Albums you listen to start-to-finish which tell a story

[Tristan]

I've been going through a phase where I'm really enjoying those albums which tell a story over their length and which are really enjoyable to listen to in their entirety with a good pair of headphones. You know, The Wall kinda stuff but more modern.

Here are my current favs...what have you got?

Plan B - The Defamation of Stickland Banks. This is a really soul/jazzy hip hop album which tells the story of a man who falls in love but is then falsely accused and imprisoned for rape.

Prince Paul - A Prince Among Theives. This is a really light hearted story of a young aspiring rapper who takes a job selling drugs to pay for his first album. It's got cameos by Kool Keith (who plays a crazy weapons specialist), Biz Markie, De La Soul, Xzibit, RZA and a whole bunch more. A great album which mocks hip hop's culture.

Dangermouse and Daniele Luppi - Rome. A soundtrack to a fictional movie. 5 years to record on vintage equipment and with singing from Jack White (White Stripes) and Nora Jones.

The Roots - How I Got Over. Not quite a full story-telling but a trip through adversity and self-doubt and the tracks blend into each other.

Alt-J - This Is All Yours. Again not a full story-telling album but a well blended album from two very talented guys with hints of rock, gospel, and acapella..

Yeah I'm a mid-thirties white guy who likes hip hop. Deal with it :-)

[woodworker]

Old guy here: Quadrophenia. Poetic Champions Compose.

[dashDustin]

Kanye's 808s and Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

I'll have to give that Prince Paul album a listen.

[Saab2000]

The Wall and Tommy are obvious 'story' albums but I haven't listened to them in years in their entirety.

It's rare nowadays to listen to whole CDs or albums from start to finish, but I find U2's Achtung Baby to be a comprehensive work and Roxy Music's Avalon (one of the great albums ever) to get better every time and it's greater, by far, than the sum of its parts.

These two are not stories, but are great as whole works.

[robin3mj]

Graceland
Nebraska

[rydesteel]

Genesis...The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. We're only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. I'd ride to this daily in the Isolation ward at UN/Omaha in 89.

Tom Russell...The Man from God knows Where..since we are all immigrants from someplace and I like Singer songwriters

Todd Snyder...Peace Queer...Is This Thing Working..is this thing on

[Diablo de Acero]

Actual Lps are paced and 23 minutes a side. Cds are longer and contain more songs(than needed) than the average attention span. The shorter format meant you really had put the best on and shelve the rest. Roxy Music is great. It just keeps better the more you listen to it. Recently I been listening to Dawn of Midi's Dysnomia, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, First two Tom Petty album, Led Zeppelin III, Genesis' Seconds Out, and Radiohead's The King of Limbs.

[skouri1]

Lately, All 3 of kendrick lamars albums but mainly,
Good kid maad city --offers a cohesive narrative of his youth
To Pimp a butterfly -- a super creatively put together narrative that transcends the individual

Ive been on a rap kick though

[chasea]

I've been going through a phase where I'm really enjoying those albums which tell a story over their length...Yeah I'm a mid-thirties white guy who likes hip hop. Deal with it :-)

The Streets "A Grand Don't Come For Free."

[zetroc]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call.

[holliscx]

OK Computer the opening note of Airbag pulls me in to sit down and listen to the album the whole way through

In the next world war
In a jackknifed juggernaut
I am born again

Other solid albums track for track:

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

Fugees - The Score

Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls / Swamp Ophelia / Rites of Passage

Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of

Modest Mouse - Building Nothing out of Something

The National - Boxer

Patti Smith - Horses

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

R.E.M. - Green

Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

# #

To me the key is track ones ... Kanye for example comes out strong but quickly tails off.

This dates me a little but I used to fly and would always hit play on my Walkman as the jet started off down the runway. I loved the way the plane built speed in unison with "Where the Streets Have No Name" the timing was almost perfect right as the wheels lifted off the ground the lyrics began. Joshua Tree is a classic old school story album.

Another album I'll throw out is Tinariwen - Aman Iman: Water is Life - the West African guitar tuning really does it for me plus French. See NPR tiny desk concert below.

[robin3mj]

The Streets "A Grand Don't Come For Free."

I haven't given that one a listen in a long time. Good call.

Also, the Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty- doesn;t quite tell a story but demands a full listen in proper order.

[Brandon White]

Pedro the Lion - Control - About a corporate man who has an affair and his wife murders him.
Pedro the Lion - Winners Never Quit - The downward spiral of a corrupt but well meaning politician.

The Good Life - Album of the Year - About a new relationship over the course of a year.
The Good Life - Black Out - The dreary side of Tim Kasher's bitter divorce.

Cursive - Domestica - The angry side of Tim Kasher's divorce.

And my Favorite, which has already been mentioned.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane Over The Sea.

I'll also have to revisit A Grand Don't Come For Free - that was in heavy rotation in 2004 and will surely conjure up memories of moving to Florida.

[false_aesthetic]

Hum - You'd Prefer an Astronaut (It's like an Isaac Asimov love/divorce story).
Constructus Corp - . Before there was Die Antwoord, there was Constructus.


And as mentioned above Pedro the Lion.

[lumpy]

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

And,

Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake It's Morning is a heck of a record.

Oh and The Greatest by Cat Power, reinforced by the superb live show I saw at Berklee when she toured it.

I love Roxy Music, too, and used to be nuts about Avalon when I was in a mopey mood. Country Life is probably my favorite but there is so much goodness from that band. The version of Both Ends Burning on Viva is a particular high point.

[bking]

some is story, but these for me wouldn't be the same if just one cut were missing, everything belongs:
Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick, of course
Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
Allman Bros, Fillmore East
Peter Frampton (sorry, never heard of the guy till this one came out, then we all did), Comes Alive
Steely Dan, The Royal Scam. each song here had to be where it was

[seanile]

jukebox the ghost does a lot of fictional story telling with their albums. but i like safe travels the most for the more personal angle.

[alexstar]

Wow, some great stuff already mentioned here, Neutral Milk Hotel, Pink Floyd (Dark Side, Animals, Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Wall, Wish You Were Here), Bright Eyes, Graceland, Roxy Music, Springsteen...

I'm surprised nobody has yet said "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac, so I'll say it: it's a fantastic album.

I'll also add: "Rid of Me" and "White Chalk" by PJ Harvey, "No More Shall We Part" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Elton John's eponymous album, "Out Of Time" by REM, "Goddess" by Banks, "Alive 2007" by Daft Punk, "Beginnings" by the Allman Brothers Band, "De-Loused In The Comatorium" by The Mars Volta, "Cry Is For The Flies" by Le Butcherettes, Antemasque's eponymous album, "Two Hunters" by Wolves In The Throne Room, "London Calling" by The Clash, "Breakfast in America" by Supertramp, "The Trials of Van Occupanther" by Midlake, "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" by Springsteen, "Days Are Gone" by Haim, "Holy Mountain" by SLEEP (with bonus tracks!) ... man, I could go on and on, but I'll stop here. I love listening to a complete album when the artist intended it to be heard that way.

[classtimesailer]

My mom had Harry Nilsson's The Point which I listened to many an afternoon after school. I'm on my way to i-tunes so I can listen on the way home.

[Pi Guy]

Man, this is great, I'll have to check out a bunch of these! I have been looking for some new to me music lately. In keeping with the 30 something white boys that like hip hop I'll add these two:

J Dilla, Jay Dee Donuts. It's all instrumental, so doesn't tell a specific story, but each track really blends with the next nicely. A lot of the tracks are great on there own, but I think that the album, as an entire composition, is pretty amazing.

Jay Electronica, . Also, not a specific story, but a 15 minute piece made up of 5 "songs." Again, as an entire composition, I think it's pretty amazing.