What a Concept!

I love a good concept album. It's nice to listen to a story told through music that isn't a musical.

A concept album is an album that has some sort of theme or plot running through it. They can fall into two broad categories; one with a narrative (see Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds) while others have recurring musical themes and elements (see The Who's Tommy). A lot of people view The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as a concept album. I don't see it myself, short of the second to last song being a reprise of the first there's nothing that thematically ties the songs together. Now, here are some of my favourite concept albums.

De-Loused In The Comatorium by The Mars Volta
This doesn't tell you what it's about, so on the face of it it's a progressive rock album. The album tells the story of a man that is tired of life and decides to kill himself. However, he doesn't manage it and ends up in a coma. The bulk of the songs are about the adventures that he has in his coma. In the last song he wakes up and still doesn't want to live. This time he manages to take his own life. Upbeat, eh?

The Alchemy Index by Thrice.
Strictly speaking this isn't an album, it's four, six track EPs. Only when viewed has an entity does it become a concept album. Each disc represents an element of nature; disc one is fire, disc two is water, three is air and four is earth. What I really like about these is that each EP has a completely different writing and production style. The Fire EP is very heavy; almost like a rock album, The Water EP is very programmed and chilled-out, The Air EP is very atmospheric and The Earth EP is all acoustic. Well worth a listen.

The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie
Basically, the way I understand it, Ziggy Stardust is a 'Starman' and has come to spread messages of peace and love in order to save the world. That could be very wrong though, so if anyone wants to correct me then go ahead.

American Idiot by Green Day
A story of a guy who leaves his hometown to go to the big city and ends up becoming everything he hated.

Tommy by The Who.
A great album. Tommy sees his Mother's lover kill Tommy's Dad and is told "You didn't see it, you didn't hear it, you won't say nothing to no one ever in your life". From that point on Tommy believes he is blind, deaf and dumb. The album goes on to deal with different peoples reactions and relationships to Tommy and his eventual cure. Listen to the album; don't watch the film. The film's weird.

Days Of Future Passed by The Moody Blues
About a day in the life of an everyman, this album starts with Dawn and goes right through to The Night (which includes the song Nights In White Satin). This is my personal favourite Mood Blues album.