Never been a fan of Concept Albums, always a bit too proggy although Maidens "Seventh Son" was very good
Just bought a double CD pack and it included Dio's "Magica which was excellent (gave the 45 minute spoken story a miss though)

Any other good'uns out there?

The Streets…the one about the £1000 down the back of the telly.

What's the definition of a "concept album" anyway…out of interest?

Its a genre marked by pretension and overblown pomp but Tommy by the who must be the best surely? If it counts of course

wiki

In popular music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a ****, pretentious theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, ****, pretentious or lyrical".[1] Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical, **** and pretentious or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing to a single overall theme or unified story

Always thought of it as a series of tracks supposedly telling a story or at least having a common theme

Almost certainly not the best but I still like listening to Misplaced Childhood by Marillion occasionally.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis. Ah the good old Prog bands were pretentious/cr£p etc. Each to their own.

😀 @ sc-xc

Neutral Milk Hotel – "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"

No ******* idea what it's about, mind.

Mr C, that's a brave admission to make in public… world's least trendy band!

oh, and "Operation Mindcrime" by Queensryche is pretty good, as is Maiden's SSOASS.

showing my age
but i like journey to the centre of the earth or criminal record by rick wakeman

Does 2112 count as the best 1/2 a concept album?

Anything by Coheed and Cambria, immense.

Arguably Dirty Projectors have made two in the last few years; Rise Above and Mt Wittenberg Orca. Both excellent and highly recommended.

Reload- A Collection of Short Stories. It had a little booklet of stories (written by Mark Pritchards brother?), each corresponding to a track on the album.

I have fond memories of the Flaming Lips album that had 3 discs, designed to be played concurrently…

Always considered FSOL – Lifeforms to be a concept album about evolution. Even if it isn't, it's **** AWESOME 🙂

quadrophenia of course

A Passion Play- Jethro Tull

😉

RichPenny …you're a disc short of a concept album there!

Misplaced Childhood by Marillion

Interesting choice there Mr C. I haven't listened to that in a long time.
Some of the lyrics we're pretty cheesy and meaningless eg (psuedo silk kimono) but musically it was sweet and of course it contained Kayleigh.

How about The KLF with The White Room or even Chill Out (although not really an album)

also animals pink floyd wicked

The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails for me – if it was a concept Album?

War of The Worlds by Jeff Wayne.

Also found an album a couple of months ago called S. F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things which is worth a punt.

De-Loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta

weird but brilliant

I kind of prefer not to think of it as a "Concept album" though, just an album I like because I hate the idea of a concept album. Although it makes no sense if you listen to a single song in isolation. Not that it makes much sense anyway.

There's a mix up here between Rock Operas and Concept albums. As I understand it, S.F. Sorrow by the Pretty things was the first Rock Opera, so could prehaps be considered a concept album, but then Tommy wouldn't be a concept album. although, I'm not enirely sure what a concept album means.

Nick cave "murder ballads"

Queensryche were/are indeed very good at "concept", but for me it's going to have to be

We have assumed control……we have assumed control…..we have assumed control…..

+1 for Journey to the centre of the Earth – it encapsulates all that is good bad & plain mad of prog rock – that said been an old hippy at heart it also have to pitch in with Gong's flying Radio Gnome trilogy – not 1 concept album but 3

Probably my favourite is "Crack the Skye" by Mastodon:

The bends by radiohead

Does that count?

I cant deny there are some of these bands and albums I do like (Nick Cave,Radiohead,Animals) but when I see so many listed one after another it makes me really appreciate Never mind the bollocks

Some more recent ones…

Would Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens count? Certainly a unifying theme + storytelling.
Yoshimi battles… by The Flaming Lips.
Landcruising by Carl Craig.

De-Loused in the Comatorium by The Mars Volta

weird but brilliant

I kind of prefer not to think of it as a "Concept album" though, just an album I like because I hate the idea of a concept album. Although it makes no sense if you listen to a single song in isolation. Not that it makes much sense anyway. I honestly thought I was hearing the best rock album of a generation when I first put this on – it sort of loses it's way second half though (IMHO). Still great. They're lost in prog rock hell nowadays though.

The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox is one of the best hip hop albums of the 00s and it's sort of a concept album – head and shoulders above most rap stuff you'll hear.

Never mind the bollocks

Surely that has a unifying concept of its own: i.e. "**** conceptualism"?

Yoshimi, can't believe I didn't think of that one 🙂

THE JAM DIG THE NEW BREED

Crack the Skye

Kopyright Liberation Front – Waiting for the Rites of Mu. the cd with the music journalist reporting about the procession on Jura to a stone circle where a strange ritual takes place, as he gets more and more freaked out by it all… I can't figure out if it's all fake or all real.