Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by 
bonafini 
Some observations on this chart:
Since the goal is to build a greatest albums chart, this list will only include music that was composed to be firstly released and/or mainly consumed in the form of an album in the album era, which is not a very easy thing to define by the end of the day. But that means, for example, no "classical" music and no compilations of the "best of" or "rare tracks" kind.
The chart contains only one album per artist for it to display a greater array of musicians and do some kind of overview of what is relevant to me in the history of album music. However, this is a best albums list, not a best artists list: people that I would most definitely include in such a list, like Otis Redding, Kraftwerk or Patti Smith, are not present because I consider none of their albums to be as strong as any of these here.
Leave a comment, please!
- Chart updated: 07/01/2023 17:45
- (Created: 07/17/2013 03:55).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 71 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 105 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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When the time arrives in a music aficionado's life to discover SMiLE, he can't help but get lost in its numerous of versions: two 'official' ones and countless bootlegs claiming preposterously but with detailed argumentation to be the most legitimate presentation or reconstruction of what SMiLE 'could have been'. After siding with one or the other, the more fundamental questions arise: does this really exist as an album? Is this only a dispersion of nonsensical fragments glued with the fetiche of its projected 'concept' or is there any 'conceptual' unity to this infinite variety? And then finally: what is a concept album?
The answer, of course, lies within the recordings. Some months before his declaration of surrender, Brian Wilson set high stakes for the project: "I'm composing a teenage symphony to God", he said by a dinner table stuffed with hip dilettantes. This apparent oxymoron is, nevertheless, its 'concept': the full realization of meaning in the work of art through pop language. But, in the implementation of this project, a not-so-hidden truth ripped open to Brian: SMiLE marks the irreversible perception by pop music that its material is nothing but fetichized formulas and fragmented mementos of past music: sound images that are obsessively reassembled and preserved through the recording, its privileged medium. And there is no possible realization of authentic meaning if there persists a dependence on the very limited borders of a musical language mortified by mass culture.
Facing a historical crossroads, Brian responded with two contradictory lines of action. Firstly, summoning mythical cycles to provide a structure for the album. The totalising narrative of the national American mythology would guarantee the narrative coherence of its Americana artifacts. If not, then the further-reaching myth of the four elements and its natural balance would. But this confronted an unprecedented deepening of the fragmentation: through his technique of 'modular recording', minuscule and disparate pieces of recorded sounds (that very often aren't strictly musical) are configured in an ever-changing mosaic that dissolve constantly the narrative unity they are summoned to serve.
A particularly astonishing example of that is 'The Elements: Fire' (or 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow' depending on the version), the track that would stand for the fire element. A confusion of percussion instruments, whistles and the crackles of an actual bucket of tores on fire drown the keyboard and bass lines that spell the notes between a tritone in the chromatic scale in opposite directions moving in a 12-bar-blues, the pop harmonic progression par exellence; after the slip of a whistle, the progression is taken by the siren of a fire truck. It is well known that Mrs O'Leary, the supposed starter of the Great Chicago Fire, was scapegoated to stirr xenophobic sentiments against the Irish that were starting to gain political power in the US, just like other minorities are today. To hate them is easier then to confront the deep antagonisms that structure our societies. In the 'song', this is acted out in the blues progression that insists perversely through a parodic image of destruction, as if the trained ear of the administered society couldn't help hearing its musical cliches even in the sound of a murderous fire and, sticking to them, softening its desperation. The natural image of the elements is disrupted by the very images that come to represent them, helplessly loaded with social meanings.
SMiLE is a machine of self-destructing musical images, and that is its achievement: it is completed by its very in-completion. In doing that, it founded the aesthetic orientation of pop music, that is, its ambivalent nostalgia/resentment of its own material. There is a wisdom to the endless bootlegging around the album: the very dispute around its self-negating concepts is its concept. Its 'legitimate version' will only be heard when the shackles of music imposed by a monopolized culture industry are torn and its mementos are finally heard as at peace with pertaining to the past. Until that day, it will be the inevitable landmark of pop music that it is. [First added to this chart: 10/29/2019]
The answer, of course, lies within the recordings. Some months before his declaration of surrender, Brian Wilson set high stakes for the project: "I'm composing a teenage symphony to God", he said by a dinner table stuffed with hip dilettantes. This apparent oxymoron is, nevertheless, its 'concept': the full realization of meaning in the work of art through pop language. But, in the implementation of this project, a not-so-hidden truth ripped open to Brian: SMiLE marks the irreversible perception by pop music that its material is nothing but fetichized formulas and fragmented mementos of past music: sound images that are obsessively reassembled and preserved through the recording, its privileged medium. And there is no possible realization of authentic meaning if there persists a dependence on the very limited borders of a musical language mortified by mass culture.
Facing a historical crossroads, Brian responded with two contradictory lines of action. Firstly, summoning mythical cycles to provide a structure for the album. The totalising narrative of the national American mythology would guarantee the narrative coherence of its Americana artifacts. If not, then the further-reaching myth of the four elements and its natural balance would. But this confronted an unprecedented deepening of the fragmentation: through his technique of 'modular recording', minuscule and disparate pieces of recorded sounds (that very often aren't strictly musical) are configured in an ever-changing mosaic that dissolve constantly the narrative unity they are summoned to serve.
A particularly astonishing example of that is 'The Elements: Fire' (or 'Mrs O'Leary's Cow' depending on the version), the track that would stand for the fire element. A confusion of percussion instruments, whistles and the crackles of an actual bucket of tores on fire drown the keyboard and bass lines that spell the notes between a tritone in the chromatic scale in opposite directions moving in a 12-bar-blues, the pop harmonic progression par exellence; after the slip of a whistle, the progression is taken by the siren of a fire truck. It is well known that Mrs O'Leary, the supposed starter of the Great Chicago Fire, was scapegoated to stirr xenophobic sentiments against the Irish that were starting to gain political power in the US, just like other minorities are today. To hate them is easier then to confront the deep antagonisms that structure our societies. In the 'song', this is acted out in the blues progression that insists perversely through a parodic image of destruction, as if the trained ear of the administered society couldn't help hearing its musical cliches even in the sound of a murderous fire and, sticking to them, softening its desperation. The natural image of the elements is disrupted by the very images that come to represent them, helplessly loaded with social meanings.
SMiLE is a machine of self-destructing musical images, and that is its achievement: it is completed by its very in-completion. In doing that, it founded the aesthetic orientation of pop music, that is, its ambivalent nostalgia/resentment of its own material. There is a wisdom to the endless bootlegging around the album: the very dispute around its self-negating concepts is its concept. Its 'legitimate version' will only be heard when the shackles of music imposed by a monopolized culture industry are torn and its mementos are finally heard as at peace with pertaining to the past. Until that day, it will be the inevitable landmark of pop music that it is. [First added to this chart: 10/29/2019]
Year of Release:
2011
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,006
Rank in 2011:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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I admit I'm certainly not the indicated person for an unbiased criticism of The Smiths. They played a very important role in my life not only in cementing my incipient musical taste in my early teens but also in serving as a friend in times of severe harshness. Well, the same old story.
They are not the kind of friend that will hug you gently and reassert your narcisism, though, they are much better a friend than that. Morrissey's bittersweet sarcasm doesn't leave anyone unimpaired -- not even and most importantly himself -- and, by the sound of the intricately painstaking, overtly passionate and dreadfully catching guitar of Johnny Marr, the extravagant crooner delivers heads one after the other on victorian silver trays.
These tiny, glossy bits of musical humanness are most vividly and cleverly performed in this collection of songs that is perfect for every single second of its lenght. [First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
They are not the kind of friend that will hug you gently and reassert your narcisism, though, they are much better a friend than that. Morrissey's bittersweet sarcasm doesn't leave anyone unimpaired -- not even and most importantly himself -- and, by the sound of the intricately painstaking, overtly passionate and dreadfully catching guitar of Johnny Marr, the extravagant crooner delivers heads one after the other on victorian silver trays.
These tiny, glossy bits of musical humanness are most vividly and cleverly performed in this collection of songs that is perfect for every single second of its lenght. [First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
Year of Release:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,982
Rank in 1984:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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[First added to this chart: 08/21/2013]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,065
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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[First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
28,612
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
The energetic but limited music of The Sex Pisols, the Buzzcocks and such would soon extinguish itself, but punk couldn't and wouldn't die there. It was then the time of the so-called post-punk, a derived form of the sound that would incorporate synthesizers and more present bass riffs to create danceable, atmospheric and often melancholic music and Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' is the most representative album of the genre.
OK, now fuck the music history books. The real thing about this is: this 40-minute-long piece of shit fucking destroys the heart of every sensible and/or troubled teenager that comes in contact with it. It changes and has been changing lives since its conception and definitely will do it forever. This thing here influenced pretty much everyone, and in such a strong way that the universe of every reasonable music fan is split into 'before' and 'after Unknown Pleasures'. [First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
OK, now fuck the music history books. The real thing about this is: this 40-minute-long piece of shit fucking destroys the heart of every sensible and/or troubled teenager that comes in contact with it. It changes and has been changing lives since its conception and definitely will do it forever. This thing here influenced pretty much everyone, and in such a strong way that the universe of every reasonable music fan is split into 'before' and 'after Unknown Pleasures'. [First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
Year of Release:
1979
Appears in:
Rank Score:
21,808
Rank in 1979:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Maybe it's my weakness for suicide stories, but there's something in these tense chords, these visceral, soulful lyrics and this whispered (or howling), weeping (or laughing) voice of Violeta Parra that reaches to the depths of my Latin American -- but most of all human -- condition. Be it Violeta, the singer-songwriter, or Violeta, the local culture promoter, or even Violeta, the communist militant, every aspect of this woman seems to fascinate me a bit more every time I come back to her life and work. The tale of the Chilean savant and her hearty songs is, to me, one of those that sum up all that's beautiful, sad and admirable in this world.
[First added to this chart: 08/10/2015]
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[First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
15,550
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
I've been carefully bringing this thing up in my charts for a long time, but now is the time to admit: this is the shit. Each time I listen to it I love it more and more and I've come to the conclusion that this is me in album form. Marxist-leninist post-punk hardcore funky semi-philosophical half ironic half deadly serious music speaks for me from the first of my curls to the tip of my toe.
[First added to this chart: 11/24/2014]
Year of Release:
1984
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,750
Rank in 1984:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
It's an utterly impossible task to pick one best phase of Jorge Ben's discography: in the course of his career, the guy explored every possibility of his sound.
Thirteen years after his debut, though, his sound would reach a maturity that is captured in its pinnacle in África Brasil. The funky rhythms, product mainly of a research on African-Brazilian traditional music, create the perfect background for the imagistic, naive lyrics -- the themes vary as much as occultism from soccer and historical characters like Xica da Silva and Zumbi dos Palmares are evoked, placing the last brick in the construction of a lyrical and musical universe all of Jorge's own. [First added to this chart: 10/04/2013]
Thirteen years after his debut, though, his sound would reach a maturity that is captured in its pinnacle in África Brasil. The funky rhythms, product mainly of a research on African-Brazilian traditional music, create the perfect background for the imagistic, naive lyrics -- the themes vary as much as occultism from soccer and historical characters like Xica da Silva and Zumbi dos Palmares are evoked, placing the last brick in the construction of a lyrical and musical universe all of Jorge's own. [First added to this chart: 10/04/2013]
Year of Release:
1976
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,517
Rank in 1976:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Although there's nothing else to say about this album that haven't already been said, new bands seem never to stop finding new ways to reinterpret what was developed here. The Banana Album has been said to initiate punk, noise rock, shoegaze, even black metal. It has been influential to 99% of musicians that take themselves seriously. And it is, surely, the first landmark of alternative rock.
[First added to this chart: 07/16/2013]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
39,878
Rank in 1967:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 3 | 3% | |
| 1960s | 11 | 11% | |
| 1970s | 27 | 27% | |
| 1980s | 20 | 20% | |
| 1990s | 17 | 17% | |
| 2000s | 19 | 19% | |
| 2010s | 3 | 3% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Nelson Cavaquinho | 1 | 1% | |
| Hüsker Dü | 1 | 1% | |
| 13th Floor Elevators | 1 | 1% | |
| The Beach Boys | 1 | 1% | |
| Deep Purple | 1 | 1% | |
| Kate Bush | 1 | 1% | |
| Guided By Voices | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| |
38 | 38% | |
 |
28 | 28% | |
| |
23 | 23% | |
 |
5 | 5% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 96th to 97th Bee Thousand by Guided By Voices |
| Down 1 from 97th to 98th Ten by Pearl Jam |
| Down 1 from 98th to 99th O Ápice by Vzyadoq Moe |
| New entries |
|---|
| Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin |
| Leavers |
|---|
| Nó Na Orelha by Criolo |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
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 105 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/20/2025 15:39 |  SomethingSpecial | 1,104 | 85/100 |
| ! | 01/15/2025 17:40 | Exist-en-ciel | 145 | 98/100 |
| ! | 02/28/2024 12:51 |  Tamthebam | 645 | 85/100 |
| ! | 11/03/2020 14:41 | BraddlesHendo | 497 | 91/100 |
| ! | 11/03/2020 11:56 | TheKing | 78 | 90/100 |
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 89.1/100, a mean average of 89.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 89.4/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 7.3.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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From 
flamingyesdept 02/28/2024 10:17 | #302272
flamingyesdept 02/28/2024 10:17 | #302272
Fantastic chart, and the correct #1!!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
DommeDamian 11/03/2020 20:42 | #260147
DommeDamian 11/03/2020 20:42 | #260147
DDiverse albums, and fun to read. Keep it up
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Lastings 10/28/2019 16:44 | #244207
Lastings 10/28/2019 16:44 | #244207
a very excellent adn individual chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
ForegroundNoise 08/31/2018 16:57 | #220316
ForegroundNoise 08/31/2018 16:57 | #220316
It's amazing how a chart as incredible as this can creep on you out of nowhere. The choices, the write-ups: I adore your taste and your love of music that is clearly evident from this chart, which may well be my favourite from any I've seen on this whole site...
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Boltzmann 08/31/2018 12:16 | #220309
Boltzmann 08/31/2018 12:16 | #220309
A bit predictable with regards to the non South America picks.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (1 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
From 
arthurbittencourt 05/23/2017 05:29 | #191261
arthurbittencourt 05/23/2017 05:29 | #191261
excelente, amei! ve o que acha da minha? abraço
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From zrommeke 02/22/2017 07:24 | #186141
Nice chart, but the many Brasilian albums make it quite unknown to me. To discover!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From platus 02/21/2017 17:57 | #186096
Good taste. Nice chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From Lastings 02/21/2017 16:08 | #186090
Lastings 02/21/2017 16:08 | #186090
Excellent Chart, as well as excellent and well thought out interpretations or the albums you've chosen.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
VitorHugoP 04/13/2016 18:28 | #163764
VitorHugoP 04/13/2016 18:28 | #163764
O que você acha de Gabriel, o Pensador?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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| Best Artists of 2016 | |
|---|---|
| 1. Radiohead | |
| 2. Frank Ocean | |
| 3. David Bowie | |
| 4. Car Seat Headrest | |
| 5. Danny Brown | |
| 6. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | |
| 7. Nick Cave | |
| 8. Bon Iver | |
| 9. Kanye West | |
| 10. Beyoncé | |
| 11. A Tribe Called Quest | |
| 12. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard | |
| 13. Angel Olsen | |
| 14. Childish Gambino | |
| 15. Anderson .Paak | |
| 16. Kendrick Lamar | |
| 17. Solange | |
| 18. Weezer | |
| 19. Leonard Cohen | |
| 20. Jeff Rosenstock |
