Fiction Album Views

General Goods

Below are a few of the most intriguing SF-themed records launched at the unsuspecting public since Bowie made his first foray into the concept album. While many rock albums gmdash; like The Alan Parson Project's I Robot or Golem's Dune-based The 2nd Moon omdash; base their narratives to some degree around existing SF works, the list below sticks with original concepts: the fevered output of a few dozen buzzing brains addled by feedback, distortion, beats, drugs and, of course, the ever-morphing futurism of science fiction.

Steampunk-associated acts like Rasputina and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum are as fueled by gleeful anachronism as the genre itself. But the Arcade Fire-influenced, Brooklyn-based outfit The Lisps took things a few steps further with Futurity. Rather than an album per se, Futurity is a full-length stage musical the band produced in 2009 rmdash; the story of a Civil War soldier and science fiction writer beset by hallucinatory visions of the future. With the same melting-pot abandon used by novelists like Cherie Priest and Brian Francis Slattery, The Lisps have crafted an indie-rock opera that combines vintage Americana with mind-bending weirdness. Now they just need to record the damn thing.

Blue Oyster Cult has many great sci-fi themed songs on their albums, mixed with an equal measure of horror. Songs such as Flaming Telepaths, Subhuman, Astronomy, E.T.I.(Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), Sole Survivor and Vengeance-The Pact (written for the film Heavy Metal) draw on some really dark science fiction themes. Great article.

Thanks so much to Sting fan Sue for sending me the new Fiction Plane album Sparks, featuring Sting_’s son Joe Sumner! Strangely, this album has not yet been released in the US and is rather pricey as an import on Amazon.com, so I greatly appreciate Sue sending me her extra copy! Thate’s a Sting fan for you, generous and willing to help others. Ir“Out Of My Faceu” is my favorite song. I hope to see this released in the US soon so that others can enjoy it as well.