Concept Records: An Album a Day

Featuring The Mountain Goats, Liz Phair, Frank Sinatra, and others

My friend Ken and I decided to listen to an album every day this year. Each week is themed. At the end of each week, we rank what we listened to. To be clear, we aren’t ranking every album that fits the theme. We are only ranking what we chose to listen to during the last seven days.

This week’s theme is “concept records,” meaning albums where all the tracks cohere around a single story or theme. Concept records are typically associated with the rock era (e.g., Tommy), but the underlying idea goes back decades earlier. Frankly, if you broaden the definition to include song cycles, they possibly go back centuries.

Please note that unlike most other weeks, we are not ranking albums based on how much we enjoyed them. We are ranking them based on how well we think they executed their concept.

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#7 Exile in Guyville by Liz Phair (1993)

Before I tell you anything else, I need to say that Exile in Guyville is an incredible album, a visceral take down of decades of chauvinism in the rock world. But, as noted, we are not ranking based on quality. We are ranking based on execution of concept. And Liz Phair’s 18-song magnum opus is billed as a track-by-track response to The Rolling Stone’s 18-song magnum opus Exile on Main Street.

For nearly every other album on this list, you could piece together the concept just by listening. You would never know this was a track-by-track response to another album simply by listening to this record.

#6 Love, Marriage & Divorce by Toni Braxton and Babyface (2014)

Toni Braxton and Babyface’s collaborative concept record is pretty simple on the surface. In fact, its title is also its descriptor: love, marriage, and divorce. This is about a failed relationship culminating in divorce. As you’d expect, Braxton and Babyface tell this story backed with heart-wrenching R&B production.

The vocals on this record are tremendous. On tracks like “Where Did We Go Wrong?” the pain is palpable. But for an album called Love, Marriage & Divorce, not much of the album is focused on love or marriage. From track one, “Roller Coaster,” the relationship is already on the rocks. As Ken noted, the former love is implied from the heightened emotions. Still, I would have liked to feel a bit more of the love and marriage before the divorce.

#5 Tallahassee by The Mountain Goats (2002)

After releasing six albums recorded effectively as a solo artist with minimal technology, John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats decided to get together a full band for his next project, Tallahassee. These songs, which tell the story of a doomed couple drinking themselves to death, are still spare, but they are fleshed out with bits of bass and percussion.

Like Love, Marriage & Divorce, Tallahassee spends most of its time on the depressing end of this couple’s life. We were expecting a bit more happiness before the Leaving Las Vegas-style end of this tale. Had we just been ranking based on quality, the songwriting alone would have put this album near the top of the list.

#4 Good Old Boys by Randy Newman (1974)

Randy Newman opens Good Old Boys with a shocking stanza:

Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart-ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well, he may be a fool but he’s our fool
If they think they’re better than him they’re wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that’s where I made this song

If those words don’t shock you enough, Newman than sings the n-word in every chorus of that song, “Rednecks.” What is going on? Why is the guy that scored a slew of family-friendly hits for Pixar singing these words?

The sardonic, ironic, iconoclastic Randy Newman shies away from no topics. On Good Old Boys, he inhabits a variety of flawed southern characters trying to face a world changing faster than they ever will.

Originally, this album was supposed to follow a southern racist named Johnny Cutler. Seeds of that character remain through the first tracks on the album, but Newman expanded the scope to include historical events (e.g., “Louisiana 1927”) and more general themes (e.g., “Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)”). This album is a masterpiece, but we docked it a few points for abandoning the initial concept. You could have pulled it off, Mr. Newman!

#3 Undun by The Roots (2011)

In general, I am not a lover of concept records. First, they often attempt to turn pop music into some high concept that I don’t think it needs to be. Second, when they do follow a narrative, the narrative usually doesn’t go much further than recounting someone’s life.

Undun technically falls into the simple narrative category. It tracks the tumultuous life of a drug dealer. But The Roots turn this story on its head. They tell it in reverse. Could you tell this story chronologically? Sure. But by flipping it upside down, it turns an overdone format into something novel.

#2 The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks (1968)

Just as their British Invasion compatriots were taking over the US, The Kinks had a problem. Disputes with US musicians’ unions effectively banned them from touring in the country for years. Of course, this affected their ability as a live act. But it also affected their songwriting.

As their fellow Brits expanded their sound to meet the demands of global audiences, the music of the Davies brothers became more provincial. The apotheosis of this provinciality was The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society.

The Village Green Preservation Society is focused on a theme rather than a narrative, The Kinks lamenting an evolving British society. And this album is very British in sound and imagery. But that illustrates its appeal. By focusing on where they were from, The Kinks ended up making an album built around ideas that listeners could identify with everywhere.

Well, not at the time. Marred by a poor roll out and The Beatles and The Rolling Stones releasing records around the same time (i.e., The Beatles, Beggars Banquet), The Village Green Preservation Society failed to chart. Since then, it’s become their best-selling album in the United Kingdom and their best-regarded album everywhere else.

#1 In the Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra (1955)

When you read about the history of the concept album, people will sometimes refer to In the Wee Small Hours as the first record of this type. This is not strictly true (see Dust Bowl Ballads). Still, In the Wee Small Hours reshaped how many artists conceived of what an album could be.

There is no narrative running through this record. It is—as it’s album cover suggests—Frank Sinatra at his most melancholy, trying to press on through the darkness of myriad failed relationships. To quote Ken, “Damn! Frank was down bad.”

In the Wee Small Hours succeeds at what it is aiming for. The songwriting is immaculate. The arrangements capture a depressing night roaming the town. And then there’s that voice. I don’t think any vocalist has ever realized the pain of lost love so completely. If the title track doesn’t entrance you, then I guess you are lucky never to have had your heart broken.

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