Best concept albums - nomination thread

Cafe Society
1

I have finally decided to admit to my terrible secret - I LOVE concept albums! Love them, love them, love them. Almost three-quarters of my top desert island discs are concept albums.

For the purposes of this thread, we will use the (open-ended) Wikipedia definition of a concept album: In popular music, a concept album is an album that is “unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical.”

So, let’s nominate our favorites!

To help get you started, here’s Wikipedia’s list of concept albums. This list is long, but hardly exhaustive or entirely accurate. For example, the following albums are NOT on it, even though they are pretty clearly concept albums:
A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
The Planets by Holst
*Romantic Warrior *by Return To Forever
Watercolors by Pat Metheny
Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast
while Load by Metallica IS on the list, for reasons that completely escape me. So if you want to nominate something that’s not listed, particularly if it’s not in the rock genre (like all of the above that were left off), ignore Wikipedia and put it up.

I’ll nominate a couple to start:

Operation:Mindcrime by Queensryche - Tells the story of a hitman/assassin who is manipulated by the mysterious Dr. X. As with most of these, it plays better than it reads.

Misplaced Childhood by Marillion - basically an autobiography of the lead singer.

I left out several of my other favorites, since they will likely be nominated by others (but I’ll drop in to put them up if I am wrong about that).

Nominate away!

2

"Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), relating how the life of an unremarkable working class guy mirrors British life in the 20th century . It’s touching, evocative, and also rocks like hell.

3

My personal favorite is The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis.
(This is cheating a bit, but I love the concept “B-side” of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love album called The Ninth Wave, which is about a woman lost at sea, and most of the concept 2nd disc of her Aerial album, called A Sky of Honey, which is a celebration of a day from early morning to late evening.)

4

I’ll go ahead and be predictable and nominate 2112 and Hemispheres, by Rush.

I also really like American Idiot by Green Day, and Sex Packets by Digital Underground (One of my favorite rap albums of all time).

5

The Protomen. Two words: Mega Man.

I don’t know about best, but Local H usually does albums that are “concepty” without being too orthodox in being explicitly a big concept. Cursive, too. David Bowie, occasionally.

6

Those aren’t concept albums.

Two of my favorites, Lamb Lies and Misplaced Childhood, have already been nominated, so I’ll add Marillion’s Brave.

7

2112 is absolutely a concept album, I can’t imagine what definition you are using that would exclude it.

This sadly unrepentant leftover from the hippie era nominates:

Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
Animals
The Wall

Every Alan Parson’s Project album

Thick as a Brick
Passion Play

A Pleasant Shade of Grey

Crime of the Century

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Lark’s Tongues in Aspic

The Point!

Journey to the Centre of the Earth
The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

The War of the Worlds

The Nightfly

(Frank Sinatra? Seriously?)

8

Um, the album consists of six songs that are unrelated to each other lyrically?

9

Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

10

If we’re going to nominate concept albums, I’ll have to go with one of the first: Freak Out!, by the Mothers of Invention.

I think the problem with 2112 and Hemispheres (both of which I love) is that, while they each have concept suites, the whole albums aren’t thematically concepts.

11

Blows Against The Empire, Jefferson Airplane. A very sixties concept about ecologically minded hippies who hijack a spaceship and set up their own interstellar commune(!). A mix of blistering rockers (with some great rhythmic piano by Grace Slick) and atmospheric ballads.

12

Any discussion of concept albums has to at least consider “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia”.

Or do they count as rock operas and in a category by themselves?

13

Johnny Cash - Blood Sweat & Tears, Bitter Tears
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger, Phases & Stages
Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs
Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera

There’s plenty of good ones been nominated already, but people tend to forget about classic Country concept albums.

14

Two immediately come to mind that I mentioned in another recent thread. Phases and Stages–songs about a relationship that ended, from his side & from hers. (Historical note: LP’s had two sides.) And Red Headed Stranger–a tale of the old West, using original & traditional songs. (With such spare production values the record company thought it was a demo. It went platinum.)

Both by Willie Nelson…

15

I really like from that list:
Strange Little Girls by Tori Amos
This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars
The Crane Wife by The Decemberists
NATO and Volk by Laibach (the latter with Silence)
Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull
Trans-Europe Express and Autobahn by Kraftwerk
Doubt by Jesus Jones
The Downward Spiral by NIN
VIVIsectVI by Skinny Puppy
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins

16

Fear of a blank planet by Porcupine Tree
Scarlet’s walk by Tori Amos
Merlin Bard of the Unseen by Kayak

17

I agree that 2112 is not a concept album.

I believe rock opera is part of the set defined as ‘concept’, so these would be included.

I’d add “David Comes to Life” by Fucked Up.

18

Elton John: Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

Jethro Tull: Too Old To Rock and Roll, Too Young To Die

Lou Reed: New York

Alice Cooper: Welcome To My Nightmare

David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
mmm

19

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

20

Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, a tribute to Syd Barrett.