Workingman’s Dead
&
Joni Mitchell’s first album Song to a Seagull, which has sea songs on one side and city songs on the other. The sound quality is poor, but the album is lovely all the same.
The obvious answer is RUSH 2112. The only other concept album that even comes close is Operation Mindcrime.
My list:
- Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
- Queensryche- Operation Mindcrime
- Pink Floyd- The Final Cut
- Frank Zappa- Joe’s Garage
- Blue Oyster Cult- Imaginos
It’s way too easy to forget about Imaginos, but it’s a great album. I also think TFC is far better than DSotM, and it just edges out The Wall in my book.
What exactly is a concept album?
Wall - Pink Floyd
Tommy - The Who
Rush - 2112
Radio KAOS - Roger Waters
Gaudi - Alan Parsons Project
Final Cut - Pink Floyd
Turn of a Friendly Card - Alan Parsons Project
Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Alan Parsons Project
Animals - Pink Floyd
I’m not terribly sure that it counts as a “concept album”, but **The Flaming Lips’ ** The Soft Bulletin has enough lyrical threads going through it that it seems to be a concept album about something.
Hmmm, very interesting. The wheels are turning…
Thank you Yeticus Rex for mentioning Alan Parson Project! I couldn’t believe nobody had mentioned any of theirs before this.
And, while it’s admittedly “commercial”, I’ve always been a fan of Styx’s “Paradise Theatre.”
Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Ummmm … you seem to have forgotten that Wristy McSlashalot has already mentioned Quadrophenia by The Who.
“Theme” albums should be judged by their music first.
1.) “Aqualung” (Top Ten R&R album)
2.) “Tommy”
3.) Tied: “Ziggy Stardust” and “The Wall”
Some say that Tull made the “Thick as a Brick” album in response to critics who claimed that “Aqualung” was a theme album. I admit, I often wonder if it is, but it doesnt really seem to tell a continuous story. On the other hand, the two sides are vastly different yet internally similar: maybe its really two stories?
Of the theme albums I’ve heard, “The Wall” Does own the rest. It may be possible there’s a better-told story album out there but musically, it’s pretty much a fact that The Wall is the best album ever made.
so,:
#1,#2,#3: The Wall
#4: Sgt. Pepper
#5: Thick as a Brick
Total Ripoff: Ok,Computer. It’s the only CD I own that I wouldn’t mind trading in for cash, its that bad.
Iron Maiden - Killers
Rush - 2112
Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality
Do you mean this in terms of concept albums, or in general? I don’t agree with either assessment, I’m just curious.
Ripoff of what? Also, there are plenty of places to trade in a CD.
I read that apparently Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was also supposed to be a concept album, but only the first five songs and the last instrumental actually were part of that concept.
Amused to Death is brilliant.
- Pink Floyd – The Wall
- Pink Floyd – The Final Cut*
- Pete Townsend – Psychoderelict
- The Who – Tommy
- (tie)Roger Waters – Radio K.A.O.S. and Amused to Death
*Just a note: To my knowledge the reason The Final Cut was made (this is from shoddy memory of readon A Saucer Full of Secrets) was because creative control had been stripped from Roger Waters, in the making of the movie, The Wall. This is why, I read, on the back cover of The Final Cut, you see a man in uniform (usually representing Roger, his father, or his father’s memory) with a knife in the back, holding a film cannister.
Ahem. Ok, so I’m a girl who likes her Floyd.
Barry Manilow – Paradise Cafe
What are you all looking at me like that for? Oh, alright then…
Divine Comedy – Promenade
This Mortal Coil – (Nothing But) Blood
Various others already mentioned.
ok, I’ll dive in with a few comments
Jethro Tull’s “A Passion Play” tells a much more cohesive story than “Thick as a Brick”.
Rush’s “2112” is only a concept album on side 1, imho, so it’s disqualified (it did however, inspire me to learn the bass guitar{as if you care}). 
“The Wall” does indeed rule, though “The Final Cut” holds up well as a continuous libretto.
and now for the downtrodden, loved and hated group YES
Topographic Oceans was their responce to a critic saying, "What will YES do next, put the bible to music? (this after Close to the Edge). Jon Anderson said, “We’ll show em” and they chose the Hindu mythos to base it on… and just like “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, it broke the band up :).
oh, back to Pink Floyd, did I mention Animals ? definately concept, and so as to not exclude new wonderful concept-type material. Radiohead’s “OK Computer” is absolutely brilliant. It’s so Floydian yet breaks so much new ground (and with mostly old sounds, ie guitars run through analog synths) it really gave me hope for new music. Actually their disc “The Bends” did that before.
ok I’m through gushing
I think the only reason Aqualung got pegged as a concept album was the liner notes and album art with the bible-esque verse thing. The album itself really didn’t tie in the look at lower-classes on the first side with the harsh critique of organized religion on the second.
Even bigger Tull freaks than me (yes, they do exist) generally agree that the two sides are not necessarily parts of a whole:
http://www.cupofwonder.com/aqua2.html
I just don’t think the sides were meant to be fit together into a whole concept, that it’s sort of stretching to say they were. You can certainly identify an overarching concept to other Tull albums, or even sets of albums like the Songs from the Wood + Heavy Horses + Stormwatch era which was consumed with proto-environmentalist themes and general nature imagery.
And the first side of Aqualung doesn’t really hold together IMHO as a concept. Then again, the second side really does, and is either a “concept side” all to itself, or just Ian’s “I’m gonna rant about the CofE for awhile now” magnum opus.