob'ly true but thread was revived to talk about albums that "tell a comprehensible story without the listener having to turn to sleevenotes, interviews, etc for explanation"

I suppose that is rock opera, musical theatre, whateva you wanna call it

The thing about the "rock opera" tag is, what distinguishes a rock opera from a normal opera? Hammill describes The Fall of the House of Usher as an opera, and I'd be inclined to agree with him since it has a proper libretto, arias, recitative sections &c.

Because rock operas usually even shiter than operas?

The Calvert album features great spoken bits from Viv Stanshall and Jim Capaldi alternating with badass Hawkwind jams.
Everyone should hear it. And it tells a story quite coherently.

And "Lucky Leif and the Longships"?

Yeah, I've never heard that one, actually. Is it good?

I was asking you!

Produced by Eno, of course!

I've always heard it wasn't as good, but I'm sure it's another coherent story record.
I should check it out.
No Lemmy :(

Lemmy's absence could surely be a problem. I once owned & enjoyed Capt. Lockheed, but somehow never heard Lucky Leif. Now I'm wrestling with (CL - Lemmy) + Eno = LL It should be worth a listen at least.

Eno did Lockheed under an alias or something.

Zappa's Joe's Garage and Thing-Fish have very linear storylines, with irritating narrators (the Central Scrutinizer, Thing-Fish) explaining the plots along. PS, Joe's Garage is mostly crap and Thing-Fish is 100% utter shit.

Surprised no one's mentioned A Grand Don't Come for Free. Definitely has a coherant narrative, definitely not a rock opera.

*Smacks forehead* Of course, A Grand Don't Come for Free.

I'm intrigued by the stage version of American Idiot because extracting a proper narrative from that record must have been a tall order. Billie Joe Armstrong as good as admits that he sets up his characters and a few themes and then improvises around them without really caring if they add up to anything close to a story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment+arts-10485929

>>>pedant alert<<<<

Sgt. Pepper isn't even close to being the first concept record

That's the worst thing about reviving a thread, no bugger talks about the thing that causes the revival, they just talk about the OG question. :)

haha sorry

I dunno about that BBC article, concept albums haven't ever gone out of style afaict

My favorite concept albums.

I'd argue Signals -- indeed, every peak Rush record -- is a concept album.

I think there's a useful distinction one could make between thematic coherence and the concept album proper but I wouldn't argue about what records belong in which box

good list, some 21st c stuff i'd include:

diddy dirty money - last train to paris
the thermals - the body, the blood, the machine
the microphones - mount eerie
owen pallett - heartland
richard dawson - peasant

occasionally glancing up through the rain, wondering which of the buggers to blame