Whitechapel - Concept Albums

Concept Albums

AdamSward — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:14:33 -0700

So, I was given Mastodon's new album Crack the Skye as a birthday present today. I was already turned onto them because of their album Leviathan (a Moby Dick based concept album). I was blown away by the new album, and I encourage all of you to go pick it up, or at least check the link below and see the video for the first track of the album.

But it sparked a question; what concept albums really get you going? I find that I get lost in concept albums while working, and I'm wondering if this is a common thread, as opposed to just a standard album.

Oblivion by Mastodon

Concept Albums

Fauxhammer — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:33:08 -0700

Downward Spiral, easy.

Concept Albums

Cameron C. — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:50:49 -0700

Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation of WAR OF THE WORLDS
Queensryche's OPERATION: MINDCRIME
Iced Earth's THE DARK SAGA
Manilla Road's ATLANTIS RISING
Billy Idol's CYBERPUNK (I really think I'm the only one who likes this album :< )
Alice Cooper's WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
Alice Cooper's ALONG CAME A SPIDER
Ayreon's HUMAN EQUATION
Ayreon's INTO THE ELECTRIC CASTLE
Ayreon's 01011001
Gary Numan's THE PLEASURE PRINCIPAL
Gary Numan's REPLICAS
Gary Numan's TELEKON
David Bowie's 01. OUTSIDE
Nine Inch Nail's YEAR ZERO

and others D:

Concept Albums

Mike Black — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:29:27 -0700

Going down the list:

All of King Diamond's albums are concept albums -
* Fatal Portrait (1986)
* Abigail (1987)
* "Them" (1988)
* Conspiracy (1989)
* The Eye (1990)
* The Spider's Lullabye (1995)
* The Graveyard (1996)
* Voodoo (1998)
* House of God (2000)
* Abigail II: The Revenge (2002)
* The Puppet Master (2003)
* Give Me Your Soul... Please (2007)

All of the Fear Factory albums up until Archetype were concept albums-

* Soul of a New Machine (1992)
* Demanufacture (1995) this album should be owned by all metal heads and most music fans, as it's pretty close to flawless all the way through
* Obsolete (1998)
* Digimortal (2001)

Those are just some off the top of my head that haven't already been mentioned. There's some killer music here, and I would highly recommend King Diamond's Abigail & House of God, as well as Demanufacture.

Concept Albums

fatesaccomplice — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:48:53 -0700

The Wall. Kind of obvious, I guess. Also has that whole "you need to take acid to understand it" nonsense going on. Great stuff. Can't think of much else that has the lyrical themes fit so well into the musical. Well, except for Animals, I guess. I'm not even that huge of a Pink Floyd fan, more of a Pink Floyd era Roger Waters fan.

Concept Albums

Audley Strange — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:09:31 -0700

"Frances the Mute" The Mars Volta.
"Lateralus." Tool.
"Selling England By the Pound." Genesis.
"Histoire De Melody Nelson." Serge Gainsbourg.

Concept Albums

tim12s — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:56:43 -0700

The Small Faces, "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake".

Just fucking listen to it. It's 17 kinds of awesome, and also one of the first concept albums. Either #1 or #2 depending on which pedantic IPC sub-editor wishes to correct me.

Concept Albums

warrenellis — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:27:14 -0700

Billy Idol's CYBERPUNK (I really think I'm the only one who likes this album :< )

I remember a PR person letting slip, at the time, that, yes, Billy really likes NEUROMANCER, and has read almost half of it...

Concept Albums

Nathan — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:19:17 -0700

The Hold Steady "Separation Sunday"

Concept Albums

Aurora Borealis — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:32:35 -0700

Hmm...

NIN's The Downward Spiral
Manson's Antichrist Superstar

discovered both when I was 19-20 and both were pretty big in my playlist at that difficult time.
there's some more, but I can't remember the titles/artists at the moment.

I find it amazing though how some people can write an entire album on a specific topic, or forming a specific story.

The closest I ever got to that with my music was an album/demo I recorded 2001 to sort of deal with my mother's death 1.5 year before that. And the only thing binding it was that all the songs were inspired by the three things I did at that time: playing Doom and Doom II, reaeding Lovecraft and listening to downward spiral.

...ohh, and I almost forgot.
I am pretty sure
Neurosis - Enemy of the Sun is a concept album too.

Concept Albums

manikmoon — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:10:29 -0700

Oldies but utter gems!

Pretty Things:SF Sorrow
Genesis:Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Jethro Tull:Passion Play

Concept Albums

Alastair — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:13:15 -0700

Devin Townsend - Ziltoid the Omnicient
all of the Coheed and Cambria albums
Dream Theater - Scenes From a Memory
Meshuggah - Catch 33

Concept Albums

rickiep00h — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:50:03 -0700

Fantomas - Delirium Cordia
Type O Negative - World Coming Down

I'm a little surprised nobody has said Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here, though I suppose most could probably cite anything from DSOTM through The Wall pretty interchangeably... Personally, I'd go for Animals.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
Pretty much everything Opeth has done, especially Damnation and Deliverance.
NIN's The Fragile

Past those are a bunch of albums that are loose themes or sonic experiments like Radiohead's Kid A or OK Computer, or Metallica's Master of Puppets or ...And Justice for All.

And Smashing Pumpkins's Mellon Collie, which was supposed to be a concept album, but ultimately turned out to be a few really good singles, a couple decent album cuts, and a bunch of filler.

Concept Albums

Fan — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:36:38 -0700

> But it sparked a question; what concept albums really get you going? I find that I get lost in concept albums while working, and I'm wondering if this is a common thread, as opposed to just a standard album.

I'm enjoying Thick as a Brick (as well as the whole album, there's a 9:54 minute long version of it on YouTube, live at Madison Square Garden from 1978).

I also like Handel's Messiah, and Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Concept Albums

dot_xom — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 07:51:54 -0700

Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero. SF and my favourite band all rolled into you.

Concept Albums

CaratheWalton — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:01:55 -0700

My favorite concept album is Rush's 2112 . . . such a great one to listen to on a road trip, especially the Overture.

I also like Kiss' The Elder . . . my brother used to play it a lot when I was a kid when we were living in Germany, but I still remember it.

edited because my fingers work faster than my brain . . .

Concept Albums

Bisonkills — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:06:03 -0700

Philip Jeck / Gavin Bryars - The sinking of the titanic (as plugged by Ellis some months ago, beautiful evocative music, riddled with surface noise and fading memories)
Current 93 - Aleph at halucinatory mountain (is there a C93 album that doesn't have a concept running through it?)
Sleep - Jerusalem (perhaps one of the best stoner/doom albums ever recorded... no surprises as to the album's subject matter)

Mostly concept albums remind me of prog, usually the bad type... Even good prog bands tend to go off the rails when they head for 'concept album' territory.

Concept Albums

hank — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:44:22 -0700

Billy Idol's CYBERPUNK (I really think I'm the only one who likes this album :< )

It got me interested in Gibson's stuff, so no you weren't.

Concept Albums

Mathias B — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:48:04 -0700

The best concept albums for me are the ones Marvin Gaye cut in the 70's, like HERE MY DEAR, WHAT'S GOING ON, I WANT YOU and LET'S GET IT ON.
And, though some would probably disagree with me, Bob Dylan's SLOW TRAIN COMING comes pretty close to being a concept album. Either way, it's a good record.

Concept Albums

houseofmystery — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:35:01 -0700

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Nine Inch Nails's The Downward Spiral, one of my all-time favourite albums: Full stop.

Concept Albums

Ananzitusq — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:58:14 -0700

Every album by Coheed and Cambria.

Concept Albums

AlexGBYMR — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 11:37:56 -0700

King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader. Space monster comes down, observes world, raps.
The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas. And I quote "fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys."
Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Towards the Red Sun (I think this counts, it has an over-riding arch if nothing else) The great leap forward.
Zao - The Funeral Of God. God packs up and leaves, the world goes to shit.

ETA: The Decemeberists - The Hazards of Love. Long story involving fawn/men, a homicidal rakish fellow and various others.

Concept Albums

ltwill — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:21:06 -0700

marillion- script for a jester's tear
marillion -fugazi
actually all the marillion before fish left.

Concept Albums

celan — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:36:34 -0700

Mastodon certainly deserve credit for keeping the concept album alive and viable.
If we're talkin' Mountain Goats concept albums I would say "We Shall All Be Healed" is more dear to me than "All Hail" (though I like that one too).
Also, there was a band called Nero that put out "The Dune Concept Album" on Temporary Residence years ago.

Concept Albums

Chris Hodge — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:21:29 -0700

Deltron 3030
(Dan the Automator, Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Kid Koala)

(They'd later team up on the first Gorillaz album)

take a listen here

Concept Albums

James Puckett — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:32:56 -0700

Ziggy Stardust is the classic: well-done and immaculately produced and engineered, so it tops my list. Disintegration might not be a concept album in a strict sense, but it gets its point across better than most concept albums, and is quite perfect, so that’s #2. I put most of The Wall at #3, but the last four tracks aren’t so great and Waters’ vocals are just godawful throughout so it just can’t have a higher slot. Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Albums was their best work (and last good album); not about mopey teenage stuff, and musically adventurous.

Wagner’s ring cycle really represents the ultimate concept album, but I’m not going to pretend I listen to any of those operas from beginning to end more than once a year. He really should have passed over Cosima Liszt and found a wife who could have edited the hours of redundant conversations out of the librettos.

I’m kind of surprised how many people are still listening to The Downward Spiral. When I try listening to the old NIN albums now the angst comes across as campy, even comical, and I can’t take it seriously. I was honestly surprised to see that Reznor’s final live shows are dominated by his 1990s whinges and not his later, better work.

Concept Albums

taphead — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:39:36 -0700

I'm interpreting Concept Albums as a pop music thing, so no compositional wholes a la Mingus' Black Saint here.

eels - Electro-Shock Blues
David Bowie - 1. Outside
Lou Reed - Berlin
Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs for Drella
Parliament - Motheship Connection & Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome (and the whole damn mythos)
David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive

I've yet to decipher the last one, but it's always felt like a particularly intriguing puzzle to me.

I echo the mentions of Marvin Gaye.

Concept Albums

Professor Imagine — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:00:42 -0700

@ Ryan Catcher. 2nd on Deltron 3030. that was gonna be my input.

Concept Albums

Cat Vincent — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:03:37 -0700

Amazed that Warren, with his hatred of prog rock, has left this thread up... though of course not all concept albums come from prog, it's something of a staple.
(And I fucking love them.)

Here's an obscure one for ya - Rigel 9. Music by David Bedford (with guest appearance from Strawberry Switchblade), words by Ursula LeGuin. It's about a first-contact team meeting a species which communicates only through song.

Concept Albums

Paul Sizer — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:32:37 -0700

Here's my picks that I feel fit the definition of a "concept album":
1. Unifying theme through all songs
2. Narrative that runs through all the songs
3. Unifying musical components
4. Works better as a collection of songs, rather than singles

Kraftwerk: "Computer World" (welcome to the new technological world)
Marc Almond: "Tenement Symphony" (Almond's imaginary Broadway play)
Blue Nile: "Hats" (A weekend of longing and hope)
Julee Cruise: "Floating Into The Night" (Soundtrack to David Lynch's "Industrial Symphony" and "Twin Peaks")
Heaven 17: "The Luxury Gap" (Dancing through the shit of the Thatcher/Reagan era)
Janet Jackson: "Control" (Fuck you Mom and Dad) or "Rhythm Nation" (a little(!) ham fisted social commentary, but damn near perfectly sonic pop)
Vanessa Daou: "Zipless" (all songs use the poetry of Erica Jong)
Prince: "Sign O' The Times" (My pick for his most complete, stand-alone album that runs a cycle of themes)

Rip away, I know some (or all) of these choices will be viewed as blasphemy... I can take it!

Concept Albums

The Brad — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:28:07 -0700

Bowie's trilogy of Stardust, Sane, and Diamond Dogs I think count as concept albums.

Would Tom Wait's music be considered concept albums? A large chunk of them seem to fit that category. Frank's Wild Years, Swordfish Trombones, Rain dogs, Blood Money, Alice, etc.

Third (fourth?) the Marvin Gaye. Curtis Mayfield had some albums that i think are of the concept variety. Back To The World and Superfly.

Concept Albums

Corey Waits — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:47:02 -0700

I was honestly surprised to see that Reznor’s final live shows are dominated by his 1990s whinges and not his later, better work.

That's why I just can't enjoy NIN anymore, especially live. I much prefer post-rehab but all the fans still clamour for the old stuff and Trent seems to want to keep them happy with the live shows.

People are listing a lot of albums that I wouldn't have really thought of as concept albums. To me it's like there are 'Themed Albums' and then there are 'Concept Albums'. Like Anti-Christ Superstar might have been Manson trying to make a concept album, but I certainly wouldn't call it one. The only NIN album I could call a concept album would be Year Zero, and I don't know if I really buy Lateralus being a concept album.

Anyway, concept albums:
Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack the Skye - Mastodon
Deloused in the Comatorium, Frances the Mute - The Mars Volta. I think these two are the TMV albums that come across as the most 'concept-y' and are the two that I still give the most play.

Honourable mention (aka themed albums or something):
The Inevitable Rise & Liberation of Niggy Tardust - Saul Williams
The Shape of Punk to Come - Refused. The tracks are tied together like a concept album might be, but otherwise I don't think it really counts... Unless vague anti-establishmentism is a concept.

Concept Albums

mister86 — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:12:37 -0700

Many of the ones here have already been named. Iced Earth(where most of their albums tend towards concept, it seems), to Pink Floyd, to others. Just to say something that I don't think has been said yet, I quite like Emerson Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery.

Concept Albums

MagicSword! — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:13:43 -0700

Recently I'd certainly say The Inevitable Rise & Liberation of Niggy Tardust, and Dr. Sizer's pick of Sign O' The Times is a peach.

Probably my favourite concept album that hasn't been mentioned yet is The Afghan Whigs Gentlemen. Although there are a bunch of those kind of albums, following a relationship to its ultimately doomed conclusion - Gentlemen is a really solid gripping concept, and just staggeringly nihilistic at times. Black Love is worth considering too, but the concept isn't as tight. It still paints a pretty vivid picture of a hot summer in a city with gangs, violence and (interracial) sex.

Some of Richard Thompson's albums carry that vague relationship-concept-album conceit (Mock Tudor and You, Me, Us for example) but the actual characters of the songs generally vary too much for you to call it a concept album of any sort.

Hamell on Trial's Chooch Town is a great concept album as well: characters cross between songs, are mentioned in different tracks, whole songs are devoted to different viewpoints of the same incident - and all set around a bunch of losers, musicians and small time crooks in some desolate suburban sprawl. He even gets away with including some personal songs by including himself as a peripheral character in the world.

I absolutely love the Beaty Pill EP - The Cigarette Girl From The Future, which I'm pretty sure the writer claimed was a concept about a cigarette girl from the future coming back to see our world and something, something... Actually, I can never really discern much in the way of a plot, but I love it. At the end, does the cigarette girl die? Or is that someone else that the cigarette girl is with?

And, the emo-ish indie-rock might turn off a bunch of people, but I love the concept of Say Anything's ...Is A Real Boy. It's the story of a vain, shallow, neurosis-laden indie-rock singer who is cursed to only speak the truth and pour all his deepest secrets out in his music. It's a cheap concept that allows him to do a bunch of misanthropic, bitter, expletive laden indie songs, but it has some very funny ideas in there.

And My Chemical Romance! The Black Parade! He dies at the start and then looks back on his life in a suitably angst ridden way. Purists may disqualify it because there are a few tracks where I can't see their connection to the over-arching concept, but it still bears mentioning.

OH! OH! OH! I almost forgot! Subtle, who are just one of the greatest bands in the world right now, have done a three album series of concept albums that have to be my number one choice for this list. Over the course of The New White, For Hero: For Fool and Exiting ARM is one long story, supplemented by character bios in some of the liner notes and I think that Doseone made a whole website to flesh out the world even more.

Concept Albums

Greasemonkey — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:10:51 -0700

Electric Light Orchestra's TIME.

Concept Albums

Audley Strange — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:35:22 -0700

@ MagicSword. I completely forgot about Niggy Tardust. that album is fucking great and "Gentlemen" too, also a good call.

@Corey Waites. I think you might be equating only albums that tell a story as concept albums where I would say that your "themed albums" are concept albums since the theme in is a concept which the album revolves around rather than just a collection of songs, but each to their own.

Concept Albums

ThomDunn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:46:38 -0700

@MagicSword!

...Is a Real Boy is a phenomenal album, undoubtedly, but I still have a hard time stomaching it as a "concept" album. I love the music he writes, but Max Bemis is one pretentious fuck, and from what I've read, the "concept" is that it's about him, fictionalized, and his vaguely defined fictionalized journey through growing up in/hating the scene around him, and dealing with heartbreak and problems as he tries to succeed in a fictionalized rock band. All of which is entirely true and personal, and if every personal song contributes to a "concept" album, I think there'd be a lot more of them. You wouldn't necessarily know about the narrator's neurotic Terret's-esque problem unless you read an interview; you'd just assume that Max Bemis is a (brilliantly) cynical (but still obnoxiously pretentious) songwriter.

The Weakerthans are a Canadian band that I absolutely adore, and their album "Reconstruction Site" has a neat conceit: the first, middle, and last tracks--"(Manifest)," "(Hospital Vespers)" and "(Past Due)," respectively (and I'm always a sucker for parantheses)--are all sonnets (lyrically) and employ the same main melody while the accompaniment changes, and together the tell the story of a man dying in a hospital. Sad but beautiful.
That same album also features, "Plea From a Cat Named Virtute, " the first of two songs told from the point of view of a cat whose owner is suffering from serious depression, and the cat doesn't understand why the owner is acting the way is she, and doesn't know what to do to help. The story is continued on their album "Reunion Tour," after the owner has committed suicide and left the cat all alone in "Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure." It's heartbreaking, but beautiful, especially in the way that John Samson captures the naivety of the narrating cat and her inability to understand the complexities of human emotions.

Does Sufjan Stevens count for any this, too?

Concept Albums

ThomDunn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:55:47 -0700

Also, the only EP recorded by my old band was a psuedo-concept album, loosely based around "Catcher in the Rye." This was a complete accident (I mean...no, it was intentional because we were literary rock and roll stars), of course, which leads me to believe that a lot of concept albums come about the same way. Our piano player was reading the book while we were recording, and it was also our drummer's favorite book (to the point that he could pick out the exact page on which his favorite passage fell, in every edition of the book), so we decided to call the album "If You Really Want to Hear About It." At this point, it somehow went over our heads that one of the more anthemic tracks referenced Holden Caulfield in the chorus, so in the opening noise/feedback section of one the slower, sadder songs, we had some girl we found record the lines, "Don't ever tell anyone anything. If you do, you just start missing every body," which made the track about a thousand times more eerie and depressing.

Concept Albums

Robson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:42:35 -0700

sgrsickness listed most of my favorites (the Bowie, Numan, and, yes, the Idol), but I'd add:

Gary Numan, Pure
Sunn O))), Monoliths and Dimensions

Concept Albums

William Joseph Dunn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:44:16 -0700

Opeth's "Still Life"
The Mars Volta's "De-Loused In The Comatorium" and "Frances The Mute"
Ministry's "Rio Grande Blood" and "The Last Sucker"
Nine Inch Nails' "The Downward Spiral"
Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"
Porcupine Tree's "Fear of a Blank Planet"
Radiohead's "OK Computer"
Venetian Snares' "Doll Doll Doll" and "Find Candace"

Concept Albums

jeremiah — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:27:54 -0700

Liars-They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Cex-Maryland Mansions
Ventian Snares-Rossz Csillag Alatt Született
Merzbow-A Taste Of Merzbow
Dr. Octagon-Dr. Octagonecologyst

Concept Albums

warrenellis — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:52:33 -0700

Lou Reed's BERLIN.

Concept Albums

ralf.haring — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:20:17 -0700

Ayreon - 01011001
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
Bruce Dickinson - Chemical Wedding
Die Ärzte - Le Frisur
Grave Digger - Tunes of War / The Grave Digger
Jag Panzer - Thane to the Throne
Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime
Savatage - Streets / Dead Winter Dead

Concept Albums

Mathias B — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:35:58 -0700

Swedish organist Bo Hansson made a really cool instrumental interpretation of the LORD OF THE RINGS in 1970 (if memory serves). It captures the atmosphere of the books very well, I think, but has an eerie psychedelic feel to it.

Concept Albums

MagicSword! — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:47:08 -0700

@ ThomDunn - You're probably right, it does approach the line where you're essentially saying "this is a concept album and the concept is that we're a band making an album", and you wouldn't know with ...Is A Real Boy unless you were told (however the story is explained in the liner notes too I think). But there's still some tracks that are fairly explicitly tied to the concept.

And Racebannon! Satan's Kickin' Yr Dick In. Look up the story for that one and tell me it's not the greatest concept album ever.

Concept Albums

bjacques — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:23:29 -0700

Some of these are back in the dusty old vault, behind a creaky door. On some, I'm probably confusing theme with concept, but here goes:

Alquimia (ambient musician from Mexico City) - Coatlicue - Goddess of the Earth - Aztec religion, lots of chanting to thirsty gods.
Ann Dudley & Jaz Coleman - Songs from the Victorious City (Cairo)
Boiled In Lead - The Gypsy (wandering)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush of Ghosts (voices of the world)
Christian Death - Ashes (Madness, melancholy, etc.)
Clock DVA - Man-Amplified
David Holmes - Let's Get Killed (New York street life)
DJ Spooky -Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and pretty much everything else he's done.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (god help me) - Pictures at an Exhibition, Tarkus (side 1), Brain Salad Surgery (side 2)
Future Sound of London - Dead Cities (cyberpunk future)
Genesis POrridge, Bill Laswell and others - Hashisheen: The End of Law
King Crimson - Starless & Bible Black, Discipline, Beat
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain, Agharta
Nostalgia - The House On The Borderland (Dark ambient album inspired by the novel by William Hope Hodgson. Hodgson (1877-1918), was influenced by the mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg and in turn influenced H P Lovecraft)
Phillip Glass - The Photographer (on the an episode in the life of Eadweard Muybridge, who presaged motion pictures without intending to. Muybridge shot a man who was making time with Muybridge's wife, and did a runner)
Pulp - Different Class
Roky Erickson & The Aliens - The Evil One - Monster movies, and Erickson's own nightmares in the Texas state mental hospital in Austin
The Sabres of Paradise (Andy Weatherall) - Haunted Dancehall
SPK - Zamia Lehmanni - J.-K. Huysmans novel "Against Nature"
Stalingrad (Kirlian Camera side project) - Court-Martial - you know, Stalingrad, Great Patriotic War
Stranglers - Meninblack ("How to Serve Man")
Talking Heads - Remain in Light - Africa
Tricky - Product of the Environment (1950s and 1960s London gangsters, in their own words) - I love nitro. Nitro's easy.
Ugly Duckling - Combo Meal/Taste the Secret (a fictional all-meat fast food joint in LA)

Concept Albums

Paul Sizer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:58:09 -0700

Ann Dudley & Jaz Coleman - Songs from the Victorious City (Cairo)
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In The Bush of Ghosts (voices of the world)
David Holmes - Let's Get Killed (New York street life)
Future Sound of London - Dead Cities (cyberpunk future)
The Sabres of Paradise (Andy Weatherall) - Haunted Dancehall
SPK - Zamia Lehmanni - J.-K. Huysmans novel "Against Nature"
Talking Heads - Remain in Light - Africa

Genius! Great ones that I wished I had come up with, especially the David Holmes album.
And all fit the requirements, as far as I'm concerned.

Concept Albums

Karmadrome — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:46:45 -0700

For what it's worth, while I'm a big fan of concept album (albums loosely based around a central theme) but abhor the Rock Opera (telling a story). Operas, rock or otherwise, by trying to tell a story and have great music, tend to fail miserably at both. We'll call this the "Kilroy Was Here" syndrome for no apparent reason.

That said, I'm a big fan of the Ann Dudley/Jaz Coleman work, XTC's Skylarking, Shriekback's Oil and Gold, Public Enemy's Welcome To The Terrordome, and (shoot me now) TR-I's No World Order.

Concept Albums

street_hassle — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:12:26 -0700

Umm. I think I should say here Lou Reed's STREET HASSLE.

Concept Albums

Conojito — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:16:53 -0700

I've got a soft spot for Warren Zevon's Transverse City. Vaguely cyberpunky. How can you not love a track like Run Straight Down, that starts off with the chant:

(4-Aminobiphenyl, hexachlorobenzene
Dimethyl sulfate, chloromethyl methylether
2, 3, 7, 8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-
para-dioxin, carbon disulfide)

(Dibromochloropane, chlorinated
benzenes, 2-Nitropropane, pentachlorophenol,
Benzotrichloride, strontium chromate
1, 2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane)

AWL tagevver nahh!

Concept Albums

RachelEvil — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:18:01 -0700

Zen Arcade

Concept Albums

zzazazz — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:40:13 -0700

KISS - Music from "The Elder."

There are others?

Concept Albums

Paul Sizer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:56:19 -0700

@KarmaDrome: HA! I briefly thought of putting Todd Rundgren/TR-1's "No World Order" on my list. You're braver than me.
"Oil and Gold" is one solid album, infused with the "concept" of Shriekback, but I don't know if I think of it as a "concept album". A brilliant album, yes.

Concept Albums

chris g — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:06:46 -0700

yeah, Crack the Skye, Blood Mountain and Leviathan by Mastodon just paints pictures in my head. I now believe giant white whales are fucking metal!

Suspended Animation by Fantomas. Lots of cartoon sound effects getting pummeled by dada metal. Gives you an idea of what the background noise in Joker's head probably is.

Concept Albums

brass — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:54:42 -0700

Might be more of a musical but,

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds

Gotta love Richard Burton's occasional narration.

Concept Albums

adamncopeland — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:34:00 -0700

I see your

Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst

and raise you a:

Mr Lif. - I, Phantom
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die

Concept Albums

kek — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:52:49 -0700

The Osmonds: "The Plan".

Concept Albums

Joe B — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:03:19 -0700

For Shriekback, Sacred City was pretty much a concept album for them, covering increasing urbanization and corporation. "Bastard Sons of Enoch" is still a big favorite of mine.
Echo the votes for 'The Wall'. Roger Waters is a concept album fiend, his solo albums, like "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" are concept albums.

Concept Albums

S.T.Dillinger — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:31:42 -0700

I really enjoy the fact that Prowler in the Yard from Pig Destroyer is a concept album, because it is such a good album. The songs follow a storyline about the progression of a stalker and his victim. So it'll probably make you a more suspect character for liking it. "Semen tastes like gunmetal she said smiling..."

Concept Albums

Jeff P. — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:09:34 -0700

I'm a sucker Snow by Spock's Beard, telling a Tommy/Lamb Lies Down prog messiah story.
Bowie's Outsider too.
Also like Shaming of the True by Kevin Gilbert, just for the variety of songs.
Porcupine Tree's The Incident comes out this month.

Concept Albums

dorkmuffin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:32:22 -0700

Giant Squid's album The Ichthyologist is an album that follows the plot of a comic book the lead singer has written (though I don't believe it's been drawn yet? I know it's not been published). I've definitely touted the virtues of this band somewhere here.

Review of it can be found here.

Concept Albums

COOP — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:08:43 -0700

Did we get this far without mention of The Pretty Thing's S.F. Sorrow? (Maybe I missed it.)

It really is the first rock opera/concept album/whatchacallit. Recorded in '67, released in '68, it predates the Who's Tommy. It's also quite good - but Parachute, their next LP, is better. (Parachute is also a suite of related songs that might qualify as a concept album.)

Concept Albums

MagicSword! — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:43:30 -0700

@ adamncopeland - I think we can probably include most of Kool Keith's recordings, because every album seems to be built around whatever character he's adopting that week. Oh and then, there's Sex Style, a concept album about f*cking. And now that I'm actually thinking about hip-hop, and f*cking - Dan the Automator's Lovage: Music to Make Love to your Old Lady By, which features a star turn by Mike Patton, crooning very sensually.

MF Doom has a bunch of great concept albums, particularly the Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain album, where he portrays a kinda loser gangsta, which doesn't sound like much, but the character is so well defined and presented, and it uses some of my favourite beats and producers of the time. And his Mm Food album, which is a hip-hop concept album about food. Really, every song is about food and features a variety of food based puns. Oh wait, plus the Dangerdoom album which is a concept album about Adult Swim.

Concept Albums

Laemeur — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:22:16 -0700

FSOL's Dead Cities, and Genesis' ...Lamb Lies Down... have already been mentioned, so I'll just smile and nod along with those. The Who's Quadrophenia is sort of a pat answer (well, Tommy's the pat answer, I guess) but I think it's aces, along with Who's Next, which is a concept album with chapters ripped out. Also, The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed.

Oh, and Sting's Soul Cages.

Concept Albums

bjacques — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:57:53 -0700

The Happy Family / Momus - The Man On Your Street (fascism)
Willie Nelson - The Red-Headed Stranger (revenge and remorse)
THE RESIDENTS!!!!! - The Mole Trilogy, Demons Dance Alone, Voices of Midnight (after ETA Hoffman's "The Sandman"), oh hell, pretty much every one of their albums has had a unifying concept
The Hawklords - The Coming of the Hawklords (Hawkwind side project; I've never heard it; it's supposed to be abysmal)
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music (well, it is a concept. I actually listened to it all the way through, but not on speed, so alas it did nothing for me)
The Tubes - Remote Control

Concept Albums

AlexGBYMR — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:14:50 -0700

The Murder of Rosa-Luxemburg - Everyone's In Love And Flowers Pick Themselves. Very strange concept, Victor is an old man and has grown disafected with religion, as a result he decides to build his own house and cut himself off from the world to become god. Whilst living alone with his cat and dog he goes batshit crazy, and dreams that said animals are fighting over his soul. He then dies, and in doing so wonders what his life would have been like if he'd lived as part of a wider society. Or something. Though good luck working that out from the music.

Concept Albums

joe.distort — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:40:30 -0700

the entire DESTINATION:TIME trilogy by graf orlock (today, tomorrow and yesterday) are a concept...but i couldnt fucking tell you what that concept is.

the only one that seems to actually have anything that can be gleaned story-wise is the newest one, but even thats kinda iffy. thats what you get from movie based grindcore?

also HEWHOCORRUPTS-ten steps to success is exactly what it sounds like: a loose plan for "making it" in the corporate world from this fake-corporation masquerading as a brutal hardcore band

Concept Albums

Val A Lindsay II — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:17:25 -0700

Real Tuesday Weld - I, Lucifer. All tracks influenced by the novel of the same name. It will be interesting to see if it's chosen as soundtrack for the upcoming movie.

The soundtrack to Dead Man. All orchestrated and performed by Neil Young. It truly is haunting and unique.

Laurie Anderson - Big Science. Another album that is elicits the weirdest emotional responses. I wonder if she knows how black her humor actually is?

Probot - self titled. Wonderful idea. Write all the music for your favorite singers/lyricists and have them do their thing.

All of Shatner's and Nimoy's records. Even if you didn't like any of it, the balls to actually do such a thing, to put your reputation on the line? Wow...

Concept Albums

filthy ring — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:56:02 -0700

CKY - Carver City (loose concept album of a haunted/cursed vacation spot)

Concept Albums

IsaacSher — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:54:19 -0700

Electric Light Orchestra, TIME

Queensryche, OPERATION: MINDCRIME

God help me, but I actually do enjoy it: Styx, KILROY WAS HERE

I don't *think* Peter Gabriel's US qualifies as a unified concept album, although the concert video for that is absolutely mindblowing for the concepts on display.

Blue Man Group, THE COMPLEX

Unfortunately, I can't think of any others that I've listened to and enjoyed. Although I confess, I never thought of looking at NIN: The Downward Spiral as a concept album, even though it's an alltime favorite. Just never occurred to me to look at it like that.

Concept Albums

synpro — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:02:30 -0700

Most of my picks have been mentioned it looks like, but some I really like:

Dead Letters Spell out Dead Words - Lost in Reflections
Sergei Rachmaninoff - Isle of the Dead (that counts right? it certainly has a very specific concept behind it)
Play - A3LSCH8500
Johann Johannsson - IBM 1401, A User's Manual

Also, I'd RE-mention
Cex - Maryland Mansions
NIN - TDS and The Fragile

Concept Albums

James Puckett — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:18:04 -0700

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Isle of the Dead

Sure. And on a related note, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony.

Concept Albums

JeffZero — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:00:34 -0700

Holy shit, Adam fucking Sward. You'd better be posting some of your art here, you talented bastard.

Anyhow.

Probably my favorite concept album ever, is The World/Inferno Friendship Society's 'Addicted To Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's Twentieth Century", about the life and times of Peter Lorre.

Wikipedia

Live performance of the opening track, "Peter Lorre's Overture"

They occasionally perform the album in its entirety, which I would love to see someday. They are one of the most captivating, energetic live bands I have ever seen. I'm attending their annual Halloween show in New York City this year, and it's quite possibly the most intensely I have ever anticipated a show.

Concept Albums

mybrainhurts — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:02:44 -0700

@JeffZero: Holy fuck, I love World/Inferno so much. That album is fantastic.

Concept Albums

JeffZero — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:14:30 -0700

@mybrainhurts

Get a ticket for Hallowmas! We'll hang out!

Concept Albums

mybrainhurts — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:15:55 -0700

I'm about 3000 miles of ocean away from that.

Concept Albums

JeffZero — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:17:15 -0700

Hell and damnation.

Concept Albums

antistigma — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:49:15 -0700

saul williams - the inevitable rise and liberation of niggy tardust
daft punk - discovery ( interstella 5555 project )
kraftwerk - radio-activity, computer world
tool - 10,000 days, lateralus
the who - tommy
^ me likey these.

Concept Albums

JeffZero — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:06:22 -0700

I've seen Lateralus on here a couple times. I'll grant that it's a great album, but does it have one unifying concept?

Concept Albums

battymcdougall — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:16:04 -0700

I second DELTRON.

Concept Albums

synpro — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:59:18 -0700

OH and another one! John Peel produced version of F.M. Einheit Dante's Inferno, Blixa Bargeld as Dante. Which is still available for free.

Musical Radio Theater Version of Dante's Divine Comedy (MP3s)

Concept Albums

Audley Strange — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:20:49 -0700

Oh, Gong's Triple Concept Albums. "Flying Teapot", "Angels Egg" and "You", which are about "the mystical journey" apparently which...

@JeffZero, Lateralus is supposedly also meant to be about the "journey" so to speak.

Can I get away with Cruisin' with "Reuben and the Jets" Zappa's fabulous Doo-wop album?

The Fall. "I am curious ornaj."

Concept Albums

taphead — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:39:58 -0700

Forgot this one:

The Divine Comedy - Casanova

Concept Albums

rickiep00h — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:13:18 -0700

@JeffZero - Yeah, basically what Audley said. It's supposed to be about the journey toward transcendence, I guess. The first half deals with earthly baggage, and then moves (with the song Lateralus) into a more metaphysical space. And, of course, there are the crazy Tool conspiracy theorists that insist the actual track order is incorrect for achieving that story, and thus rearrange it so it "makes more sense."

In any case, I think it's probably their most unified album in tone and feel, so in that regard, I'd consider it at least a loose concept album, and not just a bunch of songs with some transitional filler, like Aenima and 10,000 Days are.

Concept Albums

Vaehling — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:31:51 -0700

Most of my favorites have already been named. Ziggy Stardust, Berlin, Thick as a Brick (does that count? It's not a collection of songs, after all, just one that's very long), Skylarking. Aimee Mann's The Forgotten Arm and Rickie Lee Jones's The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard come to mind, and as a long-time Kinks fan I should mention their Kinks Part One: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, if only to divert everybody's attention from certain other concept albums i wish they hadn't made.

Actually, Thick as a Brick is particularly interesting. It's all the things I hate about seventies' rock (and concept albums, usually), but somehow they manage to pull it off in a way that's more engaging than aggravating. For me, anyway.

Concept Albums

AlexGBYMR — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:49:25 -0700

Wasn't Thick as a Brick intended to be a satire of the concept album?

Either way it is brilliant.

Concept Albums

Alastair — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:44:14 -0700

Peter Gabriels Us isn't but UP is and is fucking great.

Tools 10'000 days aint either, just the 2 songs, the rest deals with evolution, alien abduction and acid trips in no real theme or connection

Concept Albums

Boga_ — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:28:18 -0700

Wasn't Thick as a Brick intended to be a satire of the concept album?

Certainly sounds like it.

Concept Albums

Rendar Frankenstein — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:38:17 -0700

Dream Theater's Scenes from a Memory is my all-time favorite album. Maybe it just caught me at the right time, being an impressionably young musician, but I can't help but smile like a goon when that album plays.

Somebody already mentioned Ziltoid the Omniscient, but that album is truly a masterpiece. I would give anything HevyDevy to assemble an outfit to play that live. I mean it's a concept album about alien invasions, planet-smashers, puppets and puppets - what's not to love.

On a more stripped-down level is Defeater's "Travels" - although I'm not really into the hardcore scene, these guys balance the straight-ahead attack with enough catchy hooks and compelling lyrics to make me drop my jaw.

Concept Albums

Kernowdrunk — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:59:26 -0700

@taphead Promenade by The Divine Comedy is also a concept album...one day with an old girlfriend. I love it...you can't go wrong with sea shanties and songs listing famous authors. Blatantly rips off Michael Nyman and Scott Walker.

Concept Albums

Alastair — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:31:10 -0700

also the streets A Grand Don't Come for Free is pretty good too...

Concept Albums

Ananzitusq — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:43:20 -0700

"The Second Stage Turbine Blade" by Coheed and Cambria is a great one, and the most accessible because it sounds like a faster at the drive-in record.

Concept Albums

Joshua Pantalleresco — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:15:54 -0700

Lateralus - Tool
Make Yourself - Incubus
Audience of One - Rise Against
Thirteenth Step - A Perfect Circle

Concept Albums

Chris Hodge — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:24:56 -0700

I always loved this album because it took a concept (Greatest Hits Albums) and totally flipped it. This album actually doesn't have any of his "Greatest Hits" and is instead complied of all new songs (not a b-side album or anything like that but is a full proper new release). It is also in it's own little way Phil Och's own life distilled into a single album. It details his boyhood (Boy in Ohio) and mentions his idols (Elvis, James Dean, etc) and the album ends with "No More Songs" which always sends shivers down my whole body.

Concept Albums

filthy ring — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:35:53 -0700

Even though I don't like them, doesn't Dream Theater make a lot of concept albums...?

Concept Albums

Alastair — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:06:44 -0700

just the one, but its awesome

Concept Albums

JeffZero — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:59:36 -0700

Ah well, as long as I mentioned World/Inferno's Peter Lorre album, I may as well suggest 'The True Story Of The Bridgewater Astral League' as well. W/IFS's album about a gang of teenagers who steal cars and commit crimes in their sleep via astral projection.

Concept Albums

Ananzitusq — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:08:02 -0700

The Protomen!

Concept Albums

Will Ellwood — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:17:09 -0700

just the one, but its awesome

"Scenes from a Memory," I think. It's kinda awesome.

Concept Albums

Alastair — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:43:50 -0700

aye you be right!

Concept Albums

BrentonRyan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:39:47 -0700

Some great stuff listed here - Saul Williams, NIN, Tom Waits, Mars Volta, Pumpkins (nobody mentioned Machina, but that's OK since the original concept got shit on by Virgin and the resulting album was not stellar or cohesive by any means)...

What must be mentioned is a little-known band from New England called Mercury Radio Theater. They write fun little macabre tales, have folks outside the band narrate and illustrate them, and then construct dark surf-punk albums around the stories. Absolutely fantastic; they've got two albums out already, with a third dropping "soon".

And I'm not sure this counts, but there's an old industrial metal outfit called Argyle Park that came out of New York in the early 90s who released one album titled Misguided. It's probably more of a themed album than a concept album, but it was, at least, written and recorded as a collective catharsis for the members and feels rather unified in subject and purpose. Featured quite a few guest musicians and vocalists, too, including guys from Foetus and Prong.