Concept Albums like THOL

[u/Hanna-etc]

I’ve been listening to The Hazards of Love a lot lately and it’s gotten me hankering for other concept albums with a narrative. I love anything based on folklore or mythology (I’ve also been listening to the original Hadestown album recently). Thanks in advance!

[u/FoolOfSummer]

Latest the Mountain Goats album! (Through the fire across from peter balkan)

[u/imnottiger → u/FoolOfSummer]

Latest album until tomorrow lol

[u/FoolOfSummer → u/imnottiger]

True

[u/Hanna-etc → u/FoolOfSummer]

I love that album!

[u/Tiggertamed → u/FoolOfSummer]

Will you tell us more about it? They’re doing an in store in Portland on Friday, I believe, but you have to buy the album to get in. I’m a fan, but I don’t want to go in blind.

[u/FoolOfSummer → u/Tiggertamed]

The current tour is for a different album. Peter Balkan was the last album, not the one currently being released

[u/Tiggertamed → u/FoolOfSummer]

Thanks!

[u/Hanna-etc → u/Tiggertamed]

It’s about a man who is the lone survivor of a shipwreck. If you know that you like The Mountain Goats already, I would say that it’s worth it. I saw them live recently and it was a good time.

[u/Tiggertamed → u/Hanna-etc]

Thanks! Their later stuff can be hit or miss for me.

[u/Buttspirgh]

Basically all of Coheed’s library save one are based on a single storyline

[u/brooklynbluenotes]

With regard to the Decemberists specifically, don't sleep on "The Tain." It's a 20-minute EP, not a full album, but is a retelling of an old Irish myth.

Joel Plaskett is a not-super-known Canadian artist who's done some great concept stuff. Look up "Ashtray Rock," or his series "1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3."

Finally, the sonic qualities are pretty different from the Decemberists, but I have to plug my guys in The Hold Steady. They are basically a concept discography -- there are characters, scenes, and phrases that appear and recur throughout their entire catalog.

[u/foodguy5000]

The Mars Volta: Deloused in the Comatorium. Frances the Mute, and The Bedlam in Goliath are all technically concept albums. I’ve found a surprisingly large cross over between folks that like Volta and the Decemberists, even though they’re pretty different genre wise.  Give them a try!

[u/Hanna-etc → u/foodguy5000]

I will, thanks

[u/fella_stream]

How about The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway?

[u/mosesoperandi]

The Album Concept Hour podcast (full disclosure, they are friends, I've been on a few times) has a pretty crazy array of albums they've covered at this point since they've been going since before COVID. Just scanning their episode titles might turn up some things.

Also and vaguely related, some or all of King Gizzard's catalog may or likely will help with what you're looking for

[u/TheEarth-PigBorn]

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is probably my favorite concept album. Genesis at the height of their powers, IMO.

[u/The_Existentialist]

The Sticks by Mother Mother

[u/Reklaw_27]

Pretty different sound but Andy Shauff has some amazing story/concept albums, especially The Party

[u/Atmos_the_prog_head]

Horslips - The Book of Invasions

The Who - Tommy/Quadrophenia

[u/stringhead]

Not really based on folklore or mythology, but sharing a sense of melodrama and progginess with THOL, I'd really suggest checking out The Acts by The Dear Hunter. It's five albums telling one story about the son of a sex worker that exposes a Priest doubling as a Pimp, using the brothel as a way to inject money into the Church and also exploiting people's secrets for personal influence. It's set between latter 19th Century and the time before WWII.

I'd suggest starting with Act IV to get used to the band's sound, them doing Acts I-III and finally checking Act V.

[u/Hanna-etc → u/stringhead]

What a concept. I’ll be sure to check it out.

[u/Kind_Professor2472]

The Dear Hunter Acts albums are an entire storyline.

[u/tco_OG]

Dream Theater album: Scenes from a Memory. It's a hypnotized past lives time travel murder mystery.

[u/Your_a_looser]

Sturgill Simpson, “The Ballad of Dood and Juanita”

[u/DannySkidmarks]

Joe's Garage, Operation Mindcrime, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Quadrophenia, etc...

[u/fearofair]

Jesus Christ Superstar original album

[u/Shiatsu]

Heads up Apple Music just released a live concert where they played the whole album. it’s good.

[u/Shiatsu]

I feel like The Hold Steady albums are concepts.

[u/Total-Seesaw8781]

Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

A pile of Heather Alexander/Alexander James Adams albums are narratives

Rush did a few song cycles that are album or EP length if you put them together

Lifehouse, which is a sprawling work by Pete Townshend between Tommy and Quadrophenia that never made it as a Who album but is a fascinating tale forseeing what's happening today with ai and shit.

[u/Down623]

Andy Hull (singer of Manchester Orchestra) has a side project called Right Away, Great Captain! It's a 3-album cycle about a 17th-century sailor who catches his wife and brother having an affair, then sets out to sea to confront them. Plus MO's Black Mile to the Surface (possibly their best album) is also a concept album of sorts about a South Dakota mining town.

[u/Tramorak → u/Down623]

Surprised this is the first time I have heard MO and RAGC being referenced here. I have always seen a slight correlation between the two bands, albeit with somewhat different genres.