best concept album of all time

[seville8]

Well.. I do like KISS but I think Reedo35 is right about "Music from the Elder " being perhaps the worst concept album ever..Now on to the best I will have to cast my vote for (insert drum roll)...Rush 2112.

 

[john turner]

both 2112 and hemispheres would be very high on my list, but i didn't think that either qualified - they aren't really concept albums, they just have long songs on them. shoot, you could call caress of steel a concept album too, based on that.

 

[Dragonlord]

Yup.That's exactly why they aren't in my list,either.

 

[reedo35]

That's exactly what I meant by mini-saga. To qualify as a concept album, it has to be the whole album. If we were only talking about long songs, of course I would of course included 2112,Hemispheres,Brain Salad Surgery,and Tarkus.

 

[cschenk78]

How about "Rift" by Phish...it's a concept...great music, held together by paint instead of glue?

 

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally posted by relman
Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band...first concept album ever.

The first concept album ever in rock is Freak Out! by Frank Zappa.

 

[Rockinjc]

Does everything from Zappa count?
jc

 

[Blackbird]

Originally posted by relman
Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band...first concept album ever.

Actually, "Pet Sounds" pre-dated and was The Beatles' inspiration to do Pepper. Pet Sounds gets my vote.

Will C.

 

[Niels Keijzer]

In my opinion, the best concept album ever was Outside from Bowie.
Your mum won't tell you to turn it down, she'll put you in therapy for it.

 

[Oysterman]

Originally posted by Joe Nerve
Yes.

Tales From Topographic Oceans.

One of the most innovative albums ever (IMO). Won several "worst album of all time" awards - any musician would unequivocally disagree.

Can't say I'm with you Joe. As much as I love Yes other work, IMO TFTO is overworked but still seems unfinished. Sometimes the "musical image painting" of Yes just gets too much. Oh, very creative and innovative, and undeniable as a concept piece, but some portions are virtually unlistenable while the whole piece could have been shortened considerably without losing any relevant contents.

As for my favourite concept album, I have to say Pink Floyd - The Wall.
My runner-up would be Marillion - Misplaced Childhood.

Originally posted by bassbrad
ELP "Brain Salad Surgery" & "Tarkus"

I can't consider these to be concept albums. I mean, "Are You Ready Eddy?" and "Benny the Bouncer"? Hello?

 

[armidex]

symphony X - V (A New mythology)
top album
complicated storyline but hey im not complaining

 

[JimK]

A LOVE SUPREME-John Coltrane

...followed by SCHOOL'S OUT-Alice Cooper
(Cool cover art, anyway, complete with the pink panties inside).

 

[steamboat]

Radiohead's Kid A and OK Computer

Also.. I seriously consider Primus's Brown Album to be a concept album.. the album embodies what the color brown would be like as a song to me. I love it.

 

[embellisher]

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Operation:Mindcrime
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son(it meets most of the qualifications)

Mini sagas:
Hemispheres
2112
Fly By Night
A Farewell to Kings

 

[Deeter]

Originally posted by JimK
A LOVE SUPREME-John Coltrane

I'll second that!

 

[gruffpuppy]

how about Welcome to My Nightmare by Alice Cooper, hell its even has Tony Levin on it

 

[djproject]

Most of what I listen are concept albums...

PINK FLOYD: Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall
VANGELIS: nearly everything he did
BLUR: Blur, 13
ENIGMA: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
NINE INCH NAILS: The Downward Spiral, The Fragile
SMASHING PUMPKINS: Machina I, Machina II
RADIOHEAD: OK Computer, Kid A
RECOIL: Unsound Methods, Liquid
KING CRIMSON: In the Court of the Crimson King
MOODY BLUES: from Days of Future Passed to Every Good Boy Deserves Favour [this is proof that when I was in kindergarten/first grade I absolutely had no life]

Some of these are stretches but my definition of a concept album is an album that contains songs connected together by a theme, idea or mood

Those are the ones I could think of off the top of my head




Derek J. Power

***
Some additions:

APHEX TWIN: Select Ambient Works Vol. II
ENIGMA: everything else
MOBY: Play
MOODSWINGS: Moodfood
NINE INCH NAILS: Pretty Hate Machine, Broken
SPIRITUALIZED: Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

 

[Mike N]

King Diamond-Conspiracy
Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime

 

[5156246]

My vote goes for
the Beatles, but not Sgt. Pepper's

no it's
THE WHITE ALBUM

I love it.

 

[the Qintar]

without a doubt id have to say zen arcade by husker du, 23 songs, 74 minutes long, thats an awesome album