工藤静香　　カレリア　

Hey. My knowledge of Kanji names isn't so good. But ja.wikipedia.org tells me she is Kudou Shizuka? What's that album all about?

Yes, she's Kudo Shizuka.

This album is about a fairy-tale like bildungsroman of a young lady/girl.

THe album opens with a song with 3 parts. There's a girl (1) who falls in love (2), and she writes a letter to her mother yet she never sends out the letter (3).

She then goes to a lake and reflects on her love and the passage of time (4). After that she ventures into a forest to find her love (5). She comes to an open field covered with snow and reveals her name--Karelia (6). In twilight, she imagines life as an ocean, drawing circles going round and round (7). The albumn ends with instrumental track titled "Dreams for Mid-day."

She recorded the albumn in Finland. Perhaps it is about some Scandinavian mythology. I am not sure.

gentle giant - three friends
Jethro Tull - Aqualung/ jethro tull - thick as a brick (not easy to follow the storyline on these two, but it's there, in a way) (so not really a coherent story)
pink fluyd - the final cut (I THINK it has a storyline - I haven't heard the album really)

and the mother of all concept albums with a story to tell: Pink Floyd - the wall

Hmmm. Now that makes me wonder about narrative albums and their associations with certain genres of music...?

How could I forget The Wall? Oh dear...

Yeah, my first thought was The Residents' God in Three Persons. Another one would be The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow. It may not count as music, but Negativland's Over the Edge Vol. 7: Time Zones Exchange Project has a fairly complicated story going on. If non-fiction narrative will work, The Fiery Furnaces' Rehearsing My Choir is based on their grandmother's reminiscences, and Lou Reed & John Cale's Songs for Drella tells the story of Andy Warhol's life.

I do want to limit it to musical albums. Generous use of samples and non-musical cues, interludes are okay too. But this is proving to be a challenging thought project!

I'm not familiar with any of the albums you've listed. That Fiery Furnaces one sounds interesting though. I've also never heard a full album of theirs, but I've been quite intrigued by what I've heard. And the idea of an album based on their grandmother's reminiscences sounds sweet... I would draw a line between collections of disjointed memories and a 'narrative' though (through certain interpretive angles, one could see many albums as collections of memories, eh?).

Yeah, the records on that list kinda vary as to how much they meet your criteria. I think God in Three Persons and S.F. Sorrow definitely qualify, the others, not so much. I can send you MP3s if you're interested; drop me a note. I love God in Three Persons but S.F. Sorrow not so much except for one song which is one of my all-time favorites.

I'm thinking still, but there's an obvious one. It's crap, and it shows my age! Should I mention it?

Has it already been mentioned? Just say it! I make no value judgments here... and actually, I am curious about more mainstream examples too, if that's part of what's holding you back? ;)

Believe me it hasn't been mentioned. It's not the mainstream part that I'm ashamed of. ;}

Styx, Paradise Theater.

Heh, I assumed you were going to say Tommy, which is why I didn't mention it. I assume that counts as "not a soundtrack" since the album came first.

Grrrr, ok. This isn't the crap one: Olivia Tremor Control's Dusk at Cubist Castle? I would even argue Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Airplane over the Sea would work, as a masterful retelling of Anne Frank's life from the point of view of a crazy yet gifted musician stuck in a sweltering, southern basement.

Sufjan Stevens, Illinois and Greetings from Michigan
Deerhoof Milk Man
Looper Up a Tree

I don't know that Deerhoof album... I'm kind of scratching my head about Sufjan Stevens... as below, in my reply to speicus, I think they're more concept albums than narratives...

Up a Tree has a narrative?
Actually, didn't that totally crappy Looper album that I gave like 1 star have a narrative? Like the story of some urban gigolo or... I don't remember anymore. It was just so bad.

Rachels Music for Egon Schiele

sorry for all the endless replies!

Oooh yea. But wasn't that composed for a play? Or did the play come afterwards? And no worries about the endless replies. Keep them coming.

Do you draw a distinction between concept albums and narrative albums? A lot of Bowie albums would apply, I think, though it's up for grabs whether you think they're "coherent." Outside is supposedly the story of a murder case though I'll be damned if I can make sense of it. There's always the popular Ziggy Stardust about a rock star from outer space, and Diamond Dogs was originally going to be a musical based on Orwell's 1984.

Oh of course! Ziggy Stardust! That's one that was on the very brink of my brainwaves, but I just couldn't push it over. I haven't paid close attention to the content of Diamond Dogs -- not enough to notice the 1984 connection. I'll take another listen/look.

I would draw a line between concept album and narrative album. Of course, a narrative album is a kind of concept album... but sets like Randy Greif's Alice in Wonderland series probably falls more in the "concept" camp, now that I think about it. I think it's also much easier to impose a narrative on a concept album, like sarabellum was alluding to above, by way of how thematic unity invites the listener to draw their own further connections. But at the same time, I think many concept albums are too free-floating and esoteric to be called a narrative. I can think of "characters" that pop up through songs that might be said to populate entire albums. But they still need plot development, story arc, change that can be tracked (psychological, geographical, whatever -- yes I'm going to impose a stodgy linearity onto my definition of narratives, but I don't really consider it a story without that kind of direction).

Thanks for the thoughts!

the decemberists- the crane wife

Showing my age here but apropo The Wall, Roger Water's Radio K.A.O.S. is a great example. An amazing album about the end of the world in a nuclear holocaust.

Try King Diamond. All his records like that, right done to artwork and notes.

If not already mentioned in the previous 22 comments, here's a few albums that have a complete narrative, though some are less explicit than others:

Lou Reed: BERLIN (came w/ big booklet with photographic scenes)
The Pretty Things: SF SORROW
The Who: TOMMY
KISS: MUSIC FROM THE ELDER
The Kinks: ARTHUR - OR THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
The Kinks: LOLA VS. POWERMAN & THE MONEYGOROUND
Big Chief: MACK AVENUE SKULLGAME

Excellent. Thanks especially for the Berlin tip, since the album that I'm looking at right now, the one that started this train of thought, also includes photography in the liner note as a way of structuring its narrative. Could be interesting to compare, even if just to jumpstart some ideas of how photography contributes to the album form.

tom waits' frank's wild years i seem to recall having a certain amount of narrative structure, though it's been years since i've listened to it.

i'd add the mark of the mole and eskimo to the residents albums with narrative structures. though god in three persons is possibly the most straight forward.

the final pizzicato five album had somewhat of a narrative structure or maybe more of a travlogue feel. considering one of its major themes was foreign interpretations of japan.

both the tower and the lovers by the legendary pink dots has a certain amount of narrative. but they may be more a case of thematic similiarity than just narrative.

in a foreign town, in a foreign land by current 93. but it's sort of a cheat as it's music designed to be listened to as you read a story by ligotti. but some of the other current 93 may also count such as all the pretty little horses or of ruine or some blazing starre.

i'd be surprised if al stewart didn't have at least one release with a clear narrative structure considering his interest in history.

also nick cave must have an album that can be interrupted as such.

trans europe express by kraftwerk seems pretty narrative in format at least.

tales from turnpike house by st. etienne also seems pretty narrative to me.

do soundtracks for films count? there's the soundtrack the eurythmics did for 1984, that was never used for the film. there's the soundtrack that throbbing gristle did for derek jarman's in the shadow of the sun(not really sure how narrative that is though). then there's "gift gas" a children's story by throbbing gristle. not a soundtrack per se, but the title seems to frame it as a narrative(i'd have to listen again to see if it really is). some of the work by coil also may count. of course their soundtrack for blue being the prime example.

under the flag by fad gadget may count as well. or something by laibach. machbeth perhaps?

william

Eesh -- LJ's blocked in China, so I'm just seeing this now that I'm back in the States for Christmas.

Frank's Wild Years above is a good catch; Tom Waits also had The Black Rider, which could arguably be disqualified since it was simultaneously made into a stage show.

In addition to Tommy, The Who also had Quadrophenia, which is superior to Tommy in every way. It was later made into a relatively disappointing movie, but the album itself is one of my all-time desert island records.