An Introduction: A concept album is one in which all songs are expanding on one single theme. Some can also be called rock operas, such as The Who’s exemplary Tommy, while others are just collections of songs all revolving around a thought or idea that the writers were focused on. Concept albums are difficult to do well, as to make it great the songs should stand on their own, but also fit into the story or concept when heard in the context of the entire album. They also seem to bring out the best in the artists involved, as seen in such classic albums as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. So this list was conceived as a collection of five of my favorite concept albums that have come out in the last 10 years. I’ll be posting a write-up on each separately over the coming weeks, so without further ado… here’s #5.
5. Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Coheed and Cambria are a band with a concept so grand that it is really rather surprising how successful they have been. Concept albums are ambitious projects that most bands seem to take on later in their career, when they have gathered a large group of fans which will have the patience to appreciate the brilliant music. Yet Coheed and Cambria have built a career from the beginning out of a series of concept albums outlining the escapades of a group of characters in an increasingly convoluted space opera story, even taking their name from the two main characters, making them in essence a “Concept Band” (There will be another one of these on this list). The Armory Wars, as the entire story line is called, has even been written in several graphic novels which correspond to the various albums, although not all have been accounted for yet. This particular album is my favorite though, and contains the popular songs “Welcome Home,” and “Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial),” the latter of which is a song chronicling a conversation the Writer of the tale has with his ten speed bicycle about how to end the story (really, go listen to it or read the lyrics). The thing about Coheed’s music is that often-times they lyrics are so convoluted you won’t know there is a story going on unless you go looking for it, and it is because of this that the albums generally work on both levels, being both great individual songs but also having some amazing flow when heard in the full context.
