Albums From Beginging To End
 

There are some albums that are just a set of songs and then there are albums that are a single cohesive album where each song fits with the other and the a,bum is arranged in the proper order. In these albums no single song is necessarily a hit yet as an album all toghether they rival any hit song anyday. Songs in these types of albums flow one into the other as if a story is being told.

I am talking about albums where there is not a single song that does not fit the album.

Do you know what I am talking about?
Do you have any albums that you feel fit this description?

Albums that I consider in this category are:
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
Radiohead - OK Computer
Radiohead - Kid A

Ok, cheap answer: The Decline - NOFX

it is only 1 song....an 18 minute song, but 1 song nonetheless

i need to think some more about this one...

Well, Agoraphobic Nosebleed's 100 song 3" CD basically just sounded like one song. That one was titled "Altered States of America / Blotter Acid Eucharist"
The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Marillion - Brave

there are lots of albums that i would put in this category, but then i'm not the kind of guy to skip around when listening to music. i generally put a CD on and listen all the way through. that is changing a bit as i just recently got an MP3 player (and currently have about 70% of my CD collection encoded and loaded on it) and i've been enjoying doing the shuffle thing on it. it's like a radio station that only plays stuff i like...

Definately D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" I can let the whole album play and just relax.

a few others:

Roger Waters - Radio KAOS
Pink Floyd - The Wall
The Who - Tommy
Frank Zappa - Joe's Garage

yes yes:

Tool - Lateralus
The Mars Volta - DeLoused In The Comatorium
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile (well, almost every song fits)

Just about anything by Dream Theater would qualify. Doubly so for Pink Floyd. Also Delirium Cordia by Fantomas (one 74 minute song).

Whoa!
Yep! The term for these are "concept albums", where the whole thing comes together around one central theme.

In the past 2 or so days I've listened to:

-Dark Side of the Moon
-Radio KAOS
-Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
-Kid A

...all of which have been mentioned in this thread already. Plus Amnesiac and Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. And yes all of those are definitely best listened to in album format. They're more like 50 minute long songs.

If I have Winamp on shuffle mode and a song out of one of these comes up, I usually either just skip it or put the whole album on. It's not the same otherwise.

Most Floyd albums would fit into this category.

What about Rush "2112"?

It doesn't have to be just a "concept album" for an overarching story to emerge from the songs. For instance, U2's album "Achtung Baby" isn't a concept album, but the songs definitely tell a story of sorts from beginning to end.

My favorite true concept album, though, would have to be Floater's "Angels in the Flesh and Devils in the Bone."

Harry Cox - 2112 doesn't all hang together, and neither does Hemispheres. On Vinyl, each of these have one side that is one long song - 2112 and Cygnus XI respectively, and the other side is assorted (though still rockin').

This was a big thing for Progressive Rock.

Jethro Tull was mentioned for "Thick as a Brick", which is basically three or four songs interwoven and presented in two tracks with a sort of musical meltdown in the middle to make for a smoother side change on vinyl. (Can't neglect the effect the LP had on this kind of thing.) Also they put out "A Passion Play", which is the same sort of thing, except instead of several interesting themes, interwoven for 45 minutes, it's 35 minutes of noodling followed by two really nifty bits. Basically follows Milton's "Paradise Lost", and Satan is definitely the interesting part. Also, more in the vein of wwhat is being discussed, "Aqualung". While not telling a story per se, each song either goes directly into the next, or there are transitional, interlude type tracks, "Wond'ring Aloud" is the perfect example.

Yes has some albums like this too. "Relayer" and "Tales from Topographic Oceans" really don't make any sense except as whole albums. "Fragile" has some of that feel to it too.

I wouldn't say that Most Floyd albums fit the bill so much as the more dominant Roger Waters became in the band, the more concept driven ther Albums became. "Animals", "Wish you Were Here", "Dark Side", of course "The Wall", and "The Final Cut" all hang together perfectly. There're also the two soundtracks, "More" and "Obscured by Clouds", but I don't know if soundtracks really count, and these don't really hang together without the movies they go with, though they are great listening. "Obscured by Clouds" is almost certainly my favorite Floyd album.

Roger Waters continues this in his solo career. "KAOS" has been mentioned. (Caught the second show of that tour in Hartford. Blew my mind, and I was a total straight-edge geek at the time.) "Amused to Death" is even more the concept album. Closer to "Thick as a Brick" than "Dark Side".

"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" was mentioned, but all early Genesis has some of this tendency, particularly "Selling England by the Pound". Once they lost Peter Gabriel, they began their long slide into pop endign with "We Can't Dance", but, surprisingly, some of that epic scope showed up in "their penultimate effort, "Invisible Touch", not enough to make it a concept album, but enough to show that they hadn't lost everything.

"Joe's Garage" is the story album of Zappa's that is best known, but "The Grand Wazoo", "Thing Fish", and "Frank Zappa vs the Mothers of Prevention" are all album length stories. Less obvious, but hannging together every bit as well are "You are What you Is" and "Apostrophe" and the latter seems to flow almost perfectly into "Overnite Sensation." I remember one chemically saturated evening when a half dozen of my buddies and I put "Apostrophe/Overnite" on and sang the whole frickin thing, beginning to end, with backing vocals, harmonies, the whole 9 yards.

Maybe I am going to get smacked down on this next one, but, upon repeated listens, Cake's "Comfort Eagle" hangs together and flows song to song every bit as well as "Dark Side" or "Aqualung".

I hate to bring this up, but Styx, "Kilroy was Here" is nothing but a kitsch laden and badly executed concept album.

Now what I can't believe is that I am going to be the first one (unless someone chimed in while I was scibing this apparently endless missive) to mention "Tommy" and "Quadrophrenia". Say what you will about The Who - I don't much care for them myself - but they surely made the rock opera happen with those two.

There are more, I know there are, but the night is growing crows feet, and the maids are coming tomorrow so, according to flawlessly incomprehensible female logic, we must clean this evening.

i called Tommy. :)

good call on the Dream Theater stuff. i meant to mention Scenes From a Memory...

also, Marillion's Clutching at Straws and Misplaced Childhood would fit in this discussion, too.

Edit: Didn't read the post well enough be back when I think some more :thumbsup:

Asta!!

Well since I'm on such a huge Opeth kick right now....

Opeth - Still Life : a concept album about a man who is exiled then returns after some years to get his woman back. Tragity ensues.

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse: another concept album about a man (who dies) and watches and *interacts* with his loved ones, especially his widow. Tragity ensues.

Opeth - Blackwater Park: not really a concept album completely... but there is somewhat of a theme to the album. Tragity also ensues.


And of course, the classic Lateralus by Tool.

Mike Oldfield - Tubular bells
The Who - Quadrophenia
Rush - A Farewell to Kings

That's what I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure there are lots more.

I listen to most CDs all the way through. If it's not enjoyable that way, then I usually don't listen to it much at all. I feel all well crafted albums should sound like all the songs belong together. The bands I enjoys most have albums that all sound cohesive, yet each album sounds different from each other. Some of my faves: Zeppelin, Dylan, Prince, Gabriel (and Gabriel era Genesis), Bowie, Radiohead, Beck... amonst others, but these guys sound like they put alot of effort into making an album sound like an ... album.

I second that.

Boston - Third Stage
The Who - Tommy
Triumph - Thunder 7
Steely Dan - AJA

Edit: looks like I wasn't the first for "Tommy", but I add my vote. :thumbsup:

Holy shit...Is anyone here from the Philly/West Chester PA area? The greatest album to come out of the greater Philadelphia area ever!! ALISON RANGER'S FORMULA IMPERATIVE. It's amazing, it seems to be telling the story of someone drowning, but the band won't be forward about it...also my girlfriend plays violin on several tracks and our bandmate plays cello. check it out if you can!

I find SLayer's God Hates us All like that, as well as a select few others... Trying to think of them...

Yes!! I couldn't agree more. That CD is simply brilliant. I love it.

This may be different for pop music but my general feeling is that most metal albums are this way. The early works of Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer always worked together from start to end.

The Locust - Plague Soundscapes....but i bet 99% of yall wont make it through the 20 min cd......it can be really hard to listen to. I can only listen to a song or two at a time, and thats just mainly because i think the stuff is kinda funny

Dirt, Alice In Chains.

Of course all the Floyd, but some other Prog. Rock:
The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed
Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Center of the Earth

Soul album:
Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul

Funk:
Parliament's Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome

Hip Hop:
Dr. Dre's The Chronic
RJD2's Deadringer

Classical:
Beethoven's 9th Symphony, you're doing yourself a disservice if all you've ever heard is the last movement. This thing is meant to build on itself and when it finally reaches the choral sections at the end, well, damn.

I dont know that I have anything new to add, since so many have already expressed my opinion here.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Tool - Lateralus and Ænima
The Mars Volta - De-loused In The Comatorium
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Opeth - Blackwater Park (The only CD I own by them; I'll remedy that soon)

The Band - Music from Big Pink
The Band - The Band
Van Morrison - Moondance

That's about it in terms of full albums. Lots of songs really are just filler. :P

And their worst one at that. Punk in Drublic was much better. How about Satellite by POD or Toxicity by System of a Down or The Battle of Los Angeles by RATM???

Ziggy Stardust - Bowie
Electric Ladyland - Hendrix
Blood on the Track - Dylan
Miles Ahead - Miles Davis
Sheik Yerbootti - Zappa

I like how the songs on Massive Attack's "Protection" are sequenced. Imagine it on a vinyl album (or cassette, I guess). The first song on each side is sung by Tracy Thorn, the second song on each side has vocals (can't really call it singing) by Tricky, the third songs are sung by Nicolette, the fourth songs are instumentals, and the last song on each side is sung by Horace Andy. I always thought that was pretty cool.

Dredg - El Cielo
Dredg - Leit Motif



and also, I have to say that though Kid A and OK Computer flow extremely well, The Bends was Radiohead's most cohesive album (in my opinion). with that said, I love them all the same.

Sgt. Pepper (the ORIGINAL concept album)
Abbey Road

Jeff Buckley "Grace" has a great flow to it, not a weak song on the album

wow it took awhile for anybody to mention Sgt. pepper...
I would also like to add that the Yoshimi album begins as these cohesive albums but breaks off a bit.

Daft Punk - Discovery (it's somewhat cleaerer from the movie Intersteller 555)

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Armor For Sleep - Dream To Make Believe
Armor For Sleep - What to Do When You're Dead

Both of Armor For Sleep's albums are concept albums; all of the songs on the first album are based on a series of dreams that the lead singer had. The second album's songs are designed to portray that the "character" in the first CD wasn't actually dreaming, he was dying, and what happens after he realizes this. Taken on their own, each song is seemingly a typical song about lost love, or loneliness, or fear, etc., but when they're put together you can see a story beginning to emerge. I highly recommend them.

Several great albums mentioned already.
I would add Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime, Dimmu Borgir's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia and albums, Ayreon's Human Equation (or any of his really), Sonata Arctica's The Reckoning and Winterheart's Guild.

I would like to think it was left off out of respect for me, but more than likely it was pity.

The Love Below - Outkast

Stankonia is much better than either the love below or speakerboxxx.

I'm surprised that none of Marilyn Manson's albums have been mentioned, especially Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and Holywood.

Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden
Talk Talk: Laughing Stock

(this is getting close to being my standard response to everything in here :) but
it fits the topic)

I just saw this DVD:
Classic Albums - Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of Moon
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

A must see.
You can see how they created this album as a whole.

A Grand Don't Come For Free - The Streets

Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes (the debut album)
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Aimee Mann - I'm with Stupid

Deep Purple - Machine Head

Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan
I can't think of any album that has a more perfect song order than this.

Anything ever released by Porcupine Tree.

American Idiot by Green Day is one. ( albeit over hyped)

Scorpions - Lovedrive
Led Zeppelin - I, II, Zoso, Physical Graffitti
Rush - Moving Pictures

hmm, im thinking of checking that out, i really like fit but you know it =D

sigur ros - Ágætis Byrjun

do make say think - winter hymn country hymn secret hymn

radiohead - ok computer/kid.a

pretty much any godspeed album, same goes for dream theater

last that i can think of but not least,

sasha - airdrawndagger

you might have noticed im on an ambient music kick :p

Copeland - "In Motion"

Travis--The Man Who...

Just listened to it again on my roadtrip to California. So great.

Too High to Die - Meat Puppets (not a concept album, but the songs are all good and the album is best appreciated when listened to from beginning to end)

Deep Purple - Book of Taliesyn

Iron Butterfly - Metamorphosis

Beatles - Abbey Road

The soundtrack from the movie Immortal Beloved. If you are at all curious about Beethoven, this is the perfect sarter CD. It is also one of the highest quality recurdings I have heard on a CD.

a couple for me that i just can't listen to in parts or i feel the experience is cheapened:

Passion Immortal
Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element I (really, all of their albums though)
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Meshuggah - Catch 33
Yen Pox - New Dark Age
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A# Infinity
Devin Townsend - Terria

ELP-Brain Salad Surgery
WASP-Crimson Idol

Modest Mouse are, in my opinion, very good at making that sort of album. And at the risk of sounding like an annoying hipster indie kid, Funeral by The Arcade Fire was pretty good that way too. Harry Nilsson's A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night is probably one of my favorite examples of that sort of thing, though, it's really a spectacular album.

You and I think very much alike, 3zos! I simply can't listen to just one Sigur Ros or GYBE! song without wanting to hear the one before and after it!

I also second "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" (The Flaming Lips") and would like to add:

- Anything put out by The Cinematic Orchestra
- "Mezzanine" - Massive Attack
- Anything put out by Labradford
- "Trust" - Low

Emperor - Prometheus - The Discipline of Fire and Demise
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth
pretty much any Rhapsody album (they're basically all concept albums, and all of their songs sound alike :P)

I second the Alice in Chains - Dirt already mentioned. For those who don't know, this is an ablum that follows the course of a heroine junkie. Trying it for the first time, to addiction, to kicking the habit. The most well orchestrated album I've ever heard. A few others that come a distant second:

Counting Crows - August and Everything After
Bad Religion - Stranger than Fiction
James - Laid
R.E.M. - Out of Time

Jesus man, I think I've seen you on every forum I frequent. Which one of us is stalking the other?

Alan Parsons Project - Pyramid.

I second Cake.


Oh, Focus' Focus III

Nobody mentioned King Diamond yet? God i miss the 80's

I second Massive Attack - Mezzanine, and add:

Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Nirvana - In Utero
The Beatles - Revolver, Rubber Soul
Coldplay - Parachutes
Elliot Smith - Either Or
Sublime - Sublime (I think)

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime

!!! - Louden up now
Orbital - all the albums I know

Maybe not a one song album, but nevertheless a great album with not even one crappy song on it Franz Ferdinand

i dunno, i just got here :P but i've been a UM guy since 2001.

I will have to second both Dirt and In Utero.

And for me, the second side of Abbey Road is the ultimate musical flow. Of course, I'm a huge Beatles fan so that probably has something to do with it, but for all the reading I've done, and to know that the whole second side of this album was mostly done by Paul, alone, with others stopping by explicitly when he was not around to record, and then all ending with The End where everyone throws in their bit (one of my fav Beatles songs) is just something special to me, I guess. And yes, I know, it technically ends with her Her Majesty, but don't ruin my dream. :)

I will also have to add Pearl Jam's VS, which isn't really meant to be a concept album at all, but it's usually an album I won't stop once it gets started.

Cursive - The Ugly Organ. Total concept album; somebody hates his penis (but seriously, it's actually good and not so explicit. They actually have an organ, it's a double meaning...)

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The Notwist's Neon Golden, the best cohesive album in recent memory.

Abbey Road - Beatles, b/c it flows perfectly into the medley at the end, which you obviously have to listen to at one time

Opiate - Tool, again, flows brilliantly to the last song

I second Electric Ladyland - Hendrix

Tool - Lateralus
Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a memory

I have seen Roger Waters mentioned with both Radio KAOS and Amused to Death, but you also have to include The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking in the mix. Although this was his first solo album, not counting Music from the Body, he continued the "concept album" idea that he concluded with the last few albums he did with Pink Floyd. This is an album I think that you have to listen to, alot, and let it grow on you. I think the song "Every Strangers Eyes" is one of RW's best, though. I found this lengthy article discussing Pros and Cons... a while back, and think it is as good an explanation as any.

http://www.dprp.net/proghistory/index.php?i=1984_01

All the 70's Floyd albums

I thought Exile on Main Street was a great album, and they all fit to me, with that great country sound for the Stones.

Another is Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, which she says was written as a response to Exile on Main Street.

Nebraska? A perfect album

Van Morrison -- Veedon Fleece

Gotta think about this

There are lots of jazz and classical albums that coem to mind, but I think the idea here is for mainstream popular music

Rush - 2112
Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime

I'm totally hardcore indie hipster as my list will show;).

Good News For People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse
The Moon And Antarctica- Modest Mouse
El Cielo- Dredg
You Forgot It In People- Broken Social Scene
Funeral- Arcade Fire
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots- Flaming Lips
Hemispheres, 2112- Rush
Ok Computer Kid A- Radiohead
(in my opinion) By The Way- Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Will To Death- John Frusciante
Frances The Mute, De-Loused In The Comatorium- Mars Volta
The Downward Spiral- NIN

There's my slightly extensive list. Those are all the ones I own that I consider to be more than a sum of their parts.

Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children, Geogaddi (<3)
Fourtet - Pause, Rounds
Autechre - Incunabula
Radiohead - OK Computer, Kid A
Astrobotnia - 1, 3 (albums do not have names, if im wrong please tell me)
Legofeet - self titled
cLOUDDEAD - self titled
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
Future Sound of London - ISDN, Dead Cities, Lifeforms
Gridlock - Trace
Isotope 217 - The Unstable Molecule
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, various other albums my roommate has that I don't know the names of...
Marumari - Supermogadon
Massive Attack - Mezzanine, Protection
Portishead - Dummy
Mr. Bungle - California
ALL ORBITAL :D
NiN - The Downward Spiral
Squarepusher - Big Loada
Beta Band - 3 EPs
Rush - 2112
Tom Waits - Nighthawks at the Diner, Mule Variations, Closing Time, Foreign Affairs
Orb - Cydonia, Orblivion
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, Second Toughest In The Infants
Van Morrison - Philosopher's Stone
Aluminum Group - Happyness
Herbie Hancock - Futureshock
Funki Porcini - Fast Asleep (I need more Funki Porcini damnit)

These have been mentioned but I'll mention them again :D

Any Orbital album
Opeth - Still Life
NIN - Fragile, Downward Spiral
Tool - Lateralus

Here's one I don't think has been mentioned: Failure - Fantastic Planet

--jaded

Anything by Pink Floyd (except post The Final Cut albums), Tool, and Dredg ( especially El Cielo). NIN - The Downward Spiral, Nirvana - Nevermind, and most albums by Led Zeppelin. I guess I'm going to have to go out and get Rush -2112 since it's been mentioned so much on this thread. I'm surprised I have never listened to it before....

OK computer.

not sure if this fits in, but I can't just listen to one song on Jar of Files (Alice in Chains)

I take this to mean cocpet/rock opera albums.... I mean there are a lot of great albums I love every song but there's no reall story being told from song to song.

The Kinks and Ray Davies had many truly great concept/rock operas

Village Green Preservation Society
Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)
Lola vs. Powerman And The Moneygoround
Muswell Hillbillies
Preservation Acts 1&2 (the greatest concept rock opera album ever)
Soap Opera
Schoolboys In Disgrace
Phobia

The Stones had a good one in

At His Satanic Majesty's Request

The Beatles had only 1 true "rock opera"

Sgt. Peppers

The Who had 2

Tommy
Quadrophenia

Floyd of course though overrated

the Wall
Dark Side of the Moon
The Final Cut