Top 30 Concept Albums Of All Time, Part Three

Conceptually speaking, this Is Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull (Photo by Jo Hale/Getty Images)

Albums, like life, are sometimes a collection of three-minute moments, sometimes a long stretch of seemingly related experiences. Here are the Top 10 examples of the latter, cast to vinyl, thanks to your rock and roll heroes.

#10. The Who – Tommy (1969)

Concept: He sure plays a mean pinball.

#9. Pink Floyd – Animals (1977)

Concept: A critique of socio-political conditions in ’70s England, complete with flying pigs.

#8. Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick (1972)

Concept: The life of one Gerald Bostock, fictitious child poet and cause of scandal in London. Actually written in response to the critics’ suggestion that its predecessor, Aqualung, was a concept album. Ian Anderson rejected the idea, then wrote “the mother of all concept albums.”

#7. The Rolling Stones – Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)

Concept: Drug-addled, harassed and busted at every turn, the Stones respond with a brutally sarcastic set of music built around the words stamped in the British passport: “Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires…”

#6. Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

Concept: Songs about conflict, greed and mental illness. In other words, longer, slower versions of every punk song written after ’77.