Best Concept Albums?

[Stay Seeking]

Rage Against The Machine - Self Title (1992)

 

[Mr Rager]

The confines of what a concept album is should be clarified for this topic to be better

An album with either a theme (musical or lyrical), or that tells a story

Example: Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope is a concept album, because it has a musical theme (pretty much same instrumentation throughout the album)

 

[Ian1362]

 

[Brozay]

Pink Floyd - Animals

 

[notPsychosiz]

Sporty Thievz - Street Cinema

 

[abominable1]

Queensryche operation: mindcrime

 

[ExcellentNegro]

 

[Ghost Like Swayze]

 

[Pesci]

Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull
Metropolis Pt. 2 by Dream Theater
Crack the Skye by Mastodon
Still Life by Opeth

 

[Pesci]

Out of curiosity what do you consider a "concept album"?

Something with an overarching theme/topic? Or can it be something that has more to it than music?
Like, my friend recently showed me ODDSAC by Animal Collective, and that was great.
And while Because the Internet wasn't super great, the script that went along with it was a cool idea.

It has to have some kind of unifying story or lore. Individual tracks are like chapters in a book.

An album full of love songs is not a concept album, for example, even if the overall theme is love.

 

[blackdahlia]

Wax Tailor - Dusty Rainbow from the Dark

 

[Spliff]

No mention of Here, My Dear?

The vocals, instrumentals, emotional stages of divorce/seperation and gettin dragged through the mud from beginning to end.

Timeless classic all men can relate to. Marvin Gaye was on one in the 70s

 

[eerieBell]

I don't think concept album is just thematically driven, it's more about story than overall theme. There are plenty of cohesive albums but that doesn't automatically make them concept albums. It needs to have a progressing story in order to be a concept of any kind (unless you see cohesiveness as some sort of concept, but I don't, then it's just a regular album to me).

A Prince Among Thieves is a good example of a concept album, as well as Street's A Grand Don't Come for Free, Big Moe's City of Syrup, Cold 187 um's The Only Solution, Violent J's Wizard of the Hood, Digital Underground's Sex Packets, Parliament/Funkadelic's Dope Dogs, or any of three Brotha Lynch concept albums (Dinner and a Movie, Coathanga Strangla, Mannibalectror - and they're all related mutually as well).

 

[Black Cac]

Wax Tailor - Dusty Rainbow from the Dark

I honestly dont think its possible for Wax Tailor to make a bad album

 

[mr x]

Pink Floyd - Animals

Big man, pig..ha haaa, charade you are.


Concept albums is where hip hop really shines. They get to fully dwelve into great narratives through the nature of verses being more intricate than other genres.