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.
- Chart updated: 05/30/2020 02:15
- (Created: 07/31/2013 04:33).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 98 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 94 out of 100 (from 152 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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Like walking through a concert hall where five bands are playing at once
Everything that could ever be written about this record has already been written.
(For a long time my thoughts on this album were just that one line anti-review, and when I wrote it I thought it was a pretty clever way to highlight how much this album has been talked about and doesn't really need any introduction or additional praise. Four years on, it strikes me as kind of lazy. Partially because I did it mostly because I didn't have much to write about Loveless. But also because there are plenty of other records on this chart that have been talked about more than Loveless and the general musical community is even more sick of hearing about. And yet I've gone and written my thoughts on Revolver, The Velvet Underground & Nico, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. If anything, outside of Internet circles, Loveless hasn't been talked about enough. But four years on I still find myself without much of a way to put what's so great about Loveless into words, so I've decided to stick with the anti-review for now.
After all, how can anyone translate Loveless into words anyway? More so than any other album on this list, Loveless isn't about songs. It isn't about riffs or song structure. Is it even about notes or chords? It's really just about noise and sound. But this isn't a noise album, or even a noisy album. In fact, this is pretty accessible, and I daresay there's a pop album under there somewhere. I expect that a regular alt-rock radio listener wouldn't be too turned off by "When You Sleep," even if they might spurn it for foregoing a regular chorus for that massive riff. "Soon," on the flip side, is pretty laid back, and with a clearer sound wouldn't be too out of place amid the Internet pop landscape of 2020. Yet this is the album that almost bankrupted its label because of all the overdubs and noise (which is one thing about Loveless that is over-talked about). Kevin Shields is nearly deaf, and has to limit the amount of recording he does because of the damage to his ears, I'm sure in part because of guitar style demonstrated here. MBV concerts are notoriously loud, the kind of thing you bring hunting ear protection to in the hope you can still hear after the night is over. But this album is soothing, the rare kind of loud album you could listen to with a headache and not be bothered by. "Only Shallow" opens with that barrage of who knows how many guitars, but it doesn't push you away. It draws you in. One can't put that into words, so why bother trying.
And yet, maybe that's the beauty of Loveless. Maybe it's just one big contradiction. Walls of feedback that are arranged into layers and melodies so pretty that a casual listener might not even realize how many layers there are. This might be a controversial opinion, but I think it's one of those albums that's the be-all and end-all of its genre. I'm not sure there are any other shoegaze albums out there that are even worthwhile given that Loveless exists. And how could there be? It's already a genre that is about detachment, about breaking away from the need for songwriting and relying on the sound and textures. So when you take that, put in this much effort, write a song like "Sometimes," put those orchestral flourishes over a hazy drone on "To Here Knows When," and top it all of with the goddamn "When You Sleep" riff, why bother with any other albums? I do have a few other albums labeled as shoegaze in my iTunes library, but they're mostly not shoegaze. They're alt-rock (Swervedriver), dream pop (Slowdive), noise pop (Jesus and Mary Chain, though it's true there's a large noise pop influence on Loveless as well), or whatever Ride is. And there are a couple other MBV albums, but every other MBV album is either a test run for Loveless or an effort to break away from Loveless while retaining the key elements. I would argue that Loveless isn't just a band making a great album that defines them - it's a band capturing how they SHOULD sound, where all their other albums just sound a bit off.
I feel like all that didn't really say much of anything, which is my point. You can't put sound into words any easier than you can smell a feeling or taste a vision (maybe someone with synesthesia would be able to write about this album...). And you can't explain Loveless without hearing it. So if you want to know why it's so great, just listen to the damn record.)
(Let's see if the review-under-the-guise-of-not-being-able-to-write-a-review gimmick ages better than the anti-review gimmick.) [First added to this chart: 08/04/2013]
Everything that could ever be written about this record has already been written.
(For a long time my thoughts on this album were just that one line anti-review, and when I wrote it I thought it was a pretty clever way to highlight how much this album has been talked about and doesn't really need any introduction or additional praise. Four years on, it strikes me as kind of lazy. Partially because I did it mostly because I didn't have much to write about Loveless. But also because there are plenty of other records on this chart that have been talked about more than Loveless and the general musical community is even more sick of hearing about. And yet I've gone and written my thoughts on Revolver, The Velvet Underground & Nico, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. If anything, outside of Internet circles, Loveless hasn't been talked about enough. But four years on I still find myself without much of a way to put what's so great about Loveless into words, so I've decided to stick with the anti-review for now.
After all, how can anyone translate Loveless into words anyway? More so than any other album on this list, Loveless isn't about songs. It isn't about riffs or song structure. Is it even about notes or chords? It's really just about noise and sound. But this isn't a noise album, or even a noisy album. In fact, this is pretty accessible, and I daresay there's a pop album under there somewhere. I expect that a regular alt-rock radio listener wouldn't be too turned off by "When You Sleep," even if they might spurn it for foregoing a regular chorus for that massive riff. "Soon," on the flip side, is pretty laid back, and with a clearer sound wouldn't be too out of place amid the Internet pop landscape of 2020. Yet this is the album that almost bankrupted its label because of all the overdubs and noise (which is one thing about Loveless that is over-talked about). Kevin Shields is nearly deaf, and has to limit the amount of recording he does because of the damage to his ears, I'm sure in part because of guitar style demonstrated here. MBV concerts are notoriously loud, the kind of thing you bring hunting ear protection to in the hope you can still hear after the night is over. But this album is soothing, the rare kind of loud album you could listen to with a headache and not be bothered by. "Only Shallow" opens with that barrage of who knows how many guitars, but it doesn't push you away. It draws you in. One can't put that into words, so why bother trying.
And yet, maybe that's the beauty of Loveless. Maybe it's just one big contradiction. Walls of feedback that are arranged into layers and melodies so pretty that a casual listener might not even realize how many layers there are. This might be a controversial opinion, but I think it's one of those albums that's the be-all and end-all of its genre. I'm not sure there are any other shoegaze albums out there that are even worthwhile given that Loveless exists. And how could there be? It's already a genre that is about detachment, about breaking away from the need for songwriting and relying on the sound and textures. So when you take that, put in this much effort, write a song like "Sometimes," put those orchestral flourishes over a hazy drone on "To Here Knows When," and top it all of with the goddamn "When You Sleep" riff, why bother with any other albums? I do have a few other albums labeled as shoegaze in my iTunes library, but they're mostly not shoegaze. They're alt-rock (Swervedriver), dream pop (Slowdive), noise pop (Jesus and Mary Chain, though it's true there's a large noise pop influence on Loveless as well), or whatever Ride is. And there are a couple other MBV albums, but every other MBV album is either a test run for Loveless or an effort to break away from Loveless while retaining the key elements. I would argue that Loveless isn't just a band making a great album that defines them - it's a band capturing how they SHOULD sound, where all their other albums just sound a bit off.
I feel like all that didn't really say much of anything, which is my point. You can't put sound into words any easier than you can smell a feeling or taste a vision (maybe someone with synesthesia would be able to write about this album...). And you can't explain Loveless without hearing it. So if you want to know why it's so great, just listen to the damn record.)
(Let's see if the review-under-the-guise-of-not-being-able-to-write-a-review gimmick ages better than the anti-review gimmick.) [First added to this chart: 08/04/2013]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
28,394
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Like walking through a shady back alley, where a well-dressed man who you think is a pimp tries to convince you the pile of blood soaked tissues and needles on the ground is a piece of art
I have no interest in talking about music objectively, as if there's some kind of universal way of looking at different pieces of music that everyone can somehow agree on. Music is completely subjective, which is why I can say things like "The 1975's A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is a better album that Pet Sounds" without losing all of my credibility (just most of it). But let's pretend for a minute that I was hired by a major publication and was told to write a list of the top X hundred albums. I was told I could take my own taste into account a bit but that overall I should write a list that readers would expect; after all, I imagine a lot of the readers of those lists do so as much to confirm their own opinions as they do to find new things to listen to. In this situation, which album would I place at the top of the list? Well, this one of course.
This might be the most important rock album of all time. You know the quote about everyone buying this and starting a band, but the amount of influence this album had on rock is incredible. Does David Bowie create his most experimental work without this album? Does glam rock even happen without it? Does punk happen without it? What about noise rock? These are kind of silly questions; these movements likely would have happened anyway, but I'm sure they would have sounded much different. Punk especially - not only did John Cale work with The Stooges on their debut album, but songs like "I'm Waiting For the Man" are pretty far ahead of a lot of the other garage rock from this era. And like the Beatles before them, I think they took a lot of the avant-garde music that was already around and put it in a package that was a lot easier to digest. "European Son" is a tough listen, but it at least starts as a normal song. "The Black Angel's Death Song," on the other hand, is engaging throughout despite those sharp viola sounds. Of course, this album didn't achieve nearly the success of The Beatles' biggest albums, at least not in popular culture.
But the thing that makes me throw this on my own personal list is its biggest strength: it still sounds fresh today. The amount of music I like from the 50's and 60's is pretty short, and I think it's largely because of the recording quality. Listening to a grainy album from 50 years ago next to an immaculately produced one from the current century is like night and day, and fair or not it's kind of hard to listen to the older stuff once you've heard the newer. But this album? "Sunday Morning" starts with a twinkling sunrise that sounds clear as day. "All Tomorrow's Parties" sounds similarly crisp. And the songwriting! In another blending of the experimental and pop worlds, stuff like "European Son" is thrown next to the aforementioned "Sunday Morning" and other pop tunes like "Femme Fatale" and nothing sounds out of place. "Venus In Furs" sounds decades ahead of its time, and "Heroin," easily the strongest song here, is a transcendent, drugged out odyssey. Listen to the drums on that song - they're so simple but sound great and bring so much to the song. I think there's a lot more to say about this album - how it fit into the culture of the time, the transgression of "Venus in Furs," the nonchalance of "Heroin" - but it's all been written about before. I think what a lot of people miss about this album is that it's not just a relic: it holds up both in sound and writing.
I listened to this back when I first decided to go through a bunch of classic albums, as many new music fans do. A lot of them left me cold on first listen, and I couldn't figure out what was so well loved about them. Many albums I eventually ended up loving - Doolittle, Remain in Light, London Calling, The Queen is Dead, Funeral - all confused me on first listen. This one didn't. From those opening twinkles I was entranced. I couldn't believe this came out when it did. I thought about it for the rest of the day as the chorus of "Run Run Run" was stuck in my head. It would be a while before I learned the broader context and explored the albums it clearly influenced, but the fact that it was so clearly great on first listen, even to me at that time, speaks to how timeless of an album this is. [First added to this chart: 08/04/2013]
I have no interest in talking about music objectively, as if there's some kind of universal way of looking at different pieces of music that everyone can somehow agree on. Music is completely subjective, which is why I can say things like "The 1975's A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is a better album that Pet Sounds" without losing all of my credibility (just most of it). But let's pretend for a minute that I was hired by a major publication and was told to write a list of the top X hundred albums. I was told I could take my own taste into account a bit but that overall I should write a list that readers would expect; after all, I imagine a lot of the readers of those lists do so as much to confirm their own opinions as they do to find new things to listen to. In this situation, which album would I place at the top of the list? Well, this one of course.
This might be the most important rock album of all time. You know the quote about everyone buying this and starting a band, but the amount of influence this album had on rock is incredible. Does David Bowie create his most experimental work without this album? Does glam rock even happen without it? Does punk happen without it? What about noise rock? These are kind of silly questions; these movements likely would have happened anyway, but I'm sure they would have sounded much different. Punk especially - not only did John Cale work with The Stooges on their debut album, but songs like "I'm Waiting For the Man" are pretty far ahead of a lot of the other garage rock from this era. And like the Beatles before them, I think they took a lot of the avant-garde music that was already around and put it in a package that was a lot easier to digest. "European Son" is a tough listen, but it at least starts as a normal song. "The Black Angel's Death Song," on the other hand, is engaging throughout despite those sharp viola sounds. Of course, this album didn't achieve nearly the success of The Beatles' biggest albums, at least not in popular culture.
But the thing that makes me throw this on my own personal list is its biggest strength: it still sounds fresh today. The amount of music I like from the 50's and 60's is pretty short, and I think it's largely because of the recording quality. Listening to a grainy album from 50 years ago next to an immaculately produced one from the current century is like night and day, and fair or not it's kind of hard to listen to the older stuff once you've heard the newer. But this album? "Sunday Morning" starts with a twinkling sunrise that sounds clear as day. "All Tomorrow's Parties" sounds similarly crisp. And the songwriting! In another blending of the experimental and pop worlds, stuff like "European Son" is thrown next to the aforementioned "Sunday Morning" and other pop tunes like "Femme Fatale" and nothing sounds out of place. "Venus In Furs" sounds decades ahead of its time, and "Heroin," easily the strongest song here, is a transcendent, drugged out odyssey. Listen to the drums on that song - they're so simple but sound great and bring so much to the song. I think there's a lot more to say about this album - how it fit into the culture of the time, the transgression of "Venus in Furs," the nonchalance of "Heroin" - but it's all been written about before. I think what a lot of people miss about this album is that it's not just a relic: it holds up both in sound and writing.
I listened to this back when I first decided to go through a bunch of classic albums, as many new music fans do. A lot of them left me cold on first listen, and I couldn't figure out what was so well loved about them. Many albums I eventually ended up loving - Doolittle, Remain in Light, London Calling, The Queen is Dead, Funeral - all confused me on first listen. This one didn't. From those opening twinkles I was entranced. I couldn't believe this came out when it did. I thought about it for the rest of the day as the chorus of "Run Run Run" was stuck in my head. It would be a while before I learned the broader context and explored the albums it clearly influenced, but the fact that it was so clearly great on first listen, even to me at that time, speaks to how timeless of an album this is. [First added to this chart: 08/04/2013]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
39,837
Rank in 1967:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 2. Page 1 of 1
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 4 | 4% | |
| 1970s | 9 | 9% | |
| 1980s | 8 | 8% | |
| 1990s | 23 | 23% | |
| 2000s | 28 | 28% | |
| 2010s | 28 | 28% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Modest Mouse | 3 | 3% | |
| Kanye West | 2 | 2% | |
| Songs: Ohia | 2 | 2% | |
| Sufjan Stevens | 2 | 2% | |
| Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 2% | |
| Failure | 1 | 1% | |
| The Velvet Underground & Nico | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 44 from 79th to 35thE•Mo•Tion by Carly Rae Jepsen |
| Up 35 from 45th to 10thSongs About Leaving by Carissa's Wierd |
| Up 29 from 76th to 47thThe Glow Pt. 2 by The Microphones |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 32 from 57th to 89thDig Me Out by Sleater-Kinney |
| Down 29 from 26th to 55thThe Suburbs by Arcade Fire |
| Down 29 from 52nd to 81stCrack The Skye by Mastodon |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Favorite Album Covers | babyBlueSedan | Custom chart | 2018 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | babyBlueSedan | 2000s decade chart | 2021 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s | babyBlueSedan | 2010s decade chart | 2021 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | bkogz | Overall chart | 2021 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | blackflag29 | Overall chart | 2019 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  Mattdup279 | Overall chart | 2020 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | babyBlueSedan | 1990s decade chart | 2021 | |
| BEA Forum Regulars' Top 100 (2015) |  HigherThanTheSun | Custom chart | 2015 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | gravityrider999 | Overall chart | 2019 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  ledemoncleaner | Overall chart | 2018 | |
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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 152 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/25/2025 19:59 | DrewHamster | 317 | 79/100 |
| ! | 01/15/2025 16:18 | Exist-en-ciel | 147 | 98/100 |
| ! | 06/25/2024 09:53 |  ssteve | 207 | 92/100 |
| ! | 01/16/2023 22:04 | Johnnyo | 2,568 | 80/100 |
| ! | 05/21/2022 09:11 |  Timestarter | 114 | 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 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.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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From Johnnyo 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)
From leniad 08/31/2021 21:02 | #273144
good writing and good taste
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Keatownrodriguez 10/28/2019 21:19 | #244221
Keatownrodriguez 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)
From pctrooper 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)
From eharrell 07/24/2019 00:02 | #240304
Best Chart ever
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From tk421ucopy 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)
From 
DommeDamian 07/23/2019 12:00 | #240231
DommeDamian 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)
From xXhermitXx 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)
From 
jdenny2018 10/18/2018 01:19 | #222704
jdenny2018 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)
From manurock 10/16/2018 20:07 | #222633
+5 for this chart, I am sure it has improved a lot since I visited it. You clearly have a vast knowledge of albums and the chart is very well written. I love your comments for On the Beach, which is also my favourite Neil Young album.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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