Heartland

Nikolas Vitus Lagartija wrote:"Good concept album" ?? Surely an oxymoron. It's all a bit Spinal Tap.

Oh not at all. I like albums that exist as thematic wholes, possibly because I've always liked listening to albums as albums (start with track one and off you go ... I still listen to albums like that, even on my iPod). I think there are a lot of good concept albums. It's just that the, ahem, concept of "the concept album" does bring to mind images of Rick Wakeman journeying to the centre of the earth. Not the sort of thing one wants to bring up in polite company - hence the small type and embarrassed face, markfiend . Really, though, many of my favourite albums are of the concept variety. Most of Kraftwerk's albums since Autobahn could quite easily be classed as concept albums (big fan, hence username!). The Residents' albums usually have some overall theme. Ditto Laibach's. Kate Bush's Hounds of Love (well, the second side at least...). Pink Floyd's Dark Side... / Wish You Were Here ...

metal on metal wrote:

Nikolas Vitus Lagartija wrote:"Good concept album" ?? Surely an oxymoron. It's all a bit Spinal Tap.

Oh not at all. I like albums that exist as thematic wholes, possibly because I've always liked listening to albums as albums (start with track one and off you go ... I still listen to albums like that, even on my iPod). I think there are a lot of good concept albums. It's just that the, ahem, concept of "the concept album" does bring to mind images of Rick Wakeman journeying to the centre of the earth. Not the sort of thing one wants to bring up in polite company - hence the small type and embarrassed face, markfiend . Really, though, many of my favourite albums are of the concept variety. Most of Kraftwerk's albums since Autobahn could quite easily be classed as concept albums (big fan, hence username!). The Residents' albums usually have some overall theme. Ditto Laibach's. Kate Bush's Hounds of Love (well, the second side at least...). Pink Floyd's Dark Side... / Wish You Were Here ...

Off topic but related to the above - as concept albums go, I'd always go with RadioActivity.... And of course, Kraftwerk were a massive influence on Bowie...

http://thequietus.com/articles/09832-kr ... op-madonna

I love a good concept album (are they still called that these days)

Something that takes the listener on a journey.
Apart from Bowie's Diamond Dogs, Ziggy and Outside. Non Bowie or Kraftwek favourites that immediately spring to mind are "Lamb Lies Down" and "Space Ritual".

I think you can argue the case that a lot of albums can be termed "concept" in that they have recurring themes running through a lot of the tracks or you can put that down to lack of imagination - either on the part of the artist or the listener.

While I picked Heathen as my fav Bowie album, as a Bowie concept album I'd have to go with Diamond Dogs (at the moment - normally I'd be all over Outside but just listened to Dogs & the Sweet Thing/Candidate/Reprise suite - is just mindblowing...) On the concept side of things - just want to throw in Lou Reed's Berlin - to paraphrase a million voices said a good concept takes the listener on a journey - which Berlin certainly does - although if it's a journey you'd actually want to go on, is another question entirely!

It's a tough one. Bowie's canon constitutes an entire and highly varied music collection in itself. I love Young Americans on a warm and bright summer's day but that, Diamond Dogs and maybe Station to Station and Space Oddity are the only Bowie albums that I have any inclination to listen to from start to finish. Oh, go on then, Scary Monsters as well. But that's still only 5 albums, a small fraction of his work (and an improper fraction of someone else's whom I could mention.)

I intensely love certain songs on Lodger (Boys Keep Swinging, Move On, Look Back In Anger, I Pray Ole) but the rest, nah. For me, he's not an album artist. It more a case of there being, typically, on each album, a few great songs, e.g. on Let's Dance, you have the title track, China Girl, Criminal World, Cat People and forget the rest. Even Never Let Me Down had the gem of Glass Spider.


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