Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by hairymarx1 
My key criteria for selection are innovation and originality, mainly within the various strands of electronic and psychedelic-based music, which are my major areas of interest.
The fourth, often overlapping criteria, are that albums engage on an emotional and intellectual level and have a consistent conceptual narrative thread running through them.
Entries 51-100 are subject to frequent change. I made the conscious decision to omit compilations, classical and jazz releases. Maximum of one album per artist.
I would like to thank the music critic Pierro Scaruffi (www.scaruffi.com) for introducing me to some of the artists in this chart who have made my life richer as a result.
- Chart updated: 08/04/2016 22:45
- (Created: 03/16/2011 02:09).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 128 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 118 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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Musically and technically as clinically executed as anything produced by Can, Tortoise add a modern twist to the classical minimalist/jazz & prog-Canterbury genres. Despite the albums fusing of a multitude of influences - Miles Davis, Soft Machine, Steve Reich, Ennio Morricone - there is enough rhythmic experimentation by way of funk, dub and even caribbean timbres that give the music a wonderfully flowing and distinct richness.
[First added to this chart: 07/31/2011]
Year of Release:
1998
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,677
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7
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With 'Future Days' the 'Can sound' is more restrained and methodical then their previous two classic albums. Here the atmosphere is a mixture of pastoral and oriental tinged ambient electronics and jazz elements. The ambiance of a couple of the tracks sounds similar in part to the work of the Grateful Dead as one is lulled into a trance like state. Certainly, the album works on a deep psychological level. Can are one of the most influential bands in the history of rock having pioneered industrial music, noise-rock, trip-hop and post-rock.
[First added to this chart: 07/31/2011]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,256
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Kevin Ayers produced two quirky and eccentric masterpieces - 'Joy Of A Toy', his debut, and the follow-up 'Shooting At The Moon'. Although both albums were in the innocent and playful tradition of Syd Barrett, it was the latter that stamped his claim as one of the greatest and most original British artists of all-time. Themes of existential melancholy, humour and nostalgia that emphasize Parisian decadence and eastern exotica, overlay an enchanting and often unsettling psychedlic underbelly essentuated by Ayer's use of accordian, clarinet, strings and percussion.
[First added to this chart: 06/03/2012]
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Unlike Drake's previous two releases, the style of 'Pink Moon' is stark, minimal and radical. Here he sings without any other accompanying guitar and piano. The album appears to be the result of an increased existential anguish. Drake's stories are desolate and anchored in refrains of solitude and obsession. Pink Moon consists of a chilling but deeply moving combination of apocalyptic and surreal ballads, rhymes and cataleptic litanies. Drake's songwriting is highly influential and his supreme style of delivery has a universal and timeless quality to it.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
20,118
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The music and vocal experiments in first half of the album are gentle and touching in the style of Rock Bottom. By contrast, the second half consists of daring and intense space-jazz instrumental passages that evoke the extended jams of Frank Zappa with the Canterbury prog-rock of Soft Machine. This is multi-faceted, complex, intelligent and exquisite of music.
[First added to this chart: 01/29/2013]
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With this classic, Eno combines pop music with avantgarde electronic music that also incorporates strong rhythms. This is a post-modernist music as advanced as that of early Neu!. It will take a few more decades before the music world fully absorbs Eno's intuitions.
[First added to this chart: 06/23/2011]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,664
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Slowdive continue with the philosophy laid down by My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins but with 'Just For A Day', the band took their music to new ethereal extremes. Never has the synthesis of the Dream Pop and Shoegaze genres been so perfectly realized than on this album. The result is a symphonic psychedelic sound of beauty that encompasses hypnotizing harmonies and breathtaking soundscapes, the results of which are deeply psychological and mystical. This album is one of the most daring achievements of British rock ever.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,209
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This album is a psychedelic and schizophrenic extravaganza that synthesized Red Crayola's anarchic freakouts with contemplative and meditative new-age type sermons. The sound of Mercury Rev though, is not merely an imitation or some kind of nostalgic tribute to an age of 'acid' West coast "trip", but is an imaginative and chaotic vision of the human condition that is tempered by fits of neurosis and decadent atmospheres. 'Yerself Is Steam' is one of the most important and influential records of psychedelic rock.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,749
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[First added to this chart: 07/09/2012]
Year of Release:
1966
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,242
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With 'Incunabula', the Manchester duo Autechre created a distinctive form of postmodern electronic music that was a vast improvement on the standard techno/'chill-out' music of the period. What separates Autechre from the crowd is the carefully calibrated nature of their music which they emphasize by their use of soft 'organic' rhythms. These rhythms skilfully bridge synth-pop, Indian classical music, the minimalism of Terry Riley, the ambiance of Brian Eno, the electronic pop sensibilities of Kraftwerk and the transcendental psychedelic explorations of Tangerine Dream. In short, the music of Autechre is akin to a 'design in sound' that is both meticulous and intricate as well as pioneering.
[First added to this chart: 06/17/2012]
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 | 24 | 24% | |
| 1970s | 35 | 35% | |
| 1980s | 17 | 17% | |
| 1990s | 18 | 18% | |
| 2000s | 4 | 4% | |
| 2010s | 2 | 2% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Dead Can Dance | 1 | 1% | |
| David Peel & The Lower East Side | 1 | 1% | |
| King Tubby | 1 | 1% | |
| The Flaming Lips | 1 | 1% | |
| The Red Crayola With The Familiar Ugly | 1 | 1% | |
| The Incredible String Band | 1 | 1% | |
| The Orb | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
86/100 (from 118 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 118 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
95/100  | 02/24/2022 05:35 |  DriftingOrpheus | | 91/100 |
50/100 | 10/22/2020 04:59 | Szyfman | | 85/100 |
 5/100 | 06/18/2020 03:22 |  RoundTheBend | | 92/100 |
75/100 | 03/11/2020 08:48 | LittleMatt | | 80/100 |
100/100 | 05/10/2018 14:57 |  Genga009 | | 91/100 |
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 has a Bayesian average rating of 85.7/100, a mean average of 81.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 85.7/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 22.0.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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5/100
From RoundTheBend 06/18/2020 03:22
RoundTheBend 06/18/2020 03:22
The actual reason is because he was an ass to me.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From 
dihansse 03/28/2018 18:51
dihansse 03/28/2018 18:51
many recs to seek out
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
65/100
From 
JulianR 02/18/2018 22:17
JulianR 02/18/2018 22:17
You know, I decided to actually look into claims of plagirization of scaruffi. And I have decided that while this guy certainly mimicks him very closely, he is in fact stating his own opinions and beliefs. That doesn't mean that he doesn't fall prey to the same meaningless pretentious verbosity that scaruffi does, but I dont think he is downright stealing scaruffi's work, just heavily imitating. He still deserves a poor score for being both unoriginal and uninteresting, but not the 5/100 that he previously recieved from me.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
65/100
From JulianR 10/27/2017 00:51
JulianR 10/27/2017 00:51
Scaruffi imitation at its most mediocre. See skeeter's comment below
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From voland 06/01/2017 15:59
Thanks for Rickie Lee Jones. Never heard of her before. But it's very beautiful music.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
0/100
From skeeter 04/20/2017 14:09
The reason for all the low ratings on this chart is that its creator Daniel Margrain aka hairymarx1 plagiarized all the analysis and comments of the albums from Piero Scaruffi. He's also done this repeatedly elsewhere on this site, Amazon and his own website. See Scaruffi's website that he mentions in his introduction on here as being the music critic who "introduced him to some of the artists in the chart" (of course without giving credit for all the plagiarized reviews) and type in keywords "Daniel Margrain" and "plagiarist" in the search engine to see the full details and extent of this. I pointed this out before but since this site only displays the 10 most recent comments for a chart I guess the notice needs a boost now.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From 
CharlieBarley 02/07/2017 02:38
CharlieBarley 02/07/2017 02:38
One of the most refreshing charts I have read. Mine, by comparison is much more mainstream, I am finding. Love that you are a fan of psychedelic rock. I had no idea there were so many psych artists. I can't wait to discover some of these. I have got a few of these albums but not many. I am just getting into PIL and Metal Box is going to be my next purchase. I love Lydon gone psychotic, which seems to be his default setting. I also like Velvets, Neil young, Pink Floyd and Ms Patti Smith - I own 2 box sets of hers but only have Horses on my 70s chart. Maybe I should put it in my Top 100. I like that you stick to your guns, I love your notes (I read them all whilst listening to Joni Mitchell) and I admire your originality. I can only wait to see if reading this shakes up my charts a bit. Good work! Only reason it's not 100/100 is I only know a small amount of these albums. Only 5 albums in common but vive la difference! Is very good though.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
80/100
From zrommeke 02/06/2017 18:30
Definitely not the easiest chart, but I like it a lot!!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
90/100
From Josian 02/06/2017 18:15
Very interesting list, thanks ;)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
phantom1305 02/06/2017 11:27
phantom1305 02/06/2017 11:27
I'm confused what's with all the low ratings?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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