Concept albums

[Timeless Winter]

Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Serge Gainsbourg's L'homme à la tête de chou, in which a man slowly goes insane from jealousy and ends up killing the object of his desire, bursting her skull with an extinguisher.

And his head turns into a cabbage.

 

[Hippasus]

Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Willie Nelson - Phases and Stages

Is the concept for the Willie Nelson album a reflection on the phases of life?

 

[kook10]

Is the concept for the Willie Nelson album a reflection on the phases of life?

It was the story of a divorce - one side of the album told it from the woman's perspective and the other side the man's.

 

[KirkOut]

Haha - what the ****?

Are Rush the Ayn Rand of music or something?

The song 2112 is based off Rand's novella Anthem.

On this topic, Rush is my favorite band of all time by a long shot. I don't understand why 2112 is constantly labeled a concept album. The song itself is epic, but the other songs have nothing thematically in common with it. In Rush's prog days, their epic storytelling was more on within single songs than it was across the whole album. Cygnus X-1 and Hemispheres have continuity but are broken up between two albums. OP mentioned the album Hemispheres, but I can't really see a connection between the 4 songs on that album. I think Rush has 2 albums that could qualify as concept albums. Clockwork Angels is more towards the 'rock opera' side of things as it is an album-long story. Then in terms of a strong running theme, Grace Under Pressure is the other one.

In the Rock Opera /album tells a story type of concept album, Tommy and Quadrophenia are great. Does Thick as a Brick count?. Also, Desperado by the Eagles.

In the running theme type of concept album, Animals is a clear winner for me, though Dark Side of the Moon is also a top 5 overall album for me too probably. Definitely Somewhere in Time by Iron Maiden. I think Rust in Peace might also qualify here as well.