Is This the Cinema?
Not all concept albums are great albums. But all great albums are concept albums.
Take The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. Released right before the turn of the millennium, it marked a zenith in rock — the point, it seemed, at which the gravity-defying balloon launched by Elvis Presley and The Beatles and The Beach Boys could not float any higher. “Is it getting heavy?” sang Wayne Coyne. “Well… I thought it was already as heavy as can be.”
Great albums chase the mysteries of existence. They are epic, cinematic. And the screen they fill glows in the mind of the beholder:
tell everybody waiting for Superman
that they should try to hold on the best they can
he hasn’t dropped them, forgot them, or anything
it’s just too heavy for Superman to lift.
Is it getting heavy? Put on a great record and float a little higher.
Tags: concept album, elvis presley, superman, the beach boys, the beatles, the flaming lips, the soft bulletin, wayne coyne
