Trip albums - what a long strange trip...

[haunted_i]

What are your highly recommended albums that take the listener on a trip, building their unique themes across the disc (or vinyl) ? Note: No cookie-cutter pop music shall enter here. Movie/tv/game soundtracks don't really count either. Sorry.

Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
Called 'gray metal' by some (presumably for its synthesis of dark brooding riffs with snow-filled orchestrations), this masterpiece may not make you smile, but is very down to earth. It "meshes metal seamlessly with classical instrumentation, ambient vistas, and powerful dynamics." Vocal talents range from almost Gregorian lyrics to ocassional throaty passages a la Cradle of Filth. Play it for non-metal fans too, and watch their perceptions shift like mountain formation.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Needs no explanation. Unquestionably perfect for lonely night driving. By the way, at least one band interview confirms there's no intentional parallel with The Wizard Of Oz, and I personally couldn't see one either.

Sigur Rós
Hailing from Iceland (like Bjork), they "rightly claim to bring you the beautiful landscape of their homeland with their music." It's really quite difficult to explain, and even their samples don't completely convey the experience. Each album is a piece in entirety. I recommend not starting with their first album, as it's most unlike the subsequent ones. It would be akin to hearing Green Day's "Good Riddance" and assuming all their work sounds like that. Go with the albums ágætis byrjun or ( ) first. Disclaimer: I am not recommending this for everyone. Note that their Iceland record label is smekkleysa, or "bad taste."

I also have many works of Alex Hephaestion, but those don't really count. They just need to be mentioned for good mental health. Especially [Sol System].

[Darkshine]

Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
Called 'gray metal' by some (presumably for its synthesis of dark brooding riffs with snow-filled orchestrations), this masterpiece may not make you smile, but is very down to earth. It "meshes metal seamlessly with classical instrumentation, ambient vistas, and powerful dynamics." Vocal talents range from almost Gregorian lyrics to ocassional throaty passages a la Cradle of Filth. Play it for non-metal fans too, and watch their perceptions shift like mountain formation.

Such a good album.

So..are you talking about concept albums? Like albums that tell a story?

[haunted_i]

They can, though I personally pay more attention to the instrumental parts, especially on albums in other languages, like Sigur Rós. By the way, they've denied any of their albums being 'concept.'

Pink Floyd's The Wall qualifies, and it sure as hell tells a story. I know most of the words to Dark Side... but do they mean anything together? I should probably read them somewhere instead of listening to them for once.

[FeelingForeign]

One that springs to my mind is The Streets - A Grand don't come for free

Through this album you follow a guy, Mike Skinner, as he chronicles a relationship from start to end. Even the build up to meeting the girl, and epilogue of the relationship ending.

[Darkshine]

Opeth's album Still Life is a concept album about a guy (The Moor) who was banished from his town by the "Council of the Cross" because he brought bad fortune to the town (and probably because he was a Moor). Well, he comes back some time later to see his love, Melinda, but he finds out that she's about to get married or something or other. But he convinces her to spend a night with him since they still love each other. The Council finds them and kidnaps her while they slept and when he woke up he found out they had slit her throat. And then he goes on a rampage and kills as many people as he can until he collapses from exhaustion. The Council (the White Cluster) surround him and hang him and when he's dying he sees Melinda there waiting for him with open arms.

Awesome album  It's death metal but mixed with a lot of acoustic guitars and clean vocals which are very nice

[haunted_i]

Jag Panzer - Thane To The Throne
Essentially, this is the Macbeth album. It paraphrases lines from the entire play, and retains their signature fusion of wailing 80s metal with arrangement breaks. There are more movie-soundtrack-esque moments in here compared to their other albums, simply because it's telling one big story.

[chuaigh]

Just to drop in a comment; the "trippiest" (is that a word?) album, by far, that I have ever heard is Voyage 34, by Porcupine Tree. I'm not their biggest fan, but I have to give them the nod when it comes to the queer (as in strange, not gay) category. When it comes to Dark Side of The Moon, I would agree. I would also say, however, that because pink Floyd is so popular, their music gives you less of a trip, assuming that you have heard it more. If you have not though, then yes, my goodness yes. And to finish, I would add that most of Pink Floyd's albums are extremely "trippy".

[haunted_i]

Well, I usually don't pay attention to something's popularity. If I like it or not, why does it matter what the general public thinks?

I gave Still Life a couple of spins. Definetely need to be in the right mood to enjoy it, but when I am, it will surely transport me.

Whether or not it truly belongs here is debatable, given your merits on techno, but the first Tranceport album is positively transcendent. Mixed by Paul Oakenfold, it might just be the holy grail for trance fans. If this is a clue, it's the only album I've ripped with Apple Lossless (most of library is 128-320 AAC).

[OchoCinco]

i listen to anything by queen, mostly, but othertimes i listen to Stop Making Sense from the Talking Heads

[Gabriel006]

Opeth - Deliverance
This is a great album with a unique way of moving from a head smashing, white knuckle metal, to a grinding halt with it's technical acoustics and mellow melodies interwoven with a mastery unknown to most popular music. Very triptasic (oh yeah...i went there)

[Darkshine]

Opeth - Deliverance
This is a great album with a unique way of moving from a head smashing, white knuckle metal, to a grinding halt with it's technical acoustics and mellow melodies interwoven with a mastery unknown to most popular music. Very triptasic (oh yeah...i went there)

But then, all of their albums are like that. Ghost Reveries is actually very good at that too. Great story also, too bad Mikael ruined it by adding in Isolation Years (good song but it killed the concept album)

[Metiani]

Pink Floyd - The Wall
I could listen to that album and watch the movie for hours on end

[slag_10]

when i was in New Mexico this summer, i offten drove around at night. i ussualy listened to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue during the day, i had alot of Lightning Hopkins on... Any blues or Jazz album is good for a long drive. I normaly make mixtapes and playlists for long drives... on these there tends to be alot of Rockabilly and older country songs. I know you said sound tracks are iffy, but the Lost in Translation soundtrack is also amazing for night drives, as long as its not lulling you to sleep

[slag_10]

I don't wanna sound like an jerk, but what this thread is talking about is an album TAKES you on a trip, not you listen to ON a trip.  An album that builds itself up over a theme and basically tells a story through the music to a place where you can just sit and listen and forget all your troubles. The problem with soundtracks is that when you listen to it, you visualize the story of the movie, game, or tv show and it's not really the music taking you on a trip, but the show/game.

Meh, rant over, i'm off my soap-box

First off, my post was more or less in reply to this statement in the first post-

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Needs no explanation. Unquestionably perfect for lonely night driving.

When you're driving on a flat straight away, any one song takes your mind on a trip. Since your thoughts generally aren't focused on driving, as you pretty much look out in front and steady the wheel, you start to take in the scenery about you. You begin to think less and less about the drive and more about the story in your mind.

My examples still stand, even with the stipulation of themes driving the music. Soundtracks that have original scores typically can stand alone without the film and still give you the build up of themes. This more prevalent if the score is orchestrated. An example would be the soundtrack to the film Princess Mononoke It can stand alone from from the film simply because of about 6-8 recurring themes in the work. One can gather a sense of the story even with out having seen the film.You have a theme based on the protagonist, a theme based on the demonic god that curses him, a theme for the heroin, and a few themes that are meant for ideas(e.g., the interplay between life an death) the themes pop up with slight variations to reflect the moods, actions and development of the characters and plot. The same is true of Miles Davis's rendition of the opera Porgy and Bess. I have never seen the work, but I can tell you these things from having only listened to it-
1) Porgy and Bess have distinct musical themes that are used to differentiate their “voices”
2) the general story is about a couple living in the inner city and their daily struggle to get by during hard times.

that’s really all you need. your brain can fill in the rest later on.


You can pretty much let any musical work take you on a mental trip if you just let your mind work freely. It’s not hard to make up your own story for an album. In someways, I'd rather do that than listen to something that is pretty much telling me what's going on.

Also if you don't want to sound like A jerk, then you shouldn't say anything. Its my experience that when someone calls attention to the fact they don't want to be a jerk about something, they tend to come across that way. If they hadn't called attention to the fact that what they say is a jerk like statement, most people wouldn't have noticed. Essentially "I don't want to be a jerk about it" = "I'm gonna be a jerk about it" ^_^

[haunted_i]

That's true... Trent Reznor is one creative guy. Of course, I can't say much about NIN since I only have those albums on while playing turn-based RPGs.