Album Review: A Grand Don't Come For Free by The Streets

Rock music may be big on anniversaries, but one pivotal historical moment still goes uncelebrated: the point when the record-buying public ceased believing that the concept album was a pinnacle of artistic endeavour and decided it was short-hand for a particularly gassy kind of self-importance. No one knows for sure when this occurred, although the strongest claim is held by the 1973 release of Yes's Tales From Topographic Oceans, a lofty interpretation of ancient Hindu texts which, it later transpired, the members of Yes had not actually read. For decades now, artists with any sense have given concept albums a wide berth.

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