History Main / ConceptAlbum

* ''Nisemono'' -- a 2022 EP by indie/city pop joint Ginger Root -- features tracks based on a story where in a fictional [[The80s 1983]], [[IAmTheBand project frontman Cameron Lew]] was set to produce for an up-and-coming idol who suddenly quits out of pressure before her live debut, with Lew being thrust in her place as he already knows the songs. Appropriately, the EP is thematically about imposter syndrome and the journey to overcome not "being yourself".

* Bedroom pop group the scary jokes' ''BURN PYGMALION!!! A Better Guide to Romance'' (2019) focuses on Jeanine, an entertainment journalist, dealing with her neuroses and reflecting on her relationship with movie star Sylvia, as she tends to the latter's country home.

* Life Of Agony's ''River Runs Red''. Three dramatic interludes interspersed throughout the album tell a story of a teen in a troubled home who gradually becomes DrivenToSuicide. The actual songs deal with similar themes of suicide, abuse, and alcoholism.

* Music/AliceCooper released a trilogy of albums called the ''Brutal Planet''/''Dragontown''/''Eyes Of Alice Cooper'' trilogy (About life in a post-apocalyptic CrapsackWorld). He also released ''Along Came A Spider'' (About a serial killer who attempts to construct a spider out of the body parts of his victims) and ''Music/FromTheInside'' (Based on his stay in a New York sanitarium due to his alcoholism).

* [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Spinal Tap's]] 1975 album ''The Sun Never Sweats'' was based around re-telling stories from British legend and mythology, and glorifying the British Empire. (The title track comes from Smalls' mis-hearing of the old saying 'The sun never sets on the British Empire'). Rather than being motivated by any artistic or political convictions, the band were just trying to cash in on the wave of nationalistic pride/chauvinism sweeping Britain at the time.

First was ''School's Out'' (Mostly songs about the teen experience), with the original band. Then solo: ''Welcome To My Nightmare'' (About the nightmares of a disturbed man named Steven), ''Goes To Hell'' (Alice is sent to hell and tries to convince the Devil he doesn't belong there), ''Lace and Whiskey''(Where he takes on the persona of a hard drinking PI from old movies) and ''From The Inside'' (About Alice's time spent in a mental institution trying to cure his alcoholism).

* Music/IDontKnowHowButTheyFoundMe is an indie synth-pop/rock band played as "a band out of time", one that was active during TheEighties but never got their big break and were promptly forgotten. Their {{retreaux}} music videos and other supplementary materials are framed as coming from old cassette tapes that were recently rediscovered and shared online, additionally with a trail of sinister mysteries surrounding [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Tellex Foundation, an ominous corporation whose presence looms over the band's history.]]

* ''Nisemono'' -- a 2022 EP by indie/city pop joint Ginger Root -- features tracks based on a story where in a fictional [[TheEighties 1983]], [[IAmTheBand project frontman Cameron Lew]] was set to produce for an up-and-coming idol who suddenly quits out of pressure before her live debut, with Lew being thrust in her place as he already knows the songs. Appropriately, the EP is thematically about imposter syndrome and the journey to overcome not "being yourself".

** ''Doom Days'', the most obviously conceptual, is an "apocalyptic party album" telling the story of a couple who spend a night in debauchery to distract themselves from the increasing bleakness of world events. Not only are two of the songs, "Quarter Past Midnight" and "4 AM," titled with the times when they take place, but the images on the Website/YouTube official audio versions of the songs give each song a canonical time.

* Music/MelanieMartinez's "Music/CryBaby" is about a woman who comes from a [[HappyMarriageCharade dysfunctional family]]. After [[spoiler:her mother murders her father]], she falls for a boy but it's an unhealthy relationship and they break up. She falls for someone else but is uncomfortable with intimacy. When she finally invites him and friends to her birthday [[OnePersonBirthdayParty no one comes]]. This snaps something in her and she begins to become more confident while at the same time becoming less mentally stable.

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmcLgpC730A Bikini Bottom]]'' by Creator/{{Worthikids}} is a loving tribute to {{Music/Ween}}'s ''Music/TheMollusk''...by way of motifs from ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''.

** ''Music/RideTheLightning'' is similarly focused around the theme of "death", although that just might be because [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDLZix8NVjg Metallica likes death]].

* Music/JethroTull's ''Thick as a Brick'' is sort of a parody of the concept album; the album, a single 43-minute suite with only one track division (where one would have had to switch sides on the original vinyl release), is presented as being an epic poem written by a preteen boy from a country town, expressing his {{wangst}} about growing up British in TheSeventies. It was written because too many people kept calling the previous album, ''[[Music/AqualungJethroTullAlbum Aqualung]]'', a concept album, so Ian Anderson wrote the completely over the top ''Thick as a Brick'' to show them what a concept album actually was.

* Music/DavidBowie had a lot of these in TheSeventies and even a few after that. ''Music/YoungAmericans'' (1975) might or might not be one of the exceptions, but makes up for it by being a truly ''epic'' NewSoundAlbum featuring some of the best blue-eyed {{Soul}} ever made. He also would write a RockOpera with ''Music/{{Outside}}'' in 1995.

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmcLgpC730A Bikini Bottom]]'' by Worthikids is a loving tribute to {{Music/Ween}}'s ''Music/TheMollusk''...by way of motifs from ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''.

** ''MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA'' and ''MAP OF THE SOUL: 7'' include a WholePlotReference to Carl Jung's psychological treatise of the same name, referencing the concepts of Persona, Shadow, and Ego.

* Several albums by [[Music/RushBand Rush]] fit this category to varying degrees, usually with titles that are a play on words for the central concept. Their final studio album, 2012's ''Music/ClockworkAngels'', is the strongest example.

* Music/RushBand's 1990s concept albums are ''Music/{{Counterparts}}'' and ''Music/RollTheBones''. The latter is about chance and fate.

* Music/{{Rush}}'s first concept album was ''Hemispheres''.

** Then there's ''Music/{{Abigail}}''.

* Prince Rama's 2012 album ''Top 10 Hits of the End of the World'' has the band "channeling" various {{Fake Band}}s who died during the apocalypse, with photos of the duo dressed as the fictional artists appearing in the artwork, and [[AllThereInTheManual an official press release providing lore about each of the ten bands]] including how they were killed. Perhaps because it's packaged as a various artists compilation, there's also heavy use of FadingIntoTheNextSong.

* Prince Rama's 2012 album ''Top 10 Hits of the End of the World'' has the group "channeling" various {{Fake Band}}s who died during the apocalypse, with photos of the fictional artists appearing in the artwork, and [[AllThereInTheManual an official press release providing lore about each of the ten bands]] including how they were killed. Perhaps because it's packaged as a various artists compilation, there's also heavy use of FadingIntoTheNextSong.

** An offshoot called Darling Pet Munkee was dedicated to mail order ads found in comic books. Part of the concept is for the lyrics to stick to the hyperbole of the ad copy, as the actual product was usually disappointing in comparison. The "darling pet monkey" ad they named themselves after really ''was'' a [[https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/mail-order-monkeys-other-crazy-comic-book-ads-1.4536179 live squirrel monkey sent through the mail though]].

* ''Music/NewsAt11'' by 猫 シ Corp. is another {{vaporwave}} concept album, sourcing music from American TV broadcasts from September 11th, 2001, [[JustBeforeTheEnd just hours — if not minutes — before]] the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror you-know-what changed the course of American history forever]]. The soundscapes formed are made as an audio collage of the calm, almost innocent banality of American media at the time, [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom sidestepping mentions of the attacks]] but ironically highlighting their importance in [[EndOfAnEra the end of the nostalgic age]] that vaporwave is built on.

** There Existed an Addiction to Blood is a horrorcore album with a 70's/80's horror movie aesthetic, each track preying on typical horror tropes (ranging from [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires being a metaphor for violent black revolution]] and {{snuff film}}s).

* Music/BritneySpears's ''Femme Fatale'' is about toxic relationships and clubbing and ''Britney Jean'' discusses a break up and recovering then finding love again.

* Music/{{Vocaloid}} producer Kurage-P/Wada Takeaki has the 2018 album ''Watashi no Miseinen Kansoku'' (''Diary of Underage Observation''), a series of songs dealing with a group of (mostly) unconnected kids and the wide assortment of problems their school has. According to the album and accompanying comic, its main character is a girl reporting on "youth subject" incidents throughout the school year, and ends with her giving a summary of everything that happened [[spoiler: while ending up saving the protagonist of the first track from committing suicide.]]

--> "The plot revolved around a moderately successful "indie/punk" rock band called Say Anything, fronted by 21-year-old Max Bemis, an idealistic, introverted singer/songwriter crippled by depression and anxiety and alienated by what he sees as a vast hypocrisy inherent in society. One night, a supernatural power "curses" Max with a mysterious affliction. The "curse" causes his innermost fears, fantasies, and thoughts to burst forth from his mouth at any given time in the form of fully arranged rock anthems. Max simply cannot control it: any time he feels a strong emotion, everything around him becomes a bizarre musical. Though Max's new powers at first seem only to frighten people, they soon cause the opposite effect as Say Anything becomes an accidental phenomenon. The blatant honesty of the lyrics as well as the freak-show appeal of a man physically unable to censor himself strike a powerful chord amongst the underground culture that one dismissed Max's music as "unsubstantial". Now, worshipped by rock-and-roll America as a Christ-like figure, Bemis sets out to use his powers to vanquish all hypocrisy. The proposed rock opera planned to chronicle Bemis' rise to power as well as his undoing by the fundamental flaw in the logic of every self-involved, impassioned rock singer. Whether capitalist America is "the enemy" or not, there is greed, duplicity and hatred in every human being, especially in the greatest hypocrites of all: the "entertainers" among us, whose need for attention fosters a sick dream that they alone hold the key to mankind's salvation. In the end, Max is left to fight "the man" with the corniest song he's ever written and the knowledge that accepting love and salvation lies within admitting he is nothing more or less than a human being."

* Music/DreamTheater's ''Music/MetropolisPt2ScenesFromAMemory'' follows the story of [[spoiler: Nicholas and the discovery of his past life, which involves love, murder, and infidelity as Victoria Page.]]

* Music/IcedEarth's ''Horror Show'' is about the monsters and characters from various classic horror movies; ''The Glorious Burden'' is about various historical wars and battles (with a second [=CD=] of [[strike:three songs]] an extremely long song in three parts about the Battle of Gettysburg), and ''Framing Armegeddon (Something Wicked Pt. 1)'' which tells the story of a world conquered by evil invaders and their 10,000 year hidden struggle against them. ''The Crucible of Man (Something Wicked Pt. 2)'' is the sequel to the former album and was released in 2008.

* The album ''Nigredo'' by Diary Of Dreams (a Music/DarkWave band from Germany) is a concept album with a story. It's about a person who discovers that he's actually a being called K'tharsia, who is also the fifth element necessary to create a deadly virus, the titular Nigredo, that would destroy most of humanity. [[spoiler: [[DownerEnding At the end, he unites with the other four elements, leading to the plague outbreak]]]]. One of the following albums, ''Nekrolog 43'', seems to take place into the world after the events of Nigredo. Not that you would know any of that without reading the booklets. Or even after that.

-->And I know they buried her body with others
-->Her sister and mother and five hundred families
-->And will she remember me fifty years later?
-->I wished I could save her in some kind of time machine

* Bunny X's ''[[https://bunnyx.bandcamp.com/album/love-minus-80 Love Minus 80']]' consists of FanMusic based on various sci-fi works, primarily from the '70s and '80s, such as Joe Halderman's ''Literature/TheForeverWar'', Will [=McIntosh=]'s ''Love Minus Eighty''(in the TitleTrack), and William Gibson's ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}''(in "Chiba City Blues").