Brave - Marillion (utterly sublime)
Misplaced Childhood - Marillion
Operation Mindcrime - Queensryche
Passion Play - Jethro Tull
Jeff Wayne's Musical highlights from the War of the Worlds (and now available in 7 disc version too!)
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
Tommy - The Who
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie
The Six Wives of King Henry VIII - Rick Wakeman (truly awful however)
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis
2112 - Rush
Setting Sons - The Jam
The Chronicles of the Black Sword - Hawkwind (The live version is superior)
Hounds of Love - Kate Bush (actually it's the second half that is a conceptual piece called 'The Ninth Wave'. I love KB)
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory - Dream Theater
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner - Ben Folds Five
Scarlet's Walk - Tori Amos
American Idiot - Green Day
Have a look on Wikipedia - there's a huge list on there. I've only really listed some of the ones I actually know personally. I suppose I like quite a few concept albums but at the same time, I wouldn't buy/ listen to an album because it was one, I'd probably buy or listen to it inspite of it. It's quite hard to do it well, but when it does work, it can be very rewarding to go on an emotion journey that lasts an hour or so. I can never understand why people can sit through a film that's an hour and a half, but ask someone to listen to more than three minutes of music and they often panic!
Waldo, i've only recently discovered Wikipedia and admit to being slightly addicted to it. Haven't come to the lists of albums yet.
I love listening, especially on headphones, to albums with a running thread, but haven't heard of a lot of your suggestions, looking forward to trying them out :)
Brave is a fantastic headphones album. There's an awful lot of sound effects on there! It's also one of my favourites and by my favourite band, so I'm utterly biased. :-)
i'm looking for pure escapism. Lying on my bed with headphones on and getting lost in the music. Don't get time now much but have just got a new second-hand car with a Cd player so want to listen to some good stuff whilst I'm driving.
justineo - If you want escapism try listening to the tracks Xanadu and La Villa Strangiato by Rush. Both are on the live album Exit...Stage Left. Pure and utter brilliance
I can�t let this Q pass without mentioning my own faves � �Tales from Topographic oceans� by Yes and �a grand don�t come for free� by The Streets. There aren�t enough concept albums these days�..
If you like The Wall, I'd also suggest The Final Cut by Pink Floyd and the Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking by Roger Waters. The Wall is the daddy of concept albums IMHO though, and the film of it is well worth watching too.