Favorite Concept Albums

As you may know, stories play a vital role in our world, our lives; we grew up listening to fairy tales that our parents read to us before going to bed. I love a good story, to me, its an escape from the harsh aspects of reality. What i'm about to show you, is a list containing all (well, a good chunk) of my favorite concept albums, and concept album series. If you read this, come of you may debate whether some of these albums or series of albums are actually concept albums, but I think some of these are concept albums, that contain songs that hold a similar theme or idea. Please feel free to comment or criticize, it will be the only way i'll learn more than I need to for this collection of albums.

1. Jay-Z - American Gangster
 
The albums theme, story, concept happens to be based on the film of the same name (American Gangster). Coincidentally the release date of both the album and movie were in the same month and year, only the movie came out 4 days before the album came out.  Each song in the album having a small mini-story, also rapping/singing about how complex we as humans are, some songs touching on Jay-Z's past, living in the projects of Brooklyn. It was interesting to learn that President Obama is a fan of this album. Definitely a work of art to me, one of Jay-Z's best albums.

2. Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns 

Linkin Park was one of the few alternative groups that grew up with while starting to develop an interest for the genre when I was 10. I like how they developed their sound over the years, adding an experimental twist to the album. Their songs now have more intense lyrics, all relating to the concept of nuclear warfare, how humans fear it, also possibly fearing the role of technology, its revolution in the world, taking over the original concept of the human idea. This album possibly shows how we cannot see the future and the possible defaults that are soon to come as the world moves forward.

3. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

When I first heard about this band, I actually thought, judging by their name, that they were some epic-prog-rock band. Thanks to this band, I was curious to read the Shakespearean tragedy of the same name, and I did, and now its my favorite Shakespearean tragedy of all time. I enjoy learning about the Civil War, and in all honesty, this album is a good studying aid (I live in Canada, so I didn't learn about the Civil War, since it was America's problem). The album shows a good depiction of what life was like during the Civil War, the regular lives of folks working, doing their part in the war, what normal life was like then. I liked how the album was named after the USS Monitor, and how the album closed with the song "The Battle of Hampton Roads" which was the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. A good blend of concept and history.

4. Thrice - The Alchemy Index (Vols 1-4)

By far, one of my favorite series of concept albums, studying the mythology and folklore behind the four main elements that build up our world, always interests me. I would like to think they used the Medicine Wheel (part of Aboriginal spirituality) as a huge reference towards this series of albums and what they stand for. Learning about the Medicine Wheel in my religions class (if you care to enlighten yourself, or learn about the medicine wheel, read this http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/Images/medw5.gif), each mini-album has  a unique sound relating to the selected element, the feelings, emotions, atmosphere, what role the element plays in nature and the world around us, the good it does, the bad it does, man's use for it, etc. Each mini-album has a sound that tries to connect with the element. Fire, you get Thrice's original post-hardcore sound. Water, you get a mix of electronica and soft alternative rock, reminiscent of Radiohead's Kid-A (as stated before by Allmusic magazine, and I agree). Air, take water, make it less electronic and more ambient, you get the sound of air. Earth, take Dustin Kensrue's (Thrice front-man) solo works and make them more dirty and gritty, which is what earth is meant to be and look like, for those who aren't fond of Dustin's solo work, its basically Acoustic Folk Rock. Earth sounds like that, only with a twist of dark themes and blues music.

5. The Deer Hunter - The Color Spectrum 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed their original story (Acts 1-3) singing in detail about The Deer Hunter and his quest to learn more about his family. But the concept of singing about the colors of the rainbow is a complex thing to write and sing about, not many artists and bands have tried but The Deer Hunter tried and succeeded.

6. Pink Floyd - The Wall
 
A classic among classics. One man, feeling isolated from the world because of so many judgmental people, being separated from society by a wall.

7. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

A rather dull story told by thematic and powerful songs.

8. My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys 

A perfect example of fighting for what you believe in, also the world that the band paints in their songs and videos interests me.

9. David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Massive contradictions: messages of peace and love, and the rock star cliches of sex and drugs.


10. Coheed and Cambria - The Armory Wars Saga
 
All their albums that lead up to the comics are amazing. They always go into detail, I always enjoy their sound, and how each album is mildly different from each other (in terms of sound). 


Finally, saving the best for last. 11. Tyler, The Creator.


i. Bastard 


At first I was skeptical of whether or not this is an actual concept album, so asked if his albums were concept albums on Yahoo Answers. I received mixed answers, some saying it wasn't, some saying yes. In the end I used my own judgement and thought "yeah, they actually are concept albums". In most of his interviews, Tyler states that he likes to go into detail, and that every song is like a movie that way. Of course each album is like a story leading up to what Tyler is up to, in Bastard he meets Dr. TC (presumably the schools psychologist) and during their "first session" Tyler talks about a wide range of various topics, such as why he hates his dad. Also, what we tend to hear when listening to this album, we tend to hear a lot of Tyler's dark thoughts. 



ii. Goblin 

Otherwise known as "the second session", for further details on the themes of this album, a friend of mine will cover that http://itsoddhowpeopleshake.blogspot.com/2011/05/tyler-creator-goblin-review.html. The ending of this album is so fucked up, I now wonder what the third album will sound like, not just that, but also what themes Tyler will attack and what the state of Tyler will be, will he be the same? Or will he suddenly change due to the ending?

Why Russell Crowe plays a vital role in education

I also enjoy looking back at those days of school, thinking about those great moments I had, a good chunk of it being fun, hanging with friends, learning all the amazing things that I like to learn, I don't know about you guys, but I like school for many reasons (which includes friends and learning). During my Media Studies class, we were studying a unit on film studies (around the time after the holidays). At the beginning of the unit, we were talking about the western film; its sub-genres and how it’s an old film genre that has lead a legacy in terms of how films today are filmed and formatted. After two straight classes of note taking, we watched 3:10 To Yuma (the remake, in case you were wondering, great film btw). After learning that Russell Crowe was in it, I then asked myself "wait a second, wasn't that the dude from those two other movies that I saw previously in school?" Of course having to not pay attention cause I would either be hanging with my group of friends in that class (we were, including one other guy, like the only guys in our class) with that having to hear my friends talk to the girls at the front, or the girls talking to us (oh high school :P) (I don't usually say much, I would just draw or just be quite) or, try my best to concentrate on the movie (luckily I watched it again at home after). But after learning that Russell Crowe was in that movie made me remember the last two times I’ve seen a movie with him in it, both those times being at school. First time being when we watched Cinderella Man in history class in gr.10 (after a unit, we would watch a movie that's based on that unit) after learning about post-WWI history (the 20's, The Great Depression, etc.) we watched Cinderella Man, since it depicted a lot of what we learned about when learning about The Great Depression. Second time being after our health unit about alcohol and drugs, we watched American Gangster (also starring Crowe) while watching the movie we discussed about the illegal trafficking and smuggling of drugs. Which is weird cause we didn't even talk about that earlier on during that unit, I recommended to my gym teacher that we should have watched The Basketball Diaries instead, but he said no because of its intense and somewhat disturbing plot, which is weird because American Gangster is 18A and has a lot of violence and gore while The Basketball Diaries  is 14A and has a lot of not only "drug addicted related problems" but also things that we as teenagers can relate to (then again, the thought of Leo DiCaprio's character doing crazy fucked-up things for drugs (you'd know what I mean if you have seen the movie) makes me cringe). Also, a friend of mine from another school happened to watch Gladiator in his Ancient Civilizations class while learning about the Roman Empire. Another friend of mine, from another school, her class watched A Beautiful Mind in her Sociology class while learning about the basic psychology, mental health and behaviours of human beings. This explains why Russell Crowe is probably a tool of education to most teachers, a quick answer to edutainment, or could this all be a coincidence?

The thing we all want, is it destroying me?

Okay, so I know it’s been a while since my previous blog post, I have been busy with family and volunteer work, and for that I haven't been updating my blog for the past while or so. During that time, I had some time to think about what I wanted to write about for this post. During the past week, I spent a lot of quality time with my cousins (thus being busy with family), one day, I showed my cousin my yearbook, and he then asked me while looking at it, asking if I had a girlfriend. I answered honestly, saying "no". He then laughed jokingly saying that I should have a girlfriend. Even though he was joking (and with that, I found his reaction towards me telling him I’m single to be hilarious). Even though I took it as a joke, that night, I couldn't stop thinking about what he said, it made me ask myself "SHIT!, why don't I have a fucking girlfriend?". Then, I asked myself "Why it is that society makes it so important to have a partner?" and "Why do they portray relationships as a thing that keeps you vital?" I got tired of asking myself questions after and then started to look back on all my previous attempts of trying to find that special someone, I tried 3 times, and failed all 3 times. After the third time, I was depressed for a little bit and then learned that it’s okay to not have a girlfriend. From then on, I became a proud single person. Although I’m happy with my new lifestyle, I still tend to envy those who are shackled to each other. I tend to feel sad, sad by the fact that I have no one to talk too, share food with, cuddle with, etc. This is probably why I don't care about happy endings in movies, plays. And even some romance films (basically I hate all romantic comedy's, except for The Notebook, which actually had a decent story, but I bet many of you can relate). So, the real situation here is the fact that, I love being single, it’s a lifestyle that suits me, if that's so, then why do I have the certain urge to like a certain girl once in a while? Why can’t I forget about it and move on? Why are these feelings mildly interfering with my life when it’s at peace, and importantly, when I’m at peace? So my answer to the question: Is the thing that we all want, is it destroying me? Yes.

What are we really? (first blog)

Well, for the past few weeks or so (since I created my blog), I have been suffering from writer's block, that and I was busy with end of the year assignments and exams (by the 3rd week I knew what I was going to write for this first blog post, but I didn't have the time due to the high amount of exam preparation and studying), now I’m busy with studying for my end of the year exams. Now, because I have the time to write this, I will start this blog off with a poem that I wrote. Well, the only reason why I wrote this poem was because it was for an assignment (are class did a unit on poetry so we had to create slam-poems as our end of the unit assignments). I didn't think that much about what I was writing, but then I started to pay attention to what I wrote, what seemed like a simple task had a lot of hidden complexity behind it, a type of complexity that I learned about and paved attention to after my presentation. Okay, now I have been typing away for a while here, so now here's my poem.


Title: Those Damn Expectations Always Clouding My Dreams 

You hope, and you dream. But you never believe

that something's gonna happen for you.

Not like it does in the movies.

And when it actually does, you want it to feel different,

more visceral, more real.

I was waiting for it to hit me, but it just wouldn't happen.

Even though it didn’t hit me

That doesn’t mean it won’t hit you

You just have to keep believing

That someday maybe not to day maybe not tomorrow

Or maybe not in a year

But someday it will hit you

And you’ll feel extraordinary

You’ll feel as if you were just shun on by a thousand suns

You’ll feel as if no one can hurt you

For that one day you will be yourself

And not something someone else wants you to be

You’ll be yourself so enjoy it as it lasts

Cause at any point, at any time

But, like most of the time, you won’t be yourself anymore you

Will be that person someone else wants you to be

Thank you

I thought a lot about expectations and why they seem to be a big deal in our world after presenting my poem to the class.