Quote:
Originally Posted by Pet_Sounds
How about Graceland? It's got no storyline, but is often called a concept album because of its African themes.
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^ This question has been nagging at me for ages, Pet_Sounds! I never thought of it as a concept album but I wasn't sure why until the other day, when I was jolted into forming a coherent answer.
I don't consider it a concept album because the lyrics explore so many different areas of life; sometimes the African ghetto, sometimes celebrities or politicians, sometimes the New York intelligencia. Then, just the other day, in an All Music review of an unrelated album, I came across this sentence,
"The album should be listened to as an entity." For me, this applies very well to
Graceland; it's not a concept album, but because of the musical interconnectedness of the songs, it should be considered as an entity.
"Listened to as an entity" is a useful category for all manner of instrumental albums too. Take almost any jazz album, for instance; the songs probably hang together as an exploration of a certain style, mood or period. If there are no lyrics it probably won't be called a concept album as such, but it coud be awarded entity status to differentiate it from some uncoordinated stylistic rag bag.
Does that make sense? At least it's now clear in my head and I can stop worrying about your question!!