Every good album is a concept album
I’ve started working on my third album, which I’m giving the working title of ‘Three Rows of Teeth’.
I’ve got most of the songs demoed and written. There are tweaks to be made, and lyrics to be sorted out, and knowing me – two or three songs that are yet to be written that will find themselves on the album.
However, I can listen to a rough (sometimes very rough) version of every song on the album. Now I’m at the pre-production stage. I need to make a decision: what is the concept for this album?
Every album is a concept album.
Concept albums got a bad press for a good few years, mostly because of the excesses of certain bands in the ’70s. This led to a lot of musicians not wanting to admit that every good album is a concept album.
I don’t mean that every album should have a storyline, that the lyrics should be about the same thing or that musical themes should be repeated and reprised throughout.
Instead I mean that there should be an idea that ties the thing together, that stops it from being just a random collection of songs that happen to have been recorded together.
Exactly what that through line should be varies – it could be simply the tone of the album, either musically or lyrically. It could be something more pretentious like a story or programme.
It could be a reaction to somethng that happened previously – for example Kid A could be seen as a reaction against Radiohead’s previous albums, a way of saying ‘we’re done with being a guitar based band for a while, here are some new sounds’.
Similarly ‘Vitalogy’ by Pearl Jam is most definitely a reaction against the commercial success of their previous albums that threw them into a spotlight they wanted to escape.
Whatever the concept, a good album needs one and I want ‘Three Rows of Teeth’ to be a good album.
As you might know, I usually write narrative songs, so there is a bit of a connection in that most of the songs I’ve written are about characters. It won’t have a plot, but the cast of disparate characters almost make it a series of musical portraits.
What I really need to decide on now is the structure and tracklist, and the sonic tone of the album. Spinning the Compass was elaborate, acoustic rock with lots of distorted twiddly/crunchy bits. IronBark was a bit more polished, acoustic based and with several manic prog-rock flourishes. Three Rows of Teeth will be… I’m not sure yet.
Perhaps I should take inspiration from my favourite ‘concept’ albums. How about the glorious Indie-Prog of Mansun?
Related posts:
- No Song is an Island – How to put your album or live set together
- Spinning the Compass – A Steampunk Album
- My New Album – IronBark
- How not to complete February Album Writing Month
About the Author
Tom IndieSongwriter.net is a website about songwriting. It is written by Tom Slatter, a musician and teacher who can also be found at tomslatter.co.uk. IndieSongwriter, used to be called Songwright.co.uk.
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1 -Neil’s Heavy Concept Album – classic -not only did I have that album – I saw Neil on tour!!!!!!!! – True Story
2 – totally agree with you. I think this is a modern problem. Pre 80′s (?) most albums were recorded in one location by one producer over a very limited time. That in itself provided, if not a concept, then a sonic palette. Think Rick Rubin does this well for obvious reasons. When an album’s recorded over several years all across the world with a whole host of producers and sidemen it’s no surprise there’s no unifying principle
You saw Neil on tour! I am SO jealous.
Yeah, the pop groups don’t do albums anymore – possibly a whole generation are growing up listening to single songs in poor quality mp3 and never having the joy of listening to an entire album.
I find this depressing. Music comes in more than just 3 minute bite size chunks!
Yeah but I would argue that albums stop being albums before iTunes started chopping em up – I think Thriller was a big turning point – just a bundle of singles. I love an album that really is an album – Pet Sounds, Back In Black, Toxicity, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Ella Sings Gershwin but most are not.
Oh Man – Lentil Nightmare was unbeleeeeeivable!!!!
albums *stopped* being albums
new and used from £70! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neils-Heavy-Concept-Album-Neil/dp/B00000AP9M/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1340662105&sr=1-1
When I was in my early teens, I decided to quit buying “greatest hits” and “best of” albums. Artists like Billy Joel put a lot of thought into how songs should go together, the general tone of the album, and so on. To truly appreciate their vision, I needed to listen to their original records.
I came to realize that not everybody puts as much thought into the cohesiveness of an album as Billy Joel. And a lot of the records/CDs consisted of one good song (the hit) and a bunch of filler. This is why Best Ofs and Greatest Hits exist in the first place.
I don’t want the album as a format to go away. On the other hand, giving listeners the ability to cherry pick motivates artists not to pad their albums out with lackluster songs. Let’s give fans a reason to listen to the whole package.
‘Let’s give fans a reason to listen to the whole package.’ Absolutely.
Kids aren’t listening to albums so much though – it’s all about youtube for the younger generation. They’re not listening to albums or buying cds, or even paying for downloads.