Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Repo
- Chart updated: 07/14/2023 11:15
- (Created: 06/17/2014 23:52).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 51 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 95 out of 100 (from 72 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from Jamaica. (Remove this filter)
Ras Michael aka Dadawah has a big heart. He feels, like few others, the suffering of the repressed. He's a true empath. And his mourning and sadness and empathy for all the repressed people of the world lives in his voice and and in his songs. But, these songs are far from sad. They're triumphant. For this is a deeply religious and spiritual album. One that essentially echoes Jesus in that the meek and oppressed will eventually rise above and inherit the Earth. For Nas (his religion’s name for God) is on their side. That with perseverance and faith, the multitude will overcome their oppression. That the walls of hatred and fear and ignorance will tumble before their triumphant and joyful love. For love is the answer. No matter what the question. No matter how you’ve been wronged. And through this love for Nas and for yourself, the sheep can and will turn into the lion. And then and only then will you truly be free.
Grade: A+. This is my favorite reggae album. I’m no Jimmy Dread. I’m no expert. Going to college with a bunch of prep school boys who literally force fed me Bob Marly’s Legend a zillion times (there was seriously no escaping it. It echoed through the freshman dorms like some kind of zombified monster) stifled my reggae growth good and proper back in my late teens. But, I’m now a late bloomer and, with the help of Jimmy, I’m beginning to see the light. I believe it was actually Hayden who turned me onto this particular record though way back when. And she’s a keeper. This is the album I play when I need to rise above.
For this is one of the most spiritually uplifting albums I’ve ever heard. The purity of Dadawah’s faith and vision comes bellowing out of the speakers and literally has the power to lift you up, take you out of your small, self-absorbed world and connect you to something far bigger than yourself - the global human struggle. It enables you to shake off the paralysis of self pity and realize that suffering is not a unique experience. That it is universal. And that most importantly, you can do something about it. You can sing. You can drum. You can believe. In Nas. In yourself. And thereby rise above and walk with the lions. And this powerful album roars itself all the way to number 3. [First added to this chart: 06/08/2017]
Hey there sunshine!
Don't let me down
Hey there sunshine!
Please come around
Hey there sunshine!
My friend! (Hello Sunshine)
As anyone who’s seen The Trolls movie knows, moods are contagious. And no one knew this better than Jimmy Cliff. His early career was one giant happy face emoticon. Bursting with positive vibrations. He was the perfect artist to christian the 70s as the decade of Sunshine Pop (just stole this from Baystate. Thanks, Baystate! Go Pats!). At the time when The Smiley Face icon beamed from a thousand coffee mugs and the parting phrase “Have a Nice Day” greeted you from virtually every bumper sticker on that family truckster station wagon just in front of you. These icons became ubiquitous parts of the 70s culture. Hell, even my cookie jar was one big giant yellow smiley face growing up (typically filled with my Dad’s homemade oatmeal raisin cookies! Yum!). Before the 70s, no one said “Have a Nice Day” as a parting remark. It’s true!. It was just “Goodbye.” Or maybe “See you later”. Have a Nice Day and the Smiley face were inescapable & quintessential pieces of 70s culture. Like the guerrilla art of those Andre the Giant stickers in the late 80s, you just couldn’t escape it.
I'm gonna use what I got
To get what I need
I'm gonna use what I got, use all I got
To get what I need, yeah (Use What I Got)
And Jimmy Cliff was the embodiment of this 70s spirit. That a smile & a healthy dose of moxie could make your life better. Make your dreams come true. As the real life Don Draper ingeniously framed it - “Have a Coke and a smile.” And suddenly all things are possible. This was the ethos of the 70s. 60s Hippies culture made accessible, commodified & mass marketed. Making the world feel better about themselves and their possibilities while collecting a tidy profit on the side. Everybody wins. Everybody smiles. And Jimmy Cliff was the embodiment of this - part happy go lucky shaman, part cunning, street smart rude boy.
I've got a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go
Said it's a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go
But I can't turn back, my heart is fixed
My mind's made up, I'll never stop
My faith will see, see me through (Hard Road To Travel)
For the 1972 film The Harder They Come, you were initially hired to write the films score. How is it you ended with the lead role?
When Perry Henzell [films director] saw me, and I answered him to one question, he asked, Do you think that you can write some music for a movie I am making? I answered him, What do you mean if I think? I can do it.” [Laughs.] So, that answer made him say, This is the man that I want to do my movie.
And that, ladies & gentleman is Jimmy Cliff in a nutshell. Eternal optimism. Despite living in abject poverty and being from the “cliffs” of Jamaica, he totally believed in himself. In his possibilities. And there is immense spiritual power in that. If you ask any star athlete if they’re the best [enter position here]. They all unreservedly boast “YES!”. And they all believe it. Really, really believe it. Most may sound at best a tad delusional and at worst like total cocky assholes, but without that belief , they wouldn't be a professional athlete to begin with. The day they lose that belief is the day they’re no longer kicking field goals through the uprights from 60 yards out (Go Gostkowski!). If you don’t think you can guard Steph Curry… well you can’t. And Jimmy believed. Really, really believed. And basically browbeat record store clerks up and down the streets of Kingston to produce him at the age of fourteen until he at last found someone who believed in him as much as he did.
“He was the one who said to me first, Youve got the best voice that Ive ever heard in Jamaica. And when he said that to me, I said somebody believes like I believe. [Laughs.]”
And that’s the secret to success for anything. Not having any doubt. And finding kindred spirits. Finding people who believe in you. People who can pick you back up when the tides knock you down. People who can put you on a whole new beach & gift you an entirely new horizon. (Thanks, Komo!) A whole new way of seeing yourself and your situation. Because if a hayseed from the cliffs of Jamaica could become a movie star and inducted into the rock n’ roll hall fame, what’s to stop YOU!
2 Timothy 1:7 … For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Grade: A-. I actually own two versions of this album. They’re both entitled Wonderful World, Beautiful People (its title for its American release). But they have completely different track listings. One it turns out is a hodgepodge comp of Jimmy’s work during this period with Leslie Kong released on the Castle Pie label in 1999. And ya know what? I just ordered more. That’s right. I just splurged twenty bucks for yet another CD comp entitled Harder Road To Travel: The Collection (Truth be told I thought I was getting a double LP of all his 60s singles AND this album! Read the fine print, Repo!!! (Or really. Just read!)) for even more of his work with Leslie Kong. And this is on top of already owning the super deluxe double cd collection of The Harder They Come soundtrack. Overkill? Not even close. Because this stuff is maybe the most life affirming, positive thinking music out there.
The album that epitomizes the Have a Nice Day, Smiley Faced mind state that I need to be all about. Songs about prevailing. NO MATTER WHAT. Staying positive. NO MATTER WHAT. So find your Leslie Kong, people. Believe in yourself. No matter what. Because that’s not just half the battle. It is the battle.
And this ray of sunshine pop beams down to to somewhere in the 30s on my Essentials chart. Along with The Harder They Come soundtrack, this is the Jimmy Cliff album that every fan of 70s rock should own. [First added to this chart: 11/20/2017]
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
Decade | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
1930s | 0 | 0% | |
1940s | 1 | 1% | |
1950s | 3 | 3% | |
1960s | 9 | 9% | |
1970s | 29 | 29% | |
1980s | 37 | 37% | |
1990s | 3 | 3% | |
2000s | 9 | 9% | |
2010s | 9 | 9% | |
2020s | 0 | 0% |
Artist | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
Real Estate | 3 | 3% | |
Venom | 2 | 2% | |
Scorpions | 2 | 2% | |
Bert Jansch | 2 | 2% | |
Beach House | 2 | 2% | |
Bob Dylan | 2 | 2% | |
Townes Van Zandt | 2 | 2% | |
Show all |
Country | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
49 | 49% | ||
29 | 29% | ||
5 | 5% | ||
4 | 4% | ||
3 | 3% | ||
2 | 2% | ||
2 | 2% | ||
Show all |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
Biggest climbers |
---|
Up 88 from 94th to 6th Self Portrait by Bob Dylan |
Up 81 from 93rd to 12th Fading Frontier by Deerhunter |
Up 43 from 62nd to 19th Cluster & Eno by Cluster & Eno |
Biggest fallers |
---|
Down 39 from 60th to 99th Rock Until You Drop by Raven (UK) |
Down 4 from 16th to 20th Hank Williams Sings by Hank Williams With His Drifting Cowboys |
Down 4 from 17th to 21st Johnny Burnette And The Rock N' Roll Trio by Johnny Burnette & The Rock 'n Roll Trio |
New entries |
---|
Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 72 ratings for this chart.
Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
10/09/2023 08:40 | Moondance | 455 | 84/100 | |
10/28/2022 03:30 | mianfei | 143 | 61/100 | |
08/29/2022 05:28 | seb7 | 105 | 91/100 | |
06/20/2022 08:31 | Applerill | 976 | 75/100 | |
04/04/2022 13:11 | arthurbittencour | 161 | 90/100 |
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This chart is rated in the top 1% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 95.2/100, a mean average of 95.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 96.5/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 9.2.
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Have I ever properly thanked you for making me check out Mazzy Star, Yo La Tengo, Real Estate early 70s-era Dylan, as well as revisiting Townes Van Zandt? Either way, thank you again.
There are 3 elements to a great chart for me.
1. Some great words to tell us why the album is there.
2. A similar taste to your own - a musical message in a bottle
3. Some new picks for my own wish list.
This chart is bristling with new recommendations for my playlist. Whole genres I’ve never explored.
2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
One really interesting and diverse list, quite unlike anything I have ever seen here or anywhere else! Many very unusual choices and genres make this a great list. The chart has virtually nothing in common with my own chart or other lists by major magazines, Joe S. Harrington, David Keenan or Piero Scaruffi.
The notes are better than anything I have seen outside of Harrington or Keenan, too.
A minor quibble of mine is the way in which albums of the same genre are clustered together. (When I see that I always wonder if the compiler is not being careful enough to be sure they are being ranked as accurately as thought possible.) even with this reservation, it is an exceptionally interesting and well-written list.
Still wanna the greatest charts ever made on both this site and others like RYM. I think you've inspired me to do the same one day by making a chart of lesser known records, and outta those picks, create an alternate universe so flamboyant, colorful, and exciting based on descriptions and stuff.
I think something in the beautiful Donovan description summed it up "these songs doesn't know that radio exists", because some of the favorites on this chart raises this question; what would musicians/artists do if radio never existed". The answer lies in that they probably would make something so flamboyantly authentic as a lotta these wondrous records, and we could only listen to music by hand and choice etc.
God bless!
What I like about this chart:
1. we have ZERO albums in common:
2. we have only 4 artists in common, and that may very well become 1 artist in common when I do a review of my chart over the next month;
3. the 1 artist we have in common is Dylan - although our album preferences differ significantly (I am sure that doesn't come as any surprise - you can check out my '64 Dylan albums rated' chart if you have time :));
4. this chart oozes someone who actually breathes, eats, smells, tastes, touches, feels music more than hears it;
5. knowing the effort needed to make even short comments on album choices, the EFFORT in this chart is EXTRAordinary;
6. rather than a regurgitation of the BEA top 100, this chart has only 6 albums rated in the top 1000! and the highest ranking album is at #197 on the overall chart;
7. this chart actually made me go on a wild musical album/artist discovery hunt - I didn't actually find anything that I 'fell in love with' but sometimes the journey is more valuable than the end point ~ at least it gave me a few hours of hope; that maybe out there, somewhere, there is an artist/album undiscovered in my musical universe who will excite me in ways that I cannot explain;
8. ...and finally, the 2 Australian albums - excellent choices!
super frikin interesting. love this chart!!!
naang naang!! <3 hope ur doing well friend
man this is great. I can't even say I agree with A SINGLE ONE of your picks but damn this is very well put together chart. Just the passion you seem to have for music is insane and I love it!!!
What a unique list :)
Interesting choices, the number 1 is very unique and the rest is metal at the most. I know much of them and i like them some kind of diversive chart. Nice to see such things here.
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Best Artists of the 1970s | |
---|---|
1. Pink Floyd | |
2. David Bowie | |
3. Led Zeppelin | |
4. Neil Young | |
5. The Rolling Stones | |
6. The Clash | |
7. Fleetwood Mac | |
8. Black Sabbath | |
9. The Who | |
10. Genesis | |
11. Stevie Wonder | |
12. Bob Dylan | |
13. Paul McCartney | |
14. Yes | |
15. Bruce Springsteen | |
16. Joni Mitchell | |
17. Bob Marley | |
18. Nick Drake | |
19. Joy Division | |
20. Queen |