Is 'OK Computer' A Concept Album?
There seem to be a common theme running throughout the album about society alienating itself.
What other albums can you think of that are not classified as 'Concept Albums' but you feel that they are and why?
Comments
good morning Syd
Well, the band says no its not a concept album, but like you I've always considered it to be one... A fantastic song suite that seems to sum up the times we live, an era of unbridled consumerism, disconnection, political apathy, and general hopelessness.
Forever Changes- Love
Another underrated masterpiece that hangs together as a concept, concerning Arthur Lee's contention that he was about to die, and that the record would represent his final words to the planet.
Pet Sounds- Beach Boys
a "production" concept record according to Brian Wilson, that begins with all the joy of falling in love and ends with the desolate hopelessness od a love grown cold. In between it seems to tell the story of a brilliant insecure young person struggling to find his place in the world.
In The Wee Small Hours- Frank Sinatra
I've long considered this album to be the first Concept album, every song takes place in the same melancholy of a lonely dark night of the soul,and concerns itself with the one who got away
It does sound like a concept album. The message throughout the album is pretty constant. Nobody seems to treat it as one though. I think the problem is that a lot of concept albums have well defined stories, while "Ok Computer" doesn't. The songs basically stand alone and come to the same conclusion. Most concept albums have songs that flow together and have recurring lyrics and in parts recurring music.
Beats me, I've never been able to make it through a Radiohead album.
Me Against The World - Tupac
It's a pretty personal album that gets all into various problems he's dealing with. Particularly a fixation on premature death. I mean, as far as mainstream rap goes, it's as close to a concept album as we're going to get.
I consider "Songs for the Deaf" by Queens of the Stone Age to be a concept album but I don't think that Homme has ever called it one.
Interpol- turn on the bright lights
its the start of something amazing