Modern Concept Albums

Ah, the concept album.

Music has always been used as a medium to tell stories. From the bards of times past to the musicians of today, stories and messages have been told through song. Jilted lovers, silly break ups, society's flaws, true love, true pain, anguish, politics, drunken antics, heroes, villains, various kinds of sex, nothing has been left out of song. In most albums, however, each song is its own little self contained story. In a concept album, each song is like a chapter of one story. Each one follows a theme or plays a part in the narrative of the album. One very well known concept album is The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie.

Many artists have done their own concept album including Ray Charles (The Genius Hits the Road), Johnny Cash (Ride This Train), The Beatles ( Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ), pretty much everything by Pink Floyd, Styx, Alice Cooper, ELO, The Kinks, Everclear, Cursive, Green Day (American Idiot), The Mars Volta, Explosions in the Sky, My Chemical Romance (The Black Parade), Jay-Z (American Gangster), and even Frank Sinatra (In the Wee Small Hours). I didn't mention all of the artists because that would take too much space. I just wanted to give an idea of the variety of artists that have done concept albums. Anyways, I'm just going to talk about some of the concept albums made recently. "Recently" being past couple years. I'm not going to talk about all of them, just ones I've listened to or heard about from friends.

Say Anything - ...Is a Real Boy/In Defense of the Genre (2004/2007)

Max Bemis' punk rock musical about a boy in a sucky band who can't stand the vast hypocrisy in society and especially the punk scene. One day, a magical power overtakes him and forces him to shout out his innermost feelings in the form of fully orchestrated rock anthems. As he gains popularity, his ability forces him to speak out about the world around him, ending relationships and creating others. With witty lyrics and clever instrumentation (influenced by musicals), it's a joy to listen to. It sounds different, but it's decent stuff. Stuff that came from the mind of one man. Max Bemis played every instrument on the album except drums. The second album, In Defense of the Genre, returns to the same character as he develops a new romantic relationship and experiences the complications involved. He also struggles with mental instability, as paranoia and hallucinations begin to interfere with his life.

http://www.myspace.com/sayanything


Coheed and Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow (2007)

This is the final chapter in Coheed and Cambria's science fiction epic. There are 4 parts to the story. Three have been released so far, with the band's next album telling the first part of the story. The story is about the Keywork, interconnecting beams of energy that holds 78 planets together. The main character is Claudio, the son of Coheed and Cambria. He's destined to become The Crowing, a messianic figure who will save the souls of the Keywork by destroying it. The albums center around his travels, his romances with Newo, coming to terms with his destiny, eventually embracing it, and finally avenging the death of his parents and destroying the Keywork. Thankfully, you can listen to the music without even paying attention to the story since it's not very specific on details. It's just one of those things where you can go back and look at the album a totally different way.

http://www.myspace.com/coheedandcambria

The Dear Hunter - Act II: The Meaning of , and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading (2007)

After a young man's mother, Ms. Terri (an ex-prostitute), dies, he goes off on his own. He enters a nearby bordello in hopes of learning more about his mother's past since he was a product of her occupation. There, he falls in love with the prostitute, Ms. Leading. Eventually, he can't cope with her chosen profession and their relationship falls apart. The album is clearly ambitious. It explores a variety of musical styles, genres, and influences including orchestral rock, country blues, jazz-pop, ragtime piano, and prog rock. The instruments range from pianos, guitars, harps, trumpets, and strings, to banjos, shakers, synthesizers, and various backup singers. The lyrics are even well written and flow very well with the music. The singing is even pretty damn impressive. His voice is a little unique, but he does sing well.

http://www.myspace.com/thedearhunter


The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights (2007)

The Good Life is the side project of Cursive front-man, Tim Kasher. The album was written as a musical counterpart to an actual screenplay he was writing. There's less storytelling in it than in his usual albums, but the big ideas are all there. It's about a stranger whose car breaks down in a small town for about a week. He hangs around the town bar and gets wrapped up in the sordid lives of the regulars. The songs explore love, lust, sex without the love, love without the sex, coming alive in the arms of another, and letting go. The lyrics are a highlight here, honest and raw, as is the stripped down acoustic/folk approach. You can almost feel how desperate he is when he sings "I need you so bad. I mean right now, you're all I have".

http://www.myspace.com/thegoodlife


The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me/Separation Sunday/Boys and Girls in America/ Stay Positve (2004-2008)

In the third album, Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady continues the story of the characters from Separation Sunday with a less narrative approach than that album. Separation Sunday was about a character named Holly and her quest to find a balance between Catholicism and rock and roll through drugs and a metaphorical resurrection. Boys and Girls in America follows Holly and other characters through fun times, high times, darkly romantic times, and things in-between. Though, you could call the albums after Separation Sunday loose concept albums at most. Craig Finn's lyrics are great. They're often funny but also smart. The music has a fun, catchy, classic rock feel to it. They have a new album out called Stay Positive. Craig Finn has said it still explores the previous characters but from a more mature viewpoint.

http://www.myspace.com/theholdsteady


Forgive Durden - Razia's Shadow: A Musical (2008)

After the rest of the members quit the band, Thomas Dutton decided to make his side-project idea a reality. Composed by him and his brother, this musical explores a world that's been divided into Light and Dark by the mistakes of angels. A prophecy is foretold about two people whose love will be so strong they will reunite the Dark and the Light as one. The story continues many years later. Two brothers in the Dark half, Adakias and Pallis, have differing views on how to fulfill their destiny. Pallis stays in the kingdom while Akadias leaves. He eventually falls in love with a princess from the Light half. His brother finds him and tries to bring Akadias back to the kingdom by testing the Princess' love for him. Upon finding that the Princess' love is true, Pallis tries to kill her to take Akadias back. Akadias blocks him, impaling himself on Pallis' blade. Pallis realizes his brother's true destiny and regrets what he's done. Akadias asks them not to cry for him as he dies, and the two halves of the world become one once more. It's definitely an ambitious project with many guest singers playing each character. The music is inspired by musicals, and it has a certain Tim Burton-esque sound at times. As such, it can be quite off-putting if you're not used to musicals. I was put off for a couple tracks, but it got quite better as it went on. So either the quality of the music got better, or I just became more used to it. I'm just not terribly keen of Dutton's voice.

http://www.forgivedurden.com/blog/


Right Away, Great Captain - The Bitter End (2007)

Andy Hull's (Manchester Orchestra) acoustic side-project about a 1600s sailor and his 3 years at sea. Each song is an entry in his journal to his family at home or his captain. The Bitter End is the first part of a planned trilogy. The second part, The Eventually Home, will be released on Nov. 11th. Before a young sailor leaves for his 3 year trip, he sees his wife cheating on him with his brother from the window. He doesn't tell either of them what he saw, kisses his children goodbye, and leaves for the ship. He deals with loss, missing things, the wonder of adventure at sea, and his feelings with betrayal while beginning a friendship with the captain of the ship. The captain tells him that love is nothing more than an action. He shouldn't put his faith in something so unreliable. The sailor grows more insane as time goes on. His depression slowly mixes with bitterness and hate. Eventually, the ship docks. He sees his wife, son, and daughter waiting for him. For an instant he falls back in love with her. He forgets all the hateful things he wanted to say to her. He's faced with the decision of either spending his life at sea, or being tortured by her betrayal and of what he might do to her. He comes to the conclusion that he's not ready to forgive her and returns to sea. The album concludes with the Captain's death, and the sailor becoming the new Captain.

http://www.myspace.com/rightawaygreatcaptain


Thrice - The Alchemy Index: Volumes I, II, III, and IV: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth (2007/2008)

Thrice's four-disc concept album was split between two releases. The first was Fire and Water. The second was Air and Earth. Each song is about the respective element they represent. Each disc has its own unique sound. The Fire album has an aggressive rock sound. The Water album has soothing waves of sound with electronic aspects. The Air album focuses on atmosphere with songs as heavy as a hurricane and as passionate as a loving breeze. The Earth album takes a stripped down approach with acoustics, banjos, and such. It's a very ambitious and experimental effort. It is one that seems to have paid off for the band. I think it's great they can explore many facets of their sound through each album and not get bogged down by a genre's expectations.

http://www.myspace.com/thrice


Circa Survive - Juturna/ On Letting Go (2005/2007)

Though not really concept records, their albums do follow themes in some of their songs. It could easily be argued that Juturna is a concept record about cocaine and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The songs contain many references to Anthony Green's own struggles with drug use and to the movie though it's not a concept on purpose. Some of the songs directly talk about erasing someone you loved from your mind or recognizing a stranger in the street, so yeah. I'm not sure, but it's food for thought. Though when your album closes with "Meet Me in Montauk" it seems a little obvious. Their second album, On Letting Go, deals with the theme the title suggests. It's about loss of friendship, struggles with religion, and letting go of the emotions we struggle with everyday. The anger we feel. The loneliness we feel, not just from friends but God as well. We have to let go to move on to something new and better. However, there are those who believe the album is a concept about the New Testament. It's all about interpretation, and Green's words are quite accommodating.

http://www.myspace.com/circasurvive


The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia (2008)

Also one of those "concept but not really" albums. I could've put in The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns in as an album wholly about drugs, which it is, but this album is more recent. Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan team up to deliver us a darkly atmospheric album about religion and the evils that men do. Many of the songs sound as if they are about the Rapture, and the plight of those left behind without one to lead them. Then some of them talk of getting in or out of heaven because of the things they've done. Though the songs share a common theme, Dulli has said it was not intended as a concept album. This is a beautiful album. It's ominous in its tone, with unsettling guitar sounds, creeping strings, soothing back up vocals, the crass baritone of Lanegan, and the lush sound of Dulli.

The Gutter Twins- Idle Hands (download)

www.myspace.com/theguttertwins

What I'm Listening To - 10/26/08

"I will be the flounder on your southern shores On your southern sandy beaches If you would only show me where your sunshine reaches. I will be the steward of your southern lands if you would only take my, take my shaking hands. Will you build your half of the bridge?"
- Sunshine State by Superchunk

I thought it might be a neat idea to make an entry maybe once a week about music I've listened to lately. I don't know how well it'll work, but let's give it a try. At the worst, at least you'll have something to read if you're bored during the zombie apocalypse. Oh you didn't know? Yeah, during the Great War between Pirates and Ninjas, a mysterious third faction came to light. A faction that completely changed the tide of battle and ultimately the course of history. Of course, it was the zombies.

Those undead bastards.

Anyways.

The Cure - 4:13 Dream

The first Cure album in four years releases this Tuesday. It's currently streaming on their myspace page though. So, of course, I had to check it out. So far it sounds like this is a throwback to The Cure's lovey, happy, poppy years. The cool thing is The Cure still have the same sound they did back in the early 90s even with all the recording magic they have today. So if you dug "Pictures of You", "Just Like Heaven", "Inbetween Days", and "Friday, I'm in Love" then you'll feel right at home here. If you prefer The Cure's darker songs, you might not dig it so much. Robert Smith said he might release the darker counter part to the album at some point. I'm really liking this though. A lot.

http://www.myspace.com/thecure


In Harbour - The Hardest Part is Learning to Swim

In Harbour hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and this is their debut EP. I just listened to a few songs by them today. They sound pretty serene and ambient. It really does sound sorta like how the cover of the EP looks. It kind of reminds me of Explosions in the Sky. Just a bit. The singer's voice is alright. He sings really well and all, I'm just not super into the sound of his voice. It's almost like a slightly higher pitched version of the guy from Copeland's voice. I hope I get to hear more songs from them later but they've definitely caught my interest.

http://www.myspace.com/inharbour


Superchunk - Here's Where the Strings Come In

Ooooo, buzzing guitars whizzing by my ears with thoughtful lyrics tagging close behind. Such is the delight of Superchunk. What does it sound like? Basically, like one of the many rock/grunge bands from the early 90s such as Weezer. It's catchy, noisy, clever, and a whole lot of fun. This group hails from good ole Chapel Hill, NC, and were a big part of the music scene back in the day. Mac MaCaughan, the front man, went on to found Merge Records. The name may sound familiar. They're home to bands such as Arcade Fire, Camera Obscura, She and Him, Spoon, Buzzcocks, Conor Oberst, Dinosaur Jr, Neutral Milk Hotel, and others.

http://www.myspace.com/superchunkmusic

For a few other tracks


Allison Weiss - No album in particular

I feel the need to pimp this girl out. She's pretty great at what she does. Her guitar work is really good, and her singing is pretty good. Her lyrics are quirky and honest. She doesn't do a whole lot of "cute" songs. Her area is more about relationships and some of the complications involved. It gets a little old sometimes, but she's adoringly catchy, her style's neat, and they're all well done. I think she's younger than me too, which makes me feel old. Anyhoo, you can see her live if you're ever around Athens, GA or western NC. She has a great YouTube channel full of her performing her songs. I think some of her songs sound more impressive on there with just her and her guitar. So check her out if you're into her kind of music.

http://www.myspace.com/allisonweiss

Her YouTube channel

Her pretty neat cover of Kids by MGMT

Well that's all for now, I'll see what I can find for next week.

Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo

Apparently, Rivers Cuomo is releasing another album full of old unreleased songs. It's up for pre-order on Amazon. Here's the tracklist:

1. Paperface - 1992
2. I've Thrown It All Away - 1993
3. Don't Worry Baby (Beach Boys cover) - 1993
4. The Purification Of Water - 1992
5. I'll Think About You - 1994, a contender for Rivers' 'Homie' record in 1997
6. Walt Disney - 1995
7. Come To My Pod - Songs From The Black Hole
8. Oh Jonas - Songs From The Black Hole
9. Please Remember - Songs From The Black Hole
10. The Prettiest Girl In The Whole Wide World - 1997, contender for The Green Album later on
11. I Want To Take You Home Tonight - 2002
12. I Was Scared - 2003, early contender for Make Believe
13. Bad Girl - 2006, an early version of 'The Angel And The One'
14. My Day Is Coming - 2006
15. I Don't Wanna Let You Go - 2007
16. Softies - 2008

I had no idea he was going to do another one. I mean the last one was alright. I enjoyed it. It was a decent collection. There were only a few songs skip-worthy and those were generally near the end of it. I don't know how I feel about another one. I'm excited that it has a few more tracks from "Songs from the Black Hole", the unreleased Weezer concept album between Blue and Pinkerton. Other than that, I don't know how excited I can really be. There could be some diamonds in the rough, but that's all I can hope for.

Madeline Adams

Madeline Adams is amazing.

If my girlfriend allowed me one celebrity crush, it would Madeline Adams. Well, maybe Zooey Deschanel, but that's not a debate I want to get into. Her music is brilliant, and it's not because she has complex arrangements or anything like that. It's brilliant because of its simplicity. She can fingerpick some notes and sing a song about grass and make it sound good. Her voice is just so pure. It's hard to place. It has a classic feel, like a singer off an old folk record. It's clear, light, soft, never intruding, just breezing through your ears. Her lyrics are also simple but honest. They're often cute and witty poetry, with a nice serious edge when she needs them to have one.

"Who needs friends when you can write bad poetry? Talk of when love ends. The hurt sets in. The faithful art of the lonely. I'm just a nobody. I call my own phone. You must be somebody cause I've never seen you alone. I wish you weren't so huggable when I feel like a cactus tree. Who wants to touch the thorns of a hopeless nobody?"

The sound of her albums is appropriately folk-ish. Usually it's just her and her guitar, with lovely vocal harmonies. On other songs, she'll have drums, cowbells, handclaps, and even a kazoo.

A freaking kazoo! Finally, someone uses one in a song!

It just amazes me how she's still relatively unknown. She's been on 11 national tours, and played with a variety of bands. She may just desire to stay out of the spotlight with a dedicated following of fans. Who knows? I do know that everyone should check her out.


"Poetry is all cliche. It talks of flowers, of love, and May. Any beatnik black beret could ruin the day for me. Leave me here alone in my room, feeling genius, feeling blue, and I'll finger pick and I'll watch the rain. I see romantic comedies. She's so funny. He's quirky. They were so different in the beginning; you would never suspect the ending."

Madeline grew up in Athens, Georgia and began performing her songs at the age of fifteen. She self-released her first album, Kissing and Dancing (2002), when she was seventeen or eighteen. It was later re-released by Plan-It-X records. In 2006, she recorded an album with Matthew Houck (Phosphorescent) called The Slow Bang. She is currently working on her next album, White Flag, due out in January 2009.

http://www.myspace.com/madelinesongs

http://www.myspace.com/ileftthelighton

The Sound of Animals Fighting: The Ocean and the Sun

I figured I should do my first review on this album, mainly because it'd be tough to tackle. It's going to be a long review, since I'll be talking about each track and the band history. Please bear with me.

First, a little background. This is the third album by The Sounds of Animals Fighting. The band itself is an experimental project so it's no surprise the albums have been as well. The brain child of Rich Balling, former member of Rx Bandits, the original lineup consisted of members from Rx Bandits, Finch, and Circa Survive. They used monikers based on animals such as The Skunk, The Nightingale, The Walrus, etc and the group became an outlet for musical ideas outside their respective bands. The first album, The Tiger and the Duke, was a 4 song EP with instrumental interludes between each song. There was a certain mystique surrounding its release due to the members' identities being hidden. It sounded something like America's answer to The Mars Volta, with Anthony Green screaming his heart out. The four songs were great, but the interludes were a bit lame (Though the re-release brought in better interludes). It opened to many positive reviews and many were interested in what came next.

The second album, Lover, the Lord Has Left Us, was definitely not what everyone was expecting. It was experimental rock without the rock. The intricate guitar work was replaced with electronic sounds and buzzes. It's like the OK, Computer to the first album's Kid A. New animals were brought in for vocal duties, including Keith Goodwin from Days Away, Matthew Kelly from The Autumns, Craig Owens from Chiodos, a Sanskrit singer, and a German opera singer. Yes, a German opera singer. This should give you an idea of how weird the album is. The interesting thing about this album was how it was recorded. Each member was given a day to record their contribution to the album. The only one who heard any of the other members' tracks was Rich Balling himself. I found the album to be very interesting. It's not a bad album, but it is hard to listen to. You have to be in the right mindset. The sounds are so diverse and strange that it's easy to dismiss as shite. It's also so strange that you can't help but let yourself drown in its odd concoction of electronic bleeps, synthesizers, singing, kitchen sounds, recitations of literature, and experimental nature.


So this brings us to the third album, The Ocean and the Sun. Where the first album was rock and the second album was experimental, this album seems like a mix of the two. The lineup was taken down to the base four: Rich Balling (The Nightingale) on vocals and production, Matt Embree (The Walrus) on guitar, Chris Tsagakis (The Lynx) on drums, and Anthony Green (The Skunk) on vocals. The worst thing I can say about this album is that the mix sucks. I'm not exaggerating. The instrument mix is good and all, but the vocal mix is quiet as hell. So you'll be listening to some blistering guitar work and Anthony Green will be singing (or screaming) something and all you'll hear are mumbles. I don't know if the copy I have is like that or if all are like that but it's annoying.

Well, with that out of the way, let's get on with it. The album opens up with a spoken word introduction which is the poem "In The Desert" by Stephen Crane translated into Farsi. It leads into title track "The Ocean and the Sun", a low key medium tempo track with Anthony Green at the helm. It sounds a lot like something off Lover, the Lord Has Left Us, especially when the electronics make a return near the end. Next up is "I, the Swan" with Rich Balling handling vocal duties. Something about his voice is soothing to me. I don't know what it is, he just has a deep, warm, calmness about it. The song is sung at a medium pace, with the words "I, the Swan, am beautiful and phallic" repeated a few times throughout the song. Then the tempo kicks up and the guitar increase until it erupts in full force with Anthony Green's higher pitched voice singing the words. The music only picks up from here, finally ending with a group of children saying a few words rather creepily.

"Another Leather Lung" sees Anthony Green with vocal duties again. His vocals are only okay on this song. The tempo is back on medium, with the guitar riffs occasionally switching to a minor key and giving it a darker feel. Just as you feel the song is getting a little monotonous, the song switches into overdrive with the guitars back in their prog rock mode from Tiger and the Duke and Anthony Green screaming his lungs out again. It doesn't last long though.

"Cellophane" is similar to "Another Leather Lung" in structure, except with Balling on vocals, some trumpet, and Balling doing his best Radiohead voice. Actually, that's what the song reminds me of. It is Radiohead-ish. That is until the last part of the song where the crazy, dynamic, guitar work shows itself again with Green's screams and Matt Embree joining in on singing.

The end of the song segues directly into "The Heraldic Beak of the Manufacturer's Medallion". This is a beast of a track. The intense guitar work hinted at throughout the album is put to full force, with Anthony Green singing (not screaming) his way through it. The song is epic, with Embree's blistering riffs and Tsagakis' fantastic drumming brought to the forefront.

"Uzbeckistan" returns to the Lover, the Lord Has Left Us weirdness with the Farsi singer back. However, there's a bit less electronic in this song, more guitar work, a faster pace, and English. It's still strange, but the music is exciting to listen to.

"Blessings Be Yours Mister V" sounds more like a former Rx Bandits track or something. It has Matt Embree on vocals, and the guitars sound really similar to Rx Bandits' style. It's a decent enough track, but I could skip it.

"On the Occasion of Wet Snow" is the album closer. I'm not sure what to say about it. It's a slower paced, atmospheric type song. The vocals have an ethereal quality to them, like wisps of air rolling past. Near the end of the song, everything culminates into a satisfying end.

The album has a few interludes in it, and another spoken word track at the end (which is just the English version of the intro). It's not an album for everybody. I wish there were more tracks like "The Heraldic Beak..." because the teases at the end of some of the other tracks just weren't enough. I hope another album gets released but Rich Balling has been heard saying this will be the last one. If you're into progressive rock, or experimental bands, then this is worth checking out. It's a really hard album to recommend to anybody. All I can say is that it might be your cup of tea, or it might not be. It took me a few listens to really appreciate it. At first I thought it was only okay, but now I think higher of it. I still think the mix is messed up, and that Green's vocals weren't quite as great as they could have been. Still, that could have been due to the mix, but who knows. Also, only one song on the album was anything like Tiger and the Duke. That fact was just a little disappointing. If you were to ask me how I'd rate it on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd say a solid 7.5.

http://www.myspace.com/thesoundofanimalsfighting

For "The Heraldic Beak of the Manufacturer's Medallion"

Test

The test blog. Just posting to see how everything will look on my page in coming days.

This is pretty much a blog for music and occasionally movies. I'll probably review them or just plain discuss them.

I listen to a variety of genres and so you'll probably see some oddly paired bands in this blog. I'm not much of a music snob, so don't expect anything really snobbish. If it's pleasing to my ear, then I'll at least have respect for it. I play an instrument but I probably won't pimp out many things I write.

I might get off to a rough start at first but keep reading and it might get better. Anyways, just read and have fun.