Entertainment For Lively Minds
Do you enjoy the concept of "Concept Albums" and what are the best ones?
Posted by Dave Amitri on 19 March 2010 - 5:55pm.
I think I own one "Concept Album" as "Setting Sons" by The Jam is often described as such and a damn fine album it is too. Are there any other good ones out there?
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Kraftwerk have a few...
Autobahn
Radioactivity
Trans Europe Express
The Man Machine
Computerworld
(The Jam on the Setting Sons tour was my first gig. 12 December 1979, Glasgow Apollo)
My third, I think
Second row, stalls, looking up at the cliff that was the Apollo stage. I remember it as intense.
S F Sorrow
by The Pretty Things
Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
The Decemberists
seem partial.
A few I like
The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks
The Pretty Things - SF Sorrow
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Genesis
The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust - Bowie
Aah Axekeith
We share similar excellent taste I see. Love SF Sorrow, glad to find somebody like minded.
As someone born in '67
I have to thank my dad for The Kinks and The Pretty Things. He was 18 in 1968 so at an age when the idea of a concept album seemed revolutionary having gorged himself silly on Motown and Mod.
Good Old Boys
by Randy Newman gets my vote
My vote too
I also think side 1 (in the original vinyl sense) of Land of Dreams works as a concept and quite like some of the songs on Faust.
Setting Sons is supposed to be a concept album. Can anyone out there enlighten me to the concept?
its meant to be about 3
its meant to be about 3 mates who grow up and grow apart then meet up again as adults-thick as thieves, eton rifles, burning sky, wasteland-lttle boy soldiers, but from what i remember, mr weller lost steam or ran out of time so just filled the album with the other tracks, hence why even a cover of heatwave on there (with a nod to the who.)
Good Old Boys
The deluxe edition features a 2nd disc containing Johnny Cutler's Birthday, an early run through of some of the songs (plus some that didn't make the album) with Newman talking about the songs and overall concept.
Coming out of leftfield..
Matt Berry's "Opium"
It's serious yet a bit silly, but I love it.
I've also a soft spot for Marillion's "Brave"
tommy
does Tommy count as a concept album?
Ogdens nut gone flake- well one side of it anyway.
and i dont know if it cpounts but i reckon Astral weeks sort of fits the bill. it sounds like stream of consciousnes to me and its wonderful..
oh and songs for drella also very very good
qih
Tommy!!
One of the very first concept albums, so it has to be here.
The Wall
Tommy
Quadrophenia
Misplaced Childhood
hear hear
For Misplaced Childhood, which is the third in a 'concept trilogy' ...
Where's Willie?
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger & Phases and Stages. Both great, both suggested by me on similar threads with no support from the Word massive.
Yeah...
It came out a fortnight ago, it's called "Plastic Beach" and it's great.
Favourite concepts of the Badger
Nirvana - The Story Of Simon Simopath
David Bowie - 1.Outside
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Neil Young - Living With War
Jay-Z - American Gangster
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Rick Wakeman - The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
M. Ward - Transfiguration Of Vincent
Nitin Sawhney - London Underground
Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise
The Tiger Lillies - Circus Songs
Zombina & The Skeletones - Death Valley High
anything by
The Pink Floyd or any of these:
Topographic Oceans
Tarkus (well half the ellpee, same goes for Close to the Edge)
Lamb
several ellpees by Voivod, in fact they're all linked together
Zombies ~ Odessy & Oracle (especially the recent live version)
Strawbs ~ Grave New World
does Space Ritual count?
and nice to see the use of 1. Outside Badger old man, personally I'm still waiting on 2. Contamination...
Topographic Oceans
I suppose there are other Massive members who like that album, but I think you're the first that I've noticed to publicly proclaim it, Brother Blast.
"The Revealing Science of God"
Track 1 of "Topographic Oceans" is superb. Full of life, interesting sounds, weird lyrics and a "chorus" even if it does go on for 20 minutes. The other tracks are ok, but nowhere near as good as that opening track.
Does John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" count?
If so, then that's my favourite by a mile.
If not, then I'll go for "Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire" by the mighty Kinks.
Magic and Loss?
The subject matter might not be mood enhancing exactly but this is possibly my favourite Lou Reed album.In fact I think it's the last decent thig he did."Set the Twilight Reeling" seemed to get plenty good reviews but I never got on with it.
I have a theory...
that pretty much every album is a concept album. If all the songs on a record are performed and written by the same people at the same place at the same time (so obviously not Chinese Democracy then) a theme or a "feel" will emerge.
We tend to find patterns in things that are unrelated - it's just the way our minds work, whether the songs originally had anything to do with eachother or not. There's no story to Dark Side of The Moon, but those songs all work together because of the mood
Well said that man...
and I would add that some albums become concept albums in our own imaginations because we associate them with important times in our lives. Consequently the songs assume a coherence beyond the songwriter's intention.
I'm not a big fan of them.
*fires Dennis-The-Menace-style pea-shooter at Mr Blast*
Probably because I'm not a big fan of the rock genres that often generate them, and the po-faced-ness that seems to sit there.
I do like some of the Sinatra ones - "In The Wee Small Hours", which was from 1955, and "Songs For Swingin' Lovers".
I'm not a big fan of them either...
and the only one I truly love is In The Wee Small Hours. It's one of the greatest records ever made.
How would one define a "Concept Album"?
An album with one theme linking all the songs? An album in which the songs form a narrative thread?
what's concept?
Wikipedia defines a concept album thus:
"In popular music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical". Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing to a single overall theme or unified story. This is in contrast to the practice of an artist or group releasing an album consisting of a number of unconnected (lyrically or otherwise) songs performed by the art"
I think i get the point and on that basis I'd go for;
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Rush 2112 (the six part song 2112 is the concept)
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
Green Day - American Idiot
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Porcupine Tree - The Incident
The Who - Quadrophenia
here's some concept, Rush style.
berlin
outstanding
All Summer Long by The Beach Boys
The "concept" is teenagers mucking about in the summer. V. deep.
Diamond Dogs...
... is a good one - better than Orwell's book IMHO.
Some of my favourites
Neil Young - Greendale
Spearmint - A Different Lifetime
Eels - Hombre Lobo
E2 E4
Manuel Göttsching's 60 minute game of chess (apparently).
Here are my favorites:
Berlin - Lou Reed
Casanova - The Divine Comedy
The Seduction Of Claude Debussy - The Art Of Noise
Murder Ballads - Nick Cave
A Grand Doesn't Come For Free - The Streets
Pram Town - Darren Hayman and The Secondary Modern
Readymades - Chumbawamba
69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
i - The Magnetic Fields
Sort of concept albums
Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads
Great British Holiday EPs - Darren Hayman
Parklife - Blur