While most studio albums consist of a compilation of relatively disconnected songs, a concept album is distinguished by the fact that all of the musical or lyrical ideas contribute to a single overall theme or unified story.
I have ranked my personal favorite concept albums in reverse order, taking into consideration both the 1960s classics and the more contemporary artists experimenting with this form. Scroll down to ascend the list or click the links to jump to a specific ranking.
1967
The Concept - Identity, absurdism
Length - 57:12
Recording artists - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Yours sincerely, wasting away
The concept for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came from Paul McCartney’s idea for a song that eventually developed into the full studio album. He imagined an Edwardian-era military band that served as an alter ego for the Beatles, allowing them to experiment freely musically through the guise of this fictional band. The Beatles managed to create a synthesis of classical and psychedelic music in an exploration of the dramatically opposing aesthetics. While the album doesn’t have a strict narrative, it is tied together through surreal melodies, absurd lyrics, and an exploration of identity.
2004
The Concept - Commercialism, nature, trash
Length - 56:46
Principal recording artists - Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett
Factories Far Away
Plastic Beach is a pop concept album in which Gorillaz use a hybrid of melancholic atmosphere and hip hop as musical catalysts to illustrate the paradox of nature and rubbish. Damon Albarn’s inspiration for Plastic Beach came while on a beach next to his house; he was looking for the plastic within the sand.
When Albarn visited two different landfills, he realized that plastic is not solely against nature, but it has come out of nature. The album briefly explores different manifestations of consumerism in the form of prepackaged food and factory byproducts. However, many tracks create an airy and harmonious atmosphere between the plastic world and the natural world.
1969
The Concept - The self, abuse, salvation
Length - 75:12
Recording artists - Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Pete Townsend
Amazing Journey
The album Tommy was composed primarily by guitarist Pete Townshend as a rock opera that tells the story of a deaf, dumb and blind boy, encapsulating his life experiences and relationship with his family. Tommy’s father, a British Army Captain, goes missing during an expedition and is presumed dead before the birth of his son. Years later, Captain Walker returns home to find his wife has moved on and has taken a lover, whom he kills in an altercation. Tommy’s mother brainwashes her son into believing that he didn’t see or hear anything, shutting down his senses to the outside world. Tommy must continue his life relying only on touch and imagination.
Eventually, his parents take him to a respected doctor who determines that Tommy’s disabilities are entirely psychosomatic. He starts a religious movement, but when his followers eventually reject his teachings, he again retreats inward.
2004
The Concept - Media, consumerism, nonconformity, anti-establishmentarianism
Length - 57:12
Recording artists - Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Tre Cool
What’s f*cked up and everything’s alright
American Idiot is an ambitious, epic punk rock opera. It follows the life of the anti-hero “Jesus of Suburbia” as he escapes to the city and meets his (later revealed to be) alter ego St. Jimmy. The role of St. Jimmy gave voice to the counter-cultural group fed up with sensationalism in the media and a nation driven by hysteria.
The protagonist meets a nemesis of sorts in Watsername. The characters progress into relationships of love and rage, rebellion and self-destruction, and the duality that exists in Jesus of Suburbia. Watsername and the Jesus of Suburbia have a dramatic confrontation in which she declares that St. Jimmy is a figment of the protagonist’s imagination. In the end, Jesus of Suburbia returns to life dictated by the status quo after the metaphorical death of St. Jimmy. He is haunted by Watsername’s predictions that he would be all alone. The denouement becomes a disillusioning reflection on Jesus Suburbia’s early life and relationship with this girl whose name is lost in memory.
1979
The Concept - Isolation, mental illness, war
Length - 1:21:09
Recording artists - Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright
Brick by Brick
Pink Floyd’s The Wall is arguably the very definition of a concept album. This musical narrative follows the life of the fictional protagonist, named Pink Floyd through his youth in Post WWII England and the years of subsequent isolation as a famous, self-destructive rock star. His overprotective mother fosters an abyss of loss and isolation from early on, causing Pink to begin constructing a mental wall between him and the rest of the world. The Wall follows him from youth through early adulthood as he builds the wall brick by brick and ultimately sinks into his own reality alienated from the rest of the world. His fatherless childhood, overbearing mother, mechanistic schooling, manipulative government, disillusioning fame, and estranged romantic relationships drive him to drug abuse and ultimate mental breakdown. The album illustrates his collapse into his own psyche, reaching climax at the vivid track “The Trial” in which Pink is condemned.