concept albums

last night i was reading Jim Matheos' interview (guitarist, lyricist, composer, mastermind, Fates Warning/OSI) in Greek Metal Hammer magazine and the last question was why every prog band must have at least one concept album (he was refering to A Pleasant Shade Of Gray)... and Jim answered: "cause we, prog musicians, are pretentious, pompous, egomaniacs..." !!!!???!!!??!!!

now, the interview was of course translated in Greek so i re-translated in English so i can't be sure about the exact words of his but that was pretty much his point..

and it wasn't mentioned whether he was smiling or being dead serious, so....

anyway, i thought it would be sth to discuss...

if you ask me, i love concept albums, i think that it's sth really difficult to achieve and even if i don't like the album very much, i admire the musicians they worked on it... "A Pleasant Shade Of Gray", "Dead Winter Dead", "Operation: Mindcrime" and so many more are fav LPs of mine..

as far as Matheos' opinion is concerned, i'm pretty sure that many bands think of creating a concept album being inspired by former masterpieces but i believe they approach the idea with great respect and really work their a**es off for releasing it properly...

however, such effort demands talent, inspiration, patience and not all can do it..to my recollection, i can't remember of any ridiculous, unworthy released prog concept...

anyway, what do you think?
    
    

Edited by toolis - December 13 2006 at 01:27