It’s sad and it’s cold at the bottom of the sea but at least I got my blueberries with me.

The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (2004)

Rating 4.50/5.00
Where 5 is THE best concept album in rock history

Why I don't dig the Who....
Because they were very good. Infact they were perfect. I guess that's the reason I don't give a fuck.

See the point is, I could never connect with them during their concept album phase - Tommy and what nots. Although I liked the music, I've got to admit that a concept album takes time and effort to get into and if you don't connect with the concept (however absurd it might be) then its a complete waste! And here I come up with my controversial statement - I don't think the Who (mainly Townshend) had the maturity (good noone reads this blog) to write concept albums. Tommy is a weak concept album. Whew! I'm done.

On the other hand, consider the Kinks and their two perfect albums - Arthur and Musewell Hillibillies. Please do look them up. Its a shame hardly anyone remembers this band.

Now we get to Blueberry Boat. This is a concept album (as vaguely as Sgt Pepper's is one) and it tells nice stories (as nicely as the Kinks did in Musewell Hillbillies) and all the songs have some 3-4 mini songs in them - my guess is they wrote the entire things first, it sounded like a newspaper, they tried to put a song structure to it, it sounded like a rhyming newpspaper, then they gave up and made the music. Fantastic stuff. Reeks with sincerity and toasted bread in the backyard overlooking a medieval lake.

Allmusic link to read about the brother-sister duo who don't like each other as much as they like their grandmother