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Thread: Narrative Concept Albums

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    Question Narrative Concept Albums

    I recently started listening to Bowie’s Outside and I’ve really fallen in love with it. But it’s an album I’ve put off for a long time because I’ve never really gotten into albums with a narrative and characters and complicated plots. I’ve never seen the necessity of it. So I’m enjoying this album from a musical perspective and kind of putting my own interpretation to the lyrics rather than analyzing what it means for the characters and wondering what happens next. I’ve got pretty much the same opinion and stuff like Coheed & Cambria and Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

    I’m curious about your opinions of those kinds of heavily narrative-driven concept albums. Do you relate? Disagree? Have any favorites or ones you are critical of?


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    There's concept albums, and then there's rock operas. Just as an example, Dark Side Of The Moon is a concept album, while The Wall is a rock opera.

    Sometimes there are ones that kind of meet in the middle.

    There is one criticism I lay towards the narrative-type stuff is any that have a lot of filler to just move the plot. The Who's Tommy is a classic but half of it is under two minutes, with half still even under a minute or 30 seconds. Quadrophenia is better in this regard as it is almost entirely made up of songs and strong instrumental pieces.

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    One of my favorites is The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists. I think it is the most successful in terms of being able to understand without any supplemental materiel. It's almost like watching a play, with different singers playing the different characters and each having their own type of instrumentation and motifs. They actually manage to pull off having characters in a scene without them speaking, entirely through the use of musical cues. It's pretty incredible. Adding to that, the entire album is essentially a single song with no clear distinction between tracks, and it pulls that off much better than the vast majority of albums that try. It's worth absolutely worth a listen if you like folk rock, or fairytales.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ghostaustin View Post
    I recently started listening to Bowie’s Outside and I’ve really fallen in love with it. But it’s an album I’ve put off for a long time because I’ve never really gotten into albums with a narrative and characters and complicated plots. I’ve never seen the necessity of it. So I’m enjoying this album from a musical perspective and kind of putting my own interpretation to the lyrics rather than analyzing what it means for the characters and wondering what happens next. I’ve got pretty much the same opinion and stuff like Coheed & Cambria and Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

    I’m curious about your opinions of those kinds of heavily narrative-driven concept albums. Do you relate? Disagree? Have any favorites or ones you are critical of?

    I LOVE Outside, however I am a bit ambivalent towards the interludes, so I just enjoy the songs without focussing on the narrative really

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    Not a whole album, but the second side of King Crimson's Lizard dips its toe into the water of narrative with characters like Prince Rupert and his, ahem, peacock.

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    hand.cannot.erase by Steven Wilson is the only contemporary concept album that I can think of that actually grabbed me. Yet I don't know if I only like it as such because I had the chance to interview the man himself on several occasions or if it was the live interpretation that stuck with me. But I have to confess that I indeed fall victim to the modern way of listening to music by chunks instead of the whole piece which happens rarely these days.

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    Another half-album narrative... this video really enhances it:


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    Quote Originally Posted by onthewall2983 View Post
    There's concept albums, and then there's rock operas. Just as an example, Dark Side Of The Moon is a concept album, while The Wall is a rock opera.

    Sometimes there are ones that kind of meet in the middle.

    There is one criticism I lay towards the narrative-type stuff is any that have a lot of filler to just move the plot. The Who's Tommy is a classic but half of it is under two minutes, with half still even under a minute or 30 seconds. Quadrophenia is better in this regard as it is almost entirely made up of songs and strong instrumental pieces.
    As in any good film, it's great if it's done well and flows with the rest of the piece, and is not like a plain exposition dialogue. Of course with sound, you can't have worldbuilding in the background, all that. So that's even harder.

    But it's there to move the plot, it's not filler. What is it with people talking of filler all the time ? There's a reason it's there, ESPECIALLY in a concept album, where it's not there to fill something it's the core of the narrative. I can understand talking of "filler" in a pop album but anywhere close to a real concept it makes no sense and is just condescending.

    A simple segue with just dialogue is pretty weird though, except when it's brought well, I agree with that. But if it's something as great as "On The Run" (which is not a segue but is the best non-segue segue ever made) on Dark Side Of The Moon, god yes bring it on.
    Last edited by StockAvuryah; 05-26-2018 at 04:59 AM.

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    For all of this stuff on narrative concept albums, I'm not surprised that no one has mentioned one of the worst of these albums in the form of Styx's Kilroy was Here which circled around a man disguised as a robot in a dystopian world where censorship runs rampant. I'm convinced that the reason the album was made is because Dennis DeYoung probably went to see The Wall live and thought "if they can pull this off, so can I and I have a great idea!" It wasn't. Aside from "Mr. Roboto", the whole album just stunk and it broke the band up. All Tommy Shaw and James "J.Y." Young wanted to do was just play rock n' roll and get people to have fun. Not do these lame concepts.

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    Throwing in some Hip Hop stuff: There's "I Phantom" by rapper Mr. Lif.



    To quote wikipedia: I Phantom is a concept album described as "an exploration of the dynamics of everyday life, and the pursuit of our dreams, in a rapidly decaying society." The narrative begins with death and resurrection and ends with nuclear holocaust.

    It's mostly produced by EL-P and it's great. Take a listen on Bandcamp.

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    The lamb lies down on Broadway is fantastic. One of my favorite albums of all time. The story is prevalent throughout. Theres highs and lows, a few ambient songs but mostly it just rocks. Incredible attention spent on sequencing and flow. A true artistic achievement.

    I like most of roger waters "the pros and cons of hitchhiking". You can definitely hear that it was written around same time as the wall. Some similar melodies, like I hear "mother" from the wall all over it.

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    Blind Guardian -- Nightfall In Middle-Earth // The Silmarillion
    Dream Theater -- Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory // past life regression
    The Protomen -- Self-Titled (Act I); Act II: The Father Of Death // the fucking Mega Man universe!
    Last edited by Jon; 05-27-2018 at 10:08 PM. Reason: BG

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    Among my favorite albums ever are Frances the Mute, Deloused in the Comatorium, The Downward Spiral, Mechanical Animals, and The Wall so... I guess I could take or leave the whole concept album thing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Harry Seaward View Post
    Among my favorite albums ever are Frances the Mute, Deloused in the Comatorium, The Downward Spiral, Mechanical Animals, and The Wall so... I guess I could take or leave the whole concept album thing.
    I love TMV and Manson, but I guess I forgot that most of their output are supposed to be concept albums!

    I guess the only time I really got into the narrative of an album was Year Zero, but that wasn't strictly about the music, I would come here every day and see what new clues were unearthed.

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    Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid M.A.A.D City

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    Speaking of Bowie, of course Ziggy Stardust is one of the greatest narrative concept albums ever!

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