Interesting Concept

Here are the Top 12 concept albums as voted for by @lpgrp characters:

1st (19 votes) David Bowie's The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars

2nd (15 votes): Grandaddy's The Sophtware Slump

3rd= (14 votes): Mountain Goats' Tallahassee, Antlers' Hospice, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Lou Reed's Berlin

7th (13 votes): Neon Neon's Stainless Style

8th= (12 votes): XTC's Skylarking, Lift to Experience's Texas Jerusalem Crossroads & The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs

11th (10 votes): Luke Haines's 9 1/2 Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and Early 1980s.

12th (9 votes) The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free

Says she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo...

Here are the runners and riders for the next @lpgrp vote. The theme is 'Concept Album'.

The listening session will be at 9pm, Sunday 3rd March.

You can vote for five albums by sending the numbers of your choices to the @lpgrp Twitter account (via a direct message or an ordinary tweet mentioning @lpgrp).

You are allowed to vote for the albums you nominated. 

The deadline for voting is 8pm, Tuesday 19th February.

1. The Antlers – Hospice (Death seen through the eyes of a nurse and patient in hospice)

2. David Bowie - Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Oscillating career path of certain Martian arachnids)

3. Robert Calvert - Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (Germany's purchase of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter)

4. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (inspired by a Japanese folk tale, and centres on two song cycles)

5. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love (a woman falls in love with a shape-shifting forest dweller)

6. Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030 (Deltron Zero's struggles against corporations that rule the universe in the year 3030)

7. The Eccentronic Research Council - 1612 Underture (Pendle Witch Trials)

8. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life (Factory worker David & girlfriend Veronica build a bomb to blow up a lightbulb factory)

9. South San Gabriel - The Carlton Chronicles (About a sick cat)

10. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (State of the Union address)

11. Grandaddy  -The Sophtware Slump (Failure of humans and the emergence of technology)

12. Luke Haines - 9½ Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970′s and Early ’80′s. (Growing up, back then)

13. Hawkwind – Live Chronicles (The Chronicle of Elric and the Black Sword books by Michael Moorcock)

14. Darren Hayman and The Long Parliament - The Violence ( Cromwell/ Civil War/Witch Trials)

15. The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday  (Story album about lives of four friends)

16. Isis – Oceanic  (Man falls in love, then finds out lover is in incestuous relationship with her brother, commits suicide by drowning)

17. Jóhann Jóhannsson -  IBM 1401 - A User's Manual (The artist’s father’s work at IBM)

18. Soweto Kinch - A Life In The Day Of B19 - Tales Of The Tower Block (documenting the lives of three inner-city Birmingham men)

19. The Kinks - Arthur (Decline of the British Empire)

20. The Kinks - Face to Face (Class and Britishness)

21. Lift To Experience -  The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads (Three Texas boys' experience in a biblical apocalypse)

22. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs (self-explanatory)

23. Anais Mitchell – Hadestown (A folk opera based on the Orpheus myth)

24. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (An android sent back in time to save the world and rescue freedom and love from an evil dictatorship)

25. Morton Valence - Bob & Veronica Ride Again (Lover’s  adventures as she tries to forget her past)

26. The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee (The further breakdown of the Alpha Couple's relationship)

27. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero  (Story of an imagined USA c.2023)

28. Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger ('Stranger' on the run after killing his wife and her lover)

29. Neon Neon - Stainless Style (DeLorean)

30. Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring (Break-up and redemption)

31. The Pretty Things - S.F Sorrow (A life story)

32. Lou Reed - Berlin (Tragic couple and family caught up in a cycle of drugs, prostitution, violence and death)

33. Lou Reed and John Cale – Songs for Drella (Andy Warhol's interpersonal relations and experiences)

34. St Etienne - Tales From Turnpike House (The inhabitants of said block of flats)

35. Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska (Ordinary, blue collar characters who face a challenge or a turning point in their lives)

36. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free (Everyday love and loss in modern urban Britain)

37. The The-Infected (Narrative on man’s lust for greed and power)

38. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (American Civil War Drama)

39. The Turtles - Battle of the Bands (They pretend to be a different band in each of the songs)

40. The Upsetters - Super Ape (Nature will always prevail)

41. Various (folk) Artists - The Transports (Transportation of criminals to Australia – written by Peter Bellamy)

42. Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S  (A boy in a wheelchair hacks a military satellite)

43. Jeff Wayne - War Of The Worlds (The story of Earth (or at least Surrey) being invaded by Martians)

44. XTC – Skylarking (Song cycle about the life cycle)

 

The Concept

March’s @lpgrp theme is ‘concept album’. 

For the nomination stage this month, there are a couple of one-off changes to the usual routine. First, each person can nominate one album instead of two. I’m happy to be proved wrong, but I’m hoping a shorter shortlist (just this month) will result in less quibbling whether a certain album is actually a concept album or not. 

Also, I’d appreciate it if each nomination was accompanied by a brief mention in brackets of what the concept of the album actually is. This’ll be quite interesting and educational, I reckon – and may push people to discover new material purely by being tempted by an unusual concept. 

Send your nomination via a Direct Message to @lpgrp or via a tweet ordnaire that mentions @lpgrp. 

The deadline for your nominations is 6pm on Sunday 10^th February. I can then draw up a shortlist for voting. I shall issue more details about voting on Sunday night. 

Thanks, all. 

PS A few links:

Wikipedia's list of concept albums (handle with care!)

Songfact's Top 10 Concept Albums (some decent pages of comments)

Paste's 18 Concept Albums from this century

 

Killer Queen

Thanks for voting in the poll to find out which album the @lpgrp community would play communally in February. The theme was Bella Union.

The winning album was Queen of Denmark by John Grant. This will be played by all who fancy joining in at 9pm, Sunday 3rd February. Press 'play', listen, tweet, enjoy the banter.

Some results:

1st (16 votes): John Grant's Queen of Denmark
2nd (13 votes): Midlake's The Trials of Van Occupanther
3rd (11 votes): Lift to Experience's The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads
4th (7 votes): Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
5th (6 votes): Dirty Three's Ocean Songs
6th (5 votes): Hearts by I Break Horses
7th= (4 votes): Lanterns on the Lake's Gracious Tide, Take Me Home & Andrew Bird's Noble Beast

The (Rock and) Roll of Honour - Previous @lpgrp Winners

Here are all the previous @lpgrp themes and winning albums:

January 2011  'Great album' - Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
February 2011 'Debut' - Portishead - Dummy
March 2011 'Women' - PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
April 2011 ‘Neither North America/UK’ - Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express
May 2011 'Sophomore' - REM– Reckoning
June 2011 ' 1980s Alt-Rock Classics' - The Smiths– The Queen Is Dead
July 2011 ‘1967' - Tim Buckley - Goodbye and Hello
August 2011 '1990s' - Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
September 2011 'Folk' - Joni Mitchell– Blue
October 2011 ‘First album Purchase’ - The Teardrop Explodes– Kilimanjaro
November 2011  'Movie Soundtracks' - Various Artists– O Brother Where Art Thou and Various Artists– Lost in Translation
December 2011  'Solo Projects From Band Members' - Ryan Adams– Heartbreaker
January 2012  'Best Album Of 2011' - PJ Harvey– Let England Shake
February 2012  'Live Albums' - Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison
March 2012 '4AD' - The Pixies – Doolittle
April 2012  'Alt-Country Classics' - The Decemberists – The King Is Dead
May 2012  'Scotland' - The Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
June 2012  '2000s' - Sufjan Stevens– Illinois
July 2012 '1979 or 1980' - The Clash– London Calling
August 2012 'North of England' - The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
Sep 2012 'Rough Trade' - British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power
Oct 2012 'Act contains siblings' - Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Nov 2012 'Australia' - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads
Dec 2012 'My most played album' - Neil Young - After the Goldrush
Jan 2013 'Best Album of 2012' - Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
Feb 2013 'Bella Union' John Grant - Queen of Denmark
Mar 2013 'Concept Album' David Bowie - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
Apr 2013 'Reggae' The Congos - Heart of the Congos
May 2013 'One Album Wonders' Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth 
June 2013 - 'Mini-Albums' - The Pixies - Come on Pilgrim
July 2013 - '1981' - The Cure - Faith
Aug 2013 - 'Creation Records' - Sugar - Copper Blue
September 2013 - 'Post-Punk' - Public Image Limited - Metal Box
October 2013 - 'Eponymous' - The Band - The Band
November 2013 - 'Ireland' - Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
December 2013 - 'Factory Records' - The Durutti Column - The Return of the Durutti Column
January 2014 - 'Best Album of 2014' - Bill Callahan - Dream River
February 2014 - '1960s Psychedelia' - Love - Forever Changes
March 2014 - 'John Peel's Record Collection' - The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
April 2014 - 'Canada' - Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session
May 2014 - 'Synth Pop & New Romantic' - New Order - Power, Corruption and Lies
June 2014 - 'Mercury Nominated' - Tricky - Maxinquaye
July 2014 - 'All Girl Bands' - The Raincoats - The Raincoats
Aug 2014 - 'Africa' - William Onyeabor - Atomic Bomb

I have seen the future, and it works...

Here's the (hopefully) up-to-date list of forthcoming @lpgrp themes:


Sep 2014 Soul & Funk
Oct 2014 1968
Nov 2014 Hip-Hop
Dec 2014 Foreign Language Albums
Jan 2015 Best Album of 2014
Feb 2015 "I've seen them play that live!"
Mar 2015 Folk Rock

Oh you don't get me I'm part of the union...

Greetings all...

February's @lpgrp session's theme will be Bella Union.

Bella Union, as all music lovers will know, is the (fabulous) independent record label set up by Cocteau Twins Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde back in 1997.

There's obviously a finite number of albums on Bella Union so we shall make this a straight vote this month - with no nominations. Treat, if you will, the Bella Union back catalogue as your shortlist. The best one I can find online is via the Rate Your Music pages.

Please send me the titles of your TWO favourite Bella Union releases by 6pm, Wednesday 16th January. Either send me a DM or an ordinary tweet (mentioning @lpgrp) with your choices.

The Bella Union listening session will be 9pm, Sunday 3rd February.