Which artist has the most concept albums?

What's the concept theme of Metal Machine Music?

 

If you know how to assemble the elements, it's possible to restore ELO 2 back to its original concept... For those who aren't familiar with the backstory, this album was once going to be released as The Lost Planet - a full blown thematically linked piece about humanity travelling across space in search of a new home because of war and pollution becoming too much. Unfortunately, the final version only retained two songs from this ambitious plan along with the cover art (though even that was changed for the US edition). In many ways, it's a prototype version of what Jeff Lynne would later revisit on Time in an expanded, more coherent form.

Similarly, you could argue that Out Of The Blue is a collection of loosely connected tracks about coping with the surprise of his first wife announcing her intention to leave, which makes a lot more sense if the various colour and weather references are interpreted as metaphors for his personal life, particular on the side collectively entitled Concerto For A Rainy Day. By contrast, Discovery, Armchair Theatre and Zoom are mostly inspired by him falling in love all over again, though Balance Of Power could either be about his second marriage failing, having to fulfil various record contract obligations or a thinly veiled mixture of both these factors.

 

Concept albums and theme albums are different things to me. Frank Sinatra's No One Cares is a theme album. There are no recurring motives or lyrical concerns, just songs that follow the theme of loneliness. On the other hand, Sinatra's Watertown is a concept album that follows a specific situation from song to song.

I agree with John Lennon when he knocked the widely-touted idea of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band being a concept album: "Sgt Pepper is called the first concept album, but it doesn't go anywhere. All my contributions to the album have absolutely nothing to do with the idea of Sgt Pepper and his band; but it works 'cause we said it worked, and that's how the album appeared. But it was not as put together as it sounds, except for Sgt Pepper introducing Billy Shears and the so-called reprise. Every other song could have been on any other album."

 

I would add Growing Up in Public.

 

And Magic & Loss, and Legendary Hearts and arguably Transformer.

 

Johnny Cash has several concept albums and then you have Dave Brubeck's "Time" albums and also Marty Robbins' Gunfighter Ballads albums.

 

It's one continuous piece of music.

 

I have those. All great!

 

Not so sure about Out of the Blue. There are some "falling out of love songs" there, but then there's stuff like "Jungle", "The Whale", "Birmingham Blues", and "Wild West Hero" that wouldn't fit the concept at all.

 

But that doesn't really constitute a "concept". It's just one long piece of music (of course, ignoring the fact that many do not consider this album to be "music" at all---but that's a different issue).

 

Sgt. Pepper wasn't the first concept album, but to my knowledge the term "concept album" was coined because of Sgt. Pepper. When people first began calling it a concept album, McCartney said he had never heard the term. I still see it as conceptual in that the songs, although not thematically linked, are the songs in a faux concert by a fictitious band. In the same way, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands is a concept album that takes the idea a step further with the Turtles becoming not just one but 12 fictitious bands. The songs are unrelated to each other, but each song is a song performed by a different band in the battle of the bands.

For me, the theme album is one type of concept album while the narrative story album is another, but yes, there is a difference.

 

Me too. Especially if one limits the discussion to good concept albums (not that I love their RCA years).

 

IMO, it has conceptual unity simply because it is one continuous piece, just like Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge, and Ommadawn. One could say the same about Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, but those 2 also have lyrics exploring unified themes.

 

This is an area where different people have different "concepts" of what constitutes a concept album. For me, there must at least be a unified theme. Many albums were conceived as cohesive artistic statements like the Beatles' Rubber Soul, Revolver, and the White Album, but I wouldn't call any of those 3 a concept album. I also wouldn't apply the term to an album of love songs(That subject is so pervasive that concept albums would outnumber non-concept albums), or an album that used one arranger or conductor throughout (although that gives an album a certain uniform musical texture). I would say there are no clear-cut right or wrong answers to the question "What is a concept album?" .

 

Willie Nelson's had quite a few. Yesterday's Wine, Phases and Stages, Red Headed Stranger...

 

I can see both sides of the definition. Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles both recorded many concept albums, but like you I don't think of them all as "Concept Albums" in my 60's-centric mentality. The Everly Brothers Songs Our Daddy Taught Us and Roots were both great concept albums. But Both Sides of an Evening and Instant Party were concept albums too, not to mention The EBs's Sing Great Country Hits, Two Yanks In England, etc.

As others have said, there's a distinction between "concept" albums and "theme" albums.

 

This, I am not a Sinatra fan, what is the concepts behind those records? Are they records of stories with the same theme? To me, a concept album is like The Lamb, a running tale, or the Wall, Snow, by Spocks Beard, etc.

 

Also all of his albums covering pop standards as he is a revered songwriter, such a move is a different concept for him, also Gospel albums by artists not known for Gospel music is a different concept for those artists, but in the case of stuff like Red Headed Stranger, that is like a narrative in itself.

 

Some of the Sinatra albums are recordings of stories with the same theme, others such as Watertown more tell a story.

 

While not all Gospel albums are truly concept albums, the Statler Brothers did make one of their Gospel albums a concept album though, and that being "Holy Bible: The Old and New Testament" which has 2 albums with songs based on the Old Testament on one disc and songs based on the New Testament on the other. They also did patriotic albums, an album with songs about nostalgia, etc.

 

2nd Chapter of Acts have also recorded concept albums based on Christian music including their album based on the Chronicles of Narnia, the How The West Was One album they were a part of, etc.

 

I wonder would have " Strangers In The Night" been called without the title track single?

 

Do you also have the Statler Brothers' Holy Bible: Old and New Testament double album?

 

You also have Donovan's "A Gift From a Flower To a Garden" which is a double album with 2 concept albums.

 

Sinatra's album Watertown tells a story about a man whose wife leaves him and his 2 sons. The other Sinatra albums are theme albums. For Only the Lonely is an album of songs about loneliness. In the Wee Small Hours is a song cycle about being alone in the middle of the night. September of My Years is built around the theme of middle age approaching old age.