# What are your favorite concept albums? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629 "2009-03-07T04:36:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/41 "2009-03-09T00:30:32Z")
David Bowie - _Outside_ ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/42 "2009-03-09T00:33:13Z")
[Divinities: Twelve Dances With God](http://www.amazon.com/Divinities-Twelve-Dances-Doane-Perry/dp/B000002SLD), by Ian Anderson. Every single song is goregous. [First Utterance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Utterance), by Comus. A frightening little walk down the path into the acoustic underworld. Weird and weirdly wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/43 "2009-03-09T00:48:56Z")
Get Ballad of the Blues by Jo Stafford. It is ONE GREAT album. Most people never heard of her. She was the number one female selling artist of the first half of the 20th century (1900 -1950). She could sing anything, from Jazz, Blues, Pop, she even made comedy albums. But this CD is a steller standout. And as a bonus it has “Tony-the-Tiger,” singing back up. 🙂 Brilliant, if I could only have one CD (concept or not) I’d choose this one ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/44 "2009-03-09T10:06:06Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > Gawd, there are so many… a few off the top of my head: > > Genesis - _The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway_ > Marillion - _Misplaced Childhood_ > Marillion - _Brave_ > Dream Theater - _Metropolis Part II: Scenes From A Memory_ > **Queensryche - _Operation Mindcrime_** > IQ - _Subterranea_ > Spock’s Beard - _Snow_ Another vote for Operation Mindcrime. ---
**Author:** ![Buford\_was\_no\_angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Buford\_was\_no\_angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buford_was_no_angel)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/45 "2009-03-09T11:48:01Z")
Ben Folds Five-_The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner_ ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/46 "2009-03-09T14:34:45Z")
> [@Hunter\_Hawk](#): > > Here are a few I’m fond of: > > Pressurehed - _Explaining the Unexplained_. This is a brilliant piece of spacey electronica that has songs about all sorts of Fortean topics like Bigfoot, UFOs, mokele-mbembe, the Long Count, and so forth. > > Bill Laswell - _Hashisheen: The End of Law_. Ambient music about Hassan i Sabah and the assassins. > > Coil - _Time Machines_. Minimalist drone intended to help induce altered states of consciousness. Each track is named after a different psychopharmacological agent. > > Hawkwind - _Space Ritual_. This is _the_ canonical spacerock album, and is in the running for best live album ever recorded by anyone EVAR. The framing device is that it’s the hallucinations of a dying astronaut. > > Hawkwind - _Love in Space_. A great '90s-era Hawkwind album. Aliens come visiting. > > Psychic TV - _Godstar: Thee Director’s Cut_: Essentially a love letter to Brian Jones and sweet '60s pop. > > Black Sun Productions - _Operett Amorale_: BSP are ex-gay prostitutes who essentially apprenticed under Coil. This album is a tribute to Bertolt Brecht. > > Za Frumi - _Shrak Ishi za Migul_. This is essentially a radio play performed in Orcish and Dark Elvish with a dark ambient soundtrack. Quite sinister. 😕 I never heard of even one of these. I like Jethro Tull in a nostalgic way. Some of it sounds twittery and simplistic now. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/47 "2009-03-09T14:46:17Z")
Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita & Chess. The original concept albums. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/48 "2009-03-09T15:32:21Z")
I love concept albums. **Sufjan Stevens** - both of his 50 States albums: _Michigan_ and _Illinois_. **Gwar** - _Beyond Hell_ (the boys get attacked by the Pope and have to escape through Hell, with the help of Jitler, a chimera of Jesus and Hitler.) **Avantasia** - _The Metal Opera I & II_ (really cool story about a 17th century monk finding a secret passage to a fantasy world.) **Rhapsody** - every album they’ve ever done. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/49 "2009-03-09T15:41:48Z")
I know I have a bit of a taste for the pretentious, but I love **Deloused in the Comatorium** by Mars Volta. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/50 "2009-03-09T16:14:47Z")
Pretty much anything by The Alan Parsons Project, up to and including the Eric Woolfson stage musicals (_Freudiana_, _Gaudi_, _Gambler_, and _Poe_). Pink Floyd’s _Dark Side of the Moon_, _Wish You Were Here_, and _The Division Bell_ Savatage’s \*Dead Winter Dead \*and _The Wake of Magellan_ Alice Cooper’s _Brutal Planet_, _Dragontown_, and _The Last Temptation_ ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/51 "2009-03-09T16:16:03Z")
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - _Murder Ballads_. I’ve heard that a lot of fans regard it as his worst album, but I confess that it’s my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![mkecane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@mkecane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkecane)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/52 "2009-03-09T18:47:28Z")
> [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](#): > > The Streets, _A Grand Don’t Come For Free_ > > There are a couple of weak songs, but two tracks on it reduce me to tears - which is pretty good going for a rap album. For those who don’t know it, the story is about a (white) Londoner who, amongst over things loses a £1000, gets, then loses a girl, takes a lot of spliff and eventually finds transcendence. I highly recommend it, and I’m not a fan of this genre normally. Great call. I love this record. It’s a 10/10 for me. I’d heard and read good things about The Streets in '03 and '04. One day at the record shop, I saw this cd in the used bin for $7.95 or so, and figured I’d check it out. From the very first notes of horns announcing the start, I was in love with the record. Mike’s ability to rhyme the same sound over and over and over and over, and the layers of sound are brilliant on this record (e.g. when he’s rapping about dropping a call on his cell phone, you hear the faintest “fucking piece of shit” in the backround). Gotta listen to this now. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/53 "2009-03-09T19:01:09Z")
Both have some “off-concept” songs on them: **Starz** _Violation_ **Rush** _2112_ (can’t believe nobody’s posted that yet!) Both tales of a dystopian, totalitarian future. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/54 "2009-03-09T19:26:02Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > **Rush** _2112_ (can’t believe nobody’s posted that yet!) Wow, I can’t believe I left that one off my list! \ Some kind of Rush fan \*I \*am… ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/55 "2009-03-09T19:48:26Z")
**Husker Du** - _Zen Arcade_ The only “concept album” I can stomach, unless you count “Sgt. Pepper” and “Village Green” (I don’t). _Doug_ is good, not great, IMO. Never heard either _Zooropa_ or _The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner_ described as concept albums before - I’m a little baffled by these entries. Maybe **Handsome Boy Modeling School** ’s _So…How’s Your Girl?_ would qualify for me, but I’m still not sure it fits my idea of “concept album”. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/56 "2009-03-09T21:34:46Z")
_Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake_ by the Small faces. Strictly speaking, it’s not a concept **album** because the continuous narrative is only on one side. But what a side! Plus, the whole package, a _round_ album cover, depicting a tobacco tin, which you open to find the tobacco and rolling papers inside, is so damned clever. The songs kick ass, too! ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/57 "2009-03-10T00:37:45Z")
I’ve got to say Alice Cooper’s **Muscle of Love** is my absolute favorite (heh), while **Hey Stoopid** probably comes in second and **Lace and Whiskey** third (or are those last two the other way 'round??). **Billion Dollar Babies** should figure in there somewhere, but I think it falls a bit short of the ‘concept album’ label. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/58 "2009-03-10T01:07:04Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > **Husker Du** - _Zen Arcade_ > > The only “concept album” I can stomach, unless you count “Sgt. Pepper” and “Village Green” (I don’t). _Doug_ is good, not great, IMO. > > Never heard either _Zooropa_ or _The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner_ described as concept albums before - I’m a little baffled by these entries. > > Maybe **Handsome Boy Modeling School** ’s _So…How’s Your Girl?_ would qualify for me, but I’m still not sure it fits my idea of “concept album”. I’m curious, what’s your idea of a concept album? Both _Sgt. Pepper_ and even moreso _Village Green_ (and definitely _Arthur_) fit into my idea of one, but it sounds like you have a stricter definition. What about Bowie’s _Ziggy Stardust_? I’m on the fence with something like _OK Computer_. To me, it’s a concept album, but Radiohead don’t consider it one. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/59 "2009-03-10T01:22:57Z")
So is the consensus that **Sgt Pepper** is a concept album? I’ve never considered it one. Really, the only common theme that it has is the “Sgt Pepper is a fake band”, with an opening and reprise, but none of the rest of the songs support the “concept”. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-favorite-concept-albums/488629/60 "2009-03-10T01:44:12Z")
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