Albums Review: Sounds of Yesterday, Society of Tomorrow
The Art of Concept Creation — The Dark Side of the Moon vs. American Idiot
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According to the definition, a concept album is based on a “collection of songs written around one central theme or idea” where “each individual track expresses a different aspect or part of the main concept, with each track fitting together to form a cohesive idea”.
And from records such as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who’s Tommy, Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, among several others, we can see its value and legacy in the musical landscape.
By making us reflect on its themes and lyrical-compositional elaboration of original and intrinsic nature, the artist reveals decoding nuances to his art presentation and expression, in order to appropriate several influences, personas or storylines for the transmission and creation of, sometimes, his best work.
That said, the two albums in evidence demonstrate the overwhelming potential, of concept-making, for a musical career and engine of inspiration for several generations of fans and professional fields.
Pink Floyd — The Dark Side of the Moon
Genre (s): progressive rock, art rock, psychedelic rock
Tracklist: Here
The first album, under review, is entitled The Dark Side of the Moon by the fearless and iconic British group Pink Floyd, released in 1973 by Harvest Records.
My “musical journey” through Floyd’s repertoire began at the age of 13, when I was offered The Dark Side of the Moon and played it on my dad’s stereo.
Not only did they dazzle me with their versatility and innovation, but also with their lyrical compositional honesty that helped me grow up and shape my socio-political ideals, and, for that, I’m glad they were introduced to me at such a young age for the apprehension of knowledge.
Having said that, I can firmly state that Pink Floyd are, undeniably, one of my top three favourite groups of all time and I don’t think that will ever change.
The British outfit, formed in 1965 in London, England, experienced years of critical acclaim during the second half of the 1960s.
Despite this and their recognition in the psychedelic rock and experimental scene (following the input of their co-founder and former leader Syd Barrett; he was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour in late 1967, due to mental problems brought on by his excessive use of LSD, which according to Nick Mason, placed him “completely distanced from everything going on”) by the creation of influential records such as The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) and Ummagumma (1969), the band was not satisfied with the sound so infused by Barrett’s vision.
From the early 70’s, they began the much desired transition and embraced the challenge of being at the forefront of the progressive rock scene, notorious for its reflective, elaborate and dense sound (which I appreciate and cherish very much).
After returning from their Meddle promotional tour (one of my 3 favourite Floyd records, I highly recommend it) at the end of November 1971, Roger Waters proposed, to the other members, the idea of doing a promo tour of their work in progress through Britain, Japan and America, in order to perform some old tracks and expose the new project in its entirety [beginning in January 1972, one year and two months before its release in March 1973, the project was mostly developed and road-tested, something extremely peculiar in the industry and unprecedented for the group; originally the album and tour was called Eclipse (A Piece for Assorted Lunatics) and later changed to The Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, thus presented to the press on February 17, 1972, at Rainbow’s Theatre in London, England)].
In addition to his irreverent vision of promoting a pre-released and recorded product, Waters presented his conceptual ideas for the creation of the project that came to be called and recognised as The Dark Side of the Moon, the ultimate concept album.
These consisted in the making of an album that reflected the group’s chaotic, pressuring and cathartic lifestyle to date (according to Waters, he wanted to address daily topics that “make people mad”), through various themes associated with the different stages of life and passage of time in the mundane world (“The image of the dark side is used by Waters to establish empathetic links between those who perceive themselves to be ‘full of dust and guitars’, at odds with time, or the world, or themselves”) by the exploration of dualities, such as good/evil, life/death, sun/moon, light/dark, peace/conflict, moral/greed, mental health/illness (concept partially inspired by the band’s experience with Barrett’s mental state, which was curiously explored and appropriated in previous attempts, such The Man & The Journey 1969 tour), etc., alluding to the empathic feeling of loneliness and misunderstanding so common by the human being.
Associated with the overall concept is the purpose implemented in the front cover’s graphic design, which is arguably the most iconic in the history of popular music.
Following a brief from the band’s keyboardist Richard Wright, Storm Thorgerson (co-founder of graphic design firm Hipgnosis) and George Hardie conceived the requested “simple and bold” design that depicted a prism spectrum representative of the project’s themes, in order to provoke a sensory reaction in the viewer by questioning themselves on dualities such as light/dark, life/death, bright/neutral colours, among others.
Production and arranging wise, the album was recorded and developed conceptually (during intermittent periods of their long tour, between June 1972 and January 1973) at the Abbey Road Studios in London, England.
These sessions were marked by various amusing episodes, such as systematic interruptions for the band to watch “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” [they were obsessed with it; according to engineer Alan Parsons, these breaks gave him time and opportunity to experiment and refine mixes and effects in the studio, so I guess it wasn’t that bad) and the printing of specific questions on flashcards by Waters (such as “What’s your favourite colour? “ and “What’s your favourite food?”) to band members, staff members and other studio attendees at the time (like Paul and Linda McCartney (however, their answers were not used in it as they felt they were “trying too hard to be funny”), Wings guitarist Henry McCullough, the band’s road manager Peter Watts, among others)], in which they would answer to a microphone in order to be recorded and intentionally included in tracks that would go according to the appropriate theme (some examples are Peter Watts’ repeated laughter in “Brain Damage”, “Speak to Me”, and “I never said I was frightened of dying” line at the beginning of “The Great Gig in the Sky”, as well as the “there is no dark side in the moon, really. As a matter of fact it’s all dark’ came from the studios” lines by studio doorman Gerry O’Driscoll on “Eclipse”, etc.).
It had the contribution of several instrumentalists, such as Pink Floyd themselves (Roger Waters on vocals, bass guitar, EMS VCS 3 and tape effects, David Gilmour on vocals, electric guitars and EMS Synthi AKS, Richard Wright on vocals, Hammond and Farfisa organs, Wurlitzer electric piano and Rhodes piano, EMS VCS 3 and EMS Synthi AKS synthesizers, and Nick Mason on drums, percussion and tape effects), Clare Torry (vocals on “The Great Gig In The Sky”; interestingly, Torry sued the band for songwriting royalties in 2005 for her contribution to the track, who at the time paid her the standard Sunday studio rate of £30 (having reached an out-of-court settlement and since then, she is credited in its composition with Wright), Doris Troy (backing vocals), Dick Parry (saxophone on “Us and Them” and Money”), the great engineer Alan Parsons (more widely known as the co-founder of the duo The Alan Parsons Project), Peter James (production assistant), Chris Thomas (mix supervisor), among others.
With Parsons and the band at its core, the production and sound engineering was mostly done using a 16-track mix console, rather than the conventional 8-track or 4-track machines of the time (which the band used occasionally during the process, as they were accustomed to using a lot of tracks to have more copies left over for future remastering) and was marked by numerous advanced recording and sound manipulation techniques, which allied to the time passing concept (marked by the heartbeat started on “Speak To Me” and concluded on “Eclipse”), made a rich result and a milestone for stereo mixing and recording:
· Wide and sonically defiant instrumentation by application of highly elaborate and deeply captivating vocal harmonies (especially between Gilmour and Wright, given their very similar vocal timbres), expressive double tracked electric guitars, characteristic and timeless bass lines, experimentation with modular synthesizers like EMS Synthi AKS and EMS VCS 3 (used on tracks like “On The Run” and “Any Colour You Like”, the two instrumental songs besides “Speak To Me” on the album), ethereal pianos & organs like the Hammond and Wurlitzer (on tracks like “Time” and “The Great Gig In The Sky”), highly cadenced and progressive drums & percussion, as well as formal structure marked by unconventional time-signatures (on “Money” for example, which contains an unusual 7/4 time signature in the verse, being the only track with this time signature to top the pop charts until this day);
· Sonic experimentation via quadrophonic mixing (or quad mix) by Parsons throughout the album, at the group’s request (a method that Parsons was never satisfied with; very popular at the time and not employed nowadays, it is equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound and consists in the use of four audio channels in which speakers are positioned in the four corners of a recording booth; this provides the reproduction of audio signals totally independent from each other, without feedback or any other anomaly in the recording);
· Implementation of several recording and engineering techniques, such as multitrack recording (which often required the cooperation of the group and assistant engineers simultaneously on the mixing consoles’ faders, given the amount of tracks recorded, particularly on “On The Run”), double recording (mostly of guitars and vocal parts, so that the performer in the booth could hear the first harmony already recorded in order to complement it with the second one), channel panning (highlighted on “On The Run”; it consists in balancing each element of the stereo mix and emphasizing whatever is more fitting in the song at hand), crossfading, sound manipulation effects (such as flanging, phase shifting effects and recurrent use of reverb) and tape looping (as in the opening of “Money”, in which Waters conceived a 7-beat effects loop from tape-recorded cuts of clinking coins, torn paper, ringing cash registers and clicking adding machines);
· Appropriation of musique concrète elements in several tracks, such as “Time” and “Money” (employed by composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez, it is based on a type of composition that uses recorded sounds as raw material in finished recordings; these are later modified from recording and capturing techniques such as audio effects and sound tape manipulation, and can be derived from instruments such as vocals, synthesizers and digital processing).
This concept album has a particularity, as it is as soundually rich as it is lyrically compositionally, written entirely by Roger Waters.
By wandering through the main concept’s themes, it focuses on the different stages of life through various narratives and cathartic reflections on the passage of time, life/death, peace/conflict, morality/greed, mental sanity/insanity (as mentioned before, very much inspired by their experience with Barrett’s mental state), etc., making it one of the most relatable, empathetic and insightful records in the music industry to date:
· Internal conflict around the time passage matter and the poor usage of life by the human being (on “Time”, one of fans’ favourites in general, was written by the four members (mostly by Roger Waters, who conceived it by making an analogy with his own reflection about not knowing what he wanted from life when he was 29) and refers to the passage of time by warning for a better use of it by people, who sometimes don’t know how to take advantage of it and when they really want to, it may be too late and they may regret it (“And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you/No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”);
on “The Great Gig in The Sky”, one of my favourites and most beautiful tracks ever; despite not having lyrics specifically, Torry’s vocal chants hold a very spiritual and metaphorical connotation to the pressure of fatality during life and its fragility, making us reflect on pain, our own life and one’s hypothetical arrival at the “Great Gig in The Sky”));
· Reflection and criticism on the peace/war impact on everyday life (on “Us and Them”, in which from the appropriation of binaries such as me/you, us/them, black/blue, cats/dogs, among others, it is based on a critique of the senseless conduct of war and its consequences on its victims and third parties such as sadness, depression, isolation and death (“Me (Me, me, me, me, me, me) and you (You, you, you, you, you)/God only knows it’s not what we would choose to do”));
· Reflection and critique on humanity’s moral practice/greed (on “Breathe (In The Air)”, my favourite track on the album which serves as a driver of the opening instrumental song “Speak To Me”; by acting as the album’s lyrical motto, it’s based on a reflection of the futile and unbalanced practice of human beings in relation to their priorities, as they shouldn’t be afraid to simply feel (“don’t be afraid to care”) and experience what fulfills them inherently (“Look around and choose your own ground”);
on “Money”, the album’s best known, most successful track and a strong fan favourite (for me also), in which Gilmour’s vocals and studio atendees’ recordings are appropriated to weave a satirical approach to the greed, deceit and consumerism that human beings so often apply in their lives, not caring at all about the outcomes of their actions for humanity (“Money, it’s a gas/Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash”));
· Outcomes and repercussions of mental health/illness on quality of life (on “Brain Damage”, a song consisting of political inhumanity reflection (“The paper holds their folded faces to the floor/And every day the paperboy brings more”) and mental illness effects on life, in which the situation of prioritisation of fame/success, consequent schizophrenia and mental deterioration by their former member and friend Syd Barrett is described (provided from his unconscious use of LSD and other acids for years: “You lock the door/And throw away the key/And there’s someone in my head but it’s not me”));
· The album’s central theme around the insecurities and self-doubts associated to the lack of pragmatism in life by the human being (on “Eclipse”, the last and climax track of the album, in which pragmatizes the self-judgement and meaning of life subject approached throughout the album, i.e., as much as it costs us to accept our characteristics and differences in order to get them all “in tune”, these don’t define us and are irrelevant to our happiness, given the fact that they are “eclipsed by the moon”).
By being highly regarded and mentioned by fans and critics alike as one of the best and most significant albums in the history of rock and all popular music (ranked 55th on the 2020 updated list of Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, 1st on Q and Rolling Stone’s “50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time” list, 7th on the Rhythm magazine list of the most influential progressive drumming albums, just to name a few), Pink Floyd’s concept opus The Dark Side of the Moon was preserved in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, as being recognized as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 2013.
It was certified 14 times platinum in the UK, topped the US Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart, stayed in the top 200 for 957 staggering consecutive weeks between March 1973 and 1987 (this statistic is unmatched to this day, it’s absolutely mind-blowing) and has sold approximately 45 million copies worldwide to date, by remaining among the top five best-selling albums of all time (more specifically fourth at this point).
It remains a reference for several generations of artists (like Rick Wakeman, Radiohead and Flaming Flips) and has boosted the creativity/conceptual pique of countless people [like myself; even though it’s not my favourite Floyd album, it’s an album I deeply worship and will always be in my heart (if you were curious it’s Animals, I adore it so much)], and for these reasons, I recommend its audition and acquisition to all fans of progressive rock, classic rock, art rock, psychedelic rock, quality production and concept albums (Link here).
Green Day — American Idiot
Genre (s): punk rock, alternative rock, pop rock, pop punk
Tracklist: Here
The second album, under review, is entitled American Idiot by the American band Green Day, released in 2004 by Reprise Records (label founded by Frank Sinatra in 1960 and currently owned by Warner Music Group).
Green Day are one of the most recognised and successful bands to emerge from the pop punk & alternative rock scene of the 1990s.
Even though we cannot deny their contribution to the commercial revitalization of the 70’s punk rock heritage, through timeless singles like “Basket Case”, “Longview”, “When I Came Around” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”, and albums like Dookie (1994) and Nimrod (1997), the group has always been highly criticised by numerous critics, rock and punk fans (like myself; despite always having been a fan, I have always been displeased by their lack of creative depth) for their sonic and instrumental predictability throughout their career.
Following their return from The Pop Disaster Tour in mid-2002 (which they headlined with Blink-182), they embarked on a distinguish challenge in crafting a bold new project entitled Cigarettes and Alcohol.
Unfortunately, its demo master tapes that would demonstrate this distinction in their sound were stolen (according to Armstrong, it consisted of portions of “polka songs, filthy versions of Christmas tunes, [and] salsa numbers” and “That was the best thing we’ve ever done”), leaving the group in denial for a period of three months (interestingly, it was recovered in 2016 and they’’ll still eventually release new material based on it).
Despite all these setbacks, this interruption gave them time to “heal” and create something “something completely new” that came to be known as American Idiot, the group’s most ambitious endeavour to date, conceptually and lyrically speaking.
Mainly conceptualised by bandleader, frontman and lead guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, it consisted of a “punk rock opera” alluded to a Bildungsroman’s type of narrative of Jesus of Suburbia (who is developed throughout the album, by his alternate personality St. Jimmy and his lover Whatsername), a lower-middle-class teenage anti-hero affected by borderline disorder, addiction, angst, anger, love turmoils and lost ideologically in a modern-era world marked by social polarization and political-capitalist atrocities (the band was influenced by various political events of the time which they were highly critical of, such as the upcoming presidential elections, war culture (derived from the ineffective management of the Iraq War and social violence during the George W. Bush administration), media polarization and lack of patriotism felt in the post 9/11 period (specifically inspired by the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11)).
Production and arranging wise, the album was recorded and developed conceptually (between April 2003 and March 2004, costing around $650,000) at Studio 880 in Oakland, California and Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California, marked by a panoply of compositions created by each band member in order to creatively attempt to “outdo one another. We kept connecting these little half-minute bits until we had something”.
It had the collaboration of numerous producers/engineers/instrumentalists such as the band itself (Billie Joe Armstrong (co-producer, lead vocals, guitar and piano), Mike Dirnt (co-producer, bass guitar, backing vocals and lead vocals on “Nobody Likes You” (section in Homecoming”) and Tré Cool (co-producer, drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on “Rock and Roll Girlfriend” (section in “Homecoming”)), Kathleen Hanna (guest vocals on “Letterbomb”), Jason Freese (saxophone), Rob Cavallo (main producer and piano), Doug McKean (engineer), Greg “Stimie” Burns (assistant engineer), Jimmy Hoyson (assistant engineer), Chris Lord-Alge (mixing), Ted Jensen (mastering), among others.
With the motto of distancing themselves from the conservative/basic structure of the rock industry and exploring articulated, continued and extended themes between various tracks (such as “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming”, consisting of five sections each), the result was demonstrative of a fine and sonically solid concept album in the modern era:
· Inspiration and musical experimentation through the interpretation of influences and conceptual approaches from classic rock operas, such as The Who’s Tommy & Quadrophenia, David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, as well as cast recordings of Broadway musicals like West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show and Grease;
· Exploration and appropriation of various musical genres such as punk rock, new wave, Latin and polka music, along with inspiration from contemporary artists of the time such as Eminem, Kanye West, OutKast (who according to Armstrong, were “kicking rock’s ass, because there’s so much ambition”) and Linkin Park, in order to move away from the conservatism of the formatted rock industry;
· Experimentation of various recording techniques through digital processing and mixing in the music software Pro Tools (such as reverb, distortion, delay, double tracking and particularly precise, high-pitched drum compression; curiously, approximately seventy-five snare drums were recorded on a two-inch tape and used in various acoustics and microphone placement tests), and primordial recording of guitars for the benefit of the rhythm section (derived from their intrigue over The Beatles’ similar recording procedure), something peculiar in rock production and mixing;
· Characteristic instrumentation in punk rock/pop punk that consisted of expressive and “straight to the point” vocal sections, mad and energetic electric guitars riffs, introspective acoustic guitar chords, direct and driving bass lines, and interesting pounding drums & percussion sections (except for the moody/harmonious pianos and soothing saxophones, instruments rarely used in the punk genre).
In spite of its sonic and production outcome being competent, it doesn’t match in any way to its lyrical and conceptual character (the lyrics were entirely written by Armstrong), a “punk rock opera” full of varied narratives/themes around a cathartic, reflective and critical character on an intrinsic and sociopolitical level (Jesus of Suburbia functions as an autobiographical approach by Armstrong himself), representative of the weary state of mundane beings (like the band members themselves) who are systematically “going away and getting the hell out, while at the same time fighting their own inner demons”, thus proving their skills and worth as progressive artists eager for new horizons and creative layers:
· Criticism and direct discontent directed at American war culture and sociopolitical realities (on “American Idiot”, the album’ s best known and one of the band’s most successful tracks, in which it focuses on harsh criticism of American sociocultural values and principles circa 2004, among them the Bush administration (“Don’t wanna be an American idiot”), conservatism (“I’m not a part of a redneck agenda”) and polarized media/television culture (“Television dreams of tomorrow/We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow”);
on “Holiday”, a pure anti-war track in which through a regretful Jesus of Suburbia leaving home given the dire circumstances he finds himself in, Armstrong critically addresses the American intervention in the Iraq war under the Bush Administration’s direction (“Hear the dogs howling out of key/To a hymn called “Faith and Misery” (Hey!)”), calling for people to speak out against it rather than simply ignore it (“I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies/This is the dawning of the rest of our lives”));
· Autobiographical catharsis representative of the record’s concept (on “Wake Me Up When September Ends”, its most heartbreaking/beautiful track and the only one not directly related to the album’s central concept, which is based on an episode that occurred after the death of Armstrong’s father on September 1st, 1982, that when he locked himself grieving in his room and his mother knocked on his door, the 10-year old Armstrong replied “Wake me up when September ends”);
· Appropriation of fictional characters as a socio-political manifesto stemming from alienation, mental illness/fatigue and personal reconnection (on “Jesus of Suburbia”, a 5-section song in which we are introduced to the character Jesus of Suburbia, a teenage drug/alcohol addict, estranged from his friends and in denial about the economic and political situation of a nation unconcerned about its and his outcome; on “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, my favourite track on the record, in which after leaving home for a new city and its associated initial euphoria, Jesus of Suburbia is faced with isolation, depression and emotional breakdown resulting from a lack of direction and purpose in life; deriving from these circumstances, we are introduced to his borderline personality, St. Jimmy;
On “Are We The Waiting”, in which we witness the quiet and introspective musical transition coinciding with the mental degradation and loneliness of Jesus of Suburbia, unable to integrate and restore himself in an unknown city;
On “St. Jimmy”, in which we are faced with the abrupt transition (characteristic in a rock opera) from an introspective and melancholic Jesus of Suburbia, to an angry and intolerant St. Jimmy, Jesus’ alternate personality;
On “Novacaine,” in which by appropriating the name of the anesthetic drug Procaine, it represents Jesus of Suburbia’s desire to be his raging alternative alter ego St. Jimmy, in order to endure his own existence and pour his sorrows into drugs to numb his inner-pain (“It’s like a throbbing toothache of the mind/I can’t take this feeling anymore”);
On “She’s A Rebel”, in which we are introduced to Whatsername, the last character in the narrative and characterised as a girl with a pronounced free-spirited personality, rebellious/protestant character who follows her own beliefs; she is the great passion of Jesus of Suburbia, which will cause him to find a disguised purpose during this wonder period;
On “Extraordinary Girl”, in which we are confronted with a more detailed description of Whatsername, a strong-willed, assertive girl with a dark and sometimes rather depressive side, almost like Jesus of Suburbia; although Whatsername is attracted to his alter ego St. Jimmy, the relationship doesn’t work out given their strong-willed personality similarities, causing Jesus of Suburbia to have a distinct perception of life and the manufactured romance he experienced;
On “Letterbomb”, a harmful and painful breakup letter from Whatsername to Jesus of Suburbia, initiated with vocal lines by herself (done by guest vocalist Kathleen Hanna); in outlining each self-destructive and disruptive trait of Jesus of Suburbia, Armstrong wanted the situation to be interpreted from the perspective of a woman experiencing a sick and unhealthy relationship for its stakeholders, both in need of prioritizing self-love;
On “Homecoming”, the album’s climax track, in which although he is still suffering from his breakup and hears Whatsername’s haunting words in his subconscious (“Nobody Likes You!”), Jesus is confronted with his reality and need of reaction to find himself again, thereby deciding to return home in order to try to regain his life;
On “Whatsername”, the record’s last track and revealer of its main message, in which having restored and normalized his life, Jesus still regrets having lost Whatsername, however, he doesn’t even remember her name anymore and what he has left are his memories with her; according to Armstrong, he believes that because Jesus of Suburbia/St. Jimmy never accepted his trueself, Whatsername is “true hero of the whole record” in having been able to face her own demons and be “the one that kind of stuck to her beliefs and left all the bulls-t behind”, expressing the importance of self-love and ideals towards happiness in one’s life)).
American Idiot is, probably, the purest punk album of the modern era (despite it being very questionable), representative of its DIY culture values, governmental anarchy, sociopolitical critique and disruptive/excessive youth designed to contradict the dogmas of careless consumerism dominated by a capitalist-liberal society.
By being well-acclaimed by several fans and critics (ranked in Rolling Stone’s (22nd) and NME’s (60th) 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade, 248th in the 2020 updated list of Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, Robert Dimery’s “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”, just to name a few)), works like American Idiot have preserved the concept album’s legacy into the 21st century (having been the subject of several theatrical adaptations including on Broadway (2010–2011), as well as earning numerous awards such as “Best Rock Album” and six other nominations at the 2005 Grammy Awards, etc.)), selling 16 million copies worldwide and solidifying Green Day’s creative and compositional potential so as to not be dubbed just another punk and riff-based band.
It was one of the first records I really listened to and enjoyed at 7 years old on my older brother’s CD player, and, therefore, I recommend its listening to all fans of punk rock, pop punk, alternative rock, pop rock, rock operas and concept albums (Link here).
Clash of Times (The Dark Side of the Moon vs. American Idiot)
Since its first endeuvour by Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours (1955), concept album creation has had great strides, particularly during the 1970s.
It was explored by various musical acts and the 70’s was the decade that solified it as a true & recognised art form, and no record represents it better than The Dark Side of the Moon.
We were able to get an intrinsic approach to concept appropriation never seen before, making us reflect on life and the unparalleled creativity that human beings can accomplish and develop, where as long as you have intentions, talent and means, we can create something truly unparallel and unprecedented.
Even though this art has increasingly disappeared in later decades, we still have particular cases of artists employing it with the cooperation of the computational digit landscape, like Green Day on American Idiot.
Like Floyd’s Dark Side, this project showed us the socio-political impact and mental illness effects on concept creation, in order to make us aware of what we truly need for our well-being and want for a progressive and evolving society.
I’ve always loved concept albums and it’s probably my favourite type of musical art, since it perfectly mirrors the cognitive and experimental capacity of the human being.
With a pencil, paintbrush, musical instrument or other working object, we are all capable of creating timeless work that we will be proud of, because if it inspires at least one person, it will already be worth it.
“… Any authentic creation is a gift to the future” — Albert Camus
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