Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by 
benpaco 
Order good words bad but all WIPs are WIPs forever when it comes to me so I might as well not wait to publish this. Hoping to actually write descriptions instead of relying on the ones I wrote in literally high school someday but *shrug*
- Chart updated: 08/03/2019 20:45
- (Created: 07/27/2013 05:01).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 65 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 90 out of 100 (from 91 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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Lo-fi, Folk
"Someday my pain will mark you"
If the above album is chaos, this is acceptance. Justin wrote this for a high school love, and fittingly, this album found me around the time I fell hard for the first time, entering high school. I heard "RE:Stacks" for the first time on HOUSE and bought the album shortly after. Sent a youtube video of "RE:Stacks" to a friend who was just excited he had a song "named after her" (a running joke).
Fast forward almost 3 years. I'm sitting here today. I'm moved on. This album was the roller coaster that got me through everything everyone knew me as whiny for on this site. This album is to me equal parts love and heartbreak. It's not a tale of maturity - quite the opposite, in fact, Vernon, who'd long since left his "love" has only just realized he's still caught up on someone he never had much of a chance with to begin with - but rather of going "eh, I'm in this, I'll deal". This is the dealing. This is another album which stopped me from doing some stupid things to myself, just because I felt the attachment, felt that someone else had been there.
Favorite song: Terribly difficult choice, but For Emma. Incredibly haunting track, and in context of the album, very different, very built and structured. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
"Someday my pain will mark you"
If the above album is chaos, this is acceptance. Justin wrote this for a high school love, and fittingly, this album found me around the time I fell hard for the first time, entering high school. I heard "RE:Stacks" for the first time on HOUSE and bought the album shortly after. Sent a youtube video of "RE:Stacks" to a friend who was just excited he had a song "named after her" (a running joke).
Fast forward almost 3 years. I'm sitting here today. I'm moved on. This album was the roller coaster that got me through everything everyone knew me as whiny for on this site. This album is to me equal parts love and heartbreak. It's not a tale of maturity - quite the opposite, in fact, Vernon, who'd long since left his "love" has only just realized he's still caught up on someone he never had much of a chance with to begin with - but rather of going "eh, I'm in this, I'll deal". This is the dealing. This is another album which stopped me from doing some stupid things to myself, just because I felt the attachment, felt that someone else had been there.
Favorite song: Terribly difficult choice, but For Emma. Incredibly haunting track, and in context of the album, very different, very built and structured. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
Year of Release:
2007
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,022
Rank in 2007:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Emo, Pop Rock
"I once knew a girl
In the years of my youth
With eyes like the summer
All beauty and truth"
This album came into my life when "Hey There Delilah", David Gray, and Five For Fighting was about all you heard at my house. So I think when I first heard "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", I sort of rolled my eyes that it was just more of my parents music. But I sat down and gave it a proper listen and really fell in love.
Favorite track: Different Names For The Same Thing. That chorus, vocally, is absolutely crushing. It's just haunting, it's like whistling in an empty, damp house. Oh, chills down my spine. [First added to this chart: 08/01/2013]
"I once knew a girl
In the years of my youth
With eyes like the summer
All beauty and truth"
This album came into my life when "Hey There Delilah", David Gray, and Five For Fighting was about all you heard at my house. So I think when I first heard "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", I sort of rolled my eyes that it was just more of my parents music. But I sat down and gave it a proper listen and really fell in love.
Favorite track: Different Names For The Same Thing. That chorus, vocally, is absolutely crushing. It's just haunting, it's like whistling in an empty, damp house. Oh, chills down my spine. [First added to this chart: 08/01/2013]
Year of Release:
2005
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,206
Rank in 2005:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Art rap
[First added to this chart: 03/09/2019]
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Alternative Rock
"I'm just a normal boy that sank when I fell overboard"
Damn this album needs some love on this site. I ... there's not words to describe it. It's a kid who got pushed to hard off the swings, bled on the ground and cried for a while, then got up and smiled.
This is an album I really wish I had when I was battling against myself. It's an album that seems to have reached out to a lot of people, just by being general yet universal in its messages. While musically simple (the whole album sticks to the same key signature and largely the same chords in different progressions), there's a deeper feeling here in the voice and in the instrumentation, especially in the strings, that just take this album to an incredible level. Really worth giving a listen to whenever you're struggling in life.
Favorite song: Congratulations. Bittersweet is my favorite emotion, and this captures it beautifully, both in the lyrics and in the pain felt through Justin's voice against the peppiness of Imogen Heap. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
"I'm just a normal boy that sank when I fell overboard"
Damn this album needs some love on this site. I ... there's not words to describe it. It's a kid who got pushed to hard off the swings, bled on the ground and cried for a while, then got up and smiled.
This is an album I really wish I had when I was battling against myself. It's an album that seems to have reached out to a lot of people, just by being general yet universal in its messages. While musically simple (the whole album sticks to the same key signature and largely the same chords in different progressions), there's a deeper feeling here in the voice and in the instrumentation, especially in the strings, that just take this album to an incredible level. Really worth giving a listen to whenever you're struggling in life.
Favorite song: Congratulations. Bittersweet is my favorite emotion, and this captures it beautifully, both in the lyrics and in the pain felt through Justin's voice against the peppiness of Imogen Heap. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
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Post-Punk
"And when you go to sleep tonight
You'll find you have that same old dream "
This album is a symphony of weird. Tritones, tritones, tritones. Reininger's strings and vocals, matched with Brown's saxophone and Peter Principle (of The Residents fame)'s minimalist drums range from horror film soundtrack to almost danceable music. There's an eeriness through, largely due to Brown's whale-like saxophone work. Every lyric is strange in a way that is beautiful, and every song never goes anywhere while taking you everywhere. It's a very strange experience, and I think, one of the finest post-punk experiences ever created.
Favorite song: 59 To 1. A masterpiece of saxophone work, an infectious bassline, a terrifyingly confusing music video, and haunting lyrics make for a brilliant combination. [First added to this chart: 08/13/2013]
"And when you go to sleep tonight
You'll find you have that same old dream "
This album is a symphony of weird. Tritones, tritones, tritones. Reininger's strings and vocals, matched with Brown's saxophone and Peter Principle (of The Residents fame)'s minimalist drums range from horror film soundtrack to almost danceable music. There's an eeriness through, largely due to Brown's whale-like saxophone work. Every lyric is strange in a way that is beautiful, and every song never goes anywhere while taking you everywhere. It's a very strange experience, and I think, one of the finest post-punk experiences ever created.
Favorite song: 59 To 1. A masterpiece of saxophone work, an infectious bassline, a terrifyingly confusing music video, and haunting lyrics make for a brilliant combination. [First added to this chart: 08/13/2013]
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Twangy Indie Rock
"Do you want to die? Fine, you're right, but I wonder what it feels like to stop feeling so alive."
I wasn't a huge fan of this album, or this band, when I first encountered them. Several people, including Rocky, had suggested them to me, and I'd listened to some but was whelmed. It was only when they came to my school for a free show that I went with a friend and really got into the music. I'd decided I liked "Recycling" and "Size of the Moon" before the show, and came out liking their whole set.
[This lifechanging experience docummented in Pinegrove's live album, all 11/29/16 dates https://pinegrove.bandcamp.com/album/elsewhere]
I still don't fully know where this will settle on my list, but it's brought me immense comfort in a variety of contexts at a variety of times. [First added to this chart: 11/17/2017]
"Do you want to die? Fine, you're right, but I wonder what it feels like to stop feeling so alive."
I wasn't a huge fan of this album, or this band, when I first encountered them. Several people, including Rocky, had suggested them to me, and I'd listened to some but was whelmed. It was only when they came to my school for a free show that I went with a friend and really got into the music. I'd decided I liked "Recycling" and "Size of the Moon" before the show, and came out liking their whole set.
[This lifechanging experience docummented in Pinegrove's live album, all 11/29/16 dates https://pinegrove.bandcamp.com/album/elsewhere]
I still don't fully know where this will settle on my list, but it's brought me immense comfort in a variety of contexts at a variety of times. [First added to this chart: 11/17/2017]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
825
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Post-Rock, Emo
"I've been wasting,
I've been away,
it's not that bad, most days."
So obviously this album/band jumped just a little bit up in my ratings, from "Pensive is a cool song" to having an album at #10 on my overall chart. So why?
It all starts with me trying to go to Gilman. It's a historic place and before I went to college, seeing *a* show there was important to me. It just so happened that a band I'd heard of (seriously really just heard of basically) was playing there. Dug into them a little, thought they were alright, shelled out the $10 and went.
This was my first *real* show. Yeah, I'd been to Lumineers, I'd been to David Grisman, I'd been to a lot of you sit there and watch some folk music shows, but this was something new. Gilman is a hellhole. The walls are lined in stickers and graffiti, the only thing that looks vaguely official is the "NO STAGEDIVING" sign that everyone ignores. And the moshing was strange and out of place for a band that has softened their sound as much as PBTT has. But there was a certain moment when the band was playing April that everyone pushed close to the stage as they could, and we all, in unison, just screamed the "7/31/76" line, and it was part of a community then. This was something special. This is the reason I've gone to shows, the reason I've gone down the emo rabbithole. These were people who got *it*.
I've seen them again since, and it's just as magical and experience live. I know all the words to everything on this record and that's honestly not something I can say for many records. It hits hard when it needs to, it's nostalgic, it's clean, it's well produced (this was my first Will Yip, as well), it's just a beautiful album.
Favorite song: "Lesions", actually. "April" and "Repine" are both great, but the intensity at the start of Lesions and then that bass, I think it's the best song musically on here. [First added to this chart: 01/16/2016]
"I've been wasting,
I've been away,
it's not that bad, most days."
So obviously this album/band jumped just a little bit up in my ratings, from "Pensive is a cool song" to having an album at #10 on my overall chart. So why?
It all starts with me trying to go to Gilman. It's a historic place and before I went to college, seeing *a* show there was important to me. It just so happened that a band I'd heard of (seriously really just heard of basically) was playing there. Dug into them a little, thought they were alright, shelled out the $10 and went.
This was my first *real* show. Yeah, I'd been to Lumineers, I'd been to David Grisman, I'd been to a lot of you sit there and watch some folk music shows, but this was something new. Gilman is a hellhole. The walls are lined in stickers and graffiti, the only thing that looks vaguely official is the "NO STAGEDIVING" sign that everyone ignores. And the moshing was strange and out of place for a band that has softened their sound as much as PBTT has. But there was a certain moment when the band was playing April that everyone pushed close to the stage as they could, and we all, in unison, just screamed the "7/31/76" line, and it was part of a community then. This was something special. This is the reason I've gone to shows, the reason I've gone down the emo rabbithole. These were people who got *it*.
I've seen them again since, and it's just as magical and experience live. I know all the words to everything on this record and that's honestly not something I can say for many records. It hits hard when it needs to, it's nostalgic, it's clean, it's well produced (this was my first Will Yip, as well), it's just a beautiful album.
Favorite song: "Lesions", actually. "April" and "Repine" are both great, but the intensity at the start of Lesions and then that bass, I think it's the best song musically on here. [First added to this chart: 01/16/2016]
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Bedroom Pop
[First added to this chart: 02/22/2019]
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Grunge
"All in all is all we are"
I think this would possibly be where Nevermind was if I found it sooner. There's a lot of more introspective tunes on here as opposed to Nevermind - their albums kind of followed a pattern of "I hate everything", "I hate everything around me", "I hate myself", and this is a really interesting look at that, especially given what happened to Kurt in the end.
Favorite song: "Dumb". It's simple, it decays, but damn does it hit. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
"All in all is all we are"
I think this would possibly be where Nevermind was if I found it sooner. There's a lot of more introspective tunes on here as opposed to Nevermind - their albums kind of followed a pattern of "I hate everything", "I hate everything around me", "I hate myself", and this is a really interesting look at that, especially given what happened to Kurt in the end.
Favorite song: "Dumb". It's simple, it decays, but damn does it hit. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,571
Rank in 1993:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
19. (=)
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Garage Rock
"Can't you see I'm trying?
I don't even like it. I just lied to
Get to your apartment, now I'm staying
Here just for a while"
This album feels like such a struggle. But in a good way. It feels like some sort of attempt to find ones sound over an album, and at the same time to find oneself. *insert other attempts at BS here* but it really is a good album.
Favorite song: "Someday". First song I learned all the words to and was able to perform solo on bass. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
"Can't you see I'm trying?
I don't even like it. I just lied to
Get to your apartment, now I'm staying
Here just for a while"
This album feels like such a struggle. But in a good way. It feels like some sort of attempt to find ones sound over an album, and at the same time to find oneself. *insert other attempts at BS here* but it really is a good album.
Favorite song: "Someday". First song I learned all the words to and was able to perform solo on bass. [First added to this chart: 07/26/2013]
Year of Release:
2001
Appears in:
Rank Score:
28,552
Rank in 2001:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 64. Page 1 of 7
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 7 | 7% | |
| 1970s | 5 | 5% | |
| 1980s | 14 | 14% | |
| 1990s | 11 | 11% | |
| 2000s | 31 | 31% | |
| 2010s | 32 | 32% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| The Beatles | 5 | 5% | |
| The Smiths | 3 | 3% | |
| Bon Iver | 3 | 3% | |
| Milo | 2 | 2% | |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 2% | |
| Hightide Hotel | 2 | 2% | |
| Joy Division | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 48 from 96th to 48th Nothing Was Missing, Except Me by Hightide Hotel |
| Up 44 from 97th to 53rd Naturally by Hightide Hotel |
| Up 36 from 79th to 43rd Electro-Shock Blues by Eels |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 14 from 66th to 80th Meat Is Murder by The Smiths |
| Down 13 from 68th to 81st The Freed Man by Sebadoh |
| Down 13 from 70th to 83rd Eyes Open by Snow Patrol |
| New entries |
|---|
| Going By by Told Slant |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
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| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | tim0505 | Overall chart | 2025 | |
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| Rearrange Top 100 |  Larcx13 | Custom chart | 2020 |  |
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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 91 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/20/2025 14:45 |  SomethingSpecial | 1,105 | 85/100 |
| ! | 02/17/2021 06:03 |  pjohnsongolf | 272 | 89/100 |
| ! | 05/14/2020 16:53 |  Keatownrodriguez | 84 | 95/100 |
| ! | 01/28/2020 08:36 |  Liedzeit | 76 | 85/100 |
| ! | 01/28/2020 08:28 |  DommeDamian | 1,004 | 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 3% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 89.8/100, a mean average of 90.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 90.3/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 8.4.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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From Keatownrodriguez 05/14/2020 16:53 | #251432
Keatownrodriguez 05/14/2020 16:53 | #251432
I knew you had a special chart, but then I saw you but the Kimi No Na Wa soundtrack, major props
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From DommeDamian 01/28/2020 08:29 | #247245
DommeDamian 01/28/2020 08:29 | #247245
Massive respect your way!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
ForegroundNoise 01/27/2020 09:47 | #247211
ForegroundNoise 01/27/2020 09:47 | #247211
Sure, I'd be lying if I said these albums were my kinda thing. And yeah, maybe it'd be nice to see a few less American albums dominating the roster. But goddamn, how can I give a chart anything less than perfect when that 'Disorder' anecdote makes me brim with joy like that?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Antonio-Pedro 01/13/2019 04:03 | #229615
Antonio-Pedro 01/13/2019 04:03 | #229615
Miss you Ben, hope everything is going well with life, wishing you the best <3
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Reppu1976 02/10/2018 00:42 | #207505
Nice chart!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From lobotheduck21 11/07/2017 03:09 | #200876
Good to see more appreciation of Norwegian Wood
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
JulianR 09/30/2017 08:12 | #198914
JulianR 09/30/2017 08:12 | #198914
I can tell you put effort into it, which is what really counts
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Repo 08/21/2017 04:14 | #196439
Repo 08/21/2017 04:14 | #196439
Hey Ben! How are you doing? It's Repo. Don't know if you found that out yet or not. Anyways, love your chart as always. Great to see Tuxedo Moon still so high. Totally love your write-up for Rubber soul!! Peace, brother! Keep up the good fight.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
craola 08/20/2017 14:03 | #196389
craola 08/20/2017 14:03 | #196389
i love this chart, and i'm sorry i haven't been here before (?) not sure how that's possible?
and for as little overlap as we have, i love most of the albums here (that i've listened to).
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Steppenwolf666 05/18/2017 16:20 | #191013
Very interesting, I must investigate some of this stuff.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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