I love the idea of concept albums…
I’m quite a fan of them.
The first concept album I ever listened to was The Wall.
From there I went on to listen to Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals. Not too gone on the Final Cut but there are some good songs on it that I like. I must give it another listen.
The Wall is my favourite Pink Floyd album. I love how the first In The Flesh is a preview to Pinks descent in to madness and then we really start with the Thin Ice and listen to a character grow as the songs go on.
I’ve listened to a couple of Roger Waters solo stuff. I like The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, Amused to death and Radio Kaos. I prefer pros and cons but the other two are worth a listen too. Off Pros and Cons I like the title track and Every Strangers Eyes.
Then you have The Who. Tommy is a fantastic album. It’s a bit dark and disturbing at times[Fiddle About and Cousin Kevin]. I like Quadrophenia as well but Tommy is masterful. See me, feel me, touch me, heal me.
I am also a big fan of Green Day’s American Idiot and their new album 21st Century Breakdown.
I think Green Day tend to polarise opinion. People seem to be turned off by their new found social conscience. Well, it was bound to happen that someone would begin to write anti-war songs.
Why is it so distasteful that it was Green Day? They wrote an excellent concept album which at first appears to be a full anti-war album turns out to be something else altogether.
American Idiot follows the transformation of a disillusioned suburban teenager (“Jesus of Suburbia”) into a darker, city-living persona (“Saint Jimmy”). Songs on the album tell of Saint Jimmy’s exploration of his new self, meeting and falling for a girl(Whatsername) (and their eventual breakup), and his reverting to his Jesus of Suburbia persona and returning home to the suburbs.
The lyrics to American Idiot and Holiday are hugely anti-Bush and anti-War and I loved it when I first heard it and Im still a big fan of the sentiment…
Previous Green Day albums usually had couple of good songs and then the rest tended to be somewhere between ok and filler rubbish. American Idiot is such a strong album from start to finish with songs that all work well together and each song related to another in some way. Homecoming [the second last song] is where everything comes together and it’s one of my very favourite songs. Letterbomb is also a personal favourite.
The new album is really excellent. The choice of single[Know your enemy] isnt great in my opinion if they are looking to attract new listeners. As a standalone song it seems a bit weak and repetitive. In the context of the album it is quite strong and relates heavily to a later song [Restless Heart Syndrome] RHS is probably my favourite off the album along with the title track. Before the Labotomy is a great song too. The album is a futuristic view of a world where America is falling apart and the country is spiralling toward nuclear civil war. The two characters Christian and Gloria sing the songs which talk to each other. The recurring question is whether the actions of the government at the end of the 20th century were worth it…
