Table of contents:
- 1.The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)
- 2. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
- 3. The Who - Tommy (1969)
- 4. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
- 5. Lou Reed - Berlin (1973)
- 6. David Tukhmanov - "In the wake of my memory" (1976)
- 7. Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979)
- 8. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads (1996)
- 9. Green Day - American Idiot (2004)
- 10. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (2006)
- 11. "Cops on Fire" - "Cops on Fire" (2009)
- 12. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012)
- 13. Oxxxymiron - "Gorgorod" (2015)
- 14.King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity (2016)
- 15. Sufian Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, James McAlister - Planetarium (2017)
2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
From The Beach Boys and The Beatles to My Chemical Romance and Kendrick Lamar.
Sometimes a concept album is a collection of songs united by a common idea and sound, and sometimes it is a full story about a fictional character within the created world. We have selected 15 different genre releases, the meaning of which is revealed only with careful listening from the first to the last track.
1. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)
What is the concept
The group became famous for their beach hits, and Pet Sounds is its bold attempt to get away from beaten moves. The plot takes shape here already at the level of track titles, and the disc itself is deeply saturated with adolescent and youthful reflection. Beginning with songs of dreams and hope, the album ends with regret and disappointment.
Pet Sounds is considered one of the first concept albums, songs in which were sharpened to each other even at the stage of creation. Paul McCartney admitted that it was after Pet Sounds that he got the idea for "Sergeant Pepper" - one of the most popular albums in the world.
How does it sound
For us - like quite classic The Beach Boys. For the band's contemporaries, it is like an album of yesterday's surf rockers and carefree party kings who suddenly became more complex and experimental. The most unexpected instruments are responsible for the fullness of the sound: from the theremin and organ to car horns and bicycle horns.
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2. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
What is the concept
All the songs on the album are performed not on behalf of The Beatles, but on behalf of the "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Orchestra" under the leadership of the fictional character Billy Shears.
By 1967, the Beatles had been stars in Great Britain for four years, and in the United States for three years, and the image of young men in suits with the same hairstyles, as expected, bored them. Therefore, Paul McCartney came up with an extravagant idea: to name the band by a different name, to change the image and sound in order to get rid of the hanging labels. So Sgt was born. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
For the shoot for the album cover, the musicians dressed in satin suits resembling military uniforms, and also let go of their mustaches and beards. The order of the songs also speaks of a completely different group: the album begins with the introduction of the team and its members.
Another bold decision - already at the sound level - is a complete rejection of pauses between tracks. Now this doesn't seem like anything unusual, but in the era of vinyl records, the listener was often confused, trying to find a groove with the right song.
How does it sound
In 1967, The Beatles were just beginning to experiment with sound and psychedelics, a trend that will reach its climax in a year in the famous "White Album".
The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles embody the full potential of Abbey Road Studios. For example, they slow down and speed up the tracks in songs to achieve certain effects, or use sitar with tampura in recording. And sometimes a whole symphony orchestra.
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3. The Who - Tommy (1969)
What is the concept
Tommy is a one-piece and deeply heartbreaking 75-minute story about the deaf-blind and dumb boy Tommy, as well as the world's first rock opera. The public did not immediately accept the album, but over time it became a classic of rock - it was performed by orchestras, films were made on it and musicals were staged.
The album takes place after the First World War. In the story, a certain Captain Walker goes missing, and soon his wife gives birth to their son Tommy. Four years later, Walker returns home and finds his wife's lover there: in the heat of conflict, he kills him right in front of the child.
The parents convince the boy that he has not seen, heard and should not speak to anyone, as a result of which the traumatized Tommy becomes blind, deaf and dumb. A long and thorny path from despair to enlightenment awaits the boy.
How does it sound
Like a real opera with refrains, characters and serious drama. All this is in the vestment of rock music that The Who and the sympathizers came up with in the 1960s.
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4. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
What is the concept
The disc is dedicated to the androgynous musician Ziggy Stardust and his accompanying Spiders from Mars. Stardust arrives on Earth to preach peace and love on a dying planet with the help of music.
David Bowie is a master of reincarnation, and his characters live not only within the framework of the album. During the Ziggy Stardust period, the artist asked to be called that way and supported the image, performing on stage in a strange futuristic costume reminiscent of the attire of actors in Japanese theaters.
How does it sound
Inhomogeneous: pop-choruses here are replaced by ballad inclusions, and rock-n-roll motives are replaced by hard rock riffs. In general, this is about the kind of music that we used to imagine when hearing the name of David Bowie.
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5. Lou Reed - Berlin (1973)
What is the concept
The most tragic love story in our collection. The heroes are Jim and Caroline, who met in a cafe near the Berlin Wall. The tenderness that has arisen between them collides with a harsh reality, social barriers and irreconcilable differences. And the ending of the story will be the suicide of one of the characters.
By the way, Berlin is not Lou Reed's only conceptual work. Two years after him, the musician released the album Metal Machine Music, which critics call the prototype of noise and industrial. According to many, these genres of music are impossible to listen to.
How does it sound
Like instrument-rich 1970s art rock with noir mood and a detached narrator as the narrator.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
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6. David Tukhmanov - "In the wake of my memory" (1976)
What is the concept
The music of this Soviet composer can be heard in the pop hits "The Last Train" and "My Address is the Soviet Union". “In the wake of my memory” is an attempt to create something larger and more integral.
Tukhmanov used peeped chips of Western musicians, combining academic sound with art-rock guitars and electronics. The pop sound was overlaid with classical poems by not the most obvious authors: Sappho, Baudelaire, Goethe and Voloshin.
The performers were already looking for ready-made songs - as a result, little-known talented Soviet vocalists became them, who got the opportunity to sing something truly unusual. They all agreed that the album was a revolution for its time: an unlikely sound is accompanied by deep and complex lyrics.
How does it sound
The famous graduate of Gnesinka combines complex classical music with new rhythms and proves that in the era of our parents, not only political hymns sounded from the speakers.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
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7. Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979)
What is the concept
The fictional character Pink Floyd talks about his alienation from society - a conditional wall that protects a person from other people. Pink cannot find himself neither in the family, nor at school, nor on stage, and as a result, he builds a barrier between himself and the world from loneliness and drugs. The latter, however, lead him to madness.
The plot of the album loops, and in the story of Floyd the listener recognizes the features of the leader of Pink Floyd Roger Waters. Three years after the release of the album, director Alan Parker will direct the film of the same name, which will become the best illustration for The Wall.
How does it sound
Like Pink Floyd in its most iconic form and with major business card hits like Comfortably Numb and Another Brick In The Wall, which was later sung at school demonstrations more than once.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
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8. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads (1996)
What is the concept
Nick Cave based the album on folk and author's ballads about love and death. As you might guess from the title, romantic stories here end in murder. And the lyrics tell about real criminals like pimp Shelton Lee who killed a competitor, about fictional grooms who killed their brides, and even about victims of gang rape seeking revenge.
How does it sound
Quite a hit - for this album, Cave was even nominated for an MTV award. And you most likely heard the Where the Wild Roses Grow with Kylie Minogue, even if you have never been fond of the artist's work. In general, Murder Ballads is a recognizable gothic new wave that has become the hallmark of Nick Cave.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
Play on Deezer →
9. Green Day - American Idiot (2004)
What is the concept
The story is dedicated to a certain Jesus from the suburbs - a confused guy living in relatively modern America. The listener will find several hackneyed plot twists about finding oneself through drugs, talking about the problems of American society and, of course, love lyrics: the main character loses his head when he meets a rebellious girl.
How does it sound
Album-collection of one hundred percent hits from the most popular pop-punks of the 2000s. You've definitely heard half of those songs: you've seen clips for some of them on MTV, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams may have even sung karaoke.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
Play on Deezer →
10. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (2006)
What is the concept
The main character - a certain Patient - dies of cancer. In anticipation of imminent death, he tries to imagine what awaits him, and recalls his life.
How does it sound
Like the saddest rock music that was played on MTV in the early 2000s. "Black Parade" with white-haired Gerard Way at the head is 14 sentimental songs, many of which touch after years and evoke nostalgia for youth.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
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11. "Cops on Fire" - "Cops on Fire" (2009)
What is the concept
Album-play: stories of cartoon policemen are told through hip-hop and theatrical performance. "Cops on Fire" has no release as such, many tracks from the show can be found only in the "VKontakte" group.
In the story, cop Kozulski, Black Cop, Jablonski and Pipi fight against a club of eight assassins led by Dzhigurdamoris. Hip-hop musical is no longer shown live, but you can find many fragments from performances on the Internet.
How does it sound
"Cops on Fire" is a funny old-school hip-hop that has never been learned to do in Russia. Very original, interesting and shameful.
Go to the "VKontakte" group →
12. Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M. A. A. D City (2012)
What is the concept
Album-autobiography of Kendrick Lamar about the criminal youth in Compton. There will be everything you expect to hear about life in the ghetto: theft, drugs and violent gang clashes.
How does it sound
This is actual hip-hop from one of the most notable musical figures of our time. The album put 25-year-old Kendrick Lamar on the map of big hip-hop in 2012, and if you love Alright and DNA, then it's just illegal not to get to know him.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
Play on Deezer →
13. Oxxxymiron - "Gorgorod" (2015)
What is the concept
Miron Fedorov immerses the listener in the dystopian events of the fictional Gorgorod. The writer Mark is faced with merciless love, cunning power and the choice between truth and life - everything as bequeathed by Zamyatin and Orwell, only a little less talented.
How does it sound
Oksimiron's second studio album is a rather mediocre musically, but lyrically interesting hip-hop story. And it sounds, finally, in the native language - in order to delve into the history, you don't have to sit with a dictionary.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
Play on Deezer →
14. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity (2016)
What is the concept
In an endless and cyclical plot: each of his nine songs flows into the next, and the last into the first. At the same time, the album is not something that you listen to in one breath - it looks like one long song with periodically repeating musical sketches.
How does it sound
Like a jaunty 40-minute guitar track. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are one of the main guitar rock bands of our time (at least from the Australian continent), and Nonagon Inginity is critically called one of the band's most important albums.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
Play on Deezer →
15. Sufian Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, James McAlister - Planetarium (2017)
What is the concept
In the musical interpretation of cosmic bodies, whatever that means. Four musicians tried to make sense of the solar system: singer Sufyan Stevens, guitarist of The National Bryce Desner, composer Nick Muhley and drummer James McAlister. Each track is dedicated to one of the cosmic bodies: you can imagine in advance how each of them should sound, and compare with what the team got.
How does it sound
In different ways: Venus reminds musicians of love, Mars - about armed conflicts, and Earth - about an impending environmental catastrophe. But whatever it is, each track is a successful combination of ambient instrumental landscapes and the sweet voice of Sufyan Stevens.
Listen on iTunes / Apple Music →
Play on Spotify →
Play on Deezer →
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