Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by Dingerbell
My favourite songs:
1. Gold Soundz by Pavement
2. Citizen Erased by Muse
3. Svefn-g-englar by Sigur Ros
4. Vapour Trail by Ride
5. Ceremony by New Order
6. Move on Up by Curtis Mayfield
7. They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
8. Souvlaki Space Station by Slowdive
9. Carry the Zero by Built to Spill
10. Wasted Days by Cloud Nothings
11. Helicopter by Bloc Party
12. Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches
13. Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear
14. Shook Ones Part II by Mobb Deep
15. Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
16. Thirteen by Big Star
17. Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized
18. Chicago by Sufjan Stevens
19. Never Catch Me by Flying Lotus
20. Angeles by Elliott Smith
21. Us by Regina Spektor
22. Diamond Day by Vashti Bunyan
23. Tugboat by Galaxie 500
24. Long Season by Fishmans
25. Fancy Clown by Madvillain
- Chart updated: 07/11/2020 20:15
- (Created: 09/27/2013 19:57).
- Chart size: 50 albums.
There are 62 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 50 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 91 out of 100 (from 75 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
View the complete list of 53,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.
This was the album that got me into music. It was catalyst for my appreciation of music as an art, and the start of my active search for new music. It’s been my favourite album since 2010 and is as perfect as an album will get, for me. The first seven songs, especially, is the best stretch of songs I’ve ever heard. Even after hearing these songs hundreds of times, I’ve still not got tired of them in the slightest. As much as I’ve listened to new albums- with other old favourites dropping out of favour- this always seems to remain as high as it does.
A complete masterpiece in almost every respect.
The thing is, though, most people will never realise the brilliance of this album. People will miss the outstanding beauty and intricacy of some of the finer details of the album, such the guitar in the verses of Dark Shines or the ending of Screenager. Even my least favourite song of the album, Feeling Good, has wonderful piano flourishes throughout the song that are very easy to miss. It’s easy to just think of this album as over the top (which is rubbish, really, seeing the popularity of the Dark Side of the Moon or anything by Queen) and so criticise. Just try listening under the obvious layers of the lead instruments, and the album is seen in a completely different light.
Best Moments:
Chorus of New Born (especially the vocals).
Solo of New Born.
Last chorus of Bliss.
Piano intro of Space Dementia.
Outro of Space Dementia- starting from about 4:20.
The bass in the verse of Hyper Music.
Outro of Hyper Music.
Citizen Erased. Absolute perfection.
Outro of Micro Cuts.
Solo of Dark Shines.
The (sort of) solo near the end of Screenager.
Megalomania. Such an appropriate closing song for the album. Dark yet beautiful. [First added to this chart: 09/27/2013]
Firstly, I would like to thank Le_Samurai, cartoken and pearljammer13 for, unconsciously, introducing me to this album through the “What album are you listening to right now” topic.
Onto the music. The lyrics are perhaps the greatest ever written. They portray a deeply sad and honest story of life and broken dreams, and are incredibly moving. Even without the lyrics, the instrumentation is so great it would definitely be a contender for being one of the greatest albums ever, but the lyrics push it to, for me, my second favourite of all time. The thing is, the instrumentation is so very ironic. In one song, Happy, it goes from the down-tempo and depressing opening to the complete opposite for the glorious outro of the song.
So, there is obviously confusion between the vocals and instruments. But, this confusion is what completely makes this album so great for me, and is what completely sets it apart. The album is completely unique. I’ve never heard, and probably won’t ever hear, anything like this, and it’s unlikely I’ll ever hear as emotionally intense.
Therefore, the album produces a huge variation of emotions for me. If I’m not paying too much attention to the lyrics, the album fills me with joy, yet, if I want to pay closer attention, the album is almost unbearably moving. It is due to this huge contrast that I have put it at the top end of my chart.
Best Moments:
Fade in from The House that Guilt Built to Happy.
Outro of Happy.
Both piano and guitar solos, and the outro in This Boy is Exhausted.
Intro of Hopeless.
The last minute of Faster Gun.
The vocals in Thirteen Grand, especially the harmonies around 2:20.
Boys, You Won’t, especially from 1:00 to 1:50. The guitars are unbelievable.
Outro of Ex-Girl Collection.
The transition from Per Second Second to Everyone Choose Sides.
The outro on 13 Months in 6 Minutes. [First added to this chart: 09/27/2013]
The one thing that strikes me about this album is the quality of the song-writing, which is ridiculously good. The combination between surf rock and college rock just creates the perfect pop songs. The vocals as well, they just are so powerful. Kim Deal and Black Francis just combine beautifully on every song. They have such contrasting voices, but they fit together so perfectly. The lyrics as well are wonderful. Just filled to the brim with charisma and humour. Even the darker songs, in terms of instrumentation, still have amazing lyrics. Not quite the shocking contrast of the Meadowlands, but not too far away. It’s this reason that makes it special compared to other albums that have fantastic music, such as Nevermind, which don’t feel as relaxed, and so feel less charismatic, and so have much less of an emotional impact on me. The album is just so chilled. It must be the surf rock influences.
Basically, the music is just completely brilliant.
In subjective terms, the way this album makes me feel is another factor that makes it special. When I listen, it makes me feel really positive about life, it’s uplifting and it never fails to make me happy. It’s also an album that I can listen to in any mood, and I always find myself coming back to it. It is probably my most frequently played album over the past few months.
Best Moments:
The layering guitars in intro of Debaser.
Various drum fills in I Bleed.
Solo guitars in the first and second verses of Here Comes Your Man.
Pretty much all of Monkey Gone to Heaven.
Guitar intro in Mr. Grieves.
Guitar solo in No. 13 Baby.
Vocals in Hey.
Chorus of Gouge Away. [First added to this chart: 09/27/2013]
Completely unique in its genre, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is unlike any album; never has jazz been so rich, full and powerful. This comes mainly from its unusual use of overdubbing, allowing Mingus to perfect his vision and create a jazz orchestra full of different sounds that have no right to work in harmony so well. But it’s the way in which these sounds are implemented that is so impressive, with the use of huge shifts in dynamics to really highlight the incredible musicianship involved in this album- whether it be the quiet dynamics for Mingus to show-off his bass playing or the loud dynamics to overwhelm your senses with the wind instruments (and lets not forget the huge drumming performance from long-time Mingus accompanier Dannie Richmond). It’s through the extensive use of these dynamics which really sets this album apart from its peers, due to the amount of pure excitement it generates.
The album not only uses dynamics to increase the excitement levels, but the ingenious tempo changes throughout the album gives the listener an out of control feeling, like the music should collapse at any second and no one in the ensemble has any idea where the music’s actually going. It is seemingly only through the tight control of Mingus and his fantastic composing ability that it all stays together. Never knowing where the music will head next, the listener is always kept on the edge of their seat, questioning how music this glorious was even created and how it hasn’t fallen apart yet. But somehow it stays together, and the result is an album which almost transcends music. Completely genius.
Best Moments:
The crescendo halfway through Solo Dancer.
The insanity of the last minute of Solo Dancer.
The speeding up of the tempo in Duet Solo Dancers.
The massive drums after the guitar interlude in Group Dancers.
Mingus’ crazy bass work at the end of Group Dancers.
The guitar interludes in Trio and Group Dancers, but the whole song is genius, with just too many great parts to choose from. [First added to this chart: 01/30/2014]
The song structures are incredible as: they’re either sprawling epics with one idea (such as Randy Describes Eternity) or a combination of several ideas in one song (such as Out of Site). It’s weird, as it’s clearly an indie rock album, but features strong references to prog and jazz song structures. Another reason for the comparison is the songs having such prolonged solos. For example, I Would Hurt a Fly features one lead guitar that solos for the whole song, as well as a cello, that similarly solos throughout the song. Then there’s the awesome coda, which again features incredible soloing from the lead guitar. And as the rhythm section keeps in a indie rock style, it allows not only for the long solos to sound so unbelievably natural, but also for the fantastic combination between indie rock sounding songs with jazz song structures and soloing.
Another thing I love about this album is its quirky ideas and innovations that I have not heard being done before. Things like the quiet intro in Made-up Dreams and the fade-out-fade-in outro of Stop the Show are incredible unique, and work fantastically well.
And, I can safely say, this is one of the only albums that I like the fade-outs from; it beautifully adds to the feeling of the songs sprawling on forever.
Best Moments (I’ll only do one per song before this gets out of hand):
The intro of Randy Described Eternity. Coolest intro ever.
The outro of I Would Hurt a Fly. Coolest outro ever.
Outro to Stop the Show, starting from the short solo at 5:20 to the incredible fade-out-fade-in at the very end.
The last 20 seconds of Made-up Dreams.
The guitar solo (so pretty much the whole song!) in Velvet Waltz.
Out of Site is so incredible, but my personal favourite moment is the solo after the first chorus.
4:20 to the end in Kicked It In The Sun.
The repeated moment that first appears during 0:45 to 1:10 in Untrustable/Part 2. [First added to this chart: 10/01/2013]
One word to describe this album is stunning. It’s very rare to find an album that is almost universally described as a genre’s masterpiece. And this is shows how good Loveless is. Even though I’ve heard many, many other shoegaze albums, this is still the best I’ve heard. I honestly believe it will never be topped by another album of its type. From the first guitar in Only Shallow to the very end of Soon your ears are drowned (there’s no better verb to describe it) in thick, beautiful noise. However, although the noise is unrelenting, never has an album been so melodic.
And the song structures are so lazy and free- whole songs can be one idea repeated over and over again. Usually I would criticise such repetition, but the album passes by so smoothly that your mind can miss whole songs relatively easily. However, the codas do make up for the lack of imagination. They are really fantastic additions to all the songs they’re in, and wonderfully sustain the noise between songs. And then you have the contrasts in listening experiences; if you have the album on loud it can be one of the most powerful listening experiences, yet if it’s on in the background it’s beautifully soothing and relaxing.
Loveless certainly deserves all the praise it gets, and more.
Best Moments:
The very start of Only Shallow (seriously the finest start to an album ever, it sets the album’s tone so beautifully).
The bass in Loomer.
Coda in To Here Knows When.
Intro of When You Sleep.
The abrupt ending of Come in Alone.
Sometimes. Arguably the prettiest shoegaze song ever written.
Blown a Wish. Sometimes’ competition.
The outro in Soon. [First added to this chart: 09/27/2013]
Welcome to the lush and dense world that is Since I Left You. Simply put, this album is unbelievably creative, playful and light-hearted, and this is completely down to the way in which this album is put together. Fundamentally a dance album in style, this is unlike any album you’ve ever heard, let alone just dance music. The album, composed entirely from a very large selection of diverse samples, is always all over the place, yet meticulously held together by the use of very controlled and repetitive beats, which completely contradict the insanity of the melodies but are vital to maintain any kind of structure in the album. But the beats aren’t the thing which make the album so great: it’s the layering and layering of the samples which creates a beautiful and rich atmosphere, often reminiscent of Phil Spector’s production. You can’t help but have respect towards the amount of work the Avalanches must have put in to collect and compile the ridiculously large (reportedly around 3,500) amount of samples to make this album.
Another great thing about this album is the pacing; it is absolutely perfect. There’s no time for rest, it’s just relentless good times and outstanding flow. And good times is really what this album is all about; it’s pure and unadulterated fun. Completely insane, but fun.
Best Moments:
The whole of Since I Left You.
The first minute in Two Hearts In 3/4 Time.
The drums in the last third of Flight Tonight.
The build-up at the start of Close to You.
2:40 to the end of A Different Feeling.
The whole of Frontier Psychiatrist. Absolute genius.
The crazy second half of Live at Dominoes.
The relaxing ending to the album of Extra Kings. [First added to this chart: 09/27/2013]
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums composition
Decade | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
1930s | 0 | 0% | |
1940s | 0 | 0% | |
1950s | 1 | 2% | |
1960s | 6 | 12% | |
1970s | 6 | 12% | |
1980s | 5 | 10% | |
1990s | 16 | 32% | |
2000s | 12 | 24% | |
2010s | 4 | 8% | |
2020s | 0 | 0% |
Artist | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
The Avalanches | 1 | 2% | |
The Velvet Underground & Nico | 1 | 2% | |
DJ Shadow | 1 | 2% | |
Belle And Sebastian | 1 | 2% | |
Electric Wizard | 1 | 2% | |
Flying Lotus | 1 | 2% | |
Fela Kuti & Africa 70 | 1 | 2% | |
Show all |
Country | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
27 | 54% | ||
13 | 26% | ||
3 | 6% | ||
1 | 2% | ||
1 | 2% | ||
1 | 2% | ||
1 | 2% | ||
Show all |
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
Biggest climbers |
---|
Up 2 from 50th to 48th Reign In Blood by Slayer |
Up 2 from 49th to 47th Tago Mago by Can |
Up 2 from 48th to 46th Turn On The Bright Lights by Interpol |
New entries |
---|
Relationship Of Command by At The Drive-In |
Geogaddi by Boards Of Canada |
Leavers |
---|
Écailles De Lune by Alcest |
The Modern Lovers by The Modern Lovers |
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
- Top 40 Greatest Music Albums by Matteo92 (2014)
- Top 50 Music Albums of the 1990s by Dingerbell (2017)
- Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by Jdogbemple (2010)
- Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by simlavoie (2021)
- Top 48 Greatest Music Albums by bluefrankie55 (2020)
- Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by hachedoso (2020)
- Top 40 Greatest Music Albums by remco27 (2013)
- Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by pecan3141 (2016)
- Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by eharrell (2023)
- Top 50 Greatest Music Albums by aparanoydandroyd (2017)
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)
Not a member? Registering is quick, easy and FREE!
Why register?
- Join a passionate community of over 50,000 music fans.
- Create & share your own charts.
- Have your say in the overall rankings.
- Post comments in the forums and vote on polls.
- Comment on or rate any album, artist, track or chart.
- Discover new music & improve your music collection.
- Customise the overall chart using a variety of different filters & metrics.
- Create a wishlist of albums.
- Help maintain the BEA database.
- Earn member points and gain access to increasing levels of functionality!
- ... And lots more!
Register now - it only takes a moment!
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums ratings
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 75 ratings for this chart.
Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
12/21/2022 21:03 | Larcx13 | 1,090 | 86/100 | |
07/12/2020 01:10 | RioBravo | 203 | 84/100 | |
06/18/2020 21:30 | Rhyner | 1,382 | 99/100 | |
06/18/2020 13:04 | EyeKanFly | 207 | 88/100 | |
06/18/2020 11:17 | StefanR10 | 83 | 88/100 |
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 2% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 90.6/100, a mean average of 91.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 91.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 8.4.
Please log in or register if you want to be able to leave a rating
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums favourites
Showing all 15 members who have added this chart as a favourite
Top 50 Greatest Music Albums comments
Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 62 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Came here because I didn't like some of your album ratings lol.
Nice chart. Good work put in too. I'm sorry you have an easier time disliking albums I tend to find great, but glad we still have a few in Common... Good job on the 1 album per artist too.
Really awesome chart. So much thought put into all your comments, and I love the "top moments" idea rather than top tracks (which doesn't make sense for some albums with only 1-3 tracks). Definite favorite
I find it good there a albums i have and most of them i knew. Really good i give you a high rating for such classic music pieces.
Really nice chart!
Unique chart, thanks for the surprise of The Avalanches
I've gotta say... this is one of my favorite charts. Even with Muse at #1. The in depth reviews are great. And it's funny, I had the exact same idea for the best moments thing; I got so tired of seeing the "top three tracks:..." thins everywhere
I was getting nervous till I saw Doolittle at 3. Solid and interesting chart.
Much better than I expected for a chart with Muse at #1
Mhm, great top 10 :D
Really good chart, not only some of my favorites but also a reminder of some albums I've been meaning to check out. I really like the idea of "favorite moments" as well, and I especially agree with things like Sometimes from Loveless and the crescendo in Epitaph.
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a comment
Your feedback for Top 50 Greatest Music Albums
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.