Concept albums

What exactly constitutes a concept album? Do you think it needs a storyline? Is it enough for songs to share the same general theme?

Do you have any concept albums that you really enjoy?

 

Hmmm ...

"What's Going On" - Marvin Gaye (and to think that Berry Gordy almost blocked its release ... like many theme/concept albums, many of the tracks are tied together)

"Dark Side of the Moon" - Pink Floyd
"Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd

"Duke" - Genesis (not as tight a theme as the Lamb, but a lot of it is tied together)
"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" - Genesis (the adventures of Rael)

"Smallcreep's Day" - Mike Rutherford. An album written in 1980 during a break from Genesis and years before forming Mike + The Mechanics. The first seven of the 12 tracks is a suite and much of the rest of the album follows along ... certainly a concept. Nicely done ... his autobiography briefly explained that doing an album in that position was much different than the group dynamic, which might explain why he didn't try another of its kind.

"Gustav Holst: The Planets" ... "Mars" and "Jupiter" are highlights.

 

To me, "concept albums" are pretty much any collection of songs put together in a sequence other than "let's throw 12 songs together and put it out."

Some "concepts" are purely melodic; others are thematic-- you can have the full-blown opera concept which attempts to tell a complete story from beginning to end.

You can have partial concept albums; part is just a random grab bag of songs, another part a narrative sequence (see "A Quick One" by The Who).

"Rubber Soul" is not a thematic concept album -- the song topics are widely scattered -- but it's definitely a tonal and instrumental concept album.

"Born To Run" is one of the greatest concept albums, both thematically and musically. It opens in the lonely cool before dawn, and ends in the darkest hours the next night, as the ambulance pulls away, and the girl shuts out the bedroom light.

 

The Who had two of the best: "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia". Both worthy enough to be made into full length films. "Quadrophenia" ranks up there in my favorite albums of all time list, even beyond the concept category.

Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" is another one that immediately comes to mind.

 

I have a somewhat shameful soft spot for "Operation: Mindcrime" by Queensryche.

 

"The Wall"

 

Not "Tarkus" by ELP

 

Born to Run and Sgt. Pepper immediately come to mind.

 

I loved that album and I make no apologies. Styx's "Kilroy was Here," on the other hand, is the one I'm hesitant to admit to people I played practically nonstop when I got it in the early '80s.

 

Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull.
And I've just discovered Anderson wrote it as a parody of concept albums

 

Which even had a sequel/epilogue in "The Final Cut."

 

I know people all think Rush sucks, but 2112 is basically the definition of a concept album.