Concept Albums: Does Anyone Care About The Concept?

I like a lot of albums that are considered concept albums but for me it's never or at least rarely because of the concept, characters, story, etc. I like the feel or music and that it ties together in mood but when I actually look into some of them it's the most convoluted drugged out attempt at a story I've ever seen or a pretentious mess. I thought of this thread as I most recently tried to read about the last Stone Sour album. Now Stone Sour is a very easy band to figure out. They are very talented but they are simply a great rock band with great melodies and part of the the appeal is how straightforward their themes are. So when I started reading the gibberish of the concept of the double album i was like "What!?" Anyway, I still liked the music. This goes for albums from bands that do this more often like Rush and Pink Floyd. I like the music but not really into getting what they are about beyond that. Coheed and Cambria is a band I like a lot but their whole career is like one big comic book i don't want to invest in to figure them out. Are their those of you that have invested their time enough to straight out tell the stories and themes of their favorite concept albums? I'm really curious how many invest in them versus just listen to them!

To me as well, it's the music that matters in the end. An album can have a great story/concept but if the music doesn't appeal to me I will probably not enjoy listening to it.

Favourite concept albums:
Pink Floyd - The Wall
The Who - Quadrophenia
Green Day - American Idiot

I am a Pink Floyd fan, but I do not like any of Roger Waters's so-called concepts. They are just an excuse for him to whinge, especially The Wall. I cannot relate to Pete Townshend's concepts for Tommy and Quadrophenia, which are really his childhood and adolescence, but I cannot fault the music and performances. So, no, I don't really care.

Yes's concept albums are great, but Jon Anderson's lyrics are total gibberish. ELP's prescient Brain Salad Surgery, about man vs computers, works really well. Dave Greenslade's Pentateuch of the Cosmogony is an underrated concept album.

I am not very keen on the modern progressive rock concept albums (like Arjen Lucasson's work in Ayreon), but Trent Gardner's Leonardo, with James LaBrie, is quite interesting. LaBrie does some of his best singing on this album and Gardner is a very good keyboard player. Terry Brown was involved, which may explain why this album succeeds where others are failing.

Overall, I like concept albums without caring about the concept. I think they are an essential feature of progresive and heavy rock. I like musicals too.

I've just noticed Soot and I have both used the word gibberish in the context of concept albums.

Nowadays? not really.

Too many musicans pushing agendas.

Two of the best "concept albums" IMO are APP's Tales of Mystery and Imagination and The Turn of a Friendly Card.

I don't think either one are APP's best work. That title goes to iRobot. However, these two albums are probably the best examples of tight concepts that you can actually hear when you listen to the songs in order as they were meant to be heard.

For the most part, I don't pay any attention to a lyrical story. The only time a concept is important to me is when the flow of the music is the concept.

A good example of a beautiful musical concept would be Snow Goose by Camel. Totally instrumental but an album you must listen to from start to finish.


Coheed and Cambria have some good concept albums. Albums that run in a series.


I like metal music BECAUSE this genre has come up with awesome concepts to,the albums along with music that kicks ass.

Mastodon has a couple killer concept albums......meaning the music is fantastic.

Iron Maidens "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" is another good example.

Oh, and I can't forget Operation Mindcrime from Queensryche. Excellent concept album....

I've always liked the idea of the concept album. For me it defines the album as a single piece of work by the band/artist, rather than a bunch of tunes thrown together, although I accept some of them have been a bit suspect.

Magic said:

A good example of a beautiful musical concept would be Snow Goose by Camel. Totally instrumental but an album you must listen to from start to finish.

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Agreed. It helps to read the story too, even though Paul Gallico rejected the interpretation of his work.

If they are done properly