Between 1966 and 1967, rock ‘n’ roll was forever changed with the concept album. These LPs are theme-oriented and are to be listened to in a single sitting. The first (and best) of these albums was The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds from 1966. The Beatles would follow with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the summer of 1967. This work is widely considered the best album of all time (that’s a laugh).

The third concept LP, not considered to be a rock opera, is Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was released by the Rolling Stones late in 1967. It was the Stones’ third release of the year and followed Between the Buttons and Flowers. It was meant to answer the Beatles’ effort because the bands had some kind of rivalry.

Looking for that last minute gift for your music lover with “particular” tastes? Well, fret no farther ‘cause 2012 has plenty of solid releases to make any listener happy. Screw that iTunes card and take note.

DWIGHT YOAKAM, 3 PEARS

You want a country album? Boom! Here’s a country album! Dwight’s always a classic, making music Texas style, which means paying absolutely no attention to Nashville Pop 40 and doing things your own damn way. Songwriting is key here and from beginning to end, 3 Pears is solid with a capitol S. Though he could surprise you in how many different genres the songs cover, from honky-tonk, to sixties soul, to straight forward pop music, all the while sounding more Nashville than any of the manufactured tarts, truck drivers, and cowboy hat wearing dorks oozing out of CMT to the airwaves. 3 Pears comes straight from a maverick artist whose albums keep getting better and better. See also Lyle Lovett.

GRAVEYARD, LIGHTS OUT

That metalhead in your family, you know the one in the corner who doesn’t say much? If he or she’s feeling social at all, maybe you’d hear that no, he or she does not want the latest from the hottest Hot Topic lunk heads. Maybe they want something hard and classic. And Graveyard has got the goods in the way that only a Sabbath-loving Swedish psychedelic metal blues band can. Their third release might not be as heavy on the hard hitting riffers as their earlier bits, but maybe they have discovered their love for other classic British rockers like Led Zeppelin and Cream. Some loud and slow psychedelic blues going on here, but they know how to turn the dark on when they need to. And rock? Well, they know how to do that too with some fast and hard jamming as well. So when presented with such a well rounded tribute to classic and modern metal, maybe that dark soul in your family can’t help but give his or her nod of approval.

For the first time in quite a while, classic rock fans will have an especially Merry Christmas, as three old school hard-rock bands have released new albums just in time for the holiday season.

AC/DC and Led Zeppelin have both released live recordings while Aerosmith recently completed its first studio LP of original material in more than a decade.

All three of these works are must-haves for fans of hard rock.

AC/DC’s Live at River Plate is a compilation of three sell-out performances in Argentina’s River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aries. The material on the LP was performed in 2009 after the release of the group’s last original studio work (Black Ice). That 2008 release was a disappointment.

Live at River Plate is far from disappointing as Brian Johnson’s vocal delivery is at its best. Guitarists Malcolm and Angus Young are at the tops of their respective games. The rhythm section of drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams is flawless in the band’s first series of concerts since 2001.

Accounts from survivors of the Titanic described how the band played on while lifeboats lowered into the North Atlantic. Passengers escaping into the icy waters heard the echoes of an uplifting waltz emanate from the doomed ship.

If the soundtrack of disaster should defy dread and despair rather than rub it in, Jack Rentfro and the Apolcalypso Quartet’s Damascus by Sundown is one chic way to go about it.

Damascus by Sundown is noteworthy not merely because spoken word, though an antique trans-cultural art, is relatively rare in the popular musicsphere. As naturally effective as music can be in accentuating the inherent melody of language and the temper of its meaning, what makes Damascus by Sundown particularly crafted is how the words and music mismatch in cerebral and emotive impact to underscore the sociopolitical absurdity/irony that Rentfro tackles in his speech.  In other words, the album deals with heavy stuff but is an entertaining listen, (“Apocalypso” is a well-played hint at this approach).

This inconsistency, with its discordant impact on listeners, seems to emulate the bizarre experience of being human that Rentfro so acutely describes.