< Yes
Yes/WMG
The album Fragile is secretly a Concept Album.
Why? The explanation: The concept is a loose Rock Opera about a group of astronaut pioneers discovering a new planet and establishing a settlement there. First, there is the famous cover art illustrating a spacecraft hovering over a fictional planet, and the back side showing the planet exploding in an ecological disaster. Second, each song represents a stage in the development of the community being built on the planet. And in more detail:
- "Roundabout" summarizes the beginning of the journey and has a strong spirit of excitement and adventure.
- "Cans and Brahms", being an extract from a classical composition, represents the space travel as a reference to "2001: A Space Odyssey", in which classical music was used as the soundtrack for spaceflight scenes.
- "We Have Heaven" Represents the discovery of a life-supporting planet, and the lyrics, mentioning unknown species of animals, refer to the rich ecosystem found there.
- "South Side of the Sky" - tells about the challenges the settlers had to face while establishing the settlement (For example, challenging climate: "Around the south side, so cold that we cried...")
- "Five Per Cent for Nothing" and "Long Distance Runaround"... Well, I haven't got the faintest idea what they're supposed to be about, so I'll leave them out the theory..
- "Mood for a Day", as the title implies, represents the daily life going on in the colony.
- Finally, "Heart of the Sunrise"... This complex track tells about the doubts that come up in the colonists' minds later on. The lyrics could be explained as telling about the concerns coming up in an urban society ("Straight light moving and removing of the colour sun shine" could be about the natural light being blocked by artificial light), or about the fate of humanity in such a society that makes everything look mundane - nothing is left to discover. It also could be explained as a search for spirituality in such an urbanized world which once was unfamiliar and mysterious ("Love comes to you and then after \Dream on on to the Heart of the Sunrise", "I feel lost in the city"...)
- The End.
This W.M.G might be just an "Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory" thing, but just think about it..
- Here's where This Troper fills in the holes:
- "Five Per Cent for Nothing": An interlude before they find a better settlement?
- "Long Distance Runaround": The colonists realize the planet is not devoid of civilization, as a group of natives declare war on the colonists ("long time waiting to feel the sound": anticipating the weapon fire of the natives, etc).
- "The Fish": Again, doesn't really fit well in there, but perhaps it's heard during a drug trip using local substances, or perhaps a melody and chant to pray to a god.
- Hey, those were good suggestions. Got to admit I forgot "The Fish" out of the list originally...
- Music critic George Starostin believes that Fragile is secretly a concept album about movement, generally. The lyrics repeatedly reference it, and the songs are very upbeat and "moving-y".
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