Favourites? To make it an interesting angle, don't just choose concept albums with the best music, but look at them in terms of the concept as well. In my opinion, if you're going to do a decent concept album you've got to get the idea/theme/story right, regardless of the music or you might as well not bother. With that in mind, here's some personal favourites:

Jethro Tull - A Passion Play

Very meaty sound for Tull, and a meaty story too.

"And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision!" Hehe... sublime.

Robert Calvert - Captain Lockheed & The Starfighters:

Okay, so it's not the most complex, boundary breaking music, but it DOES have Viv Stanshall and Brian Eno on board, and the concept works remarkably well. Who'd have thought crap planes and German politicians would be a good premise for a comedy space rock album?

Frank Zappa & The Mothers - We're Only In It For The Money

Berrrilliant.

Any more?

ELP : Brain Salad Surgery

"Rejoice, glory is ours. Our young men have not died in vain.  Their graves need no flowers, the tapes have recorded their names.  I'm all there is..........."

And he is all there is!!  Best climax on any concept album!

Pink Floyd : Dark Side of the Moon

I think me and half the world thinks this is a stellar concept album. Probably the best one to survive the test of time.

Pink Floyd:  The Division Bell

See I think this album is genius.  It has lyrics that cover Pink Floyd's entire career including the loss of Syd, the loss of Roger, the marriage breakups, the expectations of the fans... it weaves thru the Pink Floyd tapestry with precision.

Jon Anderson :  Olias of Sunhillow

I love the sound and feel of this album.  I love the concept.. the whole album package.. and Jon sounds great...

THICK AS A BRICK- JETHRO TULL

THE WALL - PINK FLOYD

NON - PROG CONCEPT RECORD: TOMMY - THE WHO

I'VE always Liked Quadrophenia better than Tommy

Roger Waters Amused to Death

The finest concept-albums are Snowgoose - Camel, The Six Wifes Of Henry VIII - R. Wakeman, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth - R. Wakeman, Tales From Topographic Ocean - Yes, Olias Of Sunhillow - J.Anderson, The Wall - Pink Floyd, Amused To Death - Roger Waters, Space Ritual - Hawkwind, Warriors At The Edge Of Time - Hawkwind, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Genesis, Brain Salad Surgery - ELP, Istória di Un Minuto - PFM, Spartakus - Triumvirat, Towards The Sun - Druid, Thick as a Brick - J.Tull, Aqualung - J.Tull, Canyon Dreams - Tangerine Dream. Now, some non-prog albums could be considered such as Todd Rundgreens Utopia, The Who's Tommy,  and well, I've never listened to The Dark Side Of The Moon from a concept album point of view (considering the perfect timing as a soundtrack to Alice In Wonderland.)

_________

Lunar 

Lunarscape wrote:  and well, I've never listened to The Dark Side Of The Moon from a concept album point of view (considering the perfect timing as a soundtrack to Alice In Wonderland.)

Actually I think you mean soundtrack to "The Wizard of Oz"....

"Thick as a Brick"!  I'm learning to play it on bass... I know all of part one and can play it all (almost) perfectly.

"The Wall".  My first prog love...

any other Floyd albums

more later

1. 666 - Aphrodite's Child: The most controversial and terrifying book of the Holy Bible is a strong concept to develop, and the band did it well.
2. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis: Complex story about the man and his inner problems, full of symbolism.
3. Quadrophenia - The Who: Four personalities of a man or four faces of The Who?
4. The War of the Worlds - Jeff Wayne: Sci-Fi from the XIX Century and one of the best interpretations of a literature piece with music, more faithful to the book than any Hollywood movie.
5. Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull: A strong satire against British ethics (or hypocrisy), brilliant.

Iván

Absolutely correct Threefates....

_______

Lunar

I think you have most of them here already.  Gdub I agree Quad over Tommy.

One no prog I didn't see was Paul Kantners 1970 "Blows Against The Empire". Listed as an album by Jefferson Starship. It has all the right elements and some very interseting music and ideas.

Other than that

OK Frosty the Snowman by Burl Ives.

Hmmm...I'm not certain Brain Salad Surgery counts as a concept album, though Karn Evil 9 is certainly ranks amongst the greatest prog compositions.  However, Olias Of Sunhillow is certainly a great album.  I've always been most impressed that Jon Anderson played nearly everything on that album himself.  I'm also partial to Patrick Moraz's "i".

I also enjoy Misplaced Childhood and Brave by Marillion, Thick As A Brick by Tull, Lamb by Genesis, Pompeii and Spartacus by Triumvirat, and Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Wakeman.

I can think of a number of rock operas that should count as concept albums.   Tommy by the Who, Jesus Christ Superstar by Webber & Rice, and Chess by the guys from Abba & Rice.

Dream Theater " Scenes From A Memory "

Works Volume One is ELP's concept album ..the concept being themselves! (anyone dare say ''self indlugent''??  )

IQ's 'The Wake' is probably my favourite concept album closely followed by The Wall.I like concepts with dark themes personally.'Airy fairy stuff' like Tales From Topographic Oceans doesn't do it for me.And sorry Ivan but Jeff Wayne's WOTW is awfull!

Here's the review:

Wasn't the first Genesis album, from 'Genesis to Revelation' a concept album too?

The Bible in two side of vinyl. How ambitions is that for a debut album????

Arena have done a couple of really good ones, "The visitor" and "Contagion". The latter is based on a story by Clive Nolan, the narrative for which is included on the "Contagium" EP.

Nolan has also also worked with Oliver Wakeman on a couple of good concept albums, "Jabberwocky" and "The hound of the Baskervilles".

Rick Wakeman has done plenty of course, in addition to those mentioned, I would add "Return to the centre of the earth" "No earthly connection" (his most under-rated album?) and "Out there".

Surely the prize for the most over the top, unashamedly pompous, but wonderfully entertaining series of albums goes to Rhapsody. I love 'em!

Away from prog, Boston's "Third stage" was an really good concept album.

All:

From what I can see, the phrase "concept album" is being applied pretty broadly - perhaps too broadly.  For example, I would not consider either Brain Salad Surgery or Skylarking (among others) "concept" albums.  A "concept album" by de facto definition follows a single, cohesive (or reasonably cohesive...) "concept" - it is not simply a group of songs that have a theme, much less a group of songs that simply have a similar style or work together well.  [N.B.  As an example, Tull's "Crest of a Knave" does, indeed, have a very specific "theme" that runs among the songs - observations made "on the road" during a tour - but it is not a "concept" album.  Similarly, on Nektar's "Down to Earth," all the songs have a circus theme, but I do not consider it a "concept" album.]  It has to do with an "approach" to the thematic nature of the album: i.e., "theme" in and of itself is not enough; there must be something more.

As an aside - and despite the fact that I will undoubtedly get shot - I'm one of those who does not consider Sgt. Pepper a true "concept" album, despite the fact that it virtually defined that genre.  Indeed, I might even argue that Dark Side is not a true "concept" album either, despite that, like Pepper, it helped define the genre.

I obviously define "concept album" more narrowly than most.  Given this, my favorite true "concept" albums, in alphabetical order by band, are:

Dream Theater - Metropolis: Scenes From a Memory
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Gentle Giant - Three Friends
Gentle Giant - The Power and the Glory
Godley/Creme - Consequences
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Klaatu - Hope
Marillion - Misplaced Childhood
Marillion - Brave
Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
Nektar - Recycled
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Center of the Earth
Rick Wakeman - Myths & Legends of King Arthur

You will note that, of the nine "seminal" prog-rock groups - Floyd, Crimson, Moody Blues, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes, Jethro Tull, VDGG, ELP -  I do not consider any of Crimson's, VDGG's, ELP's, or even Yes' albums to be true "concept" albums (though Tales probably comes closest of any of them).

Peace.

maani wrote: "...the phrase "concept album" is being applied pretty broadly - perhaps too broadly."

! agree. I've never considered "Brain Salad Surgery", for example, to be a concept album. And neither do I consider "Sgt Pepper" a concept album.

penguindf12, of course nobody is losing sleep over the word, but I think the meaning does matter a little. Otherwise why bother using the term at all?

And, just to add to the excellent albums mentioned so far:

LE ORME - "Felona E Sorona"

MUSEO ROSENBACH - "Zarathustra"

BANCO - "Darwin!" (Could possibly be argued it's a theme, I agree!)

Don't forget all that wonderful Italian Prog!

Others have mentioned TRIUMVIRAT's "Spartacus" and "Pompeii", very much concept albums. But I think TRIUMVIRAT's "Illusions On A Double Dimple" could just about be classified as a concept album too - even the album title sets the scene - but I could concede that it could be seen purely as thematic rather than a true concept album.

Snow - Spock's Beard

The Shaming of the True - Kevin Gilbert

This is my concept-album Top 18

Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory  /  Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway  /  Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick  /  Camel - The Snow Goose  /  Marillion - Misplaced Childhood  /  Marillion - Brave  /  Nektar - Journey to the Center of the Eye  /  IQ - Subterranea  /  Rick Wakeman - The Myths & Legends of King Arthur  /  Arena - The Visitor  /  Peter Hammill - Incoherence  /  Canarios - Ciclos  /  Eloy - Ocean  /  Le Orme - Felona e Sorona  /  Vangelis - Albedo 0.39  / Saga - Generation 13  /  Asgard - Imago Mundi  /  Echolyn - Mei

Regards.

I agree with maani, but does it really matter the definition? A concept can be a theme or a full-blown CONCEPT concept

Conceptual album is a term developed in the early 70's (after some concept albums were already released), and it describes a special kind of album.

Not only a central idea, but a story, a plot, the concept album is like a book and the songs are like the chapters.

I don't think BSS or Dark Side of the Moon are conceptual albums, neither of course From Genesis to the Revelation (As someone mentioned) this last one is only a collection of no related songs from a band that tries to find a hit single.

The name was a mistake accepted by Jonathon King, who had troubles because there already existed a USA band named Genesis, so he placed FGTTR with no artistic name.

Iván

I do indeed think your definition is too narrow Maani.

All:

Fitz: How could I forget Zarathustra!  Thanks.

Easy Livin: I won't quibble about your most recent post; I think you and I are actually in agreement about more than we are in disagreement about, and you pretty much nailed it on the head re your two types of concept albums.

Re "Six Wives," I suppose it's a concept album of sorts.  Somehow, it is more difficult (or less difficult, depending on how you look at it) to classify a non-lyrical album as a "concept" album.  Still, again, I won't quibble.

My only concern is that if "theme" is enough - and indeed, if "theme" is interchangeable with "concept" - then the definition becomes too broad.  I think this is what I was trying to get at the first time, and what made my original definition "narrow."  As noted, if we accept your definition, then Crest of a Knave is a "theme" album (if not a "concept" album), as are many, many albums that few people would classify as "concept" albums.

It seems that this issue is as tetchy as the definition of "prog rock"...

Peace.

I also have more agreements than disagreements with your points of view Easy Living, this are some points about your perspective:

Easy Living wrote:

I reckon there are essentially 2 types of concept album

I don't think so, I believe there is only one class of concept albums, those in which ALL SONGS share a common concept, each and every one is part of the same plot, story or idea.

Easy Living wrote:

There are those where all the tracks have the same theme ("Dark Side of the Moon","Tales From Topographic Oceans"). Each of the tracks on these albums is a piece distinct piece of music, and there is little musically to link them together.

Dark Side of the moon may have a depressing and critical atmosphere or central theme about madnes, this is a thematic album like  Trespass (Dark Obscure), Point of Know Return (Live is futile) or many others, but each song is independant from the rest. Money has no relation with Great Gig in the Sky or Breathe with Brain Damage. This album is by no mean a concept one as Brain Salad Surgery (What relation has Benny the Bouncer with Jerusalem for example).

Tales From Topographic Oceans on the other hand is a parallel story of humanity concieved in the mind of Jon Anderson, and even when the songs may seem independant they are linked one with the other as stages in that evolution (Which only Jon understands ).

Easy Living wrote:

The other type of concept album tells a story from start to finish.

Not in all the cases my friend, it doesn't have to be a story from start to finish, the concept can be simpler, Illussions on a Double Dimple is based in the illusions of a drunk man (Double Dimple is a drink) and it's a concept album, because each song is linked with the main concept.

A concept album doesn't have to narrate The Illiad to be conceptual, only needs to have a plot or argument that links each song with all the rest like Thick as a Brick which is only the transcription of a fictional poem by a fictional author.

Easy Living wrote:

Another example of this type of concept album is "The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth" by RICK WAKEMAN. There are (inevitably) six tracks on this album, one for each wife. Each track is an instrumental, written to reflect Wakeman’s perception of the character of the wife in question. I wonder Maani and Ivan, whether this falls within your definition of a concept album? I would say it has to be one

I don't see the problem, the plot is the interpretation of the story of the six wives of a king, it's a chapter in British History. It's obviously a conceptual album from the perspective of Rick Wakeman.

Easy Living wrote:

WAKEMAN’s "King Arthur" album is interesting in that.a couple of the tracks, "Guinnivere" and "Merlin the Magician", exclude themselves from the story, and are written in the same way as the tracks on "Six Wives" in that they paint a picture of the person.

Please Easy Living, Guinivere and Arthur are characters of the famous Myth, the way the author tells the story doesn't matter at all, Wakeman could only describe characters in his album at it will still be a conceptual album about Arthur Pendragon.

Just compare two movie versions of the same myth, the excellent Excalibur (Boorman) with the cheesy The First Knight (The one with Richard Gere), the two movies have almost nothing in common, the first one is a well developed legend and the second one is a cheesy love story with an incredibly stupid ending, where the traitor Lancelot stays with the lady after the King dies, but both are different perspectives of the same story.

Iván

The so-called  "concept" of DSOTM is not madness but simply  "Life". "Money", "Great Gig.." etc., they are all linked by their clear and unambiguous "theme" which is the big and inevitable issues common to us all.

Does this mean any Westlife album is a concept album simply because all of the songs deal with chocolate box style love? I think not.

Maani, I thought your definition was too narrow, but on reflection I can see your point. You have to draw the line somewhere. 

'Tales from Topographic Oceans' is clearly a concept-album, and there's lots of musical motifs shared by two of the suites. The passage after the intro to track 1 is the same than the intro to suite 4, for example.

There are those concept-albums that are not centered on one subject (a king's wives or pictures by one painter) or a storyline (The Wall, Subterranea, The Lamb), but in a flow of emotions: that's the case for Fates Warning's extraordinary "A Pleasant Shade of Grey" (mid-life crisis), and also for Pain of Salvation's "One Hour by the Concrete Lake" (urban pollution and cancer).

Arena's "The Visitor" is a mixture of storyline and flow of emotions. Each song in IQ's "Ever" is based upon the emotions that come before and/or during and/or after mourning a relative's or close friend's death.

I don't think TFTO was a story dreamed up by Anderson,  the sleeve notes indicate it it is based on a "lengthy footnote in Autobiography of a Yogi which described four sciptures covering various aspects of religion and life".

You're giving me the reason, the concept of TFTO is Jon Anderson's halucinated perspective of various aspects of religion and life, that's a strong and complex concept.

But in this case, if you played the album to someone did not know its title, would they ever guess what the concept was?

It could be about almost anything anything (The creation of the Earth in six days or even Six of the seven dwarfs), but the point we don't get the plot without Ricks help doesn't make it less conceptual.

That then fits in with my other type of concept album where the tracks are related but does not tell a story.

Don't agree, Illusions on a Double Dimple is the narratiom of what the guy during the time he was drunk. Not a strong story as Spartacus or The War ofctyhe Worlds, but a story doesn't  have to be deep to be a story.

Or Kevin Costner playing Robin Hood!

Now, this is almost as scary as Mel Gibson playing the role of Hamlet javascript emoticon'<.8. target=" _blank?>

Iván

Easy Livin wrote: "SF Sorrow" by THE PRETTY THINGS (Widely acknowledged to be the first concept album) fall into this category.

Point of information.

Pete Townshend has long been on record acknowledging SF Sorrow as (specifically) the first rock opera - (although some sad sap of a reviewer at Amazon.UK thinks Tommy was). But a 'concept album' - hence my original query at the start of this thread? And of course the Pretty Things  were/are not archetypal prog rockers; originally in direct competition to the Rolling Stones, jumped on the psychedelic band wagon releasing SF Sorrow  producing an important  gem (innovative enough to  prove impossible to play completely live then, forcing the first use of taped recordings to be mixed into live performance), then they went straight to rock (Parachute, one of the first Harvest Records releases, has some really great early British rock tunes)

In many respects the SF Sorrow record being the first rock opera,  comes down to EMI backing out of a project for an earlier rock opera (written by Mark Weiss?????????) which involved members of Tomorrow  - Keith West having a hit single, and Steve Howe in there somewhere. EMI released a couple of singles from it, Excerpts From A Teenage Opera and Grocer Jack - which Private Eye than paradied/corrupted into Grocer Heath for satirical ends.  I guess the sales of the second single didn't inspire EMI to invest in releasing the full LP.  RPM Records eventually released it on CD in the early 90's.

You also have to ask whether Ray Davies might have got in first, if the Kinks hadn't been tied up in legal matters that prevented them releasing anything for about a year.

Back in 67 to 69, concept albums were few and far apart, Sgt Pepper and Moody Blues' Days Of Future Past being the most obvious - but memory suggests The Electric Prunes Mass might have been tagged in that way. However, the liner notes which accompanied the first CD issue of Sgt Pepper, includes an alternative tracking list order which had been considered, but eventually dropped in favour of what was released. This  suggests that if track order was flexible, then the variable song order/coherency indicates less of a continual concept with the  telling of a story set to music. Instead you have an LP bookended approximately  by the Sgt Pepper songs, while Day In A Life is a post script. With reports of Lennon and McCartney writing songs independently of each other for this project, I wonder if any concept having related songs  was ever considered.

Dick Heath wrote: When does a rock opera become a concept album: when a rock band is a progressive rock band?????

That is an interesting concept. I'll have to think more about that one!

Dick/Easy Livin:

Actually, you might be surprised by the answer (at least "according to Maani" ).

There is no question in my mind that Tommy, Quadrophenia, etc. are "concept albums."  One would have to be truly dense not to accept that.  However, this does not automatically make The Who (or other writers of rock operas) "prog."  I believe the two ideas - the creation of a concept album, and a band being "prog" - are, or at least can be, mutually exclusive.

Again, I want to reiterate my belief that a band can (or at least should) only be called "prog" if the majority of its output falls within that genre.  Clearly, The Who does not fit this.  Neither do The Beatles, or other rock bands that have created either a "concept album" or even a couple of "proto-prog" or even "prog" albums.

This is my own personal problem with PA, and I have not been shy about expressing it: I believe there are far too many bands on PA who do not belong if for no other reason that they only put out one or two or three "prog" albums in an oeuvre of ten albums or more.  To my mind, those one or two or three "prog" albums do not support their classification as "prog," and their inclusion on this site.

I continue to support Max and the webmasters re their absolute right to decide who is included and who is not.  But I stand by my comments on this issue.

Peace.

When does a rock opera become a concept album: when a rock band is a progressive rock band?????

Every Rock Opera is a conceptual album because it's a story told along a whole album but not every Concept album is a Rock Opera, because the last one is based mostly in dialogues and solos more than narrations.

Of course there are some other structural differences that come from the classic operas (Or at least there should be), but the most obvious difference is in the dialogues between the characters.

Don't ask me about The War of the Worlds, because that would be a derivative genre of the opera, the musical (like the ones of Broadway).

I won't get into the the second question, because there's a lot of posible and valid answers.

Iván

1. the mars volta - deloused in the comatorium
2. dream theater - scenes from a memory
3. pink floyd - the wall

karansaraf wrote: Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime (I'm surprised not to see this in this thread already!!)

Pretty much true my friend ! And are we getting heretic here forgetting Renaissance's  Scheherezade and Other Stories !

___________

Lunar

Maani,

I have to say I agree entirely with what you say above about rock operas and concept albums. They are by no means the exclusive domain of prog rock either, although as I think I suggested previously, prog does have a much higher proportion of such albums than any other genre.

I understand what you say about bands who should and should not be here. I think the problem is that we all have our own different ideas about which bands are prog and which are not. There have been plenty of discussion threads on defining prog, and on whether individual bands are or are not prog, and each contains a wide diversity of views.

I find bands like Asia the hardest to come to a considered opinion on. There is no question that their music has little which is truly progressive about it, yet their pedigree, at least on their early albums, entirely to me justifies their inclusion.

I would prefer that the site captures those bands for whom there is a reasonable degree of support, rather than requiring unanimous, or even perhaps majority agreement. The webmasters will always have the final say of course (as they should), and they too will have their own opinions with which we might not always agree. I find it immensley encouraging though, that they are as open to suggestions as they are.

asuma wrote: what about only putting in an certain artists 'prog' albums. like only having styx's prog stuff (not sure what it i, but i assume there is some since styx is on PA)

This is an idea that has been brought up before.  However, what is and isn't prog is simply too subjective for it to work.  For example, I consider The Division Bell by Pink Floyd to a be a fantastic prog album.  However, I know for a fact that there are numerous people on here who would strongly disagree with that.

THE MARS VOLTA - DELOUSED IN THE COMATORIUM!!!

also (no particular order)

dream theater - scenes from a memory
pink floyd - the wall
the who - quadrophenia
rick wakeman - the myths and legends of king arthur and the knights of the round table
jeff wayne - war of the worlds
flaming lips - yoshimi battles the pink robots
nine inch nails - the downward spiral
the beatles - sgt peppers lonely hearts club band
the who - tommy
muse - absolution (?)
yes - tales from topographic oceans (?)

Dick Heath wrote: Easy Livin wrote: "SF Sorrow" by THE PRETTY THINGS (Widely acknowledged to be the first concept album) fall into this category. You also have to ask whether Ray Davies might have got in first, if the Kinks hadn't been tied up in legal matters that prevented them releasing anything for about a year.

Coincidentally just found this in the latest Artist Shop newsletter:

Kinks - Village Green Preservation Soc $25.95
2004 reissue of this 1968 jewel loaded with extras in the form of two extra discs featuring original stereo mixes, mono versions, demos, Euro editions, instrumentals BBC sessions and more. 71 tracks in all. Enjoy! Sanctuary

That 1968 date, does suggest the Kinks were close to being the first but denied by legal action preventing them from recording any earlier.