Okay, back to the concept album discussion. In college, I took a class on Broadway musicals. In that class, we discussed the purpose of the songs in those musicals. At first glance, it might seem like the songs were used to convey plot. However, in the very best musicals, they are used for the characters to really express their emotions. The plot can be conveyed through the songs, but even then the songs are more about the characters' reactions to the plot. What's important about the songs is that they get across the characters' inner feelings.
For example, look at The Nightmare before Christmas versus Corpse Bride, two musicals that people reading this blog are most likely familiar with. In Nightmare, even the tunes about the story (like "This Is Halloween") contain what the characters think about what is going on, and how they feel about that. In Corpse Bride, the songs are about making a dress or some crap like that, and they just don't work. What does this have to do with concept albums?
Everything. Let's look at Queensryche's Operation: Mind Crime, a classic metal concept album if there ever was one. Just thinking off the top of your head, what are the tracks that you can call up in your head immediately?"Revolution Calling," "Breaking the Silence," "I Don't Believe in Love," and "Eyes of a Stranger." That's what I come up with, at any rate. Why are these the most memorable? Besides the obvious answer of "good songwriting," they represent the emotional peaks of the record. There are, certainly, emotions presence in the other tunes, but a lot of the other songs represent plot delivery, and so they just don't stick in your head. The very same tenets that apply to stage musicals are just as valid for concept albums, if not more so since you don't have the visual aspect to carry you through the boring parts.
Going back to the prompt for this entire mini-essay, Rob Halford has been talking in interviews about how they have a lot of research and material about Nostradamus's life and prophecies. I'm just afraid they're going to concentrate too much on the details, like Therion did on their latest album, Gothic Kabbalah, and not enough on the emotions, which are what most people listen to music for anyway. I don't want to sound, you know, emo, but the neat thing about music is how it can stir up feelings through mere sounds. If I want a story, I'll read a book.
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Aaron- I didn't touch upon this when I reviewed Mindcrime II, but I think that's one (of many) reasons that it was such a disappointment. The songs that did tap into the characters' emotions ("The Hands", "The Chase", "Murderer?", and "If I Could Change it All" come to mind) were the ones that stood out. The rest just seemed concerned with moving the plot forward. Queensryche seem to have forgotten that part of what made Part I so great.
Of course, going back to our discussion about songs, none of that matters if they don't have something memorable to back it up. The last song on the album was ALL about the characters' emotions, but it was a poor song with a weak, unmemorable melody. It's a shame too, because it had the potential to end the album on a very powerful, melancholy note, but instead they dropped the ball completely.
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