#conceptalbum — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #conceptalbum, aggregated by home.social.
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Free download codes:
Coma Beach - I Won't Listen
"Coma Beach’s 'I Won’t Listen' cuts like shards of broken glass — four violent jolts of punk rock refusal and post-punk gloom."
#indierock #alternativerock #postpunk #dark #punkrock #poppunk #conceptalbum #angry #anthemic #philosophical #music
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Free download codes:
Coma Beach - I Won't Listen
"Coma Beach’s 'I Won’t Listen' cuts like shards of broken glass — four violent jolts of punk rock refusal and post-punk gloom."
#indierock #alternativerock #postpunk #dark #punkrock #poppunk #conceptalbum #angry #anthemic #philosophical #music
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Free download codes:
Coma Beach - I Won't Listen
"Coma Beach’s 'I Won’t Listen' cuts like shards of broken glass — four violent jolts of punk rock refusal and post-punk gloom."
#indierock #alternativerock #postpunk #dark #punkrock #poppunk #conceptalbum #angry #anthemic #philosophical #music
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Free download codes:
Coma Beach - I Won't Listen
"Coma Beach’s 'I Won’t Listen' cuts like shards of broken glass — four violent jolts of punk rock refusal and post-punk gloom."
#indierock #alternativerock #postpunk #dark #punkrock #poppunk #conceptalbum #angry #anthemic #philosophical #music
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Free download codes:
Arctic Plant - A Wandering Mind
"'A Wandering Mind' is a philosophical journey about belonging and arrival."
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Vinylsonntag: @williamshatner - Seeking Major Tom (2011) 🇨🇦
#vinylsonntag #semmehorcht #vinylsunday #vinylmatinee #nowspinning #instavinyl #vinylcollection #vinylcommunity #recordcollector #recordcollection #vinyloninstagram #vinyllovers #spinningvinyl #vinyladdict #audiophile #rockmusic #classicrock #conceptalbum #spokenword #spacemusic #scifi #startrek #captainkirk #williamshatner #seekingmajortom #majortom #davidbowie #spaceoddity #cleopatrarecords #33rpm #3vinyls
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Orchestra Harlow – Hommy (A Latin Opera) (1973, Puerto Rico/Cuba/US)
Our next spotlight is on number 1039 on The List, submitted by myself (buffyleigh).
Ever wondered what an Afro-Caribbean/salsa version of The Who’s 1969 rock opera Tommy might sound like?
This is a recommendation via a recommendation, as it was found in a book suggested to me on Mastodon. The book: Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes, which covers 1973 to 1977 and the half-dozen genres that emerged in NYC at that time, including salsa. This album was mentioned in the first few pages and completely stalled me (full disclosure: I started this book in May 2024 and still haven’t finished, because every time I touch it I have another 5 or 10 new-to-me artists/albums to check out).
And, while we’re at it, full disclosure, part B: I heard this album *before* hearing (or seeing) Tommy for the first time. So, I had no expectations or knowledge of how close it was to the original. And, a year and a half later, I’m not sure I can comfortably comment on this. I did listen to Tommy directly after my first spin of Hommy, but, well, was weirded out by the gross stuff in that storyline, and so I’m only getting back to Tommy for a second spin right now, as I’m typing. I think it’s safe to say though that, rather than a faithful adaptation of Tommy by any means, Hommy is more of an ‘inspired by’ work with a similar narrative framework (e.g., the titular character is deaf and blind, and is a fantastic conga player) but all original songs with lyrics by Puerto Rican composer and singer Genaro “Heny” Álvarez (and without, afaik since I don’t speak Spanish, any of Tommy‘s creepy stuff).
And, as you may have guessed from the group name and title, a few more than just a quartet were involved in Hommy. Headed by American bandleader and producer Larry Harlow (aka “El Judío Maravilloso”), over 60 Puerto Rican, Cuban, and American musicians were in this Fania-released production, including the fabulous Cuban singer who would later be known as the “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz (as Gracia Divina, cf. Tommy‘s Acid Queen), José “Cheo” Feliciano, Justo Betancourt, Junior González, Tony Jimenez, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera, Adalberto Santiago, and Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez. With such a number of musicians creating a Latin opera full of spectacular singing, Afro-Caribbean percussion, horns, and strings, you’re sure to enjoy this, whether you know Tommy (or Spanish) or not. The opera also apparently ends with pleas to the forces that be to end suffering on Earth in general and that era’s war (Vietnam) in particular, which I can definitely get behind.
Fwiw, if I had to choose between the two operas, I’d choose Hommy every time.
#1970s #AfroCubanMusic #CeliaCruz #conceptAlbum #Cuba #Fania #LarryHarlow #LatinMusic #ListenToThis #music #musicDiscovery #opera #OrchestraHarlow #OrquestaHarlow #PuertoRico #salsa
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summersnowstorm – Christmas Cards and Firearms
#Acoustic #LGBTQ #Rock #acousticguitar #acousticrock #antiwar #antiwarsongs #bedroomrock #conceptalbum #indierock #lofi #lofirock #Boston
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://summersnowstorm.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-cards-and-firearms -
Our next spotlight in our new “Thursday, What A Concept” series is on number 21 on The List, submitted by @dan.
Similar to Bowie’s Outside album (as noted in the previous TWAC post), Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid is but one of an ambitiously planned yet unfinished cycle of concept albums. Unlike with Bowie’s cycle, however, we have thankfully been gifted more than one part for Monáe’s cycle – five of seven to date, in fact, plus some change.
While Monáe’s 2007 debut EP, Metropolis: The Chase Suite, is considered the official beginning of the cycle, its roots can be found in Monáe’s 2003 demo album, The Audition (also called Metropolis: Point Zero), via two tracks. The setting – inspired by the silent film of the same name – as well as the general storyline and themes/concepts that are found in the releases that follow, are set out in “Metropolis”:
Population, ten zillion and six
Where signs say, “Welcome to the Star Core Metropolis”
Me, I live on the wired side of town
Reaching and searching for a space called paradise found…And it’s a common thought
That wired folk can be sold and bought
That we have no feelings, no memories or minds
That we’re bionic strumpets, only worth a dime
To some it’s a surprise when I smile
And when I hold your hand
They say, “How can a wired thing understand?
Love is too deep, it’s too wide to feel
When your soul is a button and your foot glows in heels”…Hey, Anthony Greendown from Sector Nine…
The love when I hold your hand
I wanna take you
Take you with me to another landIn the next track, “Cindi”, Monáe briefly introduces Cindi as their alter ago, who we will then follow in the Metropolis cycle: a time-travelling android named Cindi Mayweather, who is sentenced to disassembly because she fell in love with a human (the Anthony Greendown mentioned above). In running from the bounty hunters and seeming to die and being reincarnated at least once, Cindi transforms into something of a messianic figure for other oppressed androids, known as the ArchAndroid.
Following the brief 17-minute Metropolis: The Chase Suite (suite I of the cycle), The ArchAndroid (suites II and III of the cycle) has over a hour of room to really get into the story, which is then continued in the 2013 The Electric Lady (suites IV and V), also over an hour long. So, with that much material, it’s unsurprising that a lot could be said about the concept behind The ArchAndroid and its companion albums. The cycle is an absolutely brilliant, multi-layered piece of Afrofuturistic sci-fi that asks for (and deserves) repeated listening sessions. And, in fact, as quickly found in doing a brief search, many blog posts, articles, and at least a few academic papers have been devoted to the Metropolis/Cindi Mayweather cycle; The ArchAndroid in particular has a 33 1/3 volume published on it, and, as heard via discussion on Mastodon, has even been included in the curriculum for at least one course on contemporary Black literature. So, if you want to dig into the storyline more, there’s a lot out there to peruse.
As for the music? Even if you weren’t paying attention to the lyrics and story at all, this album takes you places. The breadth of styles/genres covered in The ArchAndroid (and the others in the cycle) – and, obviously, Monáe’s talent – is simply staggering. Monáe also uses a performance device that I really love in the work of other musical experimenters such as Bowie (and, to a lesser extent, Prince), that of using multiple distinct singing voices, either to indicate a different character or simply to match the style of the song – e.g., compare the dreamy classic musical/cinematic-type voice in “Sir Greendown” and “BaBopBye Ya” vs. what might be considered Monáe’s more “normal” voice in “Cold War” vs. the robotic/computery voice in “Wondaland” vs. the ethereal/folk tones in “57821” (The Chase Suite EP also has some operatic stuff going on in the glorious but short “Cybertronic Purgatory”). There are some fun cameos as well, including Saul Williams and Big Boi (of Outkast).
So, musically, you can’t go wrong with just listening to The ArchAndroid, but my suggestion would be to start from the beginning and listen to everything we have so far of the cycle. At least make sure you also get to what is currently the last entry in the cycle, The Electric Lady, both to hear the Prince cameo and the really fun radio interludes (…not to mention appearances by Erykah Badu, and Solange, et al.). It’s been over 10 years since The Electric Lady, but there’s still hope we’ll get the final instalments of this great cycle.
The ArchAndroid – what a concept!
#1001OtherAlbums #2010s #BigBoi #conceptAlbum #funk #JanelleMonáe #neosoul #psychedelic #SaulWilliams #ThursdayWhatAConcept