From the mouth of Wayne
IMO, I’d consider it a concept album, but I figure I’d throw in the band’s opinion.
Tom Waits’ Frank’s Wild Years was the basis for a stage show that toured in the 80’s. I gather from reviews at the time that his last release Alice is also a “concept album”.
Tool’s Lateralus is a great concept album, and I’d say that they are definitely a popular rock band headlining tours (I’ve seen them, they headlined, they rocked). However, the average rock fan doesn’t care as much about the music and what it means. Even at a Tool concert, you see the usual mix of jackasses who listen to crap like Slipknot and could not care less about content, and the true fans who care about the message. If only Pink Floyd would get back together, we wouldn’t need any other bands! 
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Machina/The Machines of God is a concept album. The album is supposed to reflect the the trials and tribulations of a rock band called Machina and its star “Glass” and its fans.
Any simularities between Machina and The Smashing Pumpkins and “Glass” and Billy Corgan are completely coincidental. Before the departure of D’arcy prior to the album’s completion, Billy’s ideas for it included doing the entire tour “in character” as Machina rather than The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan’s never been one for subtlety or small plans. 
If you can get past Corgan’s nearly unreadable prose/poetry and a whole lot o’ Flash, you can see the story laid out on The Smashing Pumpkins’ website.
Also, their big opus double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness started out as a concept album as a day in a life of a teenager, but Corgan mostly gave up on the concept during the album’s production, though pieces of it remain, the two discs are entitled Dawn to Dusk & Twilight to Starlight for one…
Bruce Springsteen made several concept abulms in the 80’s and 90’s. Nebraska (violent crime as seen through the eyes of the offenders and those close to them), Born In the USA, (the disenchantment of the Vietnam era youth as they approach middle age), Tunnel of Love (emotional isolation and it’s impact on relationships), and most recently The Ghost of Tom Joad (the immigrant experience in the modern Southwest).
As far as the Flaming Lips, I think Zaireeka is more of a concept album. 4 discs, meant to be played separately, or simultaneously, or 1,3, simultaneously, or 2,4, or…
I’m curious, but not curious enough to gather four CD players up in one room.
Tom Waits’ new disc, Alice was originally written as an opera, so I think that qualifies as a concept disc.
Self correction - the rock band is called Machines of God and their album is Machina. Details, details… :smack:
Sarah Brightman did a pretty good concept album a couple years ago. La Luna has a bunch of songs about the moon, La Luna, Hijo de la Luna, Moon River, and La Lune. The other songs fit in quite well, though, even if they aren’t about the moon.
www.allmusic.com only lists “Hounds of Love” for 1985 and I can find no reference to Kate Bush doing anything called “Ninth Wave”. Are you sure the artist/title is correct?
Chris W
An old fogey checking in here.
Just for the record, rock bands did not pioneer concept albums. Frank Sinatra did it before anybody.
A Prince Among Thieves by Prince Paul is most definitely a concept album.
Deltronic 3030 is also definitely a concept album.
I’d say that ( ) by Sigur Ros is a concept album of sorts.
Guys, guys. The term “concept album” is being used way, way too broadly here. In my mind, a concept album is one that adheres to a specific storyline, not a bunch of songs thrown together that happen to have the same theme.
Born in the U.S.A. is NOT a concept album. Close to the Edge is NOT a concept album. One could even argue against Dark Side of the Moon, except it’s too spacey for me to tell. I’m not terribly familiar with the rest, but as for Jethro Tull, “Thick as a Brick” (and the followup, “A Passion Play”) aren’t so much concepts as opposed to one really, really, really, really long song.
To find really good concept albums, you gotta explore the murky underworld of prog-metal and death-metal. Edward The Head has given many good examples. To those I would add, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory by Dream Theater, Into the Electric Castle by Ayreon (as well as every other album Ayreon ever made), and The Edge by Eternity X. Oh, and don’t forget Misplaced Childhood by Marillion (which was released in 1985.)
As for the Jethro Tull “One Big Ass Long Song” type of concept, check out Edge of Sanity’s “Crimson” (40:00), Green Carnation’s “Light of Day, Day of Darkness” (60:05), or Fates Warning’s “A Pleasant Shade of Grey” (52+min, broken in to 12 parts.)
Really? What was the concept? Did he write any (or many) of his own songs? I always hear that The Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds was the first “Concept Album”. I don’t have the album so I can’t tell you the concept. A lot of people say The Beatles’ Sgt Peppers was the first but Pet Sounds is what I usually hear as the “trump card” to Sgt Peppers.
I’d certainly include Alan Parsons’ I Robot in the list.
These are all older, but come to think of it I’d include Sgt. Pepper’s, Tommy, Ziggy Stardust, The 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus and A Passion Play as well. Again, these are more dated than those mentioned above.
I would too. As well as these other by various incarnations of the Alan Parsons Project:
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe)
Pyramid
Eve
Turn of a Friendly Card
Eye in the Sky
Vulture Culture
Gaudi
On Air
The Time Machine
Freudiana (this one is listed as Eric Woolfson, but it’s the Project all the way)
I’ll also second the recommendations for Savatage’s albums, particularly “The Wake of Magellan,” “Dead Winter Dead,” and “Poets and Madmen,” the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Beethoven’s Last Night” (which is essentially Savatage under a different name), and Alice Cooper’s “The Last Temptation,” “Brutal Planet,” and “Dragontown.”
What’s a concept album anyway? The Wall and Roger Waters’ solo albums definitely are, because every song is about the same subject. The Who’s Tommy is too. But The Dark Side of the Moon isn’t and OK Computer definitely isn’t, even though they vaguely keep a theme or motif running through the entire album. Kid A doesn’t even have that.
As for Sinatra’s concept albums, take a look at the tracklist for 1957’s Come Fly With Me:
- Come Fly With Me
- Around The World
- Isle Of Capri
- Moonlight In Vermont
- Autumn In New York
- On The Road To Mandalay
- Let’s Get Away From It All
- April In Paris
- London By Night
- Brazil
- Blue Hawaii
- It’s Nice To Go Trav’ling
I agree entirely and was even thinking of starting a thread about that. Why does music have to suck in order to not suck?
NIN’s The Downward Spiral is, Mr Reznor has said so himself.
A Passion Play is most definitely a concept album by your definition. There certainly is a specific storyline, check out this: Jethro Tull's album 'A Passion Play' annotated at the Ministry Of Information. In brief, the album follows the journey of a man recently deceased throughout his wanderings in the afterlife. And although you could argue that Thick as a Brick is merely a collection of songs strung together and connected by intrumental interludes and a common theme, I’d say the album cover clearly shows the “concept” of the album.