I just played American Idiot and The Wall from start to finish. For me, both are absolute masterpieces. I wouldn’t be able to say which is better than the other.
What’s the best concept album for you?
- DampSquid ( @DampSquid@feddit.uk ) 6•13 days ago
Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime, or
Dream Theater - Metropolis, Part 2: Scenes From a Memory - nickwitha_k (he/him) ( @nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org ) 4•13 days ago
Foreign Skies by The Dreadnoughts
It’s a concept album by a folk-punk/cider-punk band about WWI, released for the centennial. True to the punk roots, most of the songs deal with the dark, ugly, and gritty sides of war.
There’s “Anna Maria”, a metal love/revenge ballad about a sailor losing his beloved brigantine to a U-boat.
“Gavrilo” about the horrific consequences of the murder of Archduke Ferdinand.
“Black Letters”, a rather haunting song inspired by the last correspondence that a young Canadian soldier wrote to his wife.
“Back Home in Bristol” tells the story of a young man, afflicted by PTSD, facing court-martial for failing to obey orders due to his condition.
“A Broken World” is a reading of English poet Amy Lowell’s “September, 1918”, which is both heart-wrenching and blossoming with hope.
It’s not all bleak though. There’s also an original instrumental piece called “The Amiens Polka”. And am original shanty called “The Bay of Suvla”, which I feel is an upbeat prequel to The Pogues’ “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda”.
To top it off, they saved songs that didn’t make the cut and released a B sides album as well.
In my opinion, this album does such a great job of striking the emotions that it makes “The Wall” and any of the other “greats” seem vapid and mediocre.
- Hossenfeffer ( @Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk ) 2•13 days ago
Foreign Skies by The Dreadnoughts
Mmm. Just had a listen. I thought it was ok but not a challenger to the “greats”. Certainly not musically.
But that’s ok, different people like different things.
- nickwitha_k (he/him) ( @nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org ) 1•13 days ago
But that’s ok, different people like different things.
<3 That’s very fair.
I personally find most of the “greats” to be significantly overrated. They were incredible for their time as a departure from what preceded them but, over-produced and lacking in genuine-ness. They may have had higher levels of instrumental virtuosity but lack relatability, depth, and exploration of the human condition.
To be fair, there’s a lot of people who don’t want any of that. Many people want escapism, heavy bass with questionable lyrics, or something weird and fun to trip balls to at a laser show. That’s fine. I don’t care for out of touch celebrity musicians; I want something “real” that evokes emotions across the spectrum and unafraid to dwelling in unpleasant places when the subject matter calls for it.
- Mr_Blott ( @Mr_Blott@feddit.uk ) 4•13 days ago
Not the best, but Joe’s Garage by Frank Zappa is one of the oddest
- averyminya ( @averyminya@beehaw.org ) 2•12 days ago
That is a really, really good pair.
21st Century Breakdown also does a good job, it’s a little different but it’s got the same album story.
Deltron 3030 is a stellar album about an intergalactic rapper. It’s produced by Del tha Funkee Homosapien and Dan the Automator, seriously, killer.
And before the Flobots came, there was Johnny 5 and Yak who made Onomatopoeia, another stellar album. It’s an underground 2000’s set though, so it gets gritty. But it’s very real and so well composed. That of course led to Flobots Fight with Tools, which may just be the best political album of all time.
- vaguerant ( @vaguerant@fedia.io ) 2•13 days ago
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
It’s an absolutely amazing album but also the most tragically sad work I’ve ever engaged with in any medium. I’ve only listened to it once because it turned me into a complete mess. I don’t know whether I’ll ever hear it again.
Mount Eerie is Phil Elverum and A Crow Looked at Me chronicles the illness, death and grieving for his wife, artist and musician Geneviève Castrée. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer four months after the birth of their daughter and passed a year later.
It’s filled with large and small observations, like the fact that there’s no deeper meaning to Castrée’s death and describing the things she did for their daughter before her passing, like buying her a backpack she knew she would never live to see her use.
It is a brutally tough listen.
- SplashJackson ( @SplashJackson@lemmy.ca ) 2•12 days ago
Chill Out by the motherfuckin’ KLF
- flamingos-cant ( @flamingos@feddit.uk ) 2•13 days ago
A Wake In Providence – I Write To You, My Darling Decay
- InvestBurnout ( @InvestBurnout@fedia.io ) 2•13 days ago
Boys Night Out - Trainwreck
- Actual_Idiot ( @Actual_Idiot@midwest.social ) 2•12 days ago
666 by Aphrodite’s Child is pretty awesome.
It’s a concept album based on the Book of Revelation. This is also the band that Vangelis was in before he started scoring movies.
- EffortlessEffluvium ( @EffortlessEffluvium@lemm.ee ) 1•12 days ago
Hemispheres (the first side is one long concept piece, but the flip side is awesome too) - Rush
- Hossenfeffer ( @Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk ) 1•13 days ago
Ooh, ‘best’ is hard. I think I’d have to go with Operation Mindcrime by Queensrÿche because I only ever want to listen to it as a complete album, start to finish.
Runners up:
- Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
- Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
- Misplaced Childhood - Marillion
- The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie
- Elizium - Fields of the Nephilim
and, if it counts, Murder Ballads - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- alister667 ( @alister667@feddit.uk ) 2•12 days ago
Came here to suggest Operation Mindcrime as well.
- Proposal6114 ( @Proposal6114@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 1•12 days ago
Act II: The Father of Death, by The Protomen.
The story, the music, it all works for me.
- AnarchistArtificer ( @AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net ) 1•13 days ago
I really like the album Hospice by The Antlers. It’s about a hospice worker who falls in love with one of the patients
- ...m... ( @myrrh@ttrpg.network ) 1•12 days ago
Kate Bush - The Ninth Wave
Roger Waters - Amused to Death