Is Tusk a Concept Album?
 

I got Brian Wilson's Smile for Xmas, and was thinking, is it an album you could compare in the same experimental category as Tusk, or is it a totally different category? BTW: Smile is a masterpiece.

Tynan

I got that recently also and I LOVE it. I had heard 'early versions' of a few songs, since they appeared on the box set or other albums etc, but it's great to see all the pieces put together into this long epic.

I suppose Smile and Tusk could be compared in the sense that the music is 'unexpected' when heard in the context of knowing the previous hits of the artist. Like after hearing the 'accessibility' of Go Your Own Way or Surfin USA, you would be sort of thrown by the relative lunacy of The Ledge or Vegetables. :p

I could ramble on for a bit about Smile. First of all, Brian sounds *incredible*-- I heard him on some special doing some of the tunes live and he really does hit some of the high notes that I had figured were someone else. I love Wind Chimes, and the way Wonderful slips into Song for Children-- and the line "Where is the wonderful me....wonderful you" is so simple, the way it goes up and then down-- but it stays in my head and I hum it all the time. And of course Surf's Up is stunning (even my daughter heard the end and said, "Who is that?") I have to say I preferred the way he ended it on the box set, w/ the chorus drifting off gradually, rather than the more abrupt way he does it on Smile. But it's still just so beautiful.

I love Brian Wilson. :woohoo: I'm so glad he got himself together and overcame his mental illness and the awful abuse his father Murray inflicted on him. Strange that of the 3 brothers, he'd be the only one still with us.... but anyway yes, it's a great album.

--Lis

I think the unexpectedness is what I am talking about, I mean Smile is deffinitely what you could call a conept album, the flowing style is really different, but is Tusk a new concept or just experimental?

Tynan

I think Tusk is just an experimental album. Lindsey was really into punk at the time. He listen to the Clash, etc. which influenced him during that time and influenced his ideas for the album. Therefore, it was unlike any rock album before, but it isn't a concept album. A concept album tells a story with one song building on the next song. Such as Smile, it tells the story of America, and without each song in the correct order, the album doesn't make much sense. Tusk doesn't do that. The album would make sense with a different running order or with some of the songs missing. It wouldn't be as good, but it would still make sense. :thumbsup:

No, I wouldn't classify it as a concept album at all. A concept album is something like Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Tusk is just a mish-mash of different things.

TUSK is such a masterpiece, but a "concept" release, it is not.
The last really great concept album that I got was Tom Petty's The Last DJ...

rbs

[QUOTE=dissention]No, I wouldn't classify it as a concept album at all. A concept album is something like Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Tusk is just a mish-mash of different things.

Agreed... and another concept album would be something like The Wall from Pink Floyed.

Thanks for that help because I was having so much trouble classifyin it as something...it is such a strange piece of work and one song flows in to the other, it is ashame, I don't know about in America but certainly in Australia this album didn't get much credit and went mainly unnoticed, I hope it is recognised as an amazing piece of work by the public eventually.

Tynan

Didn't Christine say in Rolling Stone prior to Tango's release that "the term 'concept album' isn't in this band's vocabulary"? :laugh:

If I remember correctly, it was a Random Notes blurb with a pic of her, L, M & J in the studio, discussing the recording for the new album, and how it would not be another Tusk.

I think Lindsey's work on Tusk could be considered "conceptual", simply considering the way he recorded everything. But the album as a whole -- no.

Well, I found it pretty funny how Stevie tried to pass TISL off as a concept album in various interviews. :laugh:

well, I think she said it started that way :shrug: Plus, it is in the sense that it is all about having something and then losing it. Pretty much all of the songs are in that theme.

Personally, when I think of a concept album, I think of Steiman's "Bat Out of Hell" sung by Meat Loaf (one of my fav's EVER mind you) or Tommy - but all the songs on TISL are on the same thing.

TISL would be one of the loosest concept albums ever created, IMO.

Stuff like Tommy and Ziggy Stardust are what I consider to be concept albums. I don't think Stevie, Lindsey, or the Mac have any concept albums in them, honestly.

I do not either. I think Stevie was referring to something like Tapestry by Carole King - but even that record, though BRILLIANT - is not a concept record to me.

Really? I think Lindsey especially, does. they must be in them, we sure haven't seen them... :rolleyes:

No way. It would require too much storytelling and he doesn't have it in him, IMO. Same with Stevie. They can do magic with four minute songs, but weaving a story and concept through 13 of them on one album wouldn't be possible.