Music Banter - View Single Post - An Infinite Number Of Things That Pisses Me Off About Music

Urban Hat€monger ? · 09-05-2008, 11:36 AM

50 : Concept Albums With Shitty, Boring Or Unoriginal Concepts

It was so tempting to put concept albums in full stop , but if I did that I would be slating some of my favourite albums. I think it's fair to say I prefer themed albums rather than concept albums. For example Primal Scream's Screamadelica technically could be considered a concept album but I prefer to think of it as a themed album , the theme being of course the high you get from E and the inevitable comedown afterwards.

Everybody praises The Who's Tommy album. I Fucking hate it. The whole concept is idiotic , the pinball part of it was added in at the last minute and goes on to become virtually half the focus of the album. Which just goes to show how paper thin the whole thing was already. They did a much better job on The Who Sell Out , A simple concept (A pirate radio station , with faux adverts in between songs ) done well that doesn't intrude at all in the songs. They managed to make an album with a central concept where you could also take each song individually and it loses nothing. Something that both Primal Scream did on Screamadelica , Husker Du did it on Zen Arcade which just happen to be two of my favourite albums of all time. Compare that to Iron Maiden's Seventh Son album which I found so dull I didn't listen to them again for about 5 years , and i've never really regained the love I once had for them since , which brings me on to my next point.

Concept albums brings this horrible image of horrible wannabe rock operas writing songs about epic quests. What I hate about them most is that there's no release from it. Once your saddled with this idiotic theme you have to endure it for the whole album , which is why I hated Seventh Son & Tommy so much.
None of the songs stand up on their own. The album will almost certainly begin with ridiculous opening song title such 'Prelude To The Magical Quest Of Blarnathog' followed by 'The Magical Quest Of Blarnathog Begins' and you just know at some point there will be a song about water. I think there's an unwritten rule saying all concept albums must have a song about the sea or an ocean. Usually after about 4 or 5 songs I just want it to get to the final song (Usually titled on concept albums as 'Finale' ... amazing originality huh!)

And you know that once your favourite band has made a dull concept album the next time you see them live they'll play THE WHOLE FUCKING THING IN ORDER. I mean have you heard some of The Who's 70s bootlegs? , the whole of the Tommy album , a bunch of early rock n roll / blues standards and an extended version of My Generation that lasts about 15 minutes. By the time you get through that your lucky if you even hear one song from any other album they've done , and thats during a 90/120 minute long show. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the tour they did for Tommy but they did this up until about 1974.

Concept albums .. Fuck em

09-05-2008, 11:36 AM	#622 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,626	50 : Concept Albums With Shitty, Boring Or Unoriginal Concepts It was so tempting to put concept albums in full stop , but if I did that I would be slating some of my favourite albums. I think it's fair to say I prefer themed albums rather than concept albums. For example Primal Scream's Screamadelica technically could be considered a concept album but I prefer to think of it as a themed album , the theme being of course the high you get from E and the inevitable comedown afterwards. Everybody praises The Who's Tommy album. I Fucking hate it. The whole concept is idiotic , the pinball part of it was added in at the last minute and goes on to become virtually half the focus of the album. Which just goes to show how paper thin the whole thing was already. They did a much better job on The Who Sell Out , A simple concept (A pirate radio station , with faux adverts in between songs ) done well that doesn't intrude at all in the songs. They managed to make an album with a central concept where you could also take each song individually and it loses nothing. Something that both Primal Scream did on Screamadelica , Husker Du did it on Zen Arcade which just happen to be two of my favourite albums of all time. Compare that to Iron Maiden's Seventh Son album which I found so dull I didn't listen to them again for about 5 years , and i've never really regained the love I once had for them since , which brings me on to my next point. Concept albums brings this horrible image of horrible wannabe rock operas writing songs about epic quests. What I hate about them most is that there's no release from it. Once your saddled with this idiotic theme you have to endure it for the whole album , which is why I hated Seventh Son & Tommy so much. None of the songs stand up on their own. The album will almost certainly begin with ridiculous opening song title such 'Prelude To The Magical Quest Of Blarnathog' followed by 'The Magical Quest Of Blarnathog Begins' and you just know at some point there will be a song about water. I think there's an unwritten rule saying all concept albums must have a song about the sea or an ocean. Usually after about 4 or 5 songs I just want it to get to the final song (Usually titled on concept albums as 'Finale' ... amazing originality huh!) And you know that once your favourite band has made a dull concept album the next time you see them live they'll play THE WHOLE FUCKING THING IN ORDER. I mean have you heard some of The Who's 70s bootlegs? , the whole of the Tommy album , a bunch of early rock n roll / blues standards and an extended version of My Generation that lasts about 15 minutes. By the time you get through that your lucky if you even hear one song from any other album they've done , and thats during a 90/120 minute long show. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the tour they did for Tommy but they did this up until about 1974. Concept albums .. Fuck em __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.