Concept albums/songs

tsume

tsume

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I really enjoy concept albums, it just shows me that there is truly that artistic madness when a musician creates a song and the madness ripples through my ears when I listen to the music. List some great concepts songs/albums here
 
Björk - Medúlla

This is one of my favourite albums Björk. What makes it an awesome concept album is that albums consist entirely of vocals (only a few songs contain a single instrument at a time). Beatboxers like Rahzel are brought into create rhythms and various choirs are used to create a symphonic feel.

Plus this is funny video

[video=youtube;nQB9d-MMIx0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQB9d-MMIx0[/video]
 
50 Cent - A Baltimore Love Thing (from The Massacre)

Now I don't care how you feel about rap but this song is a fine example of conceptual song. In this song 50 speaks from the view point of a drug (heroine to be specific) and how the female subject of the song is trying to leave him.

[video=youtube;jtb3QPWy_4Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtb3QPWy_4Y[/video]
 
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I don't know if this fits into this thread, but Bon Iver's Michicant, was just something a bit different for me. An old school bycicle ringer/horn being used in that song along with the vocals and guitar work with feedback and brass horns was very quirky and awesome!
 
If you're talking about "concept albums" then this thread got off to a horrid start by using Bjork and 50 Cent as examples. Merely portaying a message in a song does not equate to a concept album. Most (decent) songs already do this. A concept album attempts to continue a theme throughout the entire album - there really isn't such a thing as a "concept song". These days concept albums are few and far between because of the naivety of both artists and consumer. If I had to think of the most "popular" sort of conceptual album then JayZ's American Gangster springs to mind. Apart from that, no concept albums tend to come from mainstream artists because these days music is purely entertainment as far as 99% of consumers are concerned.

tsume, I think you have the wrong impression of what an actual (Arcade Fire – The Suburbs) concept album is. I think you're just hearing the word and associating it with things like concept cars, which are completely different in their basis...
 
Shake&Bake said:
I don't know if this fits into this thread, but Bon Iver's Michicant, was just something a bit different for me. An old school bycicle ringer/horn being used in that song along with the vocals and guitar work with feedback and brass horns was very quirky and awesome!
Click to expand...

No, no, no. Concept albums have buggerall to do with expanding the envelope of music. They are continuations of a theme, regardless of their "individuality" as a piece of music...
 
Okay moving on

Alice Cooper - Welcome to my nightmare
This is a real good bed time album

[video=youtube;JAnayUpbJYs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAnayUpbJYs[/video]
 
Besides Alice's (many) concepts, almost all Puke Floyd strikes me as concept. Uriah Heap had it nailed IMO. Bowie took a few stabs at them. Smashing Pumpkin's Mellen Collie / Infinite Sadness must qualify.

RATM's Evil Empire maybe qualifies. In fact, many politically-inspired works may be considered concept albums. Dunno about Sgt Peppers what do you think?
 
Like its predecessor, My Arms, Your Hearse, Still Life is a concept album. Front-man Mikael Åkerfeldt explains: "Still Life was not Satanic but an anti-Christian theme. It sounds pretty naive when I explain it like this. It kind of takes place a long time ago when Christianity had a bigger importance than it has today. The main character is kind of banished from his hometown because he hasn't got the same faith as the rest of the inhabitants there. The album pretty much starts off when he is returning after several years to hook up with his old 'babe'. Obviously a lot of bad things start happening with, as I call it on the album, 'the council.' The big bosses of the town know that he's back. A lot of bad things start happening. They see him as a hypocrite in a way. It's almost like a devil's advocate or whatever it's called."[3]
Click to expand...

Opeth_stilllife.jpg


[video=youtube;WGg155CcGKE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGg155CcGKE[/video]
 
Concept albums are a bit of a neglected field recently - mainly because of the rise of MP3 which focuses on culling singles from albums and 'shuffling' them.
And DJ is 100% right what you're posting are 'interesting' or 'experimental' albums/songs - NOT concept albums. A concept album has a theme or narrative that unifies every song - often the beginning and ending songs will mirror each other somehow for instance.

Great concept albums of the past:

Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band
Radiohead - OK Computer
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Muse - The Resistance
Jay-Z - American Gangster
Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below/Aquemini
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

(admittedly even some of those are iffy - My Bloody Valentine for instance)

Now please - study and learn your rock vocabulary :p
 
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Alice's Welcome 2 my nightmare definitely counts as does The Last Temptation, which was packaged with a comic book detailing the album. Concept does not necessarily exclude popular (as Sgt Pepper demonstrates).

Interesting list here that thinks that Gaga makes concept albums, so not a reliable source (although my prejudice may blind me).
 
genesis' the lamb lies down on broadway is pretty good.

i thought loveless by mbv wasnt all that either. decent but definitely innovative. must listen more, maybe missing something.
 
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