Re-Ranking BEA's Top 100 - Music - Forums : Best Ever Albums

babyBlueSedan
Used to be sort of blind, now can sort of see

Gender: Male

LedZep wrote:

Your 91-100 range has 2 albums which are contenders for my top 10 of all time, and another one which is around top 50 Laughing

Haha, similar to how Purplepash has 3 of my favorite 15 albums in his bottom 10.

I think that in any consensus top 100 list, most music fans are going to at least somewhat enjoy the majority of the list, so seeing the ones they can't stand speaks a lot more to their taste than knowing they like the Beatles and Bowie. Of course there's no way to know just based on these lists how we really feel about the bottom tier, we may just think they're average.

Not to be completely negative, it's interesting to see the ones that are pretty high on average too. The Cure and Velvet Underground are doing the best from a quick glance, but there's enough variance that it's hard to pin down our favorites.
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Purplepash
ranker, rater, & music list maker

Gender: Male
Age: 54
Location: Western Australia

babyBlueSedan wrote:

Haha, similar to how Purplepash has 3 of my favorite 15 albums in his bottom 10.

I think that in any consensus top 100 list, most music fans are going to at least somewhat enjoy the majority of the list, so seeing the ones they can't stand speaks a lot more to their taste than knowing they like the Beatles and Bowie. Of course there's no way to know just based on these lists how we really feel about the bottom tier, we may just think they're average.

Not to be completely negative, it's interesting to see the ones that are pretty high on average too. The Cure and Velvet Underground are doing the best from a quick glance, but there's enough variance that it's hard to pin down our favorites.

Yes I suspected my final 10 might annoy some, but you make a good point about the lower tier with charts like this. There is no album I dislike in the top 100, They are all good albums. It's all just in comparison to each other and something has to fill those spots. It is interesting seeing the variety in the bottom 10 though.

RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Overall for yours truly by RoundTheBend

I guess there's mine. Didn't spend much time on it.

Basically almost did a one album per artist up until about the 50s. In almost an order. Then kinda listed out groups of artists with multiple albums...I almost cared enough to order them according to something but decided it didn't really matter because 60-90% of them would all rank the same almost for me.

Lastly, I decided these artists don't deserve to be in the top 100 and others do.
Oasis
The Who
Yes
Bruce Springsteen (I know, but really there are a lot of better artists)
Queen (really don't have a great album imo, even if I respect them more than I like them)
Coldplay
Love (after multiple listens of this album and others of theirs, I find their work to be ok)
The Stone Roses
Madvillian (there are better rappers/hip-hop music)
The Strokes (That album is pretty good, but not the best - them as artists is even weaker)
Arctic Monkeys
Slint (Good, but never understood the fanboi club here)
Bon Iver
Television (ok this is probably my worst decision, but sticking with it)
Fleetwood Mac
Interpol

Everyone else I like/likely deserves the spot.

CharlieBarley

Gender: Male
Age: 48
Location: Mount Olympus

Fun challenge.

Here's my chart:

https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=62455

Rhyner
soft silly music is meaningful magical

Gender: Male
Age: 36
Location: Utah

BEA's Top 100, re-ranked by Rhyner

On balance, I'd say only the last two are not worth listening to. Definitely not seeing what others see in those albums.

Other than those two, everything here has something to offer, to some degree or other.

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

Because I find there to be such a wide qualitative discrepancy between 1 and 100, I included my ratings of each to the right.

My criteria page explains my ratings scale. Quick key - approximations: 1.5 points in differential is (roughly) equal to a doubling of quality. Ex: 9.0/10 is (roughly) double the quality (cumulative emotional impact, profundity, creativity, etc) of a 7.5/10 ... 8.5 is double a 7, 8 is double a 6.5 (etc).

1. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground (1966) 9.2/10
2. The Doors - The Doors (1966) 9.2/10
3. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968) 9.1/10
4. Blonde On Blonde – Bob Dylan (1966) 9.1/10
5. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (1964) 8.9/10
6. Spiderland - Slint (1991) 8.8/10
7. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1998) 8.6/10
8. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991) 8.5/10
9. Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix (1968) 8.4/10
10. In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (1969) 8.3/10
11. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan (1965) 8.3/10
12. Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth (1988) 8.2/10
13. Marquee Moon - Television (1977) 8.2/10
14. Exile On Main Street – The Rolling Stones (1972) 8.2/10
15. Are You Experienced? – Jimi Hendrix (1967) 8.1/10
16. Kind of Blue – Miles Davis (1959) 8.0/10
17. Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones (1971) 8.0/10
18. Blue - Joni Mitchell (1971) 7.9/10
19. Dummy - Portishead (1994) 7.8/10
20. Close to the Edge - Yes (1972) 7.8/10
21. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros (1999) 7.7/10
22. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco (2002) 7.7/10
23. Rain Dogs - Tom Waits (1985) 7.6/10
24. Unkown Pleasures – Joy Division (1979) 7.6/10
25. Funeral - Arcade Fire (2004) 7.6/10
26. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (1971) 7.5/10
27. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses (1989) 7.5/10
28. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West (2010) 7.5/10
29. Forever Changes - Love (1967) 7.4/10
30. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven - Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2000) 7.4/10
31. Closer - Joy Division (1980) 7.4/10
32. Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1993) 7.3/10
33. Doolittle - Pixies (1989) 7.3/10
34. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys (1966) 7.3/10
35. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens (2005) 7.3/10
36. Pink Moon - Nick Drake (1972) 7.3/10
37. Harvest - Neil Young. 7.2/10
38. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (1969) 7.2/10
39. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd (1975) 7.2/10
40. Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin (1971) 7.2/10
41. Remain in Light – Talking Heads (1980) 7.2/10
42. Rumours - Fleetwood Mac (1976) 7.2/10
43. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen (1975) 7.2/10
44. Purple Rain - Prince (1984) 7.2/10
45. Nevermind - Nirvana (1991) 7.2/10
46. Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol (2002) 7.2/10
47. Hounds of Love - Kate Bush (1985) 7.1/10
48. OK Computer - Radiohead (1997) 7.1/10
49. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles (1967) 7.1/10
50. Madvilliany - Madvillian (2004) 7.1/10
51. Low - David Bowie (1977) 7.1/10
52. London Calling - The Clash (1979) 7.1/10
53. Grace - Jeff Buckley (1994) 7.1/10
54. Disintegration - The Cure (1989) 7.1/10
55. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins (1995) 7.1/10
56. To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar (2015) 7.0/10
57. The Queen is Dead - The Smiths (1986) 7.0/10
58. The Joshua Tree - U2 (1987) 7.0/10
59. Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones (1969) 7.0/10
60. Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan (1975) 7.0/10
61. Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem (2007) 7.0/10
62. Surfer Rosa - Pixies (1988) 7.0/10
63. In Utero - Nirvana (1994) 6.9/10
64. Kid A - Radiohead (2000) 6.9/10
65. Ten - Pearl Jam (1991) 6.9/10
66. Who's Next - The Who (1971) 6.9/10
67. After the Gold Rush - Neil Young (1970) 6.9/10
68. Abbey Road - The Beatles (1969) 6.8/10
69. Illmatic - Nas (1994) 6.8/10
70. Is This It - The Strokes (2001) 6.8/10
71. Paranoid - Black Sabbath (1970) 6.8/10
72. Thriller - Michael Jackson (1982) 6.8/10
73. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd (1973) 6.7/10
74. Odessey and Oracle - Zombies (1968) 6.7/10
75. Led Zeppelin II - Led Zeppelin (1969) 6.7/10
76. A Night at the Opera - Queen (1975) 6.7/10
77. Lonerism - Tame Impala (2012) 6.6/10
78. Elephant - White Stripes (2003) 6.6/10
79. The Bends - Radiohead (1995) 6.5/10
80. Weezer - Weezer (1994) 6.5/10
81. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver (2008) 6.4/10
82. Pinkerton - Weezer (1995) 6.3/10
83. The Wall - Pink Floyd (1979) 6.3/10
84. Good Kid M.A.A.d City - Kendrick Lamar (2012) 6.3/10
85. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars - David Bowie (1972) 6.3/10
86. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys (2006) 6.3/10
87. Animals - Pink Floyd (1977) 6.2/10
88. A Moon Shaped Pool - Radiohead (2016) 6.2/10
89. Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles (1967) 6.2/10
90. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire (2010) 6.1/10
91. Carrie & Lowell - Sufjan Stevens (2015) 6.0/10
92. The Beatles - The Beatles (1968) 6.0/10
93. Hunky Dory - David Bowie (1971) 5.9/10
94. Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin (1973) 5.9/10
95. Automatic For The People - REM (1994) 5.3/10
96. Revolver - The Beatles (1966) 5.3/10
97. In Rainbows - Radiohead (2007) 5.3/10
98. Rubber Soul - The Beatles (1965) 5.2/10
99. A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay (2002) 4.9/10
100. What's the Story (Morning Glory) - Oasis (1995) 3.5/10
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RoundTheBend
I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

AfterHours wrote:

Because I find there to be such a wide qualitative discrepancy between 1 and 100, I included my ratings of each to the right.

My criteria page explains my ratings scale. Quick key - approximations: 1.5 points in differential is (roughly) equal to a doubling of quality. Ex: 9.0/10 is (roughly) double the quality (cumulative emotional impact, profundity, creativity, etc) of a 7.5/10 ... 8.5 is double a 7, 8 is double a 6.5 (etc).

1. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground (1966) 9.2/10
2. The Doors - The Doors (1966) 9.2/10
3. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968) 9.1/10
4. Blonde On Blonde – Bob Dylan (1966) 9.1/10
5. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (1964) 8.9/10
6. Spiderland - Slint (1991) 8.8/10
7. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1998) 8.6/10
8. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991) 8.5/10
9. Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix (1968) 8.4/10
10. In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (1969) 8.3/10

...

100. What's the Story (Morning Glory) - Oasis (1995) 3.5/10

Great top ten!

Also we 100% agree with something - Oasis does not belong in the top 100... like not even in the top 500 (1000?)! Exact placement I gave as well.

Also pretty cool to see your ratings... some of which is a head-scratcher for me in context to the rest, and others make perfect sense. A new head-scratcher for me is Interpol vs R.E.M. (and our old aged debate of the quality of the Beatles). But no need to explain I already understand your reasoning's (not trying to stifle, rather you've explained them multiple times/have them explained in your journal).

AfterHours

Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)

RoundTheBend wrote:

AfterHours wrote:

Because I find there to be such a wide qualitative discrepancy between 1 and 100, I included my ratings of each to the right.

My criteria page explains my ratings scale. Quick key - approximations: 1.5 points in differential is (roughly) equal to a doubling of quality. Ex: 9.0/10 is (roughly) double the quality (cumulative emotional impact, profundity, creativity, etc) of a 7.5/10 ... 8.5 is double a 7, 8 is double a 6.5 (etc).

1. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground (1966) 9.2/10
2. The Doors - The Doors (1966) 9.2/10
3. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison (1968) 9.1/10
4. Blonde On Blonde – Bob Dylan (1966) 9.1/10
5. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (1964) 8.9/10
6. Spiderland - Slint (1991) 8.8/10
7. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (1998) 8.6/10
8. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991) 8.5/10
9. Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix (1968) 8.4/10
10. In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson (1969) 8.3/10

...

100. What's the Story (Morning Glory) - Oasis (1995) 3.5/10

Great top ten!

Also we 100% agree with something - Oasis does not belong in the top 100... like not even in the top 500 (1000?)! Exact placement I gave as well.

Also pretty cool to see your ratings... some of which is a head-scratcher for me in context to the rest, and others make perfect sense. A new head-scratcher for me is Interpol vs R.E.M. (and our old aged debate of the quality of the Beatles). But no need to explain I already understand your reasoning's (not trying to stifle, rather you've explained them multiple times/have them explained in your journal).

Thanks. Yeah, Oasis are almost pure novelty as far as I can tell (playing the Beatles/the Byrds inside a wall of really loud guitars for no particular reason except to make them sound 'epic', 'ambitious' or 'anarchic', or maybe covering the lack of substance?). Occasionally they strike some sort of magic (Champagne Supernova is of interest) but... whatever...

If Murmur would get voted onto the top 100 it would be an REM album that ranks above Interpol.

Turn On the Bright Lights strikes a highly resonant and strongly compelling balance/juxtaposition between The Doors/Joy Division-esque vocals (Crystal Ship, End of the Night ... She's Lost Control...); between ringing and hypnotic, iterative guitars that at times achieve states of transcendental atmospherics, contemplation or mental anguish, resurrect a middle ground between Marquee Moon and the rhythms of Is This It (of course, harking back to The Velvet Underground but far less improvisational/free form ... More direct earlier comparison would be Dream Syndicate). All the while, the dexterous bass and drums dancing in an entranced 'cardiac rave' and interplay, interweaving among the pulsating guitars...

As regards REM & Interpol, I suppose there are some comparisons with Automatic For The People in terms of the existential despair parallels between the slower introspective pieces of Automatic and Turn On the Bright Lights. But Bright Lights is far more claustrophobic, urban-expressionist (a much more mainstream version of The Velvet Underground & Nico urban neuroses crossed with The Doors/Unknown Pleasures atmospheres) while Automatic wallows much more in open spaces (almost like a travelogue, road movie) and a backdrop that suggests something closer to the ennui of loneliness and nostalgia of Americana.

Had to cut this off but will say some more later...

Later:

Automatic For the People suffers from a too consistent sense of monotony, songs that are sophisticated, highly respectable or mature sort of elegiac pop, but just lacks a sense of deep dedication to any truly powerful or profound emotional point even if that's where their efforts are aimed so the tendency is to give them credit for achieving it fully. But I think the album is more notable for the fact it is REM making an album concerned with loss and death than it being a truly great album about these things. It is pretty evocative (its strongest element) and they have a well above avg abiltiy to express this in limited, relatively short songs (as opposed to slo-core, post-rock...) but the songs are not as potent emotionally as they might think they are. They're either too reserved (without attaining enough of a moving sense of impressionism) or too limited by a repetitive monotony of spirit and tonality (and where they lie in this regard is too middle-ground for the emotional potency to develop from itself over the course of much of the album, or at least 1/2 of it). There are some fine songs here that allude to thier unique genius especially if the ideas wouldve been taken a bit further (the haunted echoes of Drive, the unusual beauty and progression of Try Not To Breathe, the circular crystalline elegance of Nightswimming, the lonely yet comforting farewell of Find the River). This album probably would've worked better with a bit more catharsis as too many songs tend to wallow in this persistent case of monotony (even though they all have interesting nuances that keeps them curiously evocative and salvages the work, keeps it compelling; but just a bit too mitigated throughout). Many are stately renditions of loneliness, melancholy, elegies with evocative arrangements, but the album just seems too stuck in a middle ground emotionally; not really moving past a sense of distance and knowledge of these states, an evocative if somewhat underwhelming sense of them. Would've been much more powerful if instead they really immersed themselves in these sensations and fearlessly explored them without regard for staying so employed to their mature (but limited, only mildly profound, more evocative than emotional whereas this probably needed to be more balanced) sense of pop/balladry.

Automatic, while never bad and always very respectable, loses quite a bit of any emotional heft from tracks 5 through 10, being pretty much a standstill for that section of the album. None of these tracks are bad but they also dont really amount to much outside their general evocative, gentle melancholic tones. Its about 25 min of the album not really going anywhere substantial.

Many artists have been much more successful with comparable sorts of mood/ennui/emotional evocation as Automatic, because they wholly dedicate themselves to it and bend their music entirely (or much more) to creating that state, emotion, concept. Such as Red House Painters, Low, Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis, Joni Mitchell (Blue, Hejira in some ways), Wilco (YHF in some ways)... These artists seemed much more immersed in these states (all facets aligned, vocally, everything an emotional ripple of everything else, their music totally dedicated to these sensations). Maybe only Wilco to a slightly lesser extent, but YHF is a masterful juxtaposition of a fading Americana atmosphere, stricken by the ill-fated inability to truly communicate and reach one another (the radio noises, the distant rumblings, the strange sound effects winding throughout or interrupting every song), fraught by a real sense of loneliness or disaffection in the aftermath of a world like what we had after 9/11 (even if the band didn't truly make it with 9/11 in mind, those sorts of feelings/evocations were already there).

^^^ Yikes I really wrote the above in haste, but hopefully it's sensical enough...

Another thing to try not to forget when seeing my ratings is that 5.0 represents a solid, usually consistent, effective album at what it's doing. It is only a truly low rating compared to the higher ratings, say, 7 or 7.5 above but just fine compared to what most bands/artists would aspire to create. So just because there is a massive gulf between Automatic and, say, an 8 like Spirit of Eden or a 9 like Astral Weeks, doesn't mean I think that Automatic is actually a bad album -- those albums (and many others) are just way more emotionally moving, powerful and profound. But Automatic is just fine at what it's doing -- just a far cry from an all time masterpiece which is a very very rare achievement on my scale.
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sunnydhamm

Gender: Male
Age: 28

babyBlueSedan wrote:

Is it just me or is the most interesting part of everyone's list the albums they left at the end?

For sure. Also, definitely forgot I started this thread... thanks everyone for participating!

EyeKanFly
Head Bear Master/Galactic Emperor

Age: 33
Location: Gotham

Took a shot at this:
https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=62886

Top 28 are in my top 100
Top 76 or so are in my top 500 (I say that because "Blue" isn't actually in my top 500 and I need to fix that because it's very deserving of a higher spot)
I gotta say I genuinely like almost all of these 100 albums, only exceptions are Animals, Daydream Nation, Turn on the Bright Lights, and Spiderland. Interpol is just meh, and while I like most Pink Floyd, Animals just doesn't do it for me. Sonic Youth and Slint are both bands that have had a really strong and noticeable influence on some of my favorites, but for some reason I just absolutely cannot get into them.
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