The Rise and Resurrection of the Concept Album
It’s Time to Resurrect the Concept Album
For far too long now we’ve been listening to music to “check out” rather than “check in.” These days the concept album is as scarce as catching two millennials listening to Mothership Connection on 5-foot tower speakers. In the near words of Marvin Gaye, “what in the *#&@! is going on?”
Let’s be honest, average intelligence is dumbed down across the board. Music is no longer a source of inspiration. It’s the white noise machine we toss in the background as we flip through our social media feeds. To say humanity is at a crossroads is an understatement. We’re at a crossWALL and we’re gonna need David Gilmour’s guitar solo on Time to bust through this barrier. If music is the savior that pulls us together, we’re better learn to embrace the resurrection of the almighty concept album.
Thanks to my writing buddy Jason Stahl, I was given the opportunity to write an article for SPIN.com on classic rock and hip hop concept albums called Tommy, Can You (Still) Hear Me? If you haven’t gotten around to reading it, click the link to give it a “spin.” Ugh. I almost feel bad for that pun. The intro above is my OG version. I guess it didn’t make the cut. 🙂
Jason loved my pitch, but insisted I get some quotes from respected folks in the music industry. I jokingly asked if he wanted me to call Roger Waters. To be honest, I didn’t even know where to start. I do know some peeps in the hip hop arena, but getting ahold of these individuals is another thing entirely.
Luckily, my friend Beth Kille knows everybody, so she put me in touch with Roy Elkins, who put me in touch with Martin Atkins. If you don’t recognize the names, it’s all good. There are bios below.
As my peeps already know, I have a tendency to overwrite. As usual I was over word count so had to cut a bunch of content and unfortunately that included interview responses Roy, Martin, and Deacon The Villain. Good news is you can read the full interview responses below, AND learn more about these guys and all the wonderful things they do.
Also check out our concept albums page for more hip hop and rock concept album dialogue.
Martin Atkins
Musician, Entrepreneur, Author, Educator
After playing drums in a variety of English bands, Martin Atkins auditioned for and subsequently joined Johnny Rotten’s Public Image Limited in 1979. His first contribution to the band was cowriting and performing on the song “Bad Baby” for the revered Metal Box LP. After touring the world with P.i.L and contributing to several more studio albums Martin left the group in 1985. Over the next five years, he played with and managed Killing Joke and toured with Ministry. In 1990, while on tour with Ministry, he formed his own band, Pigface. He also worked with Nine Inch Nails, performing on the Grammy award winning “Wish” and appearing in the “Head like a Hole” video.
CLICK HERE for Martin’s FULL BIO,
music, and merch. These day who doesn’t need “Wake The Fuck Up” coffee?
1. What’s your favorite concept album of all time?
I’m biased, of course because it was the first album I played on, but I’m going with The Metal Box album “Public Image Limited”. Three 12″ singles preserved in a circular tin with the PiL logo embossed in the lid.
2. How do you classify a concept album?
One that pulls you in, creates a story and strips away the stresses of the outside world. There was form to the function – the wild low end of the dub bass from Jah Wobble necessitated the expanded grooves. Just selecting one of the three discs was a process different from just putting a regular album on the turntable. This was different in every way.
3. Why do you think concept albums resonate with musicians and fans?
It’s almost as if the music takes on physical form – migrating into other parts of life. In the case of Metal Box, fans actually baked chocolate brownies in the lid! Fans want to be delighted and surprised and inspired – not just by the music I think, so a concept album to me is a full experience.
4. Do you have any theories as to why we don’t see as many concept albums these days?
Well, album sales in general have dropped, and it’s difficult to elaborate on a theme digitally. There are also a lot of distractions and reasons to click somewhere else. Musical theater has also siphoned some of that energy. I gather there’s a voice in a creative’s head saying, “Never mind making this a concert album… it’s a musical!
Roy Elkins
Founder/CEO Broadjam Inc. and Between The Waves Madison Music Festival and Conference
Roy Elkins is a well-known music technology entrepreneur who has been leading industry innovations for over 30 years. Elkins is the Founder and CEO of Broadjam Inc, a music technology company that serves independent musicians and industry giants such as The Academy of Country Music, Warner/Chappell, the TEC Awards and many others. Broadjam.com, the company’s popular independent website, currently hosts 200,000 artists and 800,000 songs. Roy is also the founder of the Madison Area Music Association (MAMA), the MAMAs award show, and MAMA Cares, an offshoot of the Madison Area Music Association which helps musicians in their time of medical emergency or family crisis.
1. What’s your favorite concept album of all time?
There are so many great concept albums, Tarkus, I Robot, Sgt. Pepper’s, Joe’s Garage, Dark Side of the Moon to name a few. My personal favorite is Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. While it is never listed in the great concept albums, the narrative and composition is one idea with good storytelling and remarkable musicianship. My preferred concept “band” is Eloy, the Germany prog rock band. All of their albums, especially Dawn and the Power and the Passion are great storytelling with trend setting prog rock to support it.
2. The criteria for concept albums is a bit murky. What constitutes a concept album in your opinion?
It’s an album where sum of the songs has far more importance, inference and purpose than any of the particular tracks. It has diverse lyrical and melodic themes that re-occur throughout the record, artwork that expresses the musical vibe and liner notes that are readable. Commonly, the category is attached to prog rock bands of the 70s. But when one listens to Bach’s Mass In BM or Tupac’s Me Against The World, these are the embodiment of a concept album as themes reemerge frequently.
3. Why do you think concept albums resonate with musicians and fans?
You find yourself sitting on a giant bean bag with headphones on, a black light shining, incense burning, a double album in your lap, contemplating the incredible artwork of Roger Dean while hearing The Fish and Mood For A Day back-to-back on side two.This is why these albums reverberate with fans. One song leads to another and before you know it, you have listened to the entire collection. In a strange but similar way to Yes’ Fragile, Zappa’s Joe’s Garage featured the Central Scrutinizer who reappears throughout the record and mesmerizes the listener as well.
4. During 60s, 70s, and 80s there were far more concept albums being recorded. That number has dropped significantly this century and we typically only see them from artists who are already well established. Do you have any theories as to why we don’t see as many artists recording concept albums these days?
With a click of a button we have become an instant gratification society. All the distractions in today’s world makes it more tricky for the artists to deliver reflective records that inspire a teenager or any listener to absorb an entire album over and over again. In the past, the listener’s voyage to discover anything new, took energy and adventure. Sometimes that exploration traversed another fork in the road and directed us to something greater than we were seeking in the first place. In today’s world, the immediate joy of the single is adequate pleasure and side two is never reached. On the aforementioned Yes Fragile album, we would have only heard Roundabout and South Side of the Sky as singles and never made it to it’s legendary side two. While today’s music is just as good as the past, the journey to discover it isn’t quite as in depth. And the search for it has been replaced with key words for a single song.
Deacon The Villain
Emcee, Producer, Label Owner, Media Guru
Willis Polk II, aka Deacon the Villain, is a hip hop emcee and producer from Versailles, Kentucky. Deacon is a founding member of CunninLynguists, not to be mistaken with another word that also involves a slick tongue. He has produced tracks for a variety of artists including KRS-One, King Tee, and J-Ro from Tha Liks. He is also a founding member of the bands N.W.L. and The Off Daze.
CLICK HERE to peep Deacon’s music.
1. What’s your favorite concept album of all time?
I’m not the best at ranking, but for present day. I’ll say “Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?” It’s relevance is undeniable.
2. How do you classify a concept album?
As long as you can thread all the songs on an album together and they ouch on or expound upon a solitary theme, then IMO you have a concept album.
3. Why do you think concept albums resonate with musicians and fans?
I think they resonate with fans because more than most full albums, concept albums are an actual vibe. They’re like movie soundtracks without the movie.
4. Do you have any theories as to why we don’t see as many concept albums these days?
The past few ages have been about Playlists, mixtapes, compilations, etc. The value of the single has been outweighed by the value of a full album for decades. Singles are way easier than albums, soooo…
5. Most of the CL projects and your solo albums/side projects have a specific theme but aren’t considered concept albums (E.G. Dirty Acres, Rose Azura Njano, Couple’s Skate). Do you consider any of these concept albums and if so why?
Rose Azura Njano is CERTAINLY a concept album. Arguably just as much, if not more, than A Piece of Strange. There are actually several themes wrapped up in one. Rose personifies black music. Rose also implements chromesthesia, which is this concept that certain sounds evoke specific colors in some people. Unfortunately it would take too long to expound upon this here, but it’s incredibly interesting. Oneirology is also a concept album about dreams. Dirty Acres. Same thing. It’s about how every single Acre that makes up the USA is Dirty, particularly the south. Couple’s Skate is basically the soundtrack for a married couple on date night. PLUS it’s thematically set in an intergalactic roller rink for adults. And yeah there are strippers so it’s a lot of fun. Kno’s solo album Death is Silent is also a concept record. That’s just what we do… concepts. Not EVERY project we do is a concept album, but the majority by far.
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