Your Favorite Concept Album :]

[Newguy562]

These are the only ones i've heard so far that i love.

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society
Pink Floyd - Animals
The Who - Quadrophenia
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Beach Boys - Smile
The Kinks - Arthur

[Chocolate Shake Man]

The definition of concept album seems sketchy at best. For me, though, I can't think of something as a concept album unless it announces itself as such in some particular way, rather than needing a listener to try and force a concept onto it. With that in mind, I personally can't think of Pet Sounds or Smile as concept albums and maybe I'm dim but I have a hard time thinking of Village Green that way too. These albums are thematic, no doubt, but I would question them as concepts. I would throw in:

Side A of Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel
Side B of Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by The Small Faces
Good Old Boys by Randy Newman

and if children's albums count, I'd say:

The Rheostatics - Harmelodia
Harry Nilsson - The Point!

[Jason]

Until the rock opera craze of the late 1960s and 1970s, when I think "concept album" I think Songs For Swingin' Lovers, Little Deuce Coupe and such. Pink Floyd's 1973-83 stuff would count. Genesis, too.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

All Summer Long
Shut Down Volume II
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Surfer Girl
Surfin' USA
Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' Safari

And oh yeah -- Pet Sounds

[Newguy562]

All Summer Long
Shut Down Volume II
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Surfer Girl
Surfin' USA
Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' Safari

And oh yeah -- Pet Sounds

i don't think u get wat i'm talking about by "concept album" lol..all of those albums don't stick to the theme lol
excluding pet sounds

[Jason]

All Summer Long
Shut Down Volume II
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Surfer Girl
Surfin' USA
Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' Safari

And oh yeah -- Pet Sounds

i don't think u get wat i'm talking about by "concept album" lol..all of those albums don't stick to the theme lol
excluding pet sounds

no i don't think u get wat were talking about lolz concept albumz hav been around since teh 50s.

[SMiLE Brian]

All Summer Long
Shut Down Volume II
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Surfer Girl
Surfin' USA
Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' Safari

And oh yeah -- Pet Sounds

i don't think u get wat i'm talking about by "concept album" lol..all of those albums don't stick to the theme lol
excluding pet sounds

They are summer/car concept albums.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

All Summer Long
Shut Down Volume II
Summer Days and Summer Nights
Surfer Girl
Surfin' USA
Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' Safari

And oh yeah -- Pet Sounds

i don't think u get wat i'm talking about by "concept album" lol..all of those albums don't stick to the theme lol
excluding pet sounds

Those albums follow a theme as much as Pet Sounds does.

[Newguy562]

Those albums have mismatch songs that don't belong in those albums.
Do i have to point out which songs?

[SMiLE Brian]

Those albums have mismatch songs that don't belong in those albums.
Do i have to point out which songs?

Let me explain the concept for you, concept albums are albums that all have a central theme that their songs generally follow.
The Beach Boys meet this requirement on several albums:
surfin usa- surfing
surfer girl- surfing/summertime
LDC- Hotrod cars
all summer long- summer of 1964
Today- young romance/growing up
Summer days- summertime
pet sounds- ups and downs of romance
SMiLE- Americana?

[I. Spaceman]

Those albums have mismatch songs that don't belong in those albums.
Do i have to point out which songs?

And you listed Sgt. Pepper? Please, man.

My favourite would be Frank Sinatra's Watertown.

[hypehat]

The Beatles themselves said that Pepper wasn't a concept album beyond the title track and its reprise.

I don't think The Beach Boys ever did one, too. Little Deuce Coupe would come closest. If Pet Sounds is a concept album, then so is Please Please Me. Or Back To Mono. Hell, I don't think just saying 'Ups and downs of love' counts as a concept. Most songs, and the albums they belong on, are about love, or girls, or boys, or whatever. Are they grand concepts?

Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome, by Parliament. Now THAT'S a concept album. 

[Newguy562]

Those albums have mismatch songs that don't belong in those albums.
Do i have to point out which songs?

Let me explain the concept for you, concept albums are albums that all have a central theme that their songs generally follow.
The Beach Boys meet this requirement on several albums:
surfin usa- surfing
surfer girl- surfing/summertime
LDC- Hotrod cars
all summer long- summer of 1964
Today- young romance/growing up
Summer days- summertime
pet sounds- ups and downs of romance
SMiLE- Americana?

On the pre pet sounds albums ..they have a few songs that fit the title and theme but they also have random songs that don't belong there..i know the beach boys werent going for a theme. sgt. pepper f***ed up a couple times too

[Chocolate Shake Man]

The Beatles themselves said that Pepper wasn't a concept album beyond the title track and its reprise.

I don't think The Beach Boys ever did one, too. Little Deuce Coupe would come closest. If Pet Sounds is a concept album, then so is Please Please Me. Or Back To Mono. Hell, I don't think just saying 'Ups and downs of love' counts as a concept. Most songs, and the albums they belong on, are about love, or girls, or boys, or whatever. Are they grand concepts?

Exactly. Like I said, I can't think of something as a concept album unless it announces itself in some way as having some kind of narrative. And while Pepper really only has one song that relates to the concept (the title track which is later repeated somewhat differently), its concept is basically a flowery band of old people putting on a concert (announced both in that track and in the cover), so there doesn't really need to be a repetitive theme for it to be a concept album. Pet Sounds, on the other hand...

[Aum Bop Diddit]

Thanks to those who defended and elucidated on the listing of those pre-Pet Sounds Beach Boys LPs.  Hell yeah they are concept albums! 

To posit a more "traditional" choice, I'd say Love's "Forever Changes."  Arthur Lee's vision of his death (which did not come at that time) being the "forever change".

Sleeper -- the Kinks' "Schoolboys in Disgrace".  Their most underrated in one of the world's most overlooked bodies of work.

[Mike's Beard]

I always considered concept albums to be those that tell a story through the songs. Certainly those of the late 60s to mid 70s.
There have been some really bad ones. Preservation Act II by the Kinks springs straight to mind (oddly I found Act I really grew on me). I've never heard it but I hear Music From The Elder by Kiss is appalling.
What was the question again? Oh yeah, favourite concept album. Must give a shout out to Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa.

[Jay]

SMiLE, Quadrophenia, Tommy, Who's Next/Lifehouse, Dark Side Of The Moon, Psychoderelict, Brain Salad Surgery.

[meltedwhiskeyinmyhand]

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

[Aum Bop Diddit]

I always considered concept albums to be those that tell a story through the songs. Certainly those of the late 60s to mid 70s.
There have been some really bad ones. Preservation Act II by the Kinks springs straight to mind (oddly I found Act I really grew on me). I've never heard it but I hear Music From The Elder by Kiss is appalling.
What was the question again? Oh yeah, favourite concept album. Must give a shout out to Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa.

Most of those 70s Kinks concept LPs were better seen live -- I saw the "Soap Opera" tour and it was great fun, but as a record it was pretty lame.  "Preservation Act One" and "Schoolboys in Disgrace" hold up for me because they each contain several great songs and tracks. 

[Slow In Brain]

Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabelle, damn hard to find a copy though
Feline by the Stranglers concept in sound
Vladimir Chronicles by the Strangers and solo combinations then run the songs in sequence to tell the story

[Amazing Larry]

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
And on a completely different note, I think I am the youngest on the board, not newguy.

[BananaLouie]

 David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars

[Mike's Beard]

Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabelle, damn hard to find a copy though
Feline by the Stranglers concept in sound
Vladimir Chronicles by the Strangers and solo combinations then run the songs in sequence to tell the story

I have yet to hear a better concept album about a European Officer and his love affair with a camel. I doubt I ever will.

[tansen]

of Montreal's 'The Gay Parade' and 'Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse'

[Slow In Brain]

Barcelona by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabelle, damn hard to find a copy though
Feline by the Stranglers concept in sound
Vladimir Chronicles by the Strangers and solo combinations then run the songs in sequence to tell the story

I have yet to hear a better concept album about a European Officer and his love affair with a camel. I doubt I ever will.