While I wont try to argue that its "the best" concept album, I've personally been a huge fan of Giant Squid's work, particularly on The Ichthyologist.
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What is the best "Rock Opera/Concept Album?"
- Thread starter Senator Toadstool
- Start date
It's funny because some of that stuff was not fully realized within Waters himself (he had some obnoxious things to say about "those gosh darn feminists" around that time), but he was very conscious of his inner ugliness, and he really just let it all out and said "This is me! This is us! Look at how shit we are!" I find it endlessly fascinating, and the way The Wall actively antagonizes the listener is something I'm always down for.
And yeah, a lot of his work has only grown more and more relevant as time goes on. The Bravery of Being Out of Range is almost 30 years old and it could have been written last week and that's a travesty.
He likes to repurpose material for his live shows to make it better match current events, and every new tour needs to strain less and less to make that happen.
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking out footage from his 2010 tour. There's plenty of it on youtube, and it's bracing.
Definitely. It was developed as a theatrical concept with costumes and stage designs and everything.
All the obvious ones have all been mentioned, so how about The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free. The whole album is the story of a dude losing a grand in cash and trying to figure out wtf happened to it and his life kinda is falling apart. Pretty quality stuff
Amused to death is one of my all time favorite albums and I still listen to it frequently.
you have some impeccable taste.
Rebirth -> The Old Haunt features one of my favorite song transitions in music, IMHO. That riff, LOVE IT.
First thing's first, fuck the Wall.
Second thing's second, it might be Same Place the Fly Got Smashed by Guided by Voices. Somehow, actually cohesive. Dark, dreary, unknown alcoholics make a record about the same--including what might happen in the future, like getting the electric chair... 'we'll be swollen and infected but so what [...] bottomless hole, rock and roll, take me on a blatant doom trip...'
I'll admit that while Fuck the Wall, Dark Side's pretty good, like as a full listen. I forget what it was supposed to be about though, so maybe it's not the best.
Man, concept albums just don't work... either the concept suffers or the songs suffer, the latter being much worse...
Something by Genesis? I'll just go with Ziggy.
Second thing's second, it might be Same Place the Fly Got Smashed by Guided by Voices. Somehow, actually cohesive. Dark, dreary, unknown alcoholics make a record about the same--including what might happen in the future, like getting the electric chair... 'we'll be swollen and infected but so what [...] bottomless hole, rock and roll, take me on a blatant doom trip...'
I'll admit that while Fuck the Wall, Dark Side's pretty good, like as a full listen. I forget what it was supposed to be about though, so maybe it's not the best.
Man, concept albums just don't work... either the concept suffers or the songs suffer, the latter being much worse...
Something by Genesis? I'll just go with Ziggy.
While Jon Schaffer himself is obviously a piece of human shit and I can't support anything he says or does as a person at this point, Iced Earth's concept album "The Crucible of Man" is one of my absolute favorites out there. Great, edge lord-filled storytelling with some truly fantastic lyrics, guitar riffs, and atmosphere throughout. And it kicks of with one of my absolute favorite Latin Chanting tracks ever, straight into a fantastic, chugging second song.
Oh shit, man. If anything by Kate Bush counts then that. The Dreaming, Hounds of Love...
Joanna Newsom's Ys really SEEMS like it should be a concept album. Can you make a 5-song record with 10-20 minute orchestrated songs without it being so? No idea.
Joanna Newsom's Ys really SEEMS like it should be a concept album. Can you make a 5-song record with 10-20 minute orchestrated songs without it being so? No idea.
Ctrl F Avantasia
What the fuck guys. Y'all need to go check out Moonglow and Ghostlights like right the fuck now.
What the fuck guys. Y'all need to go check out Moonglow and Ghostlights like right the fuck now.
Yes! "The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday." They should put together an official album of that (Phish).
Is u/goldenrod (maybe goldenroad) here lol?
"Kentucky", by the one-man Black Metal project Panopticon: https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/album/kentucky
An album about the effects of coal mining in Kentucky in the early 20th century, complete with bluegrass passages and news recording interspersed among the music. Absolutely stellar and probably my favourite concept album of all time.
An album about the effects of coal mining in Kentucky in the early 20th century, complete with bluegrass passages and news recording interspersed among the music. Absolutely stellar and probably my favourite concept album of all time.
Definitely Operation Mindcrime for me. My dad worked at the label so I was forced to listen to it all the time as a kid when it came out and later in life my dad gave me a copy when he knew I'd appreciate it, and, boy, was he ever spot on. It's such a great album. (It's a shame nothing they did after that really measured up.)
I love Quadrophenia, but yeah. Best concept album is The ArchAndroid.
Killroy Was Here
But seriously its David Comes to Life by Fucked Up.
Also the Amory Wars is cool now, some of it was all over the place but the last Coheed album is fantastic.
Are The Dear Hunter albums concept albums? I never bothered to find out but I love their work.
Queen II is also the shit. One of my favorite albums.
But seriously its David Comes to Life by Fucked Up.
Also the Amory Wars is cool now, some of it was all over the place but the last Coheed album is fantastic.
Are The Dear Hunter albums concept albums? I never bothered to find out but I love their work.
Queen II is also the shit. One of my favorite albums.
Ah a fellow Avantasia fan!
I love all their albums. The Mystery of Time and The Scarecrow are also fantastic.
I still play the Moonglow album in it's entirety. I rarely do that.
Tobias doesn't age and neither does the music.
I was going to say the human equation for ayreon. I love the idea of all the different voices being different emotions/sides of a personality.
The first album that came to mind was "The Who Sell Out", which I'm glad to see was mentioned. There are great acid-rock tracks plus promotional radio spots spliced between tracks but the pirate radio gimmick peters out in the 2nd half plus some track are standard slice-of-life rockers common for the late 60s.
Another of my favorite concept albums is "Something/Anything?" by Todd Rundgren. It's a double-LP with each side having a unique style (side A with torch songs, B with experimental tracks, C with traditional rockers, and D with bleary-eyed sing-a-longs recorded with a live band. His follow-up "A Wizard, A True Star" is a more cohesive double-LP filled with experimental and expert studio produced rock and pop (including a fun McCartney-inspired multi-track pop symphony in side A).
Another of my favorite concept albums is "Something/Anything?" by Todd Rundgren. It's a double-LP with each side having a unique style (side A with torch songs, B with experimental tracks, C with traditional rockers, and D with bleary-eyed sing-a-longs recorded with a live band. His follow-up "A Wizard, A True Star" is a more cohesive double-LP filled with experimental and expert studio produced rock and pop (including a fun McCartney-inspired multi-track pop symphony in side A).
Fear Factory - oBSΩLE+e (Obsolete)
An industrial death metal opera. The liner notes were the setups for each song and how it worked into the plot.
Also known for the bonus track which is Fear Factory covering Cars.
An industrial death metal opera. The liner notes were the setups for each song and how it worked into the plot.
Also known for the bonus track which is Fear Factory covering Cars.
Not going to say its the best ever but David Comes to Life by Fucked Up is a good concept album that's basically The Who by way of punk.
Coheed an Cambria's main discography is fucking great. My favorite must be In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3, but I also love No World for Tomorrow.
Thrice's Alchemy Index albums are great. I'm a particular fan of Fire/Water, but they're all good.
Tesseract has some good shit, too. Skyharbor too, in a similar vein.
YES! The Dear Hunter is fantastic. All of the Acts albums are excellent listens and I can't recommend them enough. Act II and Act V are my favorites, I can listen to them for days.
Yep! They are excellent.
It's very good. Back to back bangers!
Thrice's Alchemy Index albums are great. I'm a particular fan of Fire/Water, but they're all good.
Tesseract has some good shit, too. Skyharbor too, in a similar vein.
YES! The Dear Hunter is fantastic. All of the Acts albums are excellent listens and I can't recommend them enough. Act II and Act V are my favorites, I can listen to them for days.
Yep! They are excellent.
It's very good. Back to back bangers!
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Thank god there are still some people who know Avantasia. I still remember how The Metal Opera blew my 17 year old brain when it came out.
Didn't expect to see this one get mentioned in this thread, so I'm happily surprised.
I loved that album. My teenage self spent so many hours listening to it in the early morning while delivering newspapers.
Concept albums (that I know of at least) are usually quite the epics. This one is so wonderfully, audaciously ordinary in comparison.
Coheed and Cambria: Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
I went through a rock opera phase when I was a teenager, I was fascinated by the concept. I always felt like Tommy was just an easier to "get" album than Quadrophenia. It felt more accessible, even if in retrospect it was pretty sloppy as a story. I think the songs were just stronger, I could sing you back so many of the songs from Tommy but the only one I remember from Quadrophenia is Love Reign O'er Me (a banger to be sure, but the rest of the album felt a little too prog-rock for what I wanted from The Who).
Love Reign O'er Me is a banger though, I should give this another listen/watch the movie sometime.
Holy shit, I forgot about this one. I don't remember the plot but the album was damn good musically. Weirdly enough I found the title track thanks to a very small Nintendo podcast that was active when the Wii was coming out (one of the hosts made a parody of it, I forget the context).
The Black Parade by MCR was better than I expected. Not usually a huge fan of the band, but their decision to make a classic rock inspired rock opera after what their first two albums sounded like was the right kind of weird creative decision to get me hooked I guess. I don't know if there's a bad track on the album. Don't remember much of the story though, but it definitely had one.
Was hoping someone else would bring up The Protomen. What a concept for a band, it's amazing it works as well as it does lmao
Was hoping someone else would bring up The Protomen. What a concept for a band, it's amazing it works as well as it does lmao
1) Yup, a single storyline from Act I to Act V, from the life of protagonist's mother to the protagonist's death after taking out his nemesis with plenty of heartbreak throughout.
2) Indeed. It's fucking brilliant.
The Wall by Pink Floyd. No contest.
I feel that is a very overlooked by alot of people. Styx has had loose concept albums before with The Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight and Paradise Theater. But none had an Overarching plot like Kirby Was Here.
In the end what held it back was the lack of more solid rock tracks plus the theatrical live show and Tommy Shaw's addiction issues at the time.
I feel that is a very overlooked by alot of people. Styx has had loose concept albums before with The Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight and Paradise Theater. But none had an Overarching plot like Kirby Was Here.
In the end what held it back was the lack of more solid rock tracks plus the theatrical live show and Tommy Shaw's addiction issues at the time.
ziggy stardust
downward spiral as a somewhat distant second
i think the wall is good too, though i listened to it too much in high school and got burned out
downward spiral as a somewhat distant second
i think the wall is good too, though i listened to it too much in high school and got burned out
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis. An acid western inspired weird ass album about a puetro rican boy in NYC looking for his brother. Peter Gabriel's peak of creativity in the band. The songs are all timeless and still hold up.
Favorite songs: Back in NYC, Colony of Slippermen
I'm with you. Nothing against TDS, but The Fragile takes it for me.
eta: ^ yeah, 2112 is crazy.
Nice another Lif fan! I used to work with his buddy Akrobatik haha
My vote would go for:
It's a Moby Dick concept album
I love this album but I think The Afterman edges it out. Probably not fair given that it's technically two albums, but the concept spans across them.
Good pick. I'd add another Mastodon classic - Crack The Skye as well: Time traveling paraplegic kid goes back in time to save Rasputin from assassination using his astral body.
Quoting for more visibility. "Back in NYC" is also my fav. This album is fantastic and while I don't want to say that listening to an album is of moral imperative... you should listen to this album.
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis. An acid western inspired weird ass album about a puetro rican boy in NYC looking for his brother. Peter Gabriel's peak of creativity in the band. The songs are all timeless and still hold up.
Favorite songs: Back in NYC, Colony of Slippermen
