# Best concept albums - nomination thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554 "2013-09-11T04:43:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/21 "2013-09-11T11:43:47Z")
**The Residents** - _The Mark of the Mole_ and the rest of the [Moleshow](http://residents.com/historical4/mole/index.html) albums, etc. **Van Dyke Parks** - _Tokyo Rose_ **Peter Hammill** -\* Nadir’s Big Chance\* ---
**Author:** ![OtisCampbellWasRight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@OtisCampbellWasRight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtisCampbellWasRight)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/22 "2013-09-11T11:48:44Z")
All these posts and no one has mentioned the arguably first concept album? The Beatles St. Peppers Lonely Heart Club band? …and you call yourselves old Hippies! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/23 "2013-09-11T12:08:31Z")
Thick As A Brick - Jethro Tull Selling England By The Pound - Genesis ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/24 "2013-09-11T12:18:27Z")
_Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds._ _Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs_ by Derek and the Dominoes. It’s all about Eric Clapton’s relationship with Patti Harrison. _The Who Sell Out_ Rick Wakeman’s _The Six Wives of Henry VIII_ ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/25 "2013-09-11T12:18:31Z")
Somebody beat me to Willie’s LP’s. But I’ll add another by Johnny Cash: [Sings the Ballads of the True West](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sings_the_Ballads_of_the_True_West). Done while he was in a dangerous period. (He had several.) [Anthems in Eden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthems_in_Eden) is actually half of one of those old LP things, but it definitely has a concept. British folkies Shirley & Dolly Collins recorded a set of traditional tunes with backup by the Early Music Consort. The overall theme was the end of traditions brought by the Great War–still in living memory in those days. The novel musical setting supposedly inspired the later British folk-rockers… ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/26 "2013-09-11T12:20:28Z")
Spirit’s _12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus_ ELP’s _Brain Salad Surgery_ ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/27 "2013-09-11T12:27:58Z")
Lots of great music here. I’ll add: **10cc** - How Dare You **Tubes** - Prime Time ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/28 "2013-09-11T12:28:34Z")
> [@OtisCampbellWasRight](#): > > All these posts and no one has mentioned the arguably first concept album? The Beatles St. Peppers Lonely Heart Club band? > > …and you call yourselves old Hippies! 🆒 _Pet Sounds_ (Beach Boys) was out 13 months before _Sgt. Pepper_, and greatly influenced it. _Freak Out!_ was before _Sgt Pepper_ by almost a year. _Face to Face_ by the Kinks beat it by almost 7 months Leaving the Rock genre, Woody Guthrie’s _Dust Bowl Ballads_ was put out in 1940. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/29 "2013-09-11T12:33:50Z")
\*A Passion Play Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals Tommy I Robot\* ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/30 "2013-09-11T12:39:17Z")
Since no one else will **Kendrick Lamar** - _Good Kid, M.A.A.D City_ Seriously one of, if not the best, concept album to come from hip hop and a very tight, focused concept album at that. Amazing album from someone who will probably go down as one of the Greatest of All time (GOAT!) > [@](#): > > Lyrically, the album chronicles Lamar’s experiences in his native Compton, California and its harsh realities, in a nonlinear narrative. The songs address issues such as economic disenfranchisement, retributive gang violence, and downtrodden women, while analyzing their residual effects on individuals and families. Lamar introduces various characters and internal conflicts, including the contrast of his homesickness and love for Compton with the city’s plagued condition. Del F. Cowie of Exclaim! observes a “transformation” by Lamar’s character “from a boisterous, impressionable, girl-craving teenager to more spiritual, hard-fought adulthood, irrevocably shaped by the neighbourhood and familial bonds of his precarious environment.” Edit: plus the album just absolutely bangs. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1pzbhv4EVw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1pzbhv4EVw) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/31 "2013-09-11T13:36:44Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Spirit’s _12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus_ Much as I love the album, the title is the only thing that’s even remotely like a concept, and it’s no more a concept than Randy Newman’s _12 Songs_ is. Considering the group was falling apart as they recorded, it’s unlikely that there was any real connection (other than a couple of segues). ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/32 "2013-09-11T13:41:42Z")
I’m not trying to hijack the thread, but related: Has anyone done a 7 Sins concept album? It seems like such an obvious theme, but I can’t think of anyone who’s done it. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/33 "2013-09-11T13:43:24Z")
Moody Blues _Days of Future Passed_ ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/34 "2013-09-11T13:47:50Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Much as I love the album, the title is the only thing that’s even remotely like a concept, and it’s no more a concept than Randy Newman’s _12 Songs_ is. Considering the group was falling apart as they recorded, it’s unlikely that there was any real connection (other than a couple of segues). I always assumed a connection between the album and the 1961 horror movie _Mr. Sardonicus_. The lyrics of several of the songs effectively mirror situations or attitudes in that movie, for instance: Nothing to Hide - “we’re married to the same bride, she eats away from inside” reflects the fact that both Sardonicus and the young doctor are in love with the woman, and they are both concerned with Sardonicus’s disease. Nature’s Way - Sardonicus is dying. Why Can’t I Be Free? - the doctor is unable to cure Sardonicus. and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/35 "2013-09-11T13:56:21Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > ["Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)](http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL86B96D43937857E2), 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. > [@astorian](#): > > _ **The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society** _ > [@lawoot](#): > > _Face to Face_ by the Kinks beat it by almost 7 months I don’t think _Face to Face_ quite counts; but _Arthur_ and _Village Green_ are both great concept albums, as are the Kinks’ _Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround_, _Schoolboys in Disgrace_, and (first in quantity though not in quality) _Preservation Acts 1 & 2_. > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Any discussion of concept albums has to at least consider “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia”. Maybe also _The Who Sell Out_? > [@Meurglys](#): > > **Van Dyke Parks** - _Tokyo Rose_ Parks has several concept albums; my favorite is _Jump!_ I think my overall favorite concept album is Daniel Amos’s [Songs of the Heart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Heart). ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/36 "2013-09-11T14:05:38Z")
> [@Oedipus](#): > > I’m not trying to hijack the thread, but related: > > Has anyone done a 7 Sins concept album? It seems like such an obvious theme, but I can’t think of anyone who’s done it. [Yep.](http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Pantheist/Amartia/72416) Not exactly mainstream, to put it mildly, but a pretty damn good album. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/37 "2013-09-11T14:13:00Z")
Best? Hmmm…I’ll throw in [Consequences](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consequences_%28Godley_%26_Creme_album%29) by Godley and Creme for the hell of it. Also [SF Sorrow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.F._Sorrow) by The Pretty Things ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/38 "2013-09-11T14:20:49Z")
[ninjaed] ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/39 "2013-09-11T14:22:17Z")
Two of my favorites (that no one else has mentioned yet) are on the list. Camel - “(Music inspired by) The Snow Goose” Triumvirat - “Spartacus” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554/40 "2013-09-11T15:12:31Z")
_1984_ by **Eurythmics** _Leviathan_ by **Mastodon** _Blood Mountain_ by **Mastodon** _Crack The Skye_ by **Mastodon** _Pink World_ by **Planet P Project** _Antichrist Superstar_ by **Marilyn Manson** _Warp Riders_ by **The Sword** _Red. White. Green._ by **Upon A Burning Body** _The World Is Ours_ by **Upon A Burning Body** _The Audio Guide To Happiness Part 1_ by **Jolly** _The Audio Guide To Happiness Part 2_ by **Jolly** _Master Of Brutality_ by **Church Of Misery** Pretty much everything by **Insane Clown Posse** including offshoots like **Dark Lotus** ’s _The Opaque Brotherhood_. _ORO: Opus Primum_ by **Ufomammut** _ORO: Opus Alter_ by **Ufomammut** _Orogeny_ by **Turbid North** (this album is pure awesome) _Phaze 1_ by **Phaze 1** _Pictures From Life’s Other Side_ by **Johnny Dowd** _Portal Of I_ by **Ne Obliviscaris** (another album that is pure awesome) _The Shape Of Punk To Come_ by **Refused** (this album is so far beyond awesome that I don’t think there’s a word that will adequately describe it) _11:11_ by **Rodrigo y Gabriela** I’m sure I missed a bunch that I own, but I’m at work and can only work with what is in my phone at the moment and what I can remember off the top of my head. I deliberately left off soundtrack albums, with the exception of _1984_ because while it was commissioned as a soundtrack for the film it ultimately wasn’t used in the final release. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-concept-albums-nomination-thread/668554.md?page=3)