Recently been listening to the title track of Here Lies Love and was reminded that half my music taste is just concept albums.
What the heck is a concept album? Gonna go loose on this one and say if there’s any loose theme, idea or narrative that connects the music on an album (that isn’t just genre or common forms like ‘love songs’, ‘folk songs’, ‘ballads’, ‘instrumental music’ etc.).
Share some concept albums.
Here Lies Love - David Byrne/Fatboy Slim - Very poppy, mostly Disneyfied tragedy about Imelda Marcos and the woman who raised her Estrella Cumpas (she was a live-in caretaker for her family when both were quite young). Often a jarring gap between genre and content.
My Machine - Princess Superstar - Messy Sci-fi short about a woman who wants to become the only famous person on the planet through a mixture of cloning and murder. The idea is neat but occasionally buried in supplemental tracks. Told from the perspective of the woman’s distant ancestor during a far-future book report.
Gordon: Van Gogh - Alarm Will Sound - Van Gogh’s letters set to modern classical music. Sounds like what you’d expect but occasionally great vocal parts that come together and transcend the lyrics.
Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 - Probably doesn’t need much introduction. Galactic revolutionary Deltron has adventures in the 31st century. Stellar (lol) samples and production.
Colours - Ken Nordine - Advertising does something right and we get a fun jazz/spoken word album about colours. Come come big burgundy.
Civilization Phaze 3 - Frank Zappa - Zappa’s big opus. Probably one of my favourite albums. The central thesis is the formal role of humour in music but with immediate lashings of mortality and cynicism. Alternates between spoken word and instrumentals which eventually blur as all sound becomes one. Set in a giant piano in an Orwellian America.
England Made Me - Black Box Recorder - Highly depressing album about what it’s like to live in the hell that is England. Impressionistic narrative scenes about teenage pregnancy, mental illness, swinging, and English denial. Probably best known for its track that summarises growing up as CW: coming to terms with life being unfair, else you should commit suicide. Parts of this probably haven’t aged well but its sound is still instant despair.
Haunted - Poe - Musical companion to House of Leaves.
Whack World - Tierra Whack - 15 minute EP with 15 one-minute long tracks. Keeps to the rule pretty consistently which leads to some cool abrupt transitions times reflecting the idea of fickle flitting from thought to thought.
Plastic Anniversary - Matmos - All tracks were created with only plastic instruments or objects. That’s it.
Hawwah - Gain - EP taking on the biblical anthrogenesis from an eclectic Eve-centric perspective. Rare use of pipe organ throughout a pop track.
Latyrx - Latyrx - Probably not a full-on concept album but I still haven’t heard anything like this since (I may be overegging it). Plays with the idea of having two rappers simulcast on tracks in various ways. The title track literally has two separate voices play in each channel which occasionally sync up. This sets the stage for other playful tracks where winding raps cross-dissolve over each other or a backing beat is reworked with completely different lyrics and choruses midway. Each have plenty solo tracks but these experiments are what sticks with me. Search out the 8 Point Agenda EP for more.
Your Queen is a Reptile - Sons of Kemet - The British Queen is not legitimate. Jazz calling attention to great women. (The video is a mishmash from the album but summarises the concept well)
