Rock Opera edition!

 

Transfused - Child of Destiny

Written by Nomy Lamm and the Need. The Transfused, a critique of unchecked consumerism and the impossibility of collective productivity, is truly one of my favorite things.

More info: Official site

Buy it: Soundtrack

 

Greendale - Leave the Driving

Still, Young is a compelling enough activist/artist that Greendale, in all its unadorned frankness, should be held as something like an answer to the dangerously slick snuff of The Passion of the Christ. An exercise in cross-media orchestrated by a man of genius and conviction, neither perfect nor gloriously imperfect while walking its uneasy middle ground to the left, Greendale is at the least alive and in favour of liberty. The rareness of that, and many of our contemptuous reactions to it, should give us pause. -Walter Chaw

More info: Official site and FFC review

Buy it: Soundtrack w/ bonus live dvd // Greendale dvd

 

Tommy - Pinball Wizard

The first rock opera, and possibly the most acid-trippiest.

More info: Wikipedia

Buy it: Tommy performed by the London Symphony

 

Drive By Truckers - The Three Great Alabama Icons

A look at modern-day southern mythology, the rise and fall of Arena Rock, growing up in the seventies, and the "duality of the Southern Thing". Much of the album deals with the folk-lore surrounding the band Lynyrd Skynyrd and a man coming to terms with his own legacy.

More info: Southern Rock Opera Writeup

Buy it: Southern Rock Opera