Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Mr November 
Ok, so the intro to my chart has read "Work In Progress, Progress is slow. The more I work on this the more I think my order needs sorting. I will get there." for about 5 years now and whilst I have added more notes to the albums the intro has been too daunting a task. The problem is I have a tendency to take an inordinate amount of time editing my writing, it's not uncommon for me to spend 10 minutes composing a text message. I've therefore decided what I'm going to do is try to explain my modus operandi bit by bit and come back and tidy it up when I feel I've covered everything I want to. In the meantime if you read a sentence that seems confused or out of place I hope you can, as Mudhoney would put it, Let it Slide until I get round to clarifying my thoughts. Hopefully it won't take another 5 years :)
The first thing I need to say is this chart is totally subjective, they are the albums that mean the most to me. I personally believe it's not possible to do this objectively, when you listen to an album you are going into it with your own unique personal history and there are so many factors that will influence your listening experience. I find most of the albums in my chart were contemporary when I got into them. There's something magical about buying a hard copy of an album from a record shop on the day of release, to know you're part of a group of like minded individuals performing that ritual on the same day. I'm much more inclined to give my time up and persevere with an album that has this ritual attached to it than I am to say a 40 year old album that I'm listening to on Spotify or Youtube. You are listening to an album that has been shaped by the world you're living in.
Another reason that will explain why there's no albums by some musical greats like Bowie, Led Zep, The Kinks, The Stones etc is that I invariably first heard these artists through greatest hits albums which I've refrained from including in my chart. When I subsequently listen to original albums that contain some songs from greatest hits albums I'm already really familiar with I find either the other songs tend to get overshadowed or else the ones I know get overplayed.
The next factor I will call the rule of 'First come, first served', if I like an album enough for me to seek out other albums by the same artist those subsequent albums have a lot of catching up to do. Invariably my favourite album by an artist is the one that made me fall in love with their music in the first place. As I write 8 of my top 10 were the first album I heard by that particular artist. For example, Gentlemen is generally regarded as The Afghan Whigs' pinnacle but I discovered them through Black Love, by the time I got round to purchasing Gentlemen the songs from Black Love were burnt into my soul and as much as I love Gentlemen, Black Love already has my heart. Had I heard Gentlemen first then the story would most likely (80% more?) be different. Like I said, it's all subjective.
- Chart updated: 01/29/2024 13:15
- (Created: 03/12/2011 18:13).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 80 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 107 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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[First added to this chart: 03/12/2011]
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,286
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21
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For me Nevermind will always be inextricably linked to a little club in Bury called Monty's. Monty's was a snooker/pool club housed in an industrial unit in a rundown industrial estate that for reasons unknown had a room on the back called the Crowbar, which on Friday nights in the early 90's became a mecca for a raggle taggle bunch of indie kids, goths, punks and anyone whose musical allegiances came under the vague umbrella of alternative. Getting into the Crowbar past the bouncers, who must've known we were all underage, and the stares of the local townies stood with pool cues in hand was a weekly ordeal but once inside it was like being back in the womb. If this was our temple then Nevermind was our bible. Before Monty's most of my new music was stuff I read about first but suddenly I was hearing Hendrix, Led Zep, Ministry, Revolting Cocks, RHCP, Faith No More, Pixies, Smiths, Cure, R.E.M, Wedding Present alongside each other. Above all though Nirvana were the one band that seemed to unify all these people with disparate tastes. I was in Monty's when I first heard Kurt was dead and I can still see the disbelief and devastation on people's faces. Nevermind was a gamechanger, for better or worse it brought the underground out into the spotlight and it's influence will echo through the ages.
[First added to this chart: 03/12/2011]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
41,952
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[First added to this chart: 03/13/2011]
Year of Release:
2006
Appears in:
Rank Score:
803
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[First added to this chart: 03/12/2011]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,266
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Living near Manchester in the mid 90's it was inevitable that at some point you would get on board the Oasis juggernaut. I got on early and managed to stay on till 97 when the Liam wannabe scallies and the smell of bad drugs from the driver's cabin became too much. I jumped ship and watched them thunder over the horizon clutching Definitely Maybe to my heart. From the opening Lydonesque sneer of Rock 'N' Roll Star through the anthemic Live Forever, the white heat of Bring it on Down and the epic Slide Away this rocks. Noel Gallagher is the ultimate musical magpie taking 30 years of British music from The Beatles, T Rex, Slade, The Sex Pistols, The Stone Roses and condensing them into 50 minutes of joy and abandon. I recall an interview with Noel where he said DM was formed in rehearsals while WTSMG was written alone in his flat acoustically. That for me is the difference, this album doesn't try to contemplate things beyond it's comprehension, it's too busy enjoying itself.
[First added to this chart: 03/13/2011]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,926
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[First added to this chart: 03/12/2011]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,054
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[First added to this chart: 03/13/2011]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,923
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I still remember quite clearly at the age of 15 going to my local papershop ,Willets, to buy my first ever copy of the New Musical Express. My eyes were being opened to a whole world of music beyond the limits of daytime radio and being the cover stars of that first copy of the NME (21.10.89) and aided by my having recorded an episode of The Chart Show featuring the Me, Myself and I video that I watched over and over again, De La Soul were pushed to the front of my personal musical revolution. Being only a couple of months to Christmas I put 3 Feet High And Rising on my Christmas list and lo and behold on the 25th December Santa left me a copy on CD and a wonderfully 1980's white Sharp midi stereo with radio, turntable, twin cassette and most crucially the future of music playback (or so we were told) a CD player. The album quickly fell into heavy rotation aided by the fact that my new CD player had a repeat function and I fell in love with this alien music that spoke nothing about my very white suburban life and yet was so inclusive. I love this album, from the gameshow theme through the silly throw away songs (with the exception of De La Orgee, nobody needs to hear that coming from a teenage boy's bedroom) to the bona fide Hip Hop classics. I reserve special praise for Tread Water and Buddy as they don't seem to get the love the well known singles do. How much Hip Hop I'd been exposed to before that Christmas is hazy in my memory. I certainly would have heard Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Boogie Down Productions rumbling from my brother's room but whether I'd started borrowing those records at this point I don't know. What I do know is as much as I came to love those records they were my brothers and 3 Feet High And Rising was mine.
[First added to this chart: 03/26/2011]
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,813
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My older brother has never been into music in the same way I am so his influence on my taste is fairly low but I do have him to thank for my love of Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, New Order and The Smiths. I used to borrow Hatful of Hollow on vinyl from his room and play it for hours on end. I know it's a compilation but I see it as a proper album because it's a snapshot of about 16 months in the band's life rather than a career spanning best of and because for about 5 years I didn't know it was a compilation. There's no weak links at all, the 1st 9 songs could easily have been singles, that How Soon is Now? was originally a b-side seems ridiculous with hindsight.
[First added to this chart: 03/13/2011]
Year of Release:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,808
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Comments:
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[First added to this chart: 03/26/2011]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,543
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Total albums: 100. Page 4 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 | 6 | 6% | |
| 1970s | 3 | 3% | |
| 1980s | 16 | 16% | |
| 1990s | 45 | 45% | |
| 2000s | 28 | 28% | |
| 2010s | 2 | 2% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| R.E.M. | 3 | 3% | |
| Sparklehorse | 3 | 3% | |
| The Flaming Lips | 3 | 3% | |
| Pixies | 2 | 2% | |
| Grandaddy | 2 | 2% | |
| Dinosaur Jr. | 2 | 2% | |
| The National | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
89/100 (from 107 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 107 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 95/100  | 03/18/2023 06:06 | leniad | | 85/100 |
| 90/100 | 03/18/2023 00:10 | Moondance | | 84/100 |
| 90/100 | 03/17/2023 17:54 | Johnnyo | | 80/100 |
| 100/100 | 03/20/2022 17:48 |  EyeKanFly | | 88/100 |
| 95/100 | 01/04/2021 05:47 |  Mercury | | 95/100 |
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 4% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 89.0/100, a mean average of 89.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 89.3/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 9.1.
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95/100
From leniad 03/18/2023 06:07
i like thtat you didnt create this list based in logic or in an objectively way, just the albums you grew to care about and that represented something important the year they were release
continue like this friend
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From Moondance 03/18/2023 00:21
I love this chart ~ we might only have 4 albums/12 artists in common ~ but the backstory of why these are your top 100 albums is written with such 'lived' passion and honesty that it resonates deeply with me. I like it that BEA peer pressure & group think has been put aside and you simply record your personal journey through the history of modern music ~ which is a true delight. I am a bit surprised that US albums feature so prominently (seeing you are English) and that only 6 albums feature from outside the US/UK bubble. What I like most of all, being a passionate fellow BEA user (perhaps a generation older than you), is that your chart has plenty of offerings that I will now spend time discovering. BTW ~ I really like the concept that the first album to draw your attention to a particular artist (more often than not) rates above the higher ranking albums from that artist. I share & understand that feeling ~ it's like a first love usually holds a special place in our hearts.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
HoldenM 03/17/2023 20:19
HoldenM 03/17/2023 20:19
Still one of the best to do it.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From Johnnyo 03/17/2023 17:55
Love this chart. I may not agree with all of the selections, but the quality is undeniable. Great stuff
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From EyeKanFly 03/20/2022 17:49
EyeKanFly 03/20/2022 17:49
Awesome chart, lots of unfamiliar albums by familiar artists, I must dive into this further. Excellent write-ups, great story for every album (haven't read through all of it but 10-15 or so and I must say, you seem to remember much more about when/where/how you got into an album than I do).
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Mr November 06/15/2021 14:05
Thanks for all the wonderful feedback. I hadn't updated for a while but with this chart being the best part of 10 years old it's been insightful to come back and see how I feel about it now. There are some albums that, though I still love them, are way too high in this chart (Recently listened to Richmond Fontaine for the first time since I made this chart) so I'm going to have a tidy up, move some stuff around and hopefully get round to adding my thoughts to every entry. I've recently thought of a new metric for judging how much I love an album which is to see how quickly I can remember the track listing. Surprising how few albums I can just real off the track list of, really separates the wheat from the chaff.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
salahshoori 09/13/2020 10:34
salahshoori 09/13/2020 10:34
One of the greatest charts on this site.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From bonnequestion 08/02/2020 20:11
Charts like these are the reason why I visit this website almost every day. Good job and keep it up!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
DommeDamian 04/29/2018 20:22
DommeDamian 04/29/2018 20:22
Not having much in common, but I'm pretty jealous of your intellectual, intelligent writing.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
JulianR 11/27/2017 01:02
JulianR 11/27/2017 01:02
This chart is now one of only 6 that I have rated as perfect on this chart. That's because it deserves it, a hell of a lot. Your reviews are able to illuminate new dimensions in each of these albums, as well as the ways in which they are able to connect to listeners. You additionally seem to be able to reveal a lot about your personality and life philosophy in these reviews, without really telling us much about yourself at all. I like that personal aspect.
This is also the first chart on this site that had made me look up a word ("plaudits"). I could guess the meaning from its similarity to laud/applaud, but I appreciate the literary nature of the chart.
P.S. I just happened to watch Grosse Point Blank last night. A funny coincidence that you mentioned it.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.