funky shenanigans from the cd era and concept albums

a bigger example is house of gold and bones parts 1 and 2 by stonesour which was my first experience with a concept album which is another musical thing i love (if you have a lot of time available id recommend listening to both) and it was probably the best first experience i could have had. the first albums songs feel like they can be listened to without think too hard about them like any other song but they do have a story. the second albums songs are more specific and i guess niche? idk if thats the right word but they are very obviously part of the story and theres not much room for debate about what theyre written about. also the transitions between songs are so great. but anyway the inserts in the cd cases where you would normally have found the lyrics (which is another thing i liked about cds) instead there was 2 part short story and listening to the album with the story in mind makes it such a cool experience with reading and listening to what’s happening at the same time which i think gives it so much extra emotion. also the cd cases are full of weird folds and artwork that dont make much sense if you look at it alone. but if you have both albums you can do some funky origami shit to make them form a house (the house of gold and bones) with a bunch of aspects from the story illustrated on it. 

i think before i had internet access and definitely before most people were using the internet to the same extent theyre using it today that must have been absolutely crazy to get that cool band’s new album and wondering whats up with the weird case only for part 2 to come out and that ones weird too and then coming to the realization that theres more to it than just the music when you put it all together. i think having the first album be so much more palatable to the casual listener than the second makes a lot of sense in this regard because i know my first time listening to it i was like damn this is good music but i dont know what’s going on with this weird story (keeping in mind i was pretty young and didnt have the attention span anyway) and so i just listened to it like i would have listened to any other album but then i found part 2 and read the full story together and then did cross referencing type stuff to the music i was listening to and hearing those really cool songs with the new knowledge that they are actually telling a story was such an emotionally charged experience (plus the story itself is emotionally charged as fuck and has some crazy morals for me at that age to have learned about life and accepting that passively living waiting for the world to happen around you is an easy way to die meanigless)