A concept album usually has its songs unified by a single theme. What are your favorite concept albums and why? If you can, give a few bits of info on it too. It's story, theme, damn good ideas, album cover, etc.

My favorite is The Miseducation of Lauren Hill.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
If you don't already know, Lauryn Hill was part of the Fugees, a famous hip-hop group. This was her solo album concerning their split, and her relationship with another member Wyclef Jean. The basic idea is that she is a student who misses class the day they talk about love. It's got little skits that reference this idea. Almost every song on the album talks about love. It covers everything from breakups, from having children, to family love, to just sitting next to someone. The album has some cohesion in it too. There were a lot of bird singing samples  that really mixed well with her voice. There was also some nice Egyptian and Reggae influenced sounds.

Some of my favorite hip-hop albums are concept albums. Unfortunately they're the only ones I've ever really heard of, so I would really like to hear about some rock. I think OK Computer counts as a concept album, and that's about all I've heard.

"Kid A" by Radiohead
"The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" by Explosions in the Sky
"One Day I'll Be On Time" by The Album Leaf
"Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles
"Since I Left You" by The Avalanches
"Scorpio Rising" by Death in Vegas
"Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by The Flaming Lips
"Low Frequency Speaker Test" by Jet Black Crayon

and I suppose I like "Madvillainy" by Madvillain.

Question: What's the concept? Is it just that all these random songs are being played in a sort of "concert" given by the Hearts Club Band or does each song have a part of the story too?

"Themes and structure

With Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles wanted to create a record that could, in effect, tour for them — an idea they had already explored with the promotional film-clips made over the previous years, intended to promote them in the United States when they were not touring there.

McCartney decided that they should create fictitious characters for each band member and record an album that would be a performance by that fictitious band. The idea of disguise or change of identity was one in which the Beatles, naturally enough, had an avid interest — they were four of the most recognizable and widely known individuals of the 20th century.

The Beatles' recognition was the motivation for their growing moustaches and beards and even longer hair, and was an inspiration for the disguise of their flamboyant Sgt. Pepper costumes. McCartney was well known for going out in public in disguise and all four had used aliases for travel bookings and hotel reservations.

Thus, the album starts with the title song, which introduces Sgt. Pepper's band itself; this song segues seamlessly into a sung introduction for bandleader "Billy Shears" (Starr), who performs "With a Little Help from My Friends". A reprise version of the title song was also recorded, and appears on side 2 of the original album (just prior to the climactic "A Day in the Life"), creating a "bookending" effect.

The cohesive structure and careful sequencing of and transitioning between songs on the album, as well as the use of the Sgt. Pepper framing device, have led the album to be widely acknowledged as an early and ground-breaking example of the concept album."

Perdition City by Ulver is the first thing that comes to mind.

"The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" by Explosions in the Sky

... I wouldn't consider that a concept album; not even a concept EP. What's so conceptual about it?

There are only three concept albums I really love, all by Pink Floyd.

So:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Animals

The Wall is pretty meh compared to those. And Wish You Were Here might be a bit too loose on the concept side of things.

Oh, almost forgot, I guess Fantomas - Suspended Animation might count as well ;)


And the Beatles made amazing music so probably those, but I've never listened through their albums in one go (in fact, I have mostly listened to select songs... I listen quite a lot to their collection "1" which is pretty damned great imo!! Although it's just a best-of, the songs are so incredibly good...)(so can't really say about album as a whole).

Lack of stories about the album makes Aboutaso a sad boy.

I think I listened to Dark Side of the Moon and Sgt. Pepper and enjoyed them.

... I wouldn't consider that a concept album; not even a concept EP. What's so conceptual about it?

...its not an ep. its an lp.  All of Explosion's stuff is concept.  "The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place" more or less concept is love based.

"Since I Left You" by The Avalanches
Does that have a concept? I know it all flows together (way cool), but I don't see any narrative really.

From my aspect, seems to be related to a time of year- with all the excitements of transportation and the progression of man in this way.  The only song that doesn't quite fit is frontier psychiatrist.

Ziggy Stardust  by David Bowie & Traveler by Slough Feg. Admittedly I only know a few concept albums, but these are pretty great, especially Ziggy Stardust.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars from Bowie is a good choice. It's definitely a classic. The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Queen's A Night at the Opera are also stellar concept albums.