The Return of the Concept Album

[dcXhc]

What a concept: Albums about one topic make a comeback

By PHIL KLOER

Cox News Service

Here’s a concept for music fans. Instead of putting out CDs with one or two radio hits and a bunch of filler, several big musicians and bands are turning back to concept albums and rock operas.

Narratives. Characters. Recurring themes. Nine-minute song suites with drums and guitars. Tommy, can you hear me — again? You can hardly miss it. Check it out:

• “American Idiot” by pop punksters Green Day, a genuine rock opera that bristles with anger, politics and angry politics, debuted at No. 1 and still sits in the Top 10 on Billboard’s album chart.

• Former Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s “Smile,” abandoned almost 40 years ago, was re-created by Wilson, released at the end of September and declared an instant masterpiece (five stars in Rolling Stone).

• Camper Van Beethoven’s “New Roman Times,” released Oct. 12, is the ambitious story of a U.S. soldier in an alternate reality that still feels very much like this war-weary world. It’s getting play on college radio.

• The Fiery Furnaces’ “Blueberry Boat,” four complex song cycles, also is a hit on college radio. The duo call their dense, avant-garde approach “narrative art music.”

“There's definitely something in the air right now,” says a laughing David Lowery, singer-songwriter for indie rockers Camper Van Beethoven. He says he thought he was doing something bold and experimental (which “New Roman Times” is), only to find his album lumped into a trend.

That “something” in the air might be a reaction against music downloading, whether legal (iTunes, etc.) or illegal (Kazaa, etc.) There’s been a lot of talk in the music business about fans’ preferring to download individual songs (and then play them randomly on iPods or CD mixes). Buying entire albums might be on the way out, some say, as digital downloading becomes the norm.

“It’s caused artists to think: What is the point of an album?” says Alan Light, editor in chief of Tracks, a music magazine. “The more cynical take is that it’s a way to keep the album commercially viable. The more generous take is artists are thinking about this and not taking anything for granted.”

Lowery says “New Roman Times” was absolutely a reaction to the death-of-the-album talk.

“We felt nobody was taking a collection of songs and tying them together in a way that makes sense to listen straight through,” he says.

Green Day didn’t set out to make a rock opera.

“We stumbled into the concept of ‘American Idiot,’” says Mike Dirnt, bassist for the band. “The concept was total serendipity.” The California punk trio, best known for “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and “Basket Case,” was recording a regular CD when lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote a new song, “American Idiot,” about hysteria, paranoia and propaganda.

The trio started writing songs that fit with “Idiot,” and “the story came together,” Dirnt says, with characters named St. Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia and Whatshername.

“People started calling it a rock opera, but it’s not quite that pretentious,” he says.

So it’s back, this rock-concept-opera-album, but what exactly is it? No one has precise, agreed-upon definitions — even “Rent,” a Broadway musical, has been called a rock opera, and why not?

Dirnt says: “I was using ‘rock opera’ and ‘concept album’ interchangeably, until these friends of mine, old guys who were like 50 who know their rock history, said, ‘No, they’re not the same thing. A concept album is more of a loose narrative and a rock opera is more of a real narrative.' “

Alan Light of Tracks takes a stab: “I guess there’s a distinction as to whether it translates to the stage. If it can be played on a stage theatrically, like ‘Tommy’ or ‘The Wall,’ and stand on its own as a performance, then it’s a rock opera.”

The term first gained widespread popularity as a description of the Who’s “Tommy,” Pete Townshend’s story of a deaf, dumb and blind pinball prodigy and would-be messiah, released in 1969 and subsequently made into a movie and Broadway musical. “Jesus Christ Superstar” came out in 1970, and was even closer to real opera in the way it had characters sing an entire dramatic story.

Concept albums go back at least to the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” a then-revolutionary record that they made, in part, because they had heard rumors about the amazing range and unity Wilson was trying to capture on “Smile,” which he had called his “teenage symphony to God.”

From those roots, the “concept” concept became bigger, more complex, murkier. Was Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” a concept album? Depends on your, uh, state of mind. Styx’s “Kilroy Was Here” obviously was, but was it any good? Frank Zappa tried it (“Joe’s Garage”), as did Neil Young (last year’s “Greendale”).

Sometimes it’s hard to tell, Light says.

“You can have a theme, like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Rising,’ about Sept. 11, but that isn’t quite the same thing.”

For whatever reason, the term seems to be applied to pop and rock albums almost exclusively. If you’re a rapper who makes a concept album (OutKast, Jay Z, Kanye West) or a country singer (Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks), well, good for you, but it just doesn’t seem to register as a concept album with the public.

Concept albums got a little burned out in the ’70s when prog-rockers such as Jethro Tull and Rick Wakeman overdid them, and were not much of a force in the ’80s and ’90s. Since then, they have popped up occasionally (Drive-By Truckers’ “Southern Rock Opera” in 2001).

Most concept albums have an inscrutability or elusiveness. Pop songs generally spell out what you’re supposed to feel, but “Smile” and “American Idiot,” like some of their predecessors, have room for listeners to make their own connections.

For Green Day fans in particular, this means a little head-scratching along with the head-banging. But that’s part of good music, too.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/living/9951854.htm

[c-lando]

For whatever reason, the term seems to be applied to pop and rock albums almost exclusively. If you’re a rapper who makes a concept album (OutKast, Jay Z, Kanye West) or a country singer (Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks), well, good for you, but it just doesn’t seem to register as a concept album with the public.

I'd say that The Streets' "A Grand Don't Come For Free" is most definitely a concept album.

[JSpaceman]

Originally posted by c-lando


I'd say that The Streets' "A Grand Don't Come For Free" is most definitely a concept album.

Definitely.

And I'd still say that Sgt. Pepper is not.

[Chespo]

Originally posted by JSpaceman
And I'd still say that Sgt. Pepper is not.

Hear hear. Apart from the title song, its reprise and the introduction of the fictional Billy Shears, I can't see any unifying theme or narrative. If the concept is simply that of the Beatles pretending to be another band, I think you have to give XTC (as the Dukes of Stratosphear) more credit for following-through on that concept more completely.

[Buzzstein]

I'm too lazy to read that article

[ajax]

I buy music for the collective album. Rarely do I ever skip trax. I would have to say that half the albums I own are concept albums. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for emo. My favs.

1. Cursive- the ugly organ.
2. Bright Eyes- fevers and mirrors.
3. The Good Life- Album of the Year
4. The Mars Volta- Delouseum in the comatorium
5. Many Pink Floyd Albums
6.Cursive- Domestica
Could you count The Decemberists?????

[mik]

Jethro Tull are THE masters of the concept album - seriously!!

Too Old to Rock 'N' Roll......
A Passion Play
Thick as a Brick
Aqualung
All great albums (as are Heavy Horses, Warchild, Songs from the Wood, Stormwatch, Broadsword and the Beast)

[Kevinmack9]

Flaming Lips-Yoshimi, Zaireeka
Grandaddy-Sophware Slump

[dcXhc]

Originally posted by ajax
4. The Mars Volta- Delouseum in the comatorium

I agree that this album is best listened-to in its entirety, but I'm not sure I have ever picked up on the concept. What is it?

A couple of recent standouts:
-The Wrens -- Meadowlands
-Arcade Fire -- Funeral

[AngelV]

Black Love - The Afghan Whigs

[sirgareth]

I'm not sure the concept album ever died...So, I don't really see the need to say that these new albums are ressurecting it. Not to be a killjoy or anything, but is this making a trend/story where one does not exist?

[classicgrrl]

"That “something” in the air might be a reaction against music downloading, whether legal (iTunes, etc.) or illegal (Kazaa, etc.) There’s been a lot of talk in the music business about fans’ preferring to download individual songs (and then play them randomly on iPods or CD mixes). Buying entire albums might be on the way out, some say, as digital downloading becomes the norm."

I dont know I agree with this part of the article. It's a matter of perception. Fan's no longer purchase whole records because whole records are no longer made. Who wants to pay for filler?

Also, artists are probably just as sick of filler as the listeners. Many of these groups have matured and are wanting to stretch their musical muscles. I would definitely say that of Green Day.

[uselesstomato]

not sure if they are concept albums, but both Cornelius Albums should be listened to in their entirety... songs bleed into one another, and earlier songs are refrenced in later songs... but im not sure there is an overlying theme... so is it a concept album?

Deltron 3030, there is a kik ass concept rap album, its even got a cast list in the sleeve. sweet.

[munkie_boy]

Queensryche -- Operation Mindcrime

I remember now...

[dcXhc]

Originally posted by sirgareth
I'm not sure the concept album ever died...So, I don't really see the need to say that these new albums are ressurecting it. Not to be a killjoy or anything, but is this making a trend/story where one does not exist?

I would agree. It's always been around.

[norton]

Kinda interesting, Greg Kot wrote a very similar article in yesterday's Chicago Tribune. I tried to grab it off their site, but had trouble logging in. I'll try again later.

[frizgolf]

Originally posted by munkie_boy
Queensryche -- Operation Mindcrime

I remember now...

Rawks!

[FallingLeaves]

Originally posted by c-lando


I'd say that The Streets' "A Grand Don't Come For Free" is most definitely a concept album.

This was the first one that came to my mind when I read the thread title. Love it.

[c-lando]

Originally posted by ajax
Could you count The Decemberists?????

I wondered the same thing.

[coreyhemp]

Originally posted by dcXhc


I agree that this album is best listened-to in its entirety, but I'm not sure I have ever picked up on the concept. What is it?

It's not so much of a concept album in the lyrics, but the subject. It's about (correct me if I'm wrong) one of their actual friends who dies and is in a coma. He has all these crazy visions and dreams in the coma (hence why the lyrics are so f'ed up) and I guess he comes back out of the coma.


Just my .02