18_concept_albums

From Twenty One Pilots to Thrice, here are the backstories of 18 concept albums

The  backstory of an album can generate an out-of-body experience by virtue of the potential daydreaming. With some conceptual albums the storyline is clear cut, while others are more subtle. Either way, losing yourself in someone else’s world can be a welcome escape. Here are 20 concept albums worth exploring.

Read more: 10 times bands were accused of ripping off another band’s album cover

Green DayAmerican Idiot

Widely considered a political album, the multi-Platinum American Idiot contains the story of a protagonist named “Jesus Of Suburbia.” The lower-middle-class teen goes through the motions of leaving his hometown behind and runs into the characters “St. Jimmy” and “Whatsername,” who are each other's’ enemies. The dichotomy of the two side characters end up representing opposites.

SilversteinThis Is How The Wind Shifts

In unique fashion, Silverstein’s 2013 album orders its tracklisting in a divergent manner. Each song has a respected parallel track: “Arrivals”/“Departures,” “Massachusetts”/“California,” “Stand Amid The Roar”/“In A Place Of Solace.” The angle explores how a single event could change someone’s life in drastic ways.

Armor For SleepWhat To Do When You Are Dead

What To Do When You Are Dead tells the tale perfect for any emotionally deep demographic. The record tackles the concept of a central character committing suicide, and the whole release is from their perspective postmortem.

Jack’s MannequinEverything In Transit

The debut album from Andrew McMahon’s masterful Jack’s Mannequin, Everything In Transit is both a concept and personal album. With a storyline of McMahon returning to a hometown he previously left and experiencing the crumbling of a relationship, this is any emo kid’s vision of paradise in the span of an album.

Twenty One PilotsBlurryface

Twenty One Pilots’ fourth album has sold over a million copies, a feat that’s even more impressive when you take a look at the artistic insight: Blurryface, standing as the central thematic character, represents the individual and the larger societal picture in terms of what insecurities frontman Tyler Joseph (and by proxy, listeners) hold.

A Perfect CircleThirteenth Step

With a title that references the 12-step recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous, the second album to come from A Perfect Circle dives into outlooks in the world of addiction. Vocalist Maynard James Keenan stated in the band’s Amotion DVD, “Some of the songs are sung from the perspective of the actual drug, from the perspective of someone who has realized that they have an issue or a problem, also from the perspective of a person who realizes that if they don't do something they're going to die, [as well as] a song from the perspective of a person who is in denial about a loved one, dying right before their eyes.”

La DisputeRooms Of The House

Mixing fiction and nonfiction, Rooms Of The House is a random, multi-decade timeline of characters going through the trials and trepidation of life: making a home a home, the deterioration of a relationship, and even life-threatening scenarios.

Defeater[Multiple]

For any history buff out there, Defeater is probably going to be the concept band for you. Four albums of material jump within the lives of a New Jersey family after World War II, each giving crucial perspectives on relatives going through financial troubles, heroin addiction, alcoholism and crime.

Funeral For A FriendTales Don’t Tell Themselves

If you’re afraid of the ocean, beware! Tales Don’t Tell Themselves sees a fisherman becoming the sole survivor of a deadly storm at sea. After washing ashore in some unknown location, the man decides to build a raft and search for help.

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Sufjan StevensCarrie & Lowell

Carrie & Lowell is an album that will make you grab the tissues. The 2015 release that made made many end-of-the-year lists explores Stevens’ grief and memories following the death of his mother, Carrie. Her passing led to Stevens creating an album about family memories, mental illness and hitting rock bottom.

ThriceThe Alchemy Index Vols. I, II, III & IV

Thrice’s Alchemy Index has each element of nature represented: fire, water, air and earth. To make it even more inventive, each EP ends with a sonnet in iambic pentameter detailing from the actual point of view of each element. For example on the first volume, “The Flame Deluge” takes the brutal first-person of fire itself and relates it to humankind’s use of nuclear weapons: “And who will stand to greet the blinding light?/It's lonely when there's no one left to fight.”

Death Cab For CutieTransatlanticism

When you listen to Death Cab For Cutie, you are surely expecting to be pulled in some heartfelt direction. Transatlanticism focuses primarily on long-distance relationships. The title track does a swell job at summing up the theme with the repeated lyric “I need you so much closer.”

Aaron West And The Roaring Twenties We Don’t Have Each Other

A move that’s not common in the alternative scene, the Wonder Years’ Dan Campbell uses this solo project to take on a character other than himself. Aaron West recalls some of the worst years of his life including the failing of his marriage after a miscarriage, drinking habits, the loss of his father, and trying to start over somewhere else.

AlesanaThe Emptiness

With influences including Edgar Allen Poe, David Lynch and Stephen King,  this Alesana album will have your mind reveling in dark ruminations. The Emptiness is centered upon  a sketch artist finding his lover dead, burying her in the basement, going mad and killing a group in a tavern, and then attempting to seek revenge on whoever killed his love.

Protest The HeroKezia

Using a fictitious, overarching storyline to hint at current societal faults, Kezia finds Protest The Hero commenting on the influence of religion and power in today’s world. The concept centers around the execution of the character, Kezia, told from the point of view of three individuals: a priest, the executioner and the main protagonist.

WhitechapelThe Somatic Defilement

Deathcore has always been a genre that holds no descriptive detail out of the storyline. The first album from Whitechapel takes on the narrative of legendary serial killer Jack The Ripper. Throughout the album, the band present vividly clear depictions of the murder of prostitutes. Don’t let your mom listen to this one.

The Wonder Years No Closer To Heaven

Touching a topic such as the loss of a loved one can be harrowing for both an artist and his audience.  After vocalist Dan “Soupy” Campbell went through a period of writer’s block, he looked at the larger picture of what life holds. Topics ponder how outcomes could be different if someone survived, and a self-critique of being there for someone else when they need it most.

My Chemical Romance The Black Parade

A band held on a pedestal for their extraordinary vision, My Chemical Romance fired on all cylinders for the Platinum-selling The Black Parade, making the whole album cycle a ride riddled with multi-tiered essences of dark art. The rock opera sees “the Patient” die, join the afterlife and look back on the impactful memories close to his heart.

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