B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping some of my favorite concept albums into the ol’ VCR. 

When done well, a concept album is truly brilliant. It’s essentially a musical without the visuals, or like with Childish Gambino’s Because the Internet or Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer, we have a video component to align with the album itself. 

I was watching the episode of The Broski Report where Brittany Broski took a deep dive into Ethel Cain’s album, Preacher’s Daughter, and I was enamored. To be perfectly honest, I had only heard about Ethel Cain’s album in passing, and I’m ashamed that I hadn’t taken the time to research it until the podcast. 

Video Source: BroskiReport

Preacher’s Daughter tells the extremely tragic tale of a young girl who is constantly abused and mistreated at the hands of the men around her. She believes she’s found peace in the arms of her lover, only to later die at his hands. It’s beautiful and horrible and everything in-between, and if you haven’t listened yet, I’d highly recommend it. 

After researching Preacher’s Daughter, I started to think about some of my other favorite concept albums and how underappreciated concept albums can be. That’s why I want to highlight a few of my favorites, so that you can listen and overanalyze right along with me. 

As with every one of these lists, my disclaimer is this — I can’t possibly list every single concept album of all time, including all the ones I love. There will be some I miss because I’m human, or I haven’t listened to them, or I just overlooked them, like I did Preacher’s Daughter. Just roll with it. 

Video Source: Ethel Cain

Additionally, I know that some of these might not be as carefully calculated as others, but they’re concept albums all the same. Again, just roll with it. 

Without any further ado, here are some of my favorite concept albums of all time: 

• Childish Gambino – Because the Internet 
• Janelle Monáe – Dirty Computer (and all of her other albums, honestly) 
• Green Day – American Idiot 
• David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars 
• My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade 
• The Mountain Goats – Bleed Out (even though you could technically argue all of their albums are concept albums) 
• Pink Floyd – The Wall 
• Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. and good kid, m.A.A.d city 
• Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain 

Honorable mention 

I feel like Ghost deserves some love here. The band itself is a concept, and they’ve created so many characters and so much lore that Ghost’s entire existence could be construed as a concept. They also put on a hell of a live show.