FEATURE:
The Dreaded C-Word
Has the Idea of the Concept Album Died Out?
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WHILST there have been some terrific albums…
released through the years, there have been some changes and declines that are worrying. Not to say that the concept album has been a big thing through the ages and has really slumped. I do feel that we saw more concept albums in the 1970s and years gone by. In 2004, The Streets released the majestic A Grand Don't Come for Free. is a Rap opera and concept album that follows the story of its protagonist's relationship with a girl named Simone, alongside the mysterious loss of £1,000 from his home (the eponymous ‘grand’). I think the concept had a bad reputation when it was done a lot by Prog-Rock acts as they went on for ages and were quite pretentious. I think there have been some concept albums over the last few years, but it is quite rare to hear them that often. When done right, a concept album can provide so much drama, cinema and wonderful moments. Rather than put together a selection of songs without a unifying theme, it is interesting when there is this story and overarching thread. Not that it is a pure concept album, but I was interested to hear news about Kacey Musgraves’ upcoming album. Rather than it being a straight or commercial album, as we can see from this article in The Line of Best Fit, Musgraves has combined modern politics with ancient tragedies:
“Kacey Musgraves, who won four Grammys in 2019, two of which were album awards for Golden Hour, hasn't released new music since featuring on Troye Sivan's updated version of "Easy" in December last year, but in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Musgraves reveals some information about her new album set for release later this year.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eric T. White
Musgraves has been working with producer Daniel Tashian, and revealed to Rolling Stone that she was inspired by tragedies after listening to Bach’s "Komm, süßer Tod, komm selge Ruh", which led her to think about Greek tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and the classic three-act narrative.
She said, "This last chapter of my life and this whole last year and chapter for our country - at its most simple form, it’s a tragedy. And then I started looking into why portraying a tragedy is actually therapeutic and why it is a form of art that has lasted for centuries. It’s because you set the scene, the audience rises to the climax of the problem with you, and then there’s resolve. There’s a feeling of resolution at the end. I was inspired by that."
Having been inspired by that structure, Musgraves started to group her 39 songs written over the past few years into acts, which allowed the album to take shape. She told Rolling Stone, "It’s crazy because you have to just wait on it. You can’t ask for it."
After grouping the songs, she realised she needed another song to represent the "crescendo of the climax".
Musgraves added of the track styles, "I mean, looking at the list of songs, we have some that venture into, like, a Bill Withers land. We’ve got that synth stuff that we always loved. And we’ve got some Eagles or America territory. There’s a little bit of a dance vibe."
The singer/songwriter and Tashian went back and forth in the interview on ideas for a song called "Star-Crossed". Tashian said he was looking for an "epic kind of feeling", while Musgraves threw out words including "Anthemic", "ballad", and "uptempo, sad dance song". Later in the piece, it's revealed that Musgraves is considering getting Carlos Santana to play on the song”.
I am a fan of Kacey Musgraves’ work, so I will be interested to see what comes out. I am not sure whether we will see great concept albums coming in the future or whether the format will cease to exist. The BBC wrote about concept albums to check out that are not mad and pretentious. There are some classics that refute the notion that the concept album is ridiculous and overblown. I think a concept album can be loose and does not have to be very prescriptive and precise. Listen to The Wall by Pink Floyd or The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, and they are very different. Whether it is an album with a general concept that allows for a larger subject to be explored or we have an album that tells a story with chapters and distinct beats, I think that there is definite scope and promise. I am not sure what Kacey Musgraves will do in terms of her concept and how the album unfolds, but it should give inspiration and ideas to other artists. In any case, I feel that a lot of artists and albums are pretty unambitious and do not really grab you. Despite the fact that the concept album gets a bad rap, if it is done right and has an interesting angle, then I feel it can rank alongside any other album. Even though the phenomenon is not as widespread as it was decades ago, I feel there is…
STILL life left in the concept album.