Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
Arthurknight 
This chart has evolved a lot over the near decade its existed. I think in the past I used to try a lot harder at curating what was more a "recommendations" list, where I'd show off my esoteric finds and scatter in my favourite underrated greats . Other times I told myself the function of a good list was to be in contention with the Overall chart on this site; to be anti conventional music journalism and resist milquetoast taste. Nowadays I'm less ideological about it. To me, this chart is my music-hobbyist refuge where I delight in organising my own personal world of sounds. In short, it may well be the 100 greatest albums of all time (I certainly think so), but that's secondary to it being an outlet for creative expression. I've curated a display that says more about me than the music, to be glanced over by the few fellow BEA users who peruse it and friends at a bar who don't know what they're getting into when they ask me what I listen to.
~~ One Album per Artist. ~~
Notes:
Should you consider it a great injustice that there is very little emphasis on more recent music here, feel free to check out my 21st century decade charts. I'm also very active in making end of year charts which is really where all my heart and soul is poured into with BEA these days.
No Jazz, Hip-Hop, or Electronic albums feature in this chart simply because if they did 100 albums would barely suffice. I find it particularly difficult to compare these genres with other forms of popular music broadly or with each-other (I've similarly exempted classical recordings I especially enjoy for the same reason, but am too lazy to make a classical chart, for now...). In the past I have included these genres, but I've come to dislike it because the limits of 100 albums begins to feel too claustrophobic. Instead, I have made each their own respective custom chart, which you can find here:
Greatest 100 Jazz Albums: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=32925
Greatest 100 Hip-Hop Albums: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=32704
Greatest 100 Electronic/IDM Albums: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=42751
- Chart updated: 07/16/2023 09:15
- (Created: 07/26/2014 08:45).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 68 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 93 out of 100 (from 119 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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"Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools."
10/10
In The Court is often said to be the first prog-rock album. I think declaring this album as that is a sort of half truth but is ultimately a bit short sighted. It has a sort of puritanical taint about it that I don't really like or want to get involved with. What I mean is: any proto-prog or jazz fusion band of the late 60s could just as easily be declared as contemporary to this work, and one could similarly have a crack at declaring this album – at least in part – as a work of proto-prog Jazz fusion. Such a blanket declaration feels a little nuance lacking, it presupposes there was nothing before In The Court, and tends to accompany a sort of elitist suggestion that subsequent artist's releases are unoriginal hackneyed attempts at recreation.
Though it's difficult to suggest an alternative, there isn't exactly a second option, where then is the landmark release if not In The Court? Preceding albums, by comparison, seem a bit aesthetically and conceptually lost. the eponymous United States of America album, Colosseum, and bands in the Canterbury Scene all appear to be (if considering prog as a whole genre in retrospect) dabbling in the style. Perhaps the closest example of an album that could compete for the same title would be Yes's debut, though hardly as impactful of a release as In The Court. What can then be taken from this is that In the Court, though not necessarily the definitive first of its kind; it is no "out of nowhere" release, was the first album to be totally univocal in its embrace of reconstructed rock, and for that had a profound seminal impact. So much so that one could not only declare it the first of the genre, but rather, declare that prog is defined in its totality as a response to In The Court; it was a movement creating album and prog describes the movement.
I find what makes this album so canonical for me is that In The Court has a sort of contained energy to it - something I rarely observe in prog. Other prog albums I adore, such as Third or Close To The Edge, have a great deal of energy but that energy is released chaotically, perhaps to their benefit. However, King Crimson demonstrate a very tight hold of musical form in In The Court. The album has this controlled dynamic about it where the music sort of grips me much more singularly, and focuses my attention on where Fripp, Lake and co. wanted it. I think from this the beauty of the album is experienced in a way that I can appreciate better. King Crimson achieved this largely by avoiding the tendencies of the genre: virtuosity and finesse. This artistic shift of focus is what, to me, defines In The Court as a "Prog-rock" album, the first of its kind, rather than just an extension of the Canterbury scene.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/15/2014]
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools."
10/10
In The Court is often said to be the first prog-rock album. I think declaring this album as that is a sort of half truth but is ultimately a bit short sighted. It has a sort of puritanical taint about it that I don't really like or want to get involved with. What I mean is: any proto-prog or jazz fusion band of the late 60s could just as easily be declared as contemporary to this work, and one could similarly have a crack at declaring this album – at least in part – as a work of proto-prog Jazz fusion. Such a blanket declaration feels a little nuance lacking, it presupposes there was nothing before In The Court, and tends to accompany a sort of elitist suggestion that subsequent artist's releases are unoriginal hackneyed attempts at recreation.
Though it's difficult to suggest an alternative, there isn't exactly a second option, where then is the landmark release if not In The Court? Preceding albums, by comparison, seem a bit aesthetically and conceptually lost. the eponymous United States of America album, Colosseum, and bands in the Canterbury Scene all appear to be (if considering prog as a whole genre in retrospect) dabbling in the style. Perhaps the closest example of an album that could compete for the same title would be Yes's debut, though hardly as impactful of a release as In The Court. What can then be taken from this is that In the Court, though not necessarily the definitive first of its kind; it is no "out of nowhere" release, was the first album to be totally univocal in its embrace of reconstructed rock, and for that had a profound seminal impact. So much so that one could not only declare it the first of the genre, but rather, declare that prog is defined in its totality as a response to In The Court; it was a movement creating album and prog describes the movement.
I find what makes this album so canonical for me is that In The Court has a sort of contained energy to it - something I rarely observe in prog. Other prog albums I adore, such as Third or Close To The Edge, have a great deal of energy but that energy is released chaotically, perhaps to their benefit. However, King Crimson demonstrate a very tight hold of musical form in In The Court. The album has this controlled dynamic about it where the music sort of grips me much more singularly, and focuses my attention on where Fripp, Lake and co. wanted it. I think from this the beauty of the album is experienced in a way that I can appreciate better. King Crimson achieved this largely by avoiding the tendencies of the genre: virtuosity and finesse. This artistic shift of focus is what, to me, defines In The Court as a "Prog-rock" album, the first of its kind, rather than just an extension of the Canterbury scene.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
31,568
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
219
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"Your madness fits in nicely with my own
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own, my very own
We're not alone."
10/10
Alright, I'll use this listing to make reference to the real god of music criticism - and no, it is not the melon, Robert Christgau or Greil Marcus, fight me - Piero Scaruffi. If you haven't already, please do lose yourself in Piero Scaruffi's Knowledge Base. All the thanks to my own introduction to him goes to the similarly great Ms Mojo Risin (Imogen), whose own chart on this website you should also trawl for recommendations. Scaruffi's Best Albums list is a remarkable way to both decentralise oneself from the normative hegemonies of "Greatest Albums", itself a fraught category built off the heralding of mostly white men, and to decolonise from the music of US/UK and the music of the english language. Scaruffi is not the be-all-and-end-all by no means, his lists are still relatively euro-centric and male dominated - but his choices are just such a musically radical take on what constitutes greatness in music that it opens one up to these possibilities.
Instead of me pondering on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and rather than pulling a Hairymarx1 and just plagiarising every word the man ever wrote, I instead implore you to read Scaruffi's own review, which has been conveniently translated from the Italian by Imogen (the aforementioned one). To quote:
"Rock Bottom is a "eulogy to chaos" and is dedicated to the cosmos. The anti-epic pessimism, made of profound sadness and fatuous joy, reaches here its most perfect enunciation. Madness and melancholy merge into a single feeling of solitude in the crowd, of impotence in the universe."
-Piero Scaruffi
Check him out (Also if you haven't, give this album a listen with open ears and maybe when you definitely don't have a migraine): https://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/wyatt.html#roc
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own, my very own
We're not alone."
10/10
Alright, I'll use this listing to make reference to the real god of music criticism - and no, it is not the melon, Robert Christgau or Greil Marcus, fight me - Piero Scaruffi. If you haven't already, please do lose yourself in Piero Scaruffi's Knowledge Base. All the thanks to my own introduction to him goes to the similarly great Ms Mojo Risin (Imogen), whose own chart on this website you should also trawl for recommendations. Scaruffi's Best Albums list is a remarkable way to both decentralise oneself from the normative hegemonies of "Greatest Albums", itself a fraught category built off the heralding of mostly white men, and to decolonise from the music of US/UK and the music of the english language. Scaruffi is not the be-all-and-end-all by no means, his lists are still relatively euro-centric and male dominated - but his choices are just such a musically radical take on what constitutes greatness in music that it opens one up to these possibilities.
Instead of me pondering on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and rather than pulling a Hairymarx1 and just plagiarising every word the man ever wrote, I instead implore you to read Scaruffi's own review, which has been conveniently translated from the Italian by Imogen (the aforementioned one). To quote:
"Rock Bottom is a "eulogy to chaos" and is dedicated to the cosmos. The anti-epic pessimism, made of profound sadness and fatuous joy, reaches here its most perfect enunciation. Madness and melancholy merge into a single feeling of solitude in the crowd, of impotence in the universe."
-Piero Scaruffi
Check him out (Also if you haven't, give this album a listen with open ears and maybe when you definitely don't have a migraine): https://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/wyatt.html#roc
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,175
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"All the clouds turn to words
All the words float in sequence
No one knows what they mean
Everyone just ignores them."
10/10
I should note that the lyrics above - from the opening track, sky saw - run simultaneous to meaningless babel. This, for me, really explicates Eno's focus in this album. Another Green World is more about atmosphere and the creation of a feeling. Eno was influenced a great deal at the time by phonetic poetry, especially that of Hugo Ball, whose poem "I Zimbra" ended up being the opening track on Talking Heads' Fear of Music - with the instrumental laid out by Eno and David Byrne. Another Green World is also the album in which Eno famously made use of his and Peter Schmidt's card deck "Oblique Strategies," which was a series of injunctions and commands to generate "lateral thinking." It may appear that this system of composition isn't reconcilable with "music about feelings," but the cards, at least as I see It, are less of a system for composition than they are a system for creative stimulation.
Another Green World's breadth of sound plays into Eno's expansive body of work. Eno situates himself in this record between the glam rock pop of roxy music, his prog influences, and his forays into ambient music, which all congeal in this project that moves me to euphoria and mourning almost together at once. This is what makes this album all the more transportive, it creates an atmosphere that is otherworldly, and evokes a series of feelings that are not normally felt so soon after one another.
I should probably also make clear that I think Eno may well be my favourite contributor to music in recent history. Few can hold a torch to Eno's achievements and influence, even if he is largely the man behind the mixing board and not the mic. This album proves that even when he is behind the mic, he is phenomenal. He has consistently demonstrated this across albums that I also adore; Taking Tiger Mountain, Before and After Science, and Here Come the Warm Jets (which sat in this place for some time).
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
All the words float in sequence
No one knows what they mean
Everyone just ignores them."
10/10
I should note that the lyrics above - from the opening track, sky saw - run simultaneous to meaningless babel. This, for me, really explicates Eno's focus in this album. Another Green World is more about atmosphere and the creation of a feeling. Eno was influenced a great deal at the time by phonetic poetry, especially that of Hugo Ball, whose poem "I Zimbra" ended up being the opening track on Talking Heads' Fear of Music - with the instrumental laid out by Eno and David Byrne. Another Green World is also the album in which Eno famously made use of his and Peter Schmidt's card deck "Oblique Strategies," which was a series of injunctions and commands to generate "lateral thinking." It may appear that this system of composition isn't reconcilable with "music about feelings," but the cards, at least as I see It, are less of a system for composition than they are a system for creative stimulation.
Another Green World's breadth of sound plays into Eno's expansive body of work. Eno situates himself in this record between the glam rock pop of roxy music, his prog influences, and his forays into ambient music, which all congeal in this project that moves me to euphoria and mourning almost together at once. This is what makes this album all the more transportive, it creates an atmosphere that is otherworldly, and evokes a series of feelings that are not normally felt so soon after one another.
I should probably also make clear that I think Eno may well be my favourite contributor to music in recent history. Few can hold a torch to Eno's achievements and influence, even if he is largely the man behind the mixing board and not the mic. This album proves that even when he is behind the mic, he is phenomenal. He has consistently demonstrated this across albums that I also adore; Taking Tiger Mountain, Before and After Science, and Here Come the Warm Jets (which sat in this place for some time).
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,154
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places."
10/10
My mum listened to Kate Bush growing up. It was maybe one of the only teenage music finds where when I brought her name up at the dinner table I got a "oh, she's great!" Neither of my parents really listened to music in the strictest sense. They both had a radio station of choice pre-set in their cars, but outside of that my family never spoke about music. The same goes for really any art but music was maybe strongest felt by me as embodying a cultural void. I'd get iTunes gift cards and just not know what to do with them. In short, growing up I had no music recommended to me, introduced to me, or otherwise occurring around me.
Anyway at a certain point you inevitably learn that having a "taste in music" is a personality trait, and thus began that journey to find mine with really no guidance other than the internet. Kate Bush is an early find, an obvious one, but nonetheless it was a nice moment to have a conversation with my mum at that dinner table about how she loved Wuthering Heights and grew up listening to Kate Bush – I hadn't really had that before.
Hounds of Love is a classic and I don't really need to go into why, but I don't think I even could objectively if I tried. This album is just so utterly tangled up with my entering the music world and with those fleetingly nice moments at home during those first years of my parent's divorce. From the ethereal peaks of The Big Sky and Cloudbusting, to the visceral loving Britannic Jig Of Life, Hounds of Love sings to me of home; its truly liberating to listen to.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places."
10/10
My mum listened to Kate Bush growing up. It was maybe one of the only teenage music finds where when I brought her name up at the dinner table I got a "oh, she's great!" Neither of my parents really listened to music in the strictest sense. They both had a radio station of choice pre-set in their cars, but outside of that my family never spoke about music. The same goes for really any art but music was maybe strongest felt by me as embodying a cultural void. I'd get iTunes gift cards and just not know what to do with them. In short, growing up I had no music recommended to me, introduced to me, or otherwise occurring around me.
Anyway at a certain point you inevitably learn that having a "taste in music" is a personality trait, and thus began that journey to find mine with really no guidance other than the internet. Kate Bush is an early find, an obvious one, but nonetheless it was a nice moment to have a conversation with my mum at that dinner table about how she loved Wuthering Heights and grew up listening to Kate Bush – I hadn't really had that before.
Hounds of Love is a classic and I don't really need to go into why, but I don't think I even could objectively if I tried. This album is just so utterly tangled up with my entering the music world and with those fleetingly nice moments at home during those first years of my parent's divorce. From the ethereal peaks of The Big Sky and Cloudbusting, to the visceral loving Britannic Jig Of Life, Hounds of Love sings to me of home; its truly liberating to listen to.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
19,235
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"I can't see with you in front of the mirror staring, staring
I can't hear myself think with all that music blaring, blaring."
10/10
When one says "the best band you've never heard" I want to shout Sparks at them until they give up whatever claim to some of artist like – I dunno – The Mars Volta or something
Morrissey put Kimono My House in his favourite 13 albums, but I don't know whether that should improve its standing or hurt it.
When I finally found Kimono My House on vinyl in Greville Records I was ecstatic, and then I found two more copies behind it, all were secondhand, all had somehow arrived to the shop together. There's a joke there about the shop being too big for more than 1 Sparks album.
Sparks are maybe the most fun you can have listening to music, and while its hard to pick a favourite – as they boast having released over 500 songs, there are many to choose from, almost all of them worth considering as best – Kimono My House is the first I listened to, and so it must stay here. My window into a world, and Sparks really are big enough, weird enough, to constitute a world.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/05/2015]
I can't hear myself think with all that music blaring, blaring."
10/10
When one says "the best band you've never heard" I want to shout Sparks at them until they give up whatever claim to some of artist like – I dunno – The Mars Volta or something
Morrissey put Kimono My House in his favourite 13 albums, but I don't know whether that should improve its standing or hurt it.
When I finally found Kimono My House on vinyl in Greville Records I was ecstatic, and then I found two more copies behind it, all were secondhand, all had somehow arrived to the shop together. There's a joke there about the shop being too big for more than 1 Sparks album.
Sparks are maybe the most fun you can have listening to music, and while its hard to pick a favourite – as they boast having released over 500 songs, there are many to choose from, almost all of them worth considering as best – Kimono My House is the first I listened to, and so it must stay here. My window into a world, and Sparks really are big enough, weird enough, to constitute a world.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/05/2015]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,893
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"Acordei de um sonho estranho
Um gosto de vidro e corte."
"I woke up from a strange dream
With a taste of glass and cut."
10/10
The indisputable pinnacle of MPB, Clube Da Esquina is the conflagration of on one hand (literally), two relatively independent artists, Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, and – perhaps more meaningfully – the various genretic developments taking place in Brazil. What I mean is this album is very much a confluence of the Bossa Nova and Samba influences of Nascimento, and the rock, psychedelic, and MPB influences of Borges (I want to say funk too but it feels wrong). At the time of release, neither artist was necessarily that known, although Nascimento was at least established. Clube Da Esquina was the eponymous product of the group the two formed after Nascimento moved to Belo Horizonte. Off the success of this album, a sequel would later be made in 1978: Clube da Esquina 2. This album is a g o n i s i n g l y difficult to obtain, but for any diehards, you might want to have a go at it. Alternatively the Lô Borges self-titled is also incredible, as is fellow collaborator of the pair Chico Buarque's Construção.
It's hard to really say much about how I *feel* about this album, it's just something I really enjoy putting on and listening to on relaxing afternoons. Clube Da Esquina is an instantly transportive listen, and Nascimento's voice is angelic. Not to mention, as someone who grew up being taught to play many a bossa nova standard on guitar, hearing the form blasted open and reimagined is a freeing experience every time.
_ [First added to this chart: 04/27/2015]
Um gosto de vidro e corte."
"I woke up from a strange dream
With a taste of glass and cut."
10/10
The indisputable pinnacle of MPB, Clube Da Esquina is the conflagration of on one hand (literally), two relatively independent artists, Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, and – perhaps more meaningfully – the various genretic developments taking place in Brazil. What I mean is this album is very much a confluence of the Bossa Nova and Samba influences of Nascimento, and the rock, psychedelic, and MPB influences of Borges (I want to say funk too but it feels wrong). At the time of release, neither artist was necessarily that known, although Nascimento was at least established. Clube Da Esquina was the eponymous product of the group the two formed after Nascimento moved to Belo Horizonte. Off the success of this album, a sequel would later be made in 1978: Clube da Esquina 2. This album is a g o n i s i n g l y difficult to obtain, but for any diehards, you might want to have a go at it. Alternatively the Lô Borges self-titled is also incredible, as is fellow collaborator of the pair Chico Buarque's Construção.
It's hard to really say much about how I *feel* about this album, it's just something I really enjoy putting on and listening to on relaxing afternoons. Clube Da Esquina is an instantly transportive listen, and Nascimento's voice is angelic. Not to mention, as someone who grew up being taught to play many a bossa nova standard on guitar, hearing the form blasted open and reimagined is a freeing experience every time.
_ [First added to this chart: 04/27/2015]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,580
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"They rescued everyone
They lifted up the sun
A spoonful weighs a ton."
10/10
Sometime in the past I put Zaireeka here – I'd never even heard it properly. There's a rip of the 4 CDs smudged together on Youtube and while its great, I can't really claim *that's the album*. Not that access is holding me back mind you: I own the album, the Record Store Day indulgence version (1 album torn between 4 LPs, meaning to play this thing I own I need 4 separate turntables, and there's no way sync them up with the imprecision of hands placing needles); I'll update this post if I ever get around to doing a so-called "Zaireeka Party" with this boxset. Zaireeka was impressive by virtue of its insistence on people coming together to hear it, collaborating just to piece together otherwise stilted recordings – the music itself is almost secondary. Anyway, if I'm being totally honest with myself: Zaireeka was a warmup for The Soft Bulletin both spiritually and literally.
As we likely all know from various documentaries into The Flaming Lips, after so many albums and so little commercial success through the 90s, the band were bust. Zaireeka and Soft Bulletin were promised as single budget releases. the band knew that, after Zaireeka's limited release, The Soft Bulletin was their last private hurrah. Further, all this end of the road anguish was complicated by Drozd's drug use, the possibility of losing him responded to by Coyne in The Spiderbite Song; and the death of Coyne's father, which permeates the album but is singularly felt in Feeling Yourself Disintegrate. And so, The Soft Bulletin is a celebration of life, of what was, and simultaneously a mourning of its fast approaching farewell, the yin and yang.
I had the fortune of hearing the Lips play Soft Bulletin in full for its 20th anniversary in Melbourne, and it was a magical moment – this album has made me cry many a time.
_ [First added to this chart: 02/14/2015]
They lifted up the sun
A spoonful weighs a ton."
10/10
Sometime in the past I put Zaireeka here – I'd never even heard it properly. There's a rip of the 4 CDs smudged together on Youtube and while its great, I can't really claim *that's the album*. Not that access is holding me back mind you: I own the album, the Record Store Day indulgence version (1 album torn between 4 LPs, meaning to play this thing I own I need 4 separate turntables, and there's no way sync them up with the imprecision of hands placing needles); I'll update this post if I ever get around to doing a so-called "Zaireeka Party" with this boxset. Zaireeka was impressive by virtue of its insistence on people coming together to hear it, collaborating just to piece together otherwise stilted recordings – the music itself is almost secondary. Anyway, if I'm being totally honest with myself: Zaireeka was a warmup for The Soft Bulletin both spiritually and literally.
As we likely all know from various documentaries into The Flaming Lips, after so many albums and so little commercial success through the 90s, the band were bust. Zaireeka and Soft Bulletin were promised as single budget releases. the band knew that, after Zaireeka's limited release, The Soft Bulletin was their last private hurrah. Further, all this end of the road anguish was complicated by Drozd's drug use, the possibility of losing him responded to by Coyne in The Spiderbite Song; and the death of Coyne's father, which permeates the album but is singularly felt in Feeling Yourself Disintegrate. And so, The Soft Bulletin is a celebration of life, of what was, and simultaneously a mourning of its fast approaching farewell, the yin and yang.
I had the fortune of hearing the Lips play Soft Bulletin in full for its 20th anniversary in Melbourne, and it was a magical moment – this album has made me cry many a time.
_ [First added to this chart: 02/14/2015]
Year of Release:
1999
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,123
Rank in 1999:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"She screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
She wants me to come, but I'm never going there
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory."
10/10
The idea you'd make music videos for these song samples is hilarious, but Guided By Voices at this point were now a thing proper and in the MTV hellscape of the 90s so it goes that Bee Thousand like all music was inescapably marketed on video. But Guided by Voices is totally unmarketable, you can't just convince someone this is cool by playing it; it's music for hot freaks only.
I've always loved the mass of short songs clumped together to make an album, it's like a musical sketchbook. Sometimes I'd sit around playing my fragments of song ideas hastily and poorly recorded in my bedroom and tell myself there was a conceptual album if I'd just come up with another 20 1-minute songs (let's generously call them that for the sake of ease) – that was absolutely inspired by maverick song-writing addict Robert Pollard. His songs are really the only pieces of music that let you in on how they're made just by being played.
Minutemen maybe created the blueprint for the "sketchbook" album, but across Vampire on Titus, Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, Bee Thousand and Alien lanes, Guided by Voices perfected it. I've listened to Bee Thousand innumerable times, played it to death even, but it somehow resists becoming "overplayed." I wanna fall apart in an audience to this music, I wanna listen to this while lying on my bedroom floor in my first sharehouse.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/14/2015]
She wants me to come, but I'm never going there
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory."
10/10
The idea you'd make music videos for these song samples is hilarious, but Guided By Voices at this point were now a thing proper and in the MTV hellscape of the 90s so it goes that Bee Thousand like all music was inescapably marketed on video. But Guided by Voices is totally unmarketable, you can't just convince someone this is cool by playing it; it's music for hot freaks only.
I've always loved the mass of short songs clumped together to make an album, it's like a musical sketchbook. Sometimes I'd sit around playing my fragments of song ideas hastily and poorly recorded in my bedroom and tell myself there was a conceptual album if I'd just come up with another 20 1-minute songs (let's generously call them that for the sake of ease) – that was absolutely inspired by maverick song-writing addict Robert Pollard. His songs are really the only pieces of music that let you in on how they're made just by being played.
Minutemen maybe created the blueprint for the "sketchbook" album, but across Vampire on Titus, Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, Bee Thousand and Alien lanes, Guided by Voices perfected it. I've listened to Bee Thousand innumerable times, played it to death even, but it somehow resists becoming "overplayed." I wanna fall apart in an audience to this music, I wanna listen to this while lying on my bedroom floor in my first sharehouse.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/14/2015]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,395
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
-Instrumental
10/10
Hosianna Mantra is undeniably an album about spirituality, Florian Fricke had recently before starting recording converted to both Christianity and Hinduism, and this duality finds itself greatly informing Hosianna Mantra. The title itself suggests this: "hosianna" is a Judeo-Christian plea or call out to god, and "mantra" has Hindu roots in vedic hymn and meditative chanting. In this way, this album can be seen as sort of music epiphany, a revelation of Fricke's sense of total spirituality, drawn from a coalescence of western and eastern religion, practice, and musical culture. Vuh execute this bringing together of sound beautifully.
The album has long been the go-to alone on long train rides album. I listened to it on trains across Britain, France, and Germany and starred out the window at the lush green - and in some cases snowy white - fields. Listening to the album always brings me back to the European train carriage so vividly.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/16/2015]
10/10
Hosianna Mantra is undeniably an album about spirituality, Florian Fricke had recently before starting recording converted to both Christianity and Hinduism, and this duality finds itself greatly informing Hosianna Mantra. The title itself suggests this: "hosianna" is a Judeo-Christian plea or call out to god, and "mantra" has Hindu roots in vedic hymn and meditative chanting. In this way, this album can be seen as sort of music epiphany, a revelation of Fricke's sense of total spirituality, drawn from a coalescence of western and eastern religion, practice, and musical culture. Vuh execute this bringing together of sound beautifully.
The album has long been the go-to alone on long train rides album. I listened to it on trains across Britain, France, and Germany and starred out the window at the lush green - and in some cases snowy white - fields. Listening to the album always brings me back to the European train carriage so vividly.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/16/2015]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,623
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"And I thought at fifteen that I'd have it down by sixteen
And twenty-four keeps breathing in my face
Like a mad whore
And twenty-four keeps pounding at my door.”
10/10
Towards the end of a Sun Kil Moon gig I was at, Mark Kozelek asked for any song recommendations and for some reason I started calling out "24!" Turns out Sun Kil Moon fans in Melbourne are not a riotous bunch and it was low-key just me and maybe a few other voices so I unintentionally allowed my meme request be very much heard by everyone. Mark stopped, turned in my general direction, and yelled back: "Who the fuck just said 24? I am not twenty-four. This is not a fucking Red House Painters gig." Iconic.
Also this album is great and mostly because it's not comprised of long prosaic songs about airports and hotels and nothing conversations with venue managers, instead it's comprised of actual music. And Jerry Vessel's bass parts are just incredible. Say what you want about the mediocre mixing, I find it kind of adds to the songs, washes them out a bit. Covers them in haze. Down Colorful Hill is obscure and obscured.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/05/2014]
And twenty-four keeps breathing in my face
Like a mad whore
And twenty-four keeps pounding at my door.”
10/10
Towards the end of a Sun Kil Moon gig I was at, Mark Kozelek asked for any song recommendations and for some reason I started calling out "24!" Turns out Sun Kil Moon fans in Melbourne are not a riotous bunch and it was low-key just me and maybe a few other voices so I unintentionally allowed my meme request be very much heard by everyone. Mark stopped, turned in my general direction, and yelled back: "Who the fuck just said 24? I am not twenty-four. This is not a fucking Red House Painters gig." Iconic.
Also this album is great and mostly because it's not comprised of long prosaic songs about airports and hotels and nothing conversations with venue managers, instead it's comprised of actual music. And Jerry Vessel's bass parts are just incredible. Say what you want about the mediocre mixing, I find it kind of adds to the songs, washes them out a bit. Covers them in haze. Down Colorful Hill is obscure and obscured.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,439
Rank in 1992:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 2 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 14 | 14% | |
| 1970s | 28 | 28% | |
| 1980s | 20 | 20% | |
| 1990s | 29 | 29% | |
| 2000s | 8 | 8% | |
| 2010s | 1 | 1% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Broken Social Scene | 1 | 1% | |
| Brian Eno | 1 | 1% | |
| Bob Dylan | 1 | 1% | |
| Leonard Cohen | 1 | 1% | |
| Belle And Sebastian | 1 | 1% | |
| The Wrens | 1 | 1% | |
| Talk Talk | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
40 | 40% | |
 |
26 | 26% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
| |
3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
93/100 (from 119 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 119 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
80/100  | 03/19/2024 11:07 |  Tamthebam | | 85/100 |
85/100 | 03/05/2024 19:32 | martintho | | 74/100 |
90/100 | 02/18/2024 09:24 | Tuur | | 86/100 |
 85/100 | 07/02/2023 08:02 |  MadhattanJack | | 84/100 |
| 100/100 | 11/10/2022 16:03 | Rm12398 | | 89/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some charts can have several thousand ratings)
This chart is rated in the top 1% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 93.2/100, a mean average of 93.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 93.8/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 8.2.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums favourites
Showing latest 20 members who have added this chart as a favourite | Show all 28 members
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 68 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
100/100
From Rm12398 11/10/2022 16:03
Love the Murmur- R.E.M. placement here! Have always felt that was my favourite record of theirs, so it's nice to see my opinion validated with your chart. “La Máquina De Hacer Pájaros” is fantastic to see here as well. Massively underrated on this site in my opinion. Love the multicultural feel of the list as well. Have recently been trying to get into more international music so your chart may be a great help to do that.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
cartoken 11/10/2022 09:53
cartoken 11/10/2022 09:53
Thanks for the comment and the rating.
Great tastes as well, very heavy on classical rock but still very sold chart
Kudos for including Youth of America 👌
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Johnnyo 11/09/2022 08:36
Fabulous chart. One of the best on the site
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From Moondance 11/09/2022 02:54
Was really hoping to see a few more exceptional Australian albums in the chart. Otherwise, cool chart and appreciate the effort in putting together your comments.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
100/100
From flamingyesdept 10/05/2022 08:04
flamingyesdept 10/05/2022 08:04
Still my favourite chart! SMiLE Sessions really is the greatest thing in popular music ♥
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From rubysmith 07/21/2022 11:17
Nice.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
peate754 12/21/2021 00:48
peate754 12/21/2021 00:48
Wow Great job and very good list
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From 
seb7 12/07/2020 19:34
seb7 12/07/2020 19:34
one of the best lists on the site. Creative, methodical, and just overall cool
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From 
EyeKanFly 09/11/2020 16:18
EyeKanFly 09/11/2020 16:18
I'll definitely use this for recs!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
DommeDamian 09/11/2020 08:48
DommeDamian 09/11/2020 08:48
Brrrrrrravo!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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| Best Ever Artists | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Beatles | |
| 2. Radiohead | |
| 3. Pink Floyd | |
| 4. David Bowie | |
| 5. Bob Dylan | |
| 6. Led Zeppelin | |
| 7. The Rolling Stones | |
| 8. Arcade Fire | |
| 9. The Velvet Underground | |
| 10. Kendrick Lamar | |
| 11. Nirvana | |
| 12. Neil Young | |
| 13. The Smiths | |
| 14. Miles Davis | |
| 15. The Beach Boys | |
| 16. Kanye West | |
| 17. Pixies | |
| 18. R.E.M. | |
| 19. Jimi Hendrix | |
| 20. Bruce Springsteen |