billybillybilly said:
And in this corner:

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
The Beatle's Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (OBVIOUSLY)
Radiohead Kid A
Smashing Pumpkins Adore
Nirvana's In Utero
Bjork's Vespertine

All good albums.

In Utero was a concept album? What was the running theme?

Fear of hospitals, and suicide.

mmm. now if a theme can be that open-ended then almost any album can be made to fit into some "concept." it's like putting a spin on things after the fact to fit your own preconceived notion and/or agenda.

i love "in utero," but i don't think it's a concept album any more than it's just kurt writing lyrics about universal themes of self-loathing/self-examination/anger/sadness/loss/etc etc etc. if i remember the facts from interviews done back around the time of "in utero" was released, "rape me" was written kinda about how kurt felt about the idea of payback when rapists go to jail...and then are subject to rape/assaults themselves. how does that fall into some concept album about "fear of hospitals, and suicide?"

and using an idea that open-ended is a bit like saying that all beach boys' songs were about girls, cars and surfing...so the whole beach boys catalogue is one big concept album about girls, cars and surfing. it's a recurring theme, not a concept.

That's a good argument, indeed. In certain ways, I must admit that my list has two faults, being In Utero, and Vespertine. I put them in because I've always considered them concept albums.

However, a case can still be made for In Utero. Convoluted, possibly. Personal, definitely. But here's my rationale:

There's a sense of cosmic irony wrapped inside each song. He was obviuosly, knowingly dealing with suicide and depression, drug use and health issues and wrote his songs accordingly. And if you go down the list of songs, the themes include, 1) telling his father he's not angry anymore, 2) morbid fascination/fear of hospitals, 3) Courtney's vagina, according to her in a Spin article, feel free to believe or disbelieve, 4) karma, but most specifically the idea of finding peace by knowing that what's being done wrong to you will come back three-fold on the person harming you, 5) again, this idea of karma as revenge, but using a person he looked up to and saw as a metaphor of his own fame, 6) huffing glue, 7) being picked on as a kid, 8) essentially written as a conclusion to his thoughts of suicide, 9) abortion, again relating to his morbid fascination with hospitals, and ancient healing techniques, in this case abortion, 10) one of the only songs in which he actually gives definitive answers alongside his questions (hate your enemies, save your friends, find a place, speak the truth), 11) anger, 12) a last goodbye.

So, those are the general themes through each song. In the end it all adds up to one thing, and that theme is complete and utter self-destruction.

It's a bit long-winded to this point, but the point I'm trying to make is that it may not have been a concept record then, but post-mortem it certainly is.

Cosmic irony.

DamnDirtyApe

Merced, CA

November 2005

MAR 31, 2006 04:27 PM

[Edited on Mar 31, 2006 by DamnDirtyApe]

alaniszen

USA

March 2006

APR 01, 2006 03:54 PM

Touche.

vanillakinky

Chapel Hill, NC

July 2002

APR 01, 2006 08:42 PM

Radiohead: OK Computer

Pink Floyd: The Wall

I think the two have a lot of conceptual/artistic parallels, each for a different generation, both equally powerful in my miniscule opinion