Current Music Blog

When The Decemberists debuted material from their newest album “The Hazards Of Love” at South by Southwest (SXSW), they played all the songs from start to finish in the same order as the record to preserve the story told through the album. “The Hazards of Love” is a concept record. It isn’t quite the The Decemberists’ first crack at making one—”The Crane Wife” also had a narrative thread, if more vague—but the new effort has them throwing their lot in with a number of other artists in recent years attempting the same thing. From My Chemical Romance to Mastadon and even Kid Cudi, concept records seem to be everywhere.

Getting an answer for who created and when the first concept album seems impossible at best. They were definitely popular during the 60s and 70s, with albums like The Who’s “Tommy” or Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side Of The Moon.” The trend was also supported by the fact that musicals like “Hair” included songs that were reminiscent of popular music at the time, which stopped being the case for Broadway soundtracks in decades that followed. In fact, it seems that as the two mediums became more disconnected sonically, the viability of the concept album died as well, until recently.

Many music critics and journalists say there’s been a significant rise in the number of concept albums in the last few years, with an especially high number released in 2008 and 2009. Thanks to director Michael Mayer (who was behind the 2002 Broadway production of “Spring Awakening”), the link between what’s popular on radio and musicals is even being re-established. His adaptation of Green Day’s “American Idiot,” with some additional tracks from “21st Century Breakdown” for the stage debuted at The Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September.

One big theory behind the return of the concept album is that it’s the artists’ way of dealing with the music industry’s decline. For a generation of single-track downloaders, presenting whole concepts may encourage fans to keep listening to entire albums the way the bands and artists intended. Rapper Kid Cudi, for instance, paid very close attention to the detail of his debut album and its packaging. He hoped that even if the album leaked, selling an intricate product would make audiences want to purchase the album anyway.

Of course, another idea is that history has to repeat itself eventually, and in a few years, concept albums will be on the way out again. Both theories seem likely, and if whatever eco-political endeavor Neil Young was rumored to be working on at the beginning of the year turns out to be as crazy as it sounds, that unfortunate decline might be setting in sooner rather than later.

On “Universal Mind Control,” Common tried out more “futuristic” and otherworldly ideas, beats, and imagery to push himself and take his music to places he hadn’t previously explored. Working with Pharrell Williams of producing duo The Neptunes played a huge part, since Pharrell is no stranger to enthusiasm for outer space themes and ideas. From his music label Star Trak, to his clothing lines, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream featuring an astronaut as its mascot, and even citing scientist Carl Sagan as someone he really admires, Pharrell is often pushing creativity toward an interplanetary future. (Watch Pharrell talk to Current about his creative community ARTST here.) The first single and title track from Common’s “Universal Mind Control” is a perfect example of that.

But Pharrell and Common aren’t the only artists in hip-hop to focus attentions on off-world conquest. It’s been a source of inspiration and a big topic for a lot of emcees and producers in recent years especially. Since the beginning of his mainstream career, Kanye West has talked about escaping in a “Spaceship”, and his entire 2008 Glow In The Dark tour hinged on a plot line where he’d been traveling the unknown to find the meaning and inspiration that Earth had failed to provide.

A 2008 Slate magazine article suggested that the black “Afronaut” has roots all the way in the earlier 1900s. But young music fans and bloggers have suggested that what it makes appealing in most recent history—though even that extends back to Afrika Bambaataaa’s “Planet Rock” in the 1980s—is being able to identify with “the alien Superman.” There’s something relatable in the isolation of outer space existence, and then using that same “otherness” to present ordinary Earth with material that’s both unique and heroic, thanks to the grandness that comes along with huge spacecrafts delivering lifesaving resources that people need.

New artist Kid Cudi fits right into that idea with his debut, “Man on the Moon: End of the Day” (narrated by none other than…Common). The isolation of the space agent is crux of the album, and Cudi says that space as a concept appealed to him even as a child—going from traveling to his own world in his imagination to placing himself there more definitely as an artist.

And while popular hip-hop artists may not have their songs blasted in space like McFly, if that time N.A.S.A commissioned a hip-hop song about astrobiology and Snoop Doog and Talib Kweli working with Buzz Aldrin to create Funny or Die’s “Rocket Experience” are any indication, the fascination still seems pretty mutual.

Watch this exclusive Embedded Outtake where Common talks about Kanye’s influence on his music:

And tune into Embedded tonight at 11/10c to hear Common talk about all the influences in his work.

UPDATE: Hear Common and Pharrell talk about creating a new sound for Common’s album, Universal Mind Control.

Here’s where it started.

Our awesome music licensing coordinator, Jen Pray (yes, she of the John Hughes greatest hits of a generation dressing down of our then-intern) let loose with a little rant on Twitter:

@prennyjay: Dear Trailer Houses, Promo Depts, Music Supers, Directors, & Producers: STOP USING BEP “I GOTTA FEELING.”

(Watch one example above from the Oprah Winfrey Show. Ironically, this is an embeddable clip, but none the BEP’s actual video of this song is not.)

I retweeted at @current_music, asking for what else you’d plead to never again be licensed to anything because if you once loved it you’ve now lost all respect. Your responses were too good to truncate in mere 140-character bites, so here they are in their entirety:

@terabyte240 @current_music YES – I realize MJ was probably up to his ears in debt, but knock it off with the Beatles‘ “Come Together”. Gonna scream.

@hennepinhaiku @current_music: No MGMT/no Juno Soundtrack pieces/Kid Cudi’s tired.

@meganwest @current_music half of Kasabian’s first album.

@pseudopseudo @current_music Iggy Pop – “Lust For Life”. Not really on *everything*, but on enough stuff that I die a little inside when I hear it.

@NTChaddius @current_music Some have been trying to bring back the “Requiem for a Tower” mix with a slightly different beat… we’re not fooled

@WhiteGoodman @current_music New Radicals “You Get What you Give.” Anything by Smash Mouth.

@Ellovater @current_music the fray’s “you found me” Makes me want to write “you lost me”

@sarahindie @current_music The Turtles’ “Happy Together.” I used to love that song. Now it brings up memories of dancing bagels and cream cheese, etc.

@kid_amy @current_music ugh, I just heard Digable Planets “Rebirth of Slick” for a Tide commercial yesterday! and also New Order’s “Ceremony” I like those songs, just found it appalling they were being used in commercials

@lexicaljewel @current_music Blur – Song 2. Good god.

@stephenbarros verve- bittersweet symphony ..ugh!

Today on Current Music:

+ Here is a pretty dark, compelling music video for Julian Plenti’s new single: “Games For Days.” Plenti, aka Interpol’s Paul Banks, released the single on his new album “Julian Plenti… Skyscraper.”

+ Uh oh, thanks to Steven Tyler’s unfortunate stumble off the stage at Sturgis Wednesday, Aerosmith might cancel their current tour.  Oh and btw, our Peter Grumbine has thrown in his two cents and wants your captions for a Steven Tyler motorcycle pic.

+ Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields have released the album art and tracklisting for their band Dead Man’s Bones‘ debut album, which they claim sounds like “Disney haunted mansion meets doo wop and 60s girl groups.” Check out this ridiculous but intriguing combo by listening to the two live songs up on their MySpace.

+ In an interview with Hip Hop Official, Kid Cudi tries to explain why he was a wimpy, kiddie, baby whiner and almost retired from music before his debut album even dropped. Reason: the bloggers were mean to him. Luckily, he’s found a ladder since then, and seems to have gotten over himself, although his heated statements about it show that his ego is still a little bruised.

+ Akron, Ohio’s Square Records celebrates its sixth anniversary and continued existence as an independent record store still making money by getting Akron indie bands to play a show that features fun acts like Drummer, a band that includes the Black Keys‚ Pat Carney.

Got more great music stories for Current? Submit them here and be sure to tag with the artist name for consideration to be featured!

—Josh Middleton & Chanelle Johnson