in no order

rift
animals
ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars
melon collie and the infinite sadness
joe's garage

7/13/2008 11:13:39 AM

domestica

7/13/2008 11:15:18 AM

is "Songs About Fucking" a concept album?

7/13/2008 11:24:03 AM

the ugly organ
umm..

7/13/2008 11:45:08 AM

Opeth - Myah
Dream Theater - SFAM
Porcupine Tree- Fear of a blank planet
Red Sparowes - Every heart shines towards the sun

7/13/2008 11:48:19 AM

i like "the ugly organ", but think "domestica" absolutely pwns it

7/13/2008 11:53:53 AM

i guess ghost reveries don't like having to albums from the same band though.

7/13/2008 12:07:14 PM

opeth - ghost reveries
between the buried and me - colors
smashing pumpkins - mellon collie
queen - a night at the opera (at least I view it as one)

and i cant decide on the last one

7/13/2008 12:14:05 PM

oh yeah.

colors.

7/13/2008 12:28:43 PM

just 5? pink floyd had 4 awesome concept albums. the final cut wasn't as great though

dark side of the moon
the wall
animals
wish you were here


sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band
the who sell out
pinkerton
the fragile
de-loused in the comatorium

[Edited on July 13, 2008 at 12:45 PM. Reason : .]

7/13/2008 12:45:04 PM

yea any of the mars volta albums were probably going to end up being my 5th one, probably deloused or bedlam

7/13/2008 12:46:28 PM

Pinkerton
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
SMiLE
Sgt. Peppers (almost don't even want to count this...)
Ziggy Stardust

If rock operas count I'd include Quadrophenia

7/13/2008 12:56:14 PM

someone define concept album.

7/13/2008 1:07:59 PM

album where all the songs are in some way connected.

a theme type thing, or an album that tells a story.

[Edited on July 13, 2008 at 1:13 PM. Reason : more or less]

7/13/2008 1:13:38 PM

Quote :

"If rock operas count I'd include Quadrophenia"

i'd count it

just for fun lets include a very broad definition of concept album is any album with a shared central theme or concept

if you wanna pick an album that most dont consider a copncept album explain why you think it is

7/13/2008 1:25:51 PM

Olivia Tremor Control- Black Foliage and Dusk at Cubist Castle

The Mountain Goats- The Sunset Tree (not totally sure it would fit as a concept album)

Bon Iver- For Emma (I think of it as a concept album but others will probably argue otherwise)

The Kinks- Village Green Preservation Society

Fleetwood Mac- Rumours

7/13/2008 1:51:47 PM

Midlake -- Trials of Van Occupanther

Pink Floyd -- Dark Side of the Moon

David Bowie -- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

The Pretty Things -- S.F. Sorrow

Sufjan Stevens -- Illinois and Michigan

Pink Floyd -- The Wall

The Beatles -- Sgt. Pepper

Radiohead -- Kid A and OK Computer

7/13/2008 2:21:05 PM

7/13/2008 2:22:04 PM

Pink Floyd -- Dark Side Of the Moon
Pink Floyd -- Wish You Were Here
Rush -- 2112
Alice in Chains -- Dirt
Johnny Cash -- At Folsom Prison

[Edited on July 13, 2008 at 2:31 PM. Reason : and reserving judgement on Motley Crue's "The Dirt" until I hear all of it.]

7/13/2008 2:28:53 PM

Quote :

"The Kinks- Village Green Preservation Society"

ftw

7/13/2008 3:11:50 PM

-excluding stuff already listed...

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Madvillain maybe

7/13/2008 5:15:18 PM

ziggy stardust
dark side
the wall
kid a
downward spiral

7/13/2008 5:27:45 PM

Quote :

"The Mountain Goats- The Sunset Tree (not totally sure it would fit as a concept album)"

If you had said some of his earlier albums, sure. But I don't think Sunset Tree counts, unless "stuff from the songwriter's own life" is a concept.

7/13/2008 6:18:50 PM

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime.
FUCKS
WITH
YOUR
HEAD.

7/13/2008 11:23:17 PM

is Kid A really a concept album? doesn't seem like it to me

7/13/2008 11:30:56 PM

Rick Ross - Port of Miami

Its all about hustlin, everyday

7/13/2008 11:33:58 PM

Quote :

"i like "the ugly organ", but think "domestica" absolutely pwns it"

i see your "domestica" and raise it a "burst and bloom".

7/13/2008 11:52:28 PM

Quote :

"is Kid A really a concept album? doesn't seem like it to me"

yeah, I agree... I think OK Computer is more of a concept album than Kid A

7/14/2008 12:03:18 AM

The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element, Part I
Blind Guardian - Nightfall In Middle Earth (if you consider it a concept album)
Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals
Fantomas - Director's Cut

7/14/2008 12:15:18 AM

haha yea i almost put that Blind Guardian one too but i dont think I like them enough to do that. I mean i own like 9 of their albums and I enjoy them and im a middle earth nerd fun album though.

7/14/2008 12:17:21 AM

Yeah; they're not my favorite power metal band, but that one is probably my favorite power metal album of all time.

7/14/2008 12:24:17 AM

Oh, and hiphop concept albums are relatively rare, but Mr. Lif's I Phantom is a really good one. That should probably be on my list, I listen to it more than the Fantomas album.

[Edited on July 14, 2008 at 12:28 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2008 12:27:37 AM

Oh i forgot Edge of sanity - Crimson II.

one of few cds i can listen to all the way through.

7/14/2008 1:32:59 AM

Ooh, now that's a good one.

If I was just making a list of my favorite death metal or black metal concept albums, others I would include are

Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness (another single-song album, like the first Crimson)
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale
Ophtalamia - Via Dolorosa
Summoning - Dol Guldur (I like Stronghold and Oath Bound much better, but don't think they qualify as concept albums)
Ihsahn - The Adversary (would this count? I'm not sure if it should)


A few others I thought of that are pretty good which no one's mentioned yet, maybe someone else would want them in their top 5:

Saviour Machine - Legend II (part of a 3-album concept about the book of Revelations, rock opera/goth metal style)
Isis - Oceanic
Mastodon - Leviathan
Sepultura - Dante XXI
Fear Factory - Demanufacture
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway ( )
Star One - Space Metal
Kamelot - The Black Halo

[Edited on July 14, 2008 at 2:41 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2008 2:30:49 AM

Quote :

"joe's garage"

friggin awesome choice. zappa rules, that album is funny as hell and it kicks ass

7/14/2008 3:04:52 AM

in no order

joe's garage
operation mindcrime
dark side of the moon
Thick as a Brick
Tommy

7/14/2008 3:18:58 AM

Quote :

""is Kid A really a concept album? doesn't seem like it to me""

Kid A is/has been rumored to be about the first human clone. That was supposedly the theme the band used, but I still struggled with putting it on the list. I debated about that pick much more so than OK Computer.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/start.html?pg=5

Quote :

"Kid A, Radiohead (2000) Allegedly about the first human clone. Future technologies may help us decipher the lyrics "

7/14/2008 9:03:14 AM

that's pretty silly. unless you can actually tell it's a concept album, i say it doesn't count.

7/14/2008 9:16:07 AM

pink floyd-animals
the lyrics definitely apply to our present day.

7/14/2008 9:21:13 AM

I can not believe no one listed Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime

[Edited on July 14, 2008 at 9:50 AM. Reason : 4^ just saw it ]

7/14/2008 9:49:38 AM

I'm not sure either applies, but Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star and Something/Anything feel like concept albums, although I'm not sure there's a narrative or anything. they certainly have streamlined "concepts" even if they aren't Joe's Garage

Also, without repeating everyone else's

American Idiot - Green Day
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy rocks - Elton John
Funeral and Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
The Love Below - Andre 3000/Outkast
We're Only in if For the Money and Freak Out! - Zappa/Mothers

7/14/2008 11:16:51 AM

genesis? wtf goddamnit.

7/14/2008 11:35:13 AM

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Ziltoid the Omniscient

7/14/2008 11:41:13 AM

Quote :

"Funeral and Neon Bible - Arcade Fire"

good call on Funeral being a concept album... but I don't think Neon Bible would count

7/14/2008 11:42:30 AM

along with Ziltoid, which has to be the greatest concept album of all time because it's about an evil alien looking for the perfect cup of coffee to fuel his space ship, Townsend wrote another called Crooked on Phonics that was about a death metal band selling out. Good stuff.

7/14/2008 11:46:45 AM

^^ Neon Bible counts as Dark Side counts.

they're topical and a theme runs throughout, but they aren't necessarily telling a specific story with characters and the like. songs have different topics but stay on target, so to say

Dark Side is about losing your mind, free will, and blah blah blah;
Neon Bible is about isolation and fear, as well as what we cling to as a result of such and the conflict between entertainment and religion and *fart* /reading-to-much-into-it

etc

but one I just remembered that I like better than any others I've listed

Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer?

7/14/2008 11:55:51 AM

yeah i couldn't pick a single mastodon cd so i left them off.

Emperor - Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise
is a pretty epic fucking cd about everyone's favorite greek titan

7/14/2008 1:01:33 PM

aside from many already mentioned, strange little girls--tori amos

7/14/2008 2:33:51 PM

Rush: 2112.
Rush: Hemispheres.
Utopia: Ra .

Every opera or oratorio ever written.

[Edited on July 14, 2008 at 6:47 PM. Reason : ..]

7/14/2008 6:46:09 PM

Quote :

"i like "the ugly organ", but think "domestica" absolutely pwns it"

7/14/2008 9:33:38 PM