Random Wildest Concept Albums (13 items)

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  (#1) The Dark Side of the Moon

  • Pink Floyd

  It's one of the most instantly recognizable and beloved albums of all time, but The Dark Side of the Moon is often overlooked for its contribution to the world of concept albums. Released in 1973, Pink Floyd's eighth album is an ambitious and philosophical record dealing with the idea of people being driven crazy by modern life.

  Whether or not the band conceived a storyline to tie the album together lyrically, fans believe there is an underlying theme and message. Dark Side... is known for the mystery and mythology that surrounds it, and the conceptual aspects are no different. 

  According to a former Redditor:

  Its a concept album just like your life is a concept: The tracks follow you as you move through your own life. First, you "Breathe" (you're born, and you maneuver [through] the early stages of life). Then, you mature and run into crazy, larger than life problems like "Time," "Money," religion ("GGIS"), and war ("Us and Them") and... struggle to find answers.
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  (#2) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

  • David Bowie

  David Bowie's brilliant Ziggy Stardust character is the stuff of rock legend nowadays and was utterly groundbreaking when he first introduced the alter ego in the early 1970s. Telling the story of an alien rock star sent to save Earth, Ziggy Stardust... ends with the titular character being killed by the excesses of a rock and roll lifestyle.

  Bowie spoke with William S. Burroughs about his Ziggy persona for Rolling Stone:

  Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a starman... this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the Earth.

  Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starmen. He takes himself up to the incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make themselves real, because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist [in] our world.

  The album was a huge hit for Bowie. He performed as Ziggy Stardust before retiring the character in 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. 

  "Most rock characters that one creates usually have a short life span," he later admitted. "I don’t think they’re durable album after album. Don’t want them to get too cartoony." 
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  (#3) Welcome to My Nightmare

  • Alice Cooper

  Touted as Alice Cooper's first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare was a commercially successful venture into the world of concept albums. The songs center around a boy named Steven and the nightmares he suffers, and were born out of Cooper's love of the horror genre. He later said:

  I loved horror movies. Still do. And I also love theatre and musicals. And I always had the grand idea that we could take the basic album and create a stage show from it, which is what we ultimately did. I saw it as like a cross between a nasty fairy tale and something like West Side Story.

  The album was a proud moment for Cooper, who said he thought he "got it right."

  He related, "It had all the elements that I wanted on the record. And for a first solo album, it’s not a bad start!" 
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  (#4) The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

  • Genesis

  Genesis' final album with Peter Gabriel was also their most ambitious. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tells the story of Rael, a half-Puerto Rican former gang member who travels throughout New York City in search of a lost sibling. 

  It's a strange concept, but it proved successful and became a prog rock classic. 

  Following the album, Gabriel decided to leave the band, having decided he'd done all he wanted to do with them. He went on to a successful solo career.

  "There was no enormous schism; there was no affair with another band member’s wife; he was not out of it on drink or drugs," author Daryl Easlea later said of Gabriel's departure. "He’d just had enough and knew that if he wanted to get on, it had to be outside of the group."
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  (#5) Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

  • The Flaming Lips

  Perhaps the craziest thing about The Flaming Lips' beloved Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is that it wasn't envisioned as a concept album. Only after they began recording did the band realize there was enough of a musical and lyrical thread to create a story out of the collection of songs.

  Frontman Wayne Coyne explained in an interview that the band didn't have a concept in mind when they started the album. The first song they wrote for the record was about a Japanese woman who had passed away. During recording, the band collaborated with a Japanese singer named Yoshimi - and after that wrote a song incorporating her name. 

  That song, which became the title track, helped the band realize they had a real story on their hands.

  "Before you know it, you’re telling people, 'This is a story.' It looks like a comic book or something," Coyne said. "No wonder people think it’s a concept record - because I'm making people think it is." 
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  (#6) Watertown

  • Frank Sinatra

  The 1970's Watertown is a little-known masterpiece from Frank Sinatra, arguably one of the greatest singers and performers to ever live. The story takes place in the titular Watertown, a fictional town in New England, where the album's main character is left to care for his two children after being abandoned by his wife.

  It was a strange concept for its time, for the genre, and for the artist. Sinatra wasn't known for being conceptual or experimental in his recordings, but Watertown changed the landscape for him in terms of his studio output. It was extremely different musically, as well, featuring completely new arrangements and approaches to instrumentation.

  "Michael And Peter," one of the most musically ambitious songs on the album, proved to be a classic in the decades that followed. 

  "Overall, it is very much a Sinatra you have never heard before. There is electric bass directly from the brains of McCartney or Wilson; melodies that seem oddly Hendrixian; and pianos and melodies that you can even imagine early Bowie singing," one review of the album raved. 
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  (#7) Illinois

  • Sufjan Stevens

  Illinois, also known as Come On Feel the Illinoise, is a 2005 concept album by Sufjan Stevens about - you guessed it - the state of Illinois. Originally intended as one in a series of albums about each state, Illinois covers everything from obscure state history to local holidays to alleged UFO sightings.

  The song, "Casimir Pulaski Day," in particular, became a favorite with critics - with one music journalist calling it "a clinic of Stevens’ sparest, most effective songwriting." 

  Stevens later explained in an interview:

  For this [album], I was going for kind of a dramatic, Broadway musical style, which was pretty broad; I could do pretty much whatever I wanted to. I wanted it to be a real survey, kind of a historical survey, but I didn't want it to be heavy with information; I didn't want it to be too political, and I didn't want it to be too didactic.
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  (#8) Thing‐Fish

  • Frank Zappa

  Frank Zappa's ambitious and seemingly insane Thing-Fish was supposed to be the cast recording that accompanied a musical of the same name. The stage production was ultimately shelved, but the album - for better or worse - lives on. 

   Thematically, the album deals with an evil prince who creates a dangerous virus similar to AIDS to wipe out certain segments of the population. Those who survive become severely deformed.

  It was an envelope-pushing idea in 1984, especially considering world issues at the time. Even more bizarrely, it was meant to be more of a comedy than a dramatic work. The album wasn't well-received, with one reviewer calling it "a mess that tries to do way too much."

  Nearly two decades after the album's initial release, the musical was finally staged in London in 2003. 
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  (#9) Year Zero

  • Nine Inch Nails

  Like quite a few plots and concepts to come before and after it, Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero deals with the terrifying idea of a dystopian future. Released in 2007, the album also came with a unique bonus feature that was unheard of at the time. 

  "Set in the year 2022, the album’s concept depicts a dystopian, post-apocalyptic version of the United States. Not only was this change of pace emphasized within the lyrics, but it was also achieved through an alternate reality game that paired with the album’s release," one review described. 

  Frontman Trent Reznor later called the album "one of the most fun things I’ve ever done."
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  (#10) Kilroy Was Here

  • Styx

  Styx's Kilroy Was Here was a divisive project among band members. It came after a string of massive hits for the group and was born out of band leader Dennis DeYoung's desire to create a film in conjunction with an album, which he believed would catapult the band to even further stardom. Kilroy told a strange story about a musician trapped in a world where music was outlawed. The concept was met with skepticism from bandmates, but the album was ultimately a commercial success, thanks to the massively popular single "Mr. Roboto."

  That success didn't ease tensions within the band. Guitarist Tommy Shaw was particularly resistant to the way the concept manifested itself in the live show - which involved him being in costume and acting out scenes with DeYoung. He became so fed up with the whole thing that he stormed offstage at a show in Maryland.

  "The band objections came from two directions, the acting (totally understandable) and the cost (also understandable)," DeYoung later recalled. 
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  (#11) In... the Life of Chris Gaines

  • Garth Brooks, Chris Gaines

  At the peak of his country music fame, Garth Brooks took on the alter ego, Chris Gaines. The character first surfaced in 1999 for a film project called The Lamb. The movie was never released, and the album failed critically and commercially. The Gaines character - essentially Brooks in a dark wig playing more rock-centric music - was aided by a VH1 Behind The Music "mockumentary" and a musical guest appearance on SNL.

  It wasn't meant to be, however, and the concept fell apart. On Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1999, Brooks joked about his failed rock and roll venture.

  "There’s some that probably don’t know about the alter ego who just think you went crazy or something," O'Brien said.

  "That would be everyone in the industry and every press there is out there," Brooks replied.
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  (#12) Electra Heart

  • Marina & the Diamonds

  Marina and the Diamonds is the former stage name of Marina Diamandis, a Welsh pop singer who's experienced significant success in a relatively short amount of time. Her second album, Electra Heart, was a bold step for the songwriter and performer. The concept album found her assuming the role of the titular character and essentially developing an entirely new persona as a fictional pop star. 

  The Electra Heart concept was short-lived, and Diamandis shelved the character with the release of her third album, Froot.

  Diamandis later admitted she quickly grew tired of the alter ego:

  When I was promoting it I [realized], okay, this is why I don’t like being a pop star because people assume you don’t know anything and you don’t make your own music. I saw that change as soon as I dyed my hair blond and created music that had a different production style. It was fascinating, but it made me think: "I'm not going to do this again."

   

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