Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by babyBlueSedan

My favorite albums, or "The 100 albums I'd keep if iTunes had a capacity of 100 albums."

The theme of this update, as with the past couple, is upheaval. Every time I update this I claim to be moving new favorite up higher while still stubbornly putting albums I used to love but never listen to anymore near the top. I won't know for sure if I've been more successful this time around until I update this again. But I hope that this current iteration shook things up a bit and added a bit more variety, even if that variety is in the form of albums most people have heard of. I've tried to include as many artists and genres where possible, partially because I want to appear more interesting than I actually am, but in the end this is still very rock and pop oriented. In particular, this iteration makes obvious my current love of plaintive folk/singer-songwriter stuff.

I've also relaxed my artist limits just a bit to highlight the artists I really love, but I still couldn't include everything I wanted because spots are so limited. In some cases I decided what to include based on what I wanted to write about. I recommend checking out my decade charts for more deep cuts.

Also, I appreciate all the kind and generous comments - they're my main motivation for updating this every couple years or so.
There are 96 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 94 out of 100 (from 151 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

View the complete list of 59,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.

Share this chart
Collector's summary (filtered) Help The maximum rank used by the Collector's Summary is configurable from your profile (top 9 is currently selected). Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!
This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from Canada. (Remove this filter)
Sort Sort by
Like walking through the astral plane with a CB radio set to scan

As calculated as this album is, as methodical as every guitar prick and drum beat is, this album still feels incredibly human and effortless. The soft-buildup-crescendo-loud dynamic is fairly formulaic, but it works here because of how they pull them off. In Sleep it's not just a buildup, or a crescendo, but a smorgasbord of horns and all kinds of instruments. It's the beginning of the journey, the sending-off party. In Static things threaten to explode...and they don't. Even after three or four listens I still expected the guitars to get loud at this one point. This is a few months into the journey, where we're deep into the unknown. By the time the final movement roles around it's as if Godspeed know we're onto them; after several minutes of droning and near silence, the music just gets louder, no buildup, no warning. At this point our journeyers are lost and have gone mad in the wilderness.

Some might complain that the spoken word parts and interludes seem pretty random or incongruent, and they'd be right. But why does that matter? You're in a desert of noise, you start to hear voices, and what do they say? They tell you not trust the people offering to wash your windows. There's such a sense of mystery there that it really draws you in. The second spoken word part is genius - as you hear the speaker say "and when you see the face of God you will die" chills run down your spine, no matter how the music previously made you feel. It makes you uneasy - this might be the first time you realize something isn't quite right. Sometimes when bands throw in spoken parts they seems like they're trying too hard to shock you *cough* Swans *cough*. In this case you're flying through an ocean of noise, trying to get back to reality, but all you can catch are little glimpses of people's thoughts as you fly by.

I hate the word epic, because this is not striving to be grand or entrancing, it's striving to make you feel.
[First added to this chart: 09/19/2013]
Year of Release:
2000
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,403
Rank in 2000:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (86/100 - 1350 votes)  86 (1,350 votes)
Comments:
11. (8) Down 3
Like walking into an empty house after coming straight home from work for the fifth straight night.

I wrote a comment for this album on the album's page and I don't have anything to say that will be better than that so I'll just copy and paste it here if you don't mind. Written when this was number 1 on this chart so make of that what you will:

There are a few words used to describe music that typically indicate I won't like it. Sparse, intimate, and voice-driven are some of them. And all three of them describe this album perfectly - as others have said, it is the sound of an artist laying their life bare with songs reflecting over their experiences. But somehow, in this case, it all comes together and creates what I believe to be the most perfect album ever crafted.

It's one thing to have a great voice, and it's quite another to be able to use that voice and make it sound honest. If there's one word that describes (nearly) all of the music I enjoy it's honest. And if someone is clearing trying to hit high notes and sing in key that honesty is lost; that's why I often prefer bad singers to good ones. But Joni makes hitting the high notes sound incredibly effortless, and she integrates them perfectly into the rest of the song so that they don't stand out as if she's trying to impress with her voice. It's an album that is so well crafted that the voice is irrelevant, but she still manages to sing perfectly.

And the song-writing - the stream-of-consciousness style she writes in is just tremendous. Picture Kurt Cobain if the thoughts in his head actually made sense. There is no pretense, there is no thought. These are the things she is thinking, and she's not manipulating them to sound like poetry. There are moments on this record that are incredibly general and could apply to anyone, and there are moments where the specificity is brilliant ("Richard got married to a figure skater, and he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator"). The songs reflect the era she lived in (Little Green / Blue) and her dreams for the future (River). Even when the lyrics blend into a more manufactured poetry they sound so heartbreakingly beautiful you can't fault it (Case of You). And of course there's a central theme that ties things together nicely - it wouldn't be a true album if the songs didn't feel like they belonged together. Not only is there the general sentiment of heartbreak that is described by colors (Blue and Green, obviously), but each song seems to dwell on a different aspect of the feeling (or the moments leading up to it). The songs also progress nicely, starting off hopeful and glad and then straying into sadness, depression, and what I wouldn't hesitate to call despair. It starts with hopes and dreams (the dream theme culminates in Carey and California) but by the end the illusion is shattered and the truths about love and life come out.

My love for this album goes even beyond words, but somehow it's the one I find the most to say about and the most to discover more in. The number of times I've broken down sobbing to this album is not a single digit number.
[First added to this chart: 02/08/2014]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
15,588
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
34. (43) Up 9
Like walking into an apocalyptic cult where everyone is wearing pig and deer heads as masks, then walking out because no one could stop arguing long enough to hold a meeting

What's my favorite kind of punk? Well to answer that let's step through the [abridged] history of punk. You start with things like MC5 and Stooges and proto-punk. Eventually this gives way to what many think of as "classic" punk, with the Ramones and Sex Pistols and early Clash. Their songs were notable for being fast, simple, and aggressive. Eventually at least some people got bored with that because post-punk started. You had things like Joy Division and Public Image Ltd and Deceit. Here, in most cases, the aggression stayed but the simple, direct song structures disappeared in favor of more complex songs. Now of course at the same time you had hardcore punk going strong, with Black Flag and company increasing the aggression even more but keeping the simple songs. Now, what if you combined the anger of hardcore punk with the unpredictable song structures and variety of post punk? That's my favorite punk.

And that more or less is what we have here. But when it's described in such simple terms, I think it's difficult to appreciate how unlikely this combination is. First off, it's rare to find this type of combination of aggression and technicality. Opener "It's Catching Up" is a face melter, with a blistering chorus and vocalist Rob Wright screaming "you can't drink it away, you can't fuck it away!" But it's also complex technically, with driving bass and creaky guitar. "Big Dick" is similar, with a full throttle bass/drum pairing that feels like proto-Lightning Bolt. I've listened to a lot of post-hardcore trying to find a similar blend of power and math rock inspired style, and I haven't found anything better than this. But there's another element here as well, which is the quality of the songwriting. Even if a band is incredibly skilled with their instruments, it doesn't always amount to gripping songs. To find an example of NoMeansNo's level of songwriting, just listen to "The Tower." It's five minutes long and feels like a roller coaster, with a simple but well placed chorus and a crazy noisy outro that introduces some classic guitar shredding. The closer, "All Lies," is even better and is easily the highlight. The opening builds tension, only to break to a sweetly sung verse that erupts into the most confrontational chorus on the album. If I had a nickel for every math rock inspired post hardcore album I've heard without any memorable songs, I'd have at least like a dollar. But NoMeansNo makes their songs engaging and unpredictable.

But where this album really shines is its humor. This isn't really a funny album per se. It's more that it's absurd, with plenty of dark humor. "The End of All Things" starts as a shredder like all the other songs, but then it break into a nearly arena rock breakdown and an anthemic chorus of "Hear the angels sing, this is the end of all things!" as it welcomes the apocalypse like a runner celebrating a victory in a race. Elsewhere there's some classic punk attitude like in the opening of "Rags and Bones," as Wright explains "Christ was married to the cross. My father was married to my mother. And I am married to a cigarette butt, lying in the gutter." Nowhere is this attitude used better than on the closer, which is a glorious atheistic rant. It builds to a chorus of "But it was all lies, a bag of lies! It was all lies, why don't you fuck off and die?" Which is pretty much as punk as it gets. But Wright also starts singing "it's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring" on one of the verses, which makes me think the vitriol in the chorus is at least partially tongue-in-cheek. I mean, listen to "Big Dick" and tell me these guys are completely serious. In the end, this mix of humor and anger really elevates this over most other punk I've heard.

I've listened to several other NoMeansNo albums trying to find anything close to this level of quality, and I've come up empty. Their follow-up comes close, but the songwriting peters out in the second half of the album. This makes the existence of this album all the more incredible.
[First added to this chart: 10/06/2018]
Year of Release:
1989
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,245
Rank in 1989:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Like walking into a party full of strangely relatable people

If you had told me two years ago that I'd have a Carly Rae Jepsen album on my chart on the next update I probably would have thought you were insane. Though, to be fair, I also would have said that about Death Cab For Cutie. But I listened to this back in 2015 when I still thought the Foo Fighters were a good band, and I had no idea what the fuss was about. Indie bloggers were going nuts over this, and I couldn't grasp what they were on about. I admitted that the production was very good, but I couldn't get on board with the overall sound. Music is for lying alone in your dark bedroom crying, dammit, not for dancing and feeling happy.

And I must admit, even now I'm not really sure what all those bloggers are on about. I can't even explain why I enjoy this so much. It's not like it's terribly different from a lot of the other pop music out there. Call Me Maybe was a hit and blended pretty well into the pop landscape of the time, and it's not like Jepsen has done a 180 since then. But I've got some theories as to why this is good:

1. No Filler: Pop is not an album genre. It's just the way it is; it's a genre tailored to have widespread appeal, and you're not going to get tons of people listening to you if you make people sit down and listen to a 45 minute set of songs. And it's not only that - pop is built on creating earworms, and it's hard to maintain earworms for more than a single song at a time. But despite all of that, this really does hold up as an album and not just a few singles and some filler tracks. Run Away With Me is a fantastic opener - that saxophone that kicks the album off is just the perfect fade in. When I Needed You is also a fantastic closer - it's not just a song that happens to be last, but instead wraps the album up really nicely. There are non-singles like Boy Problems and the title track that are fantastic, and while I don't love every song (*cough* All That *cough*) there are no clunkers.

2. Depth Of Sound: I don't know how else to describe this one, but this album feels so much fuller than most of the pop you hear on the radio. It's not concerned about finding one beat or sound to drive into your head. It feels layered and smooth. I already mentioned the saxophone on Run Away With Me, but I have to mention it again because hearing that sound during the choruses is the most sublime moment on the album. I already ragged on All That, but I have to admit the bass on that sounds incredible (I'm looking at the producers of this album for the first time while writing this and I'm not surprised that Dev Hynes produced that song). All of these sounds work together well too. This album is very upbeat but it doesn't feel too loud - it feels relaxing.

3. Charisma: This is also a hard one to quantify, because I have no idea how to prove that Jepsen is more sincere when she sings about love than Pop Star X is when they sing about love. But while a lot of pop strives to be overblown and larger than life, Jepsen focuses on the little details of relationships. Let's Get Lost finds her wanting to take the long way home so she can drive around with her significant other longer. I Really Like You tackles the feeling of not wanting to get too obsessed with someone you just met. Boy Problems is a song that I, as a male in my mid-20s, cannot relate to at all. But even when Jepsen sings about having your friend tell you to break up with your boyfriend over the phone it makes me want to sing along. I think what may make Jepsen so successful is her vulnerability; she's not afraid to sing about, for example, not being a good match for someone but wanting to be with them anyway on Your Type. Which makes her more approachable than your average pop star.

Well folks, I think we cracked this mystery. Tune in next week for "why do people think Father John Misty is interesting." I can't wait to try to figure that one out.
[First added to this chart: 05/29/2020]
Year of Release:
2015
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,292
Rank in 2015:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Like walking downtown and having no one acknowledge you

I've done a lot of talking about lyrics in these description, and most of them are witty or otherwise insightful. Not complex necessarily, but the kind of thing you need to digest to fully understand. So in that respect this album is a breath of fresh air, as the lyrics here are so ridiculously simple they take almost no mental processing whatsoever. In fact, sometimes they're so simple that they sound childish. Not on the level that, say, Daniel Johnston's lyrics sound childish, but at times they sound like they could have been written by a first grader. But somehow, Devon Welsh's powerful baritone voice puts extra meaning behind them all.

Take If You're Lonely, a song about falling in and out of love. The song begins "One summer I fell in love for the first time. It would change my life. I would learn to love someone and not be alone." Written down, it looks like the intro to a "what I did over my break" essay written by a middle schooler with writer's block. But Welsh has a knack for delivering vocal climaxes at just the right time - on "for the first time" he puts the full force of his voice behind the line in a way that really makes it stand out. Other songs dwell on similar topics, with similarly simple lyrics. Most of them deal with love and loneliness (given the album title); on So Blue he hopes that someone doesn't feel so blue after he leaves. On Change he reflects on the contradiction surrounding the fact that he's changing and growing out of love despite not really doing much of anything. A similar theme is explored on Control, where he asks "Will you let me change? I need to but I think you want me the same."

But the thing that really pulls this album together is the music, which is why the news that the group is splitting up hit me so hard. Welsh's baritone voice is amazing, but I felt that the lush production on their previous album didn't compliment it well. The production hear is sparse; the electronic background is so quiet and subdued that at some points you forget it's there. On most of the tracks there is nothing but a few droning synth sounds, though some of the more adventurous ones have some glitchy noises in the background. Which is why when the music gets louder, like the swells on Silver Car Crash, it really shocks you.

And that's the real beauty of this album. There's a real heaviness behind the simplicity, a kind of "more than meets the eye" sensation. The first two singles from the album are darker than many of the other songs, which are not cheerful by any means but still seem to have a sense of hope and confidence behind them. On Silver Car Crash he imagines being in a car crash with his lover and dying laughing together, because even that would be OK if they're together. And on Downtown he sings "There's one thing I'll do if it ever goes wrong. I'll write you into all of my songs." Which is a super sweet thing to say.
[First added to this chart: 10/06/2018]
Year of Release:
2015
Appears in:
Rank Score:
146
Rank in 2015:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
46. (40) Down 6
Like walking along a beach alone, stoned out of your mind, then tripping and lying in the sand as the waves caress you

Neil Young originally wanted to flip sides A and B of this album, and after deciding to release it as it is said he regretted the choice. To which I say: Mr. Young, you're a smarter man than I for having made this album, but it's perfect the way it is. Seriously, Walk On is an amazing opener and Ambulance Blues is an otherworldly closer. Vampires Blues should not be the closer. I guess the lesson here is that sometimes an artist not getting their way (or being talked out of their way) can be a good thing.

Neil Young might be best known for Heart Of Gold, a phenomenal track from an overly sentimental album that unfortunately has become widely considered his best. And the fact that this one wasn't released on CD until 2003 probably accounts for the fact that this one is often overlooked. In the digital age that's not an issue, and I'll gladly take "pissed off, gloomy Neil Young" over "backing strings Neil Young" any day. This isn't quite as gloomy as it's follow-up, Tonight's the Night, but it's way more pissed off which makes it feel energetic despite its grim subject matter.

Walk On is a quick, rocking opener that is actually kind of an optimistic song. The rest of the album, however, returns to Young's folkier sound, and the transition is quick - See The Sky About To Rain sucks any hope out of the room that the opener might have created. Three of the song titles end with "Blues". Revolution Blues is from the perspective of some trailer trash dude who wants to kill a bunch of celebrities. But Ambulance Blues is the best song here; the title comes from the lyrics "an ambulance can only go so fast", which is a pretty heavy thing, but it only gets worse with "it's easy to get buried in the past when you try to make a good thing last." But the part that always hits me the hardest is

"You're all just pissing in the wind
You don't know it but you are
And there's nothing like a friend
Who can tell you you're just pissing in the wind"
[First added to this chart: 10/06/2018]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,255
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
55. (26) Down 29
Like walking down the street of the neighborhood you grew up in after coming back for a parent's funeral

Every time this album pops up in the Album of the Day thread, I feel compelled to jump in and claim it's Arcade Fire's best. I used to be really confident about this. Over the years, my confidence has waned. Funeral was a huge album when it was released, something that stood out from the garage rock revival that bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes were putting out. It was big, but also deeply human and nuanced; contrasting the subtlety of "In the Backseat" with the painful obviousness of Everything Now is like night and day. By comparison, The Suburbs does not feel as vital. It's been rightly argued that it's a pretty standard indie rock album, a safe move musically after the bombast of Funeral and, to a lesser extent, Neon Bible. The album even won Album of the Year at the Grammies, which would be an indictment on its quality if it didn't win almost entirely because the voters who wanted a pop album to win were split on which pop album to vote for. So over time I've come to see this album as a bit more flawed than I initially thought. But, I'm still fairly certain it's their best.

I've often found it difficult to quantify what it is I like about music. I don't think there's one description I could apply to every style of music, as I like things for different reasons. I don't listen to doom metal for the same reasons I listen to country. But for a lot of the music I love, especially the albums that reach this chart, something I look for is music that is incredibly human. Music that puts aside pretension and art to describe honestly, and maybe even plainly, some deep human truths and finds beauty that way. In that respect, I prefer The Suburbs to Funeral because it sets aside the bells and whistles and makes it easier to dig into what the band is getting at. As I type that, I realize it's probably hypocritical considering my above disdain for how unsubtle Everything Now was. But some things aren't meant to be cryptic. Funeral dwelt on loss and death, which can be difficult subjects to describe one's feeling on and perhaps deserve the sweeping strings and grand climaxes. The Suburbs deals with feelings that are more familiar, or at least more commonly experienced. It's a story of growing up and realizing the world isn't always going to be there for you: you're going to feel like you don't fit in, people will leave your life without warning, and times will change without you having time to notice and react. And I think that lends itself better to lyrics like:

"All of my old friends, they don't know me now"
"By the time we met the times had already changed, so I never wrote a letter"
"If I could have it back, all the time that we wasted, I'd only waste it again"

I'm not sure how much the framing device of the suburbs even matters to this album. I'm sure it mirrors the experience of people who lived in large cities and small towns a bit too. But it does help frame the narrator's perspective of looking back at their childhood, recalling their early days with a new perspective they gained from moving on and having time to consider what they'd been through.

The other thing that still puts this above Funeral for me is that it just has so many good songs, and for my money has a bit more variety. That thumping bassline on "Ready To Start" is one of those things that locks me into a song until it finishes. "Half Light II" has some droning synths that make the song feel hazy and almost make me think of "Trans-Europe Express." "Rococo" bring back the strings for at least one song. But the highlight comes near the end in the dance-y "The Sprawl II." This sounded better when it was an unexpected detour than when it can be seen as a precursor of the band's new direction. But despite the decline the band went through after The Suburbs, "The Sprawl II" still sounds as vital as ever. Perhaps the rest of the songs are a bit more plain, but there's not a bad one in the bunch (except for maybe "Month of May" shhhhhh).
[First added to this chart: 08/09/2013]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
18,705
Rank in 2010:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Like walking out of a play early because Statler and Waldorf won't shut up

I'll be honest: I'm getting sick of indie rock. For a while it was all I listened to, and all albums were judged on how "indie rock" they sounded. I think this one was the tipping point, or at least one of the last albums I heard before I started diversifying my listening palate. It also served as a proof that great indie rock albums are often one of a kind - Wolf Parade mostly disappointed with their mediocre follow-ups, but this is a great, one of a kind album. And the more indie rock I heard, the more I realized a lot of it is pretty mediocre. So what makes this one different?

For one thing, I love the fact that 1) there are two lead vocalists on this album, and 2) both of their voices are insanely manic. One of the reasons their follow-ups suffered is because the voices of Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner weren't quite as unrestrained as they are here. The guitars are angular and crazy as well, and the vocals just fit it perfectly.

The songwriting here is great too - often indie rock songs get reeeeeeeally samey after awhile. And there are some pretty standard indie rock tunes here - We Built Another World and This Heart's On Fire wouldn't wow anyone if they were the best songs on the album, but as lesser tracks they rock. The opener is a weird plodding piece, with lyrics about typical indie rock things like not living up to your past ("I was a hero early in the morning, but I ain't no hero in the night"). Modern World starts off pretty normal but devolves into a weird acoustic jam near the end. The centerpiece, however, is the one-two punch of Dear Sons And Daughters Of Holy Ghosts (with the great line "but God doesn't always have the best goddamn plans does he?") and I'll Believe In Anything. After this it's not long until we hit Dinner Bells, a long, mourning piece that feels like it's about to fall apart at any second.

As typical as the ingredients are - guitars, yelping vocals, esoteric lyrics - they come together as something truly unique here.
[First added to this chart: 06/30/2014]
Year of Release:
2005
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,073
Rank in 2005:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Like walking through a shadowy catacomb

I read somewhere that Leonard Cohen was a writer before starting his music career, and listening to his early albums that makes a lot of sense. I like to give my favorite artists compliments that sound like criticisms, so here we go: on this album, it almost seems like Cohen has no idea what he's doing. In a way it almost feels like he decided to make an album without ever hearing one before. Now that's an exaggeration, because it's not like this is The Shagg's Philosophy of the World or Krull or something. But there's something about it that makes it stand out quite a bit from the other albums of its time.

First, you have the lyrics. I mentioned Cohen being a writer because sometimes these lyrics don't feel like song lyrics. Instead, they read as pure poetry. Now, you're probably wondering what the hell the difference is. Well, as poetic as a lot of lyrics are, they're usually at least straightforward enough that you can grasp what the author is talking about just by listening to them. After all, while you're listening the music doesn't pause so you can reflect on the words you just heard. Instead, these lyrics seem like something you should sit down and take your time with, going back to read previous lines to piece together the meaning. It takes a few listens to really understand what these songs are about, and even then they're so abstract that while I can gather what Cohen was feeling as he wrote each song there are always lines I'm not quite sure about.

The other thing that's slightly off about this album is the song structure. While Cohen's debut had the same lyrical style as this one, the songs still felt like folk songs in a way and had, you know, choruses. Most songs on this one forego verses and choruses altogether, with the one main exception being "Diamonds In the Mine" (which is an exception for other reasons as well). Then there's the instrumentation. "Avalanche" is probably my favorite song here, and it's carried by a simple repeated guitar strum that doesn't change much the entire time. It's not avant-garde by any means, but it's still pretty bizarre for what seems to sell itself as your average singer-songwriter album.

So I've talked a lot about why this album is the uncanny valley of folk albums, but why do I like it? One reason is the way the lyrics conjure images of sadness and despair, but in a very vague way. It conveys that kind of general dread that isn't due to any one event but just kind of lingers with you. The music definitely compliments this well, as the bleak guitar of Avalanche is indicative of what you'll find on the rest of these songs. And more specifically, these songs just have some really great moments. Cohen's not a great singer but I love his voice, especially when he belts out the chorus to "Diamonds In the Mine." "Love Calls You By Your Name" has a great almost-chorus with the way each verse ends with "between the .... and the ...." and then leads to the song's title. The backing vocals come in at all the right times, especially at the end of "Sing Another Song Boys," where Cohen sounds even more unhinged than on "Diamonds." But the best memory I have of listening to this album was listening to "Last Year's Man" while driving home from a job I hated around 7 PM in the dead of winter. I was thinking a lot about how much I preferred an old job I left, and "the rain falls down on last year's man" really felt like it was written about me in that moment. I like a lot of super-specific lyrics, but sometimes it's the vague ones that connect the most.
[First added to this chart: 05/29/2020]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,424
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 9. Page 1 of 1
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest climbers
Climber Up 44 from 79th to 35thE•Mo•Tion
by Carly Rae Jepsen
Climber Up 35 from 45th to 10thSongs About Leaving
by Carissa's Wierd
Climber Up 29 from 76th to 47thThe Glow Pt. 2
by The Microphones
Biggest fallers
Faller Down 32 from 57th to 89thDig Me Out
by Sleater-Kinney
Faller Down 29 from 26th to 55thThe Suburbs
by Arcade Fire
Faller Down 29 from 52nd to 81stCrack The Skye
by Mastodon
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Favorite Album Covers babyBlueSedanCustom chart2018
Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s babyBlueSedan2000s decade chart2021
Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s babyBlueSedan2010s decade chart2021
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsbkogzOverall chart2021
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums Mattdup279Overall chart2020
Top 100 Greatest Music Albumsblackflag29Overall chart2019
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s babyBlueSedan1990s decade chart2021
Top 100 Greatest Music Albumsgravityrider999Overall chart2019
BEA Forum Regulars' Top 100 (2015) HigherThanTheSunCustom chart2015
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ledemoncleanerOverall chart2018

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)


Not a member? Registering is quick, easy and FREE!


Why register?


Register now - it only takes a moment!

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
94/100 (from 151 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
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 151 ratings for this chart.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberChart ratingsAvg. chart rating
 
100/100
 
03/25/2025 19:59 DrewHamster  Ratings distribution  31479/100
 
100/100
 
01/15/2025 16:18 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  16097/100
 
100/100
 
06/25/2024 09:53 ssteve  Ratings distribution  20592/100
 
90/100
 
01/16/2023 22:04 Johnnyo  Ratings distribution  2,60780/100
 
90/100
 
05/21/2022 09:11 Timestarter  Ratings distribution  11490/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 1% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 93.7/100, a mean average of 93.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 94.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 7.6.

Please log in or register if you want to be able to leave a rating

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 96 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
90/100
From 01/16/2023 22:05 | #292938
Great chart and the work that has gone into each entry. Wow! Brilliant stuff
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 08/31/2021 21:02 | #273144
good writing and good taste
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 09/29/2020 16:32 | #258857
cool chart man. love the descriptions.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 10/28/2019 21:19 | #244221
Any chart with this much time put into it is so cool to me
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 10/04/2019 19:23 | #243384
These notes are so detailed and helpful for advocating your choices. You must really know how to listen to music and listen to it hard. Great albums, too.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 07/24/2019 00:02 | #240304
Best Chart ever
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 07/23/2019 19:24 | #240298
incredible. you have a different taste in music, but wow these descriptions are prime
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 07/23/2019 12:00 | #240231
Is there a limit of how much inspiration, this chart can give?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 10/18/2018 04:05 | #222709
Holy crap what a chart, have a bunch in common with me and a whole list of new ones to check out, i also loved your descriptions.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 10/18/2018 01:19 | #222704
This is one of the most amazing things I've ever read
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a comment

Your feedback for Top 100 Greatest Music Albums

Anonymous
Let us know what you think of this chart by adding a comment or assigning a rating below!
Log in or register to assign a rating or leave a comment for this chart.