Concept Albums

Where are all the good concept albums these days?  One of the things I love most about music is how it can tell a story.  The lyrics are the basis for the story and the melody provides the raw emotion behind the story.  In many ways, its like poetry set to music and concept albums are like epic poems in the strain of Homer's Odyssey.

Concept albums are still being made, but they are not what I consider true "concept albums" or at least the kind I like.  Technically, an album that has any loose theme (whether it be in type of music, the story it tells, or the composition of the music), but the concept albums that I love have an clear overlying narrative theme.  The focus here is a clear theme, there are many that have a theme, but it is vague and not a true "narrative" in that it doesn't tell a story.  An example of that would be The Suburbs album by Arcade Fire.  The whole album is inspired by living in the suburbs (can their be a more bland concept than living in the suburbs?).


When I think of the great concept albums that I personally love, I think of Tommy, The Wall, Animals, The Odyssey, and Quadrophenia.  All of these had a story to tell, like a long poem and all told them effectively.  I don't see how any can be compared to Erotica by Madonna.


What would I blame if I could blame something?  itunes.  itunes was the beginning of the end for mainstream artists to make albums as albums and not an amalgamation of hit singles.  These days, artists want to make every song a hit because its not the album that sells, its the songs in it. Even indie bands like Arcade Fire have fallen prey to this a bit.  

One of the most popular concept albums in recent history was American Idiot. It is a nice album, but it flows like a bunch of singles put together.  It has the underlying story, but it is not clear.  I didn't even know it was a concept album the first several times I listened to it.  To me, the lyrics sound like one of their protest songs, not a song with a concept.  Even "We're not gonna take it" off of Tommy at least referenced the character Tommy.  While there isn't a bad song in American Idiot (or other recent concept albums) there isn't a definitive story I can get into.

On Tommy, tracks 10 and 11 have very little actual musical content.  They are good songs, but in total they combine to last for less than 2 minutes.  however, they sacrificed these small songs in order to tell the whole story of the awful things people did to take advantage of Tommy (here, the molesting uncle).  Tommy may be one of the greatest modern stories told entirely through song, and not every song is a single, in fact there are only a few out of the 24 songs that would be legitimate singles these days.  Its still one of the best albums in history.  

There are still some great concept albums out there.  Progressive Metal is one of the few areas where they are being kept alive.  With some great bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X, and Mastadon, concept albums are still alive.  However, they are alive like hip-hop.  NaS was part correct when he said "hop-hop is dead".  Hip hop is dying and its the fringe groups (experimental groups) that are keeping it alive.  The same can be said for the classic concept album.

There is one last concept album I want to touch on.  Its The Odyssey by Symphony X.  It is a retelling of The Odyssey through music and when listening, you can really feel the story.  I can only get 1/3 of it on any one youtube video.  Its bands like Symphony X who are keeping alive the concept album like this.  Symphony X has other, more recent concept albums but I have an affinity for The Odyssey.  To me, its fitting that they put a whole epic poem to song when I look at concept albums as the epic poem version of "musical poetry".