Author Topic: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?  (Read 928 times)

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Offline Elite

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(What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« on: February 27, 2021, 01:37:04 PM »
Inspired directly by WildRanger's thread on top 3 concept albums;

What is the appeal (to you) of a concept record? You can of course apply the term loosely, like an album that actually tells a story, or a more thematic album.


For me personally, I find I can enjoy the music on an album more when it's connected in some way; whether that's by artistic vision, having an overall theme or concept or a story that's woven through the songs. That said, in some (many?) ways, actually having a 'story' can actually hinder me from liking it, especially when it's boring, bland, cheesy or *name other adjective*, or simply there for the sake of being there. I need to be able to connect to the music or the story as well if I want to really enjoy what the artist is going for, and if the story is simply uninteresting yet so much a part of the record, that can definitely bring it down for me as well.
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Offline bluefox4000

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2021, 01:42:16 PM »
To be honest i rarely pay attention to the stories of these concept albums......it's just purely do i enjoy the music with me.

Offline HOF

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2021, 02:28:16 PM »
When done well, a concept album can really engage you for the whole album and take you on a journey in a way that sometimes a collection of individual songs might not. When done poorly though, concept albums can get bloated with passages that aren’t musically or lyrically interesting and only serve to explain or move the story along. They can also get a little cheesy at times if you aren’t careful.

I tend to prefer thematic albums to albums that tell a more explicit narrative story. I just think there’s a little more art to that type of approach. That said, two of my top three concept albums that I listed have a good bit of story narrative (Brave and Snow).

Offline Ben_Jamin

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2021, 02:38:32 PM »
Concept Albums don't really affect my enjoyment of music. What they do though is enhance the experience of the music, as it adds more, color and character to the overall album. An album to me, is just a collection of songs a musician felt like sharing with the world.

And a Concept Album, done through a story or connected by a theme (be it lyrically only or music only), are ones that I tend to like a lot. Mainly because I like stories too, and these concept albums are like reading story books, and putting that into music form.

I can imagine the setting, the characters, and even see them acting out the lyrics. Each Concept Album by a band, I treat as how an Author writes a story. Each Author has their own way of telling the story, and uses their own style. So I don't see there is a definitive way a concept album should be done, the same way there isn't a definitive way how a book should be written or told. Each one has their own uniqueness. Some concept albums are told bluntly, like a comic strip, or through-out many albums like a book series. Those, to me, would be Thematic Concept Albums like Octavarium and Narrative (Rock Opera) concept albums like Coheed and Cambria, Ayreon, Avantasia.

Casualties of Cool is a great concept album that is done great. It perfectly describes the mood of an isolation in space vibe, with the stripped down use of instruments, sound and tone choices, like the acoustic guitar, the spacey delay reverb of the entire album, and the distorted speaker box vocals of Che'...Each production choice was used for the concept and I think was done perfectly.

Ayreon Transitus is another one, Although, Devin did kind of the same thing with Z², Arjen did a good job with Horror Story Radio Show vibe. Devin did it more with the Comedy Radio Show, even including the cheesy voice acting to go along with it "Turns out Captain Spectacular is in fact...Ziltoids Half Brother"  :lol :lol

The Astonishing I really enjoy too because it is done like I am watching a Movie, but listening to the audio only. The story is there and it's good, and it was great seeing it live. I think that it would have been better to do what JP wanted to do, play it live first then release it later, like a movie. The tour would've been the movie premiere in the theaters and the album would've been the dvd, or in this case, the cd we could listen to at home. I think it's cool that we got a book as well, as they say, there are more things the book has that the movie doesn't.
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Offline Buddyhunter1

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2021, 03:10:07 PM »
Even if the concept itself isn't too interesting, I find that writing a concept album forces the artist to craft the album in a more wholistic manner, rather than just a collection of songs. And that's usually a good thing for me.
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Offline Peter Mc

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2021, 05:05:38 PM »
Was going to say something similar.  It seems to me that doing a concept album forces an artist to focus on the whole album as it all has to work together.  I don’t care too much about the story although it’s kind of a novelty to follow along first time through.  They are not usually great works of literature but it seems that a concept album often produces an artists best work.  Not so much with bands who do tons of concept albums but bands like Dream Theater, Queensryche and others who don’t do them very often seem to go all out to make a special album when they do.

Offline SoundscapeMN

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2021, 06:59:46 PM »
when done well or to my taste, it's kind of an escapist experience.

Concept albums can really bring out imagination and creativity.

A great story is a great story; and when in the right mood, music with a theme can be more engaging.

Also when done well avoiding cheese, Theatrical music has a lot to appreciate. Granted, the Rock Operas per say that the vocals and lyrics are sung as DIALOGUE often do not work at all to me. There have been many cases of albums where the story itself is potentially cool, and some of the music also works, but the vocals end up coming across as listening to an awful MELODRAMATIC PLAY that just does not work at all.

Offline ThatOneGuy2112

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2021, 07:59:01 PM »
.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2023, 01:45:03 PM by ThatOneGuy2112 »

Offline Stadler

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2021, 08:56:16 PM »
I think Soundscape has it pretty right.  I'm a nuggets guy, too, so that helps.  It makes ME focus on the work as well.

Offline lonestar

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2021, 11:13:57 PM »
This.....



Offline Cool Chris

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2021, 11:22:30 PM »
Even if the concept itself isn't too interesting, I find that writing a concept album forces the artist to craft the album in a more wholistic manner, rather than just a collection of songs.

Question, and not directed at you, because I appreciate your point... is it possible that as an artist strives to "craft the album in a more wholistic manner" they sacrifice a level of quality in writing the individual songs in order to achieve the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts?"
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Offline wolfking

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2021, 03:51:52 AM »
One of my biggest loves of concept albums are ones that recycle themes a lot.  The Crimson Idol is a perfect example of this.  I love concept albums that simply tell a story through a collection of songs but reusing themes and melodies really tie things together for me that makes me enjoy them more usually.
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Offline WildRanger

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2021, 04:15:39 AM »
It takes a much more EFFORT to write/compose a concept album than ordinary album (collection of individual songs) .


Offline Lowdz

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2021, 05:06:34 AM »
It takes a much more EFFORT to write/compose a concept album than ordinary album (collection of individual songs) .

This.
And I’m an album guy so listening to an album all the way through and not just the hits” is usual for me.

Offline MirrorMask

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2021, 05:07:19 AM »
I should copy and paste selected passages from people that have already posted, since here and there you can find the stuff I would say.

First of all, for me music already is a DEEP passion and not mere entertainment, for some people it's just background stuff and they're happy with whatever the radio passes, for me it's not like that, I live and breathe music and I'm always connecting to the stuff I like on a deep level. I'm not afraid of being "challenged" so to speak, I like - beside the genre - deep stuff, paying attention to the lyrics, to the mood of a song. Concept albums tell a story and it's fun, on top of the music, to dive into the story, to figure out recurring musical themes and all of that stuff.

It's an enhance experience basically, the music is already there, if you want to pay attention, there's also a story to follow, it's more entertainment for the same price.
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Offline kirksnosehair

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #15 on: February 28, 2021, 05:34:20 AM »
As a musician I enjoy the challenge of creating something from nothing.  My group's debut album started off as a non-concept album but my writing partner who handles the lyrics made it into a loose concept album.  I still consider it to be more of a themed album than a concept.  Our next album, due this summer (hopefully) is a full-on concept album.  Both the music and the lyrics were written from scratch with the full intention of it becoming a concept album and it was probably the most satisfying period of writing I've ever experienced.  There is just something really cool about it all coming together to form a continuous story both lyrically and musically. 


As a listener I think my status as a composer has a lot to do with my enjoyment of concept albums because I know -first hand- what kind of effort goes into making a good one.  So I guess for me it's an appreciation of the work.

Offline jingle.boy

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #16 on: February 28, 2021, 06:26:32 AM »
A lot of great comments here - especially MirrorMasks.  I too have a deep passion for music (listening).  Virtually everything I do is with a speaker nearby, or buds in my ears.  Chores, working out, cooking, driving, errands, shower, reading (usually instrumental music at that point).  Pretty much the only time I'm not listening to music is when I'm conversing with others.  Couple this with the fact that I'm a full-album listener for the most part, when I get a good concept (story, arc, characters, emotions etc...), it's pure bliss.
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Offline DTA

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #17 on: February 28, 2021, 07:52:45 AM »
I love repeated themes (within reason) and having certain rhythmic or melodic cues scattered throughout an album that connect all the songs. Scenes From A Memory is probably my favorite concept album and I love the callbacks to the original Metropolis and all the re-occuring bits woven through. DT also did this in Awake (The Mirror/SDV/Lie, Erotomania/TSM) and I&W (WFS/LTL) and even though those are pretty brief, it just makes everything feel so much more thought out. The Great Adventure however does this way too much and it becomes a nuisance when overused.

Offline wolfking

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #18 on: February 28, 2021, 01:27:15 PM »
I love repeated themes (within reason) and having certain rhythmic or melodic cues scattered throughout an album that connect all the songs. Scenes From A Memory is probably my favorite concept album and I love the callbacks to the original Metropolis and all the re-occuring bits woven through. DT also did this in Awake (The Mirror/SDV/Lie, Erotomania/TSM) and I&W (WFS/LTL) and even though those are pretty brief, it just makes everything feel so much more thought out. The Great Adventure however does this way too much and it becomes a nuisance when overused.

I always wished SFAM did a bit more in the repeating themes thing truthfully.
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Offline DTA

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #19 on: February 28, 2021, 02:01:54 PM »
I love repeated themes (within reason) and having certain rhythmic or melodic cues scattered throughout an album that connect all the songs. Scenes From A Memory is probably my favorite concept album and I love the callbacks to the original Metropolis and all the re-occuring bits woven through. DT also did this in Awake (The Mirror/SDV/Lie, Erotomania/TSM) and I&W (WFS/LTL) and even though those are pretty brief, it just makes everything feel so much more thought out. The Great Adventure however does this way too much and it becomes a nuisance when overused.

I always wished SFAM did a bit more in the repeating themes thing truthfully.

Yeah it definitely repeated more themes from Metropolis 1 than itself. But it’s so well done that it feels very interconnected while also giving each song a pretty unique identity.

Offline Kotowboy

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #20 on: February 28, 2021, 02:12:33 PM »
To me - an album should be a complete body of work. It should sound consistent and sonically the same from beginning to end.

If it has a theme and a flow that helps too.

Some albums are just " Here's the best 10 songs we recorded last year - sequenced in any old order ".

Offline emtee

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #21 on: February 28, 2021, 02:29:20 PM »
I'm the odd duck in regards to concept albums in that I never really dig into the story. It's all about the music for me.

Offline Cool Chris

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #22 on: February 28, 2021, 09:27:33 PM »
To me - an album should be a complete body of work. It should sound consistent and sonically the same from beginning to end.

Good assessment I think most of us can agree with. Concept albums just are not the only, or even necessarily best, way to achieve this. As you said...

Some albums are just " Here's the best 10 songs we recorded last year - sequenced in any old order ".

And by doing so you can end up with Images and Words, or Led Zeppelin IV or Thriller. (though I would imagine thought went in to the order of the tracks of those albums).
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Offline Elite

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #23 on: March 01, 2021, 03:40:09 AM »
Even if the concept itself isn't too interesting, I find that writing a concept album forces the artist to craft the album in a more wholistic manner, rather than just a collection of songs. And that's usually a good thing for me.

I agree with this sentiment, but I don't think 'having a concept' is the only way to do this. You can craft an album containing different songs all from the same inspiration, that's still a wholistic thing, but not a concept album. A band like Ulver or Radiohead comes to mind here; all their albums sound different, yet all of them are a sum of their parts, and most of them don't have an overarching 'concept'. They can be connected thematically or sonically as well.


It takes a much more EFFORT to write/compose a concept album than ordinary album (collection of individual songs) .

No, it doesn't. What if I would write an ordinary album and then just connect them lyrically and claim it's a concept album? What about concept albums that are literally a collection of songs? This statement makes no sense.


I'm the odd duck in regards to concept albums in that I never really dig into the story. It's all about the music for me.

This is me mostly, unless the story is put forward in such an annoying way (because it's bland or boring, or something else) that it stops me from enjoying the music. Pink Floyd's The Wall does this in some ways; for the majority of its runtime, I enjoy it a lot, but there's parts of it I find annoying for various reasons.
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Offline Kotowboy

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Re: (What's the appeal of) Concept Albums?
« Reply #24 on: March 01, 2021, 04:19:36 AM »
I love Green Day but I couldn't care less about the "story" of American Idiot.