i'm afraid to venture into chris witten's 135-response thread about people 'cutting it', so maybe this topic is in there, but...

i've been listening to some newer cds, and i've noticed that while i like many of the individual tunes, i don't walk away feeling like the cd itself makes a solid musical statement.

i'm not sure if it's the song order [though that could be a big part of it], but i don't feel like i'm taking a musical journey. i feel like i'm listening to songs.

off the top of my head, a few albums that imho do make musical statements are kenny kirkland's self-titled cd, coltrane's 'blue train,' zep's 'physical graffiti,' joe henderson's 'in 'n out,' mahavishnu's 'innermounting flame,' pearl jam's '10,' elton john's 'captain fantastic & the brown dirt cowboy,' and tom petty's first album [errr... i think it's the first album: the one with 'american girl.'] there is a wide range of tunes in all those albums, yet they somehow feel connected. they're not repeating the same musical themes necessarily, but they feel connected, or at least, work in relation to each other. and collectively, they take me somewhere.

what's your thinking on this? and what do you think are some of the elements that help project a strong musical statement? so far, for me, it's the strength of the tunes, how they're placed relative to each other, a distinctive 'recording sound' for each [or most] tunes and solid arrangements. musicianship is a plus, but not a requirement. tons of beatles albums made huge statements, but the playing wasn't uber-advanced.

just thought i'd throw that out, seeing as i'm waiting on the editorial dept. to finish reading the dang blues...

Well it's hard not to get caught up listing the greatest albums of the last 50 years and saying albums from the last ten don't measure up.
Perhaps some will, with the benefit of the maturation process.

One album I think does make a coherent statement is Beck's Seachange.
One long downer on love and relationships from beginning to end.
But flippin' excellent for it.
Great drumming too btw (Joey Waronker and James Gadson).

A lot of people often site Radiohead's 'OK Computer' in this regard.

Yeah,- Kind of like my sons dream of being able to play video games for a living.  I recall teasing him a bit a while back concerning how- "yeah, all of your friends want to do that... but you know they don't have college degrees in that field son..."  to which my wife turns to me and informs me that both she and my son, days earlier, saw a commercial on TV about just such a thing  .  Well, I can recall starting on lifes road with one destination in mind and then several years later realizing that though the destination had changed... it just might never had gotten me where I am now (which is a pretty good place all the way around) had I not started on that initial dream.  
As for the topic at hand, concept album or not (I'm not certain on that definition)  I can tell you that I really come away from Stings albums (Ten Summoners Tales, in particular) with more interest and musical stimulation than I do a most other artists.  For me its not just the music which is top notch but weather the songs are all connected in some way or not, its the thought that goes into the lyrics as well as the musical arrangement that amazes me.  Whether this is true or not, I'm not certain, but a friend of mine who's more into music theory than I had said after just such a discussion that Gordon Sumner (is that how you spell his last name?) had a doctorate degree in something like literature or English (language not country) studies.  Be that true or not- his grasp of poetic expression is IMHO, possibly equaled by few others but certainly not surpassed. 

Funny, something I'm going through right now with producing my CD. I seemed to have recorded them in the order they will appear on the CD, I'm even mixing them in the order they were recorded. The order makes sense to me, can't say if it will for anyone else. Self editing? What's that? Another reason to get someone involved who isn't so close to the project.

Not that it's THE authority but here's a good explanation of "concept album".  It touches on some of the issues addressed in this thread...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_album

Good point.  We are talking about stuff that grabs us emotionally as well as intellectually so where we are emotionally and intellectually makes a big difference.  Some of the stuff that affected me a long time ago does seem to have the same pull.  Sometimes what affected me emotionally in the past is now appreciated more on an intellectual level and visa versa. 

Also, instrumental pieces seem to fit together differently than lyrical pieces (concept album or not).  I surely don't understand how it all fits or doesn't, I just know what I like.  It's like good literature.  When I read Steinbeck, I'm completely sold.  A PHD in literature might be able to explain how he uses grammar, parts of speech, etc and I can grasp some of that however, his writing is just on a completely different level.  Similarly, a music theorist can analyze the parts, the transitions, etc but it still doesn't explain to me why some compositions affect me the way they do and why some pieces connect together so well. 

Somone earlier mentioned Chick Corea. He is an excellent example of a musician who reords albums that reflect where his musical head is at in a given time. Not everything may particularly appeal to the audience but he keeps a consistency that lets you into his world. Some of the earlier Return to Forever albums are pretty obvious at this and fair examples but I think he has done so throughout his career.

I've been thinking about this and I'm convinced that some of us musicians are caught up in the music critic mindset. There's this notion that the only music worth recording, playing, or listening to is music that transcends time and space. I think if most of the artists of the past 50 years had that mindset, we would have no recordings. Except for maybe Tom Jones. He'd get past the emotional turmoil somehow.

Someone mentioned Sting. Now, I love Sting, but I think he stopped making real musical statements around the time he left Police -- at least the kind that people write about 100 years later. When 20th Century historians wade through their collection of Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, Gershwin, Miles Davis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Velvet Underground, the Clash, and Nirvana, they're not going to stumble across Dream of the Blue Turtles or Ten Summoner's Tales. They might have a rare copy of Regatta De Blanc or Synchronicity, because those were culturally important and influenced a lot of musicians.

That said, I'm glad Sting left the Police because Sting had to go and pursue music that interested him. Like his 5-word acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award: "Music is it's own reward." Good for him. I think Sting gets it, and I think remains popular because he's got a well-heeled ear hooks and he can afford to make music that's interesting to him.

Aside from the few truly great composers and prolific hit song writers who borrowed melody lines from something other than the blues like the Beatles, I think the last half of the 20th Century (and our mindset) will ultimately be remembered for its accidents in a sea of sameness. A true macro perspective of our era of music will reveal a hyper-obsession with three-chord songs and simple drum beats. I believe many historians will be confounded trying to figure out how we determined a hit from a mediocre track. What we believe is so earth-shaterring and revolutionary at the moment probably isn't.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy what we enjoy. Whatever pricks our ear is what we should pursue, however personal and unimportant it may ultimately be, because there may be some new universe inside the kernel of audio bliss that may in fact be truly revolutionary. We will never know, though, until we pursue it, because I don't think timeless music can be made with an agenda or a concious awareness of its importance.

Ironically, I thought the last Green Day album (er, CD) fit your bill perfectly. The social commentary in the lyrics were sharply written and the music had some great hooks. American Idiot and Jesus of Suburbia are some of the best pop songs I've heard the last couple of years.

I'm tempted to list Ben Folds on this list, but I can't tell if he's really making a musical statement or if he's just a guilty pleasure. I find most anything he writes as imminently listenable, but I also enjoy his natural way of writing and delivering wry lyrics.

 Regardless the artists intent, the statement has to be interpreted by the listener.  Someone once said:

"It's not what I said, it's what you think I said that matters".  In a way, this is true of music.  It doesn't matter what the songwriter's intent was, as much as what the reaction to the statement is by the listener.  And what might be a "musical statement" to me may not be one to you. That's the beauty of art.