"The Wall": Where Is The Next Great Concept CD?

Hello,

I've been drifting through the world of the amazing Pink Floyd lately, especially their classic CD "The Wall". When will we have the next classic concept album? Don't get me wrong, I love both "American Idiot" and "21st Century Breakdown". However neither one is in the same league as "The Wall". I know that many think of concept albums as pretentious pieces of work. Frankly they may be right, however when they work they can be amazing.

I've been reading just a bit of the following book and I find it's very interesting.

"Tearing Down The Wall: The Contemporary Guide to Decoding Pink Floyd - The Wall One Brick at a Time" by Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff 

Nemcoff writes about how not a note is wasted on "The Wall", even the 17 second intro which is just silence. 

Here's the two parts of "In The Flesh" without the 17 second intro that's silence. These two parts of this one song contain much of the grimness of "The Wall". The death of Pink's father is alluded to in Part 1 plus the cry of the lonely baby. In Part 2 of "In The Flesh" is another of Pink's delusions, he fancies himself the leader of a fascist state. The language is harsh and brutal stereotypes and slang are used to describe various groups of people.  



"Comfortably Numb" is also from "The Wall". This may be the greatest song from this CD, it also may be Pink Floyd's greatest song and is definitely a Top 100 all-time song:

But this isn't a blog about "The Wall", I've already written that blog a couple of times. This is a blog about where the next great concept album will come from. Honestly off the top of my head I can't think of that many previously great concept albums. 

Thankfully we have the Internet and I went there and looked for ideas. Here's a quick list I found, I've compiled this from various websites. For instance, both Classic Rock and Paste magazines websites. This in no way is intended to be a complete list.

1) "The Wall", "Wish You Were Here" and "Dark Side of The Moon"- Pink Floyd

2) "Tommy" and "Quadrophrenia"- The Who

3) "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars"

4) "Red Headed Stranger"- Willie Nelson (I'm currently listening to this album.)

5) "Seventh Son of A Seventh Son"- Iron Maiden

6) "Ok Computer"- Radiohead

7) "Thick As A Brick"- Jethro Tull

8) "2112"- Rush

9) "Suburbs"- Arcade Fire

10) "Illinois"- Sufjan Stevens

11) "Kilroy Was Here"- Styx

12) "Operation Mindcrime"- Queensryche

13) "American Idiot" and "21st Century Breakdown"- Green Day

14) "Pet Sounds"- Beach Boys

15) "The Black Parade"- My Chemical Romance

Just off the top of my head, here's my top 7. Consider this list to be extremely fluid:

7) "The Black Parade"- My Chemical Romance

6) "Kilroy Was Here"- Styx

5) "Illinois"- Sufjan Stevens

4) "Operation Mindcrime"- Queensryche

3) "American Idiot"- Green Day

2) "Dark Side of The Moon"- Pink Floyd

1) "The Wall"- Pink Floyd I don't know how anyone can question this.

Also since I'm writing about Pink Floyd, I want to give a plug to probably their most famous tribute band. Australian Pink Floyd is a great band, not just tribute band, hitting all the same notes of the original Pink Floyd. The Australian Pink Floyd lead singer even sounds like David Gilmour. 

themusicaddict