Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
Arthurknight 
This chart has evolved a lot over the decade its existed. I think in the past I used to try a lot harder at curating what was more a "recommendations" list, where I'd show off my esoteric finds and scatter in my favourite underrated greats . Other times I told myself the function of a good list was to be in contention with the Overall chart on this site; to be anti conventional music journalism and resist milquetoast taste. Nowadays I'm less ideological about it. To me, this chart is my music-hobbyist refuge where I delight in organising my own personal world of sounds. In short, it may well be the 100 greatest albums of all time (I certainly think so), but that's secondary to it being an outlet for creative expression. I've curated a display that says more about me than the music, to be glanced over by the few fellow BEA users who peruse it and friends at a bar who don't know what they're getting into when they ask me what I listen to.
~~ One Album per Artist. ~~
Notes:
Should you consider it a great injustice that there is very little emphasis on more recent music here, feel free to check out my 21st century decade charts. I'm also very active in making end of year charts which is really where all my heart and soul is poured into with BEA these days.
No Jazz, Hip-Hop, or Electronic albums feature in this chart simply because if they did 100 albums would barely suffice. I find it particularly difficult to compare these genres with other forms of popular music broadly or with each-other (I've similarly exempted classical recordings I especially enjoy for the same reason, but am too lazy to make a classical chart, for now...). In the past I have included these genres, but I've come to dislike it because the limits of 100 albums begins to feel too claustrophobic (Consequently, it'd be better to adjust your thinking of this chart as rather the Top 100 Greatest Rock and Pop Albums). Instead, I have made each their own respective custom chart, which you can find here:
Greatest 100 Jazz Albums: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=32925
Greatest 100 Hip-Hop Albums: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=32704
Greatest 100 Electronic/IDM Albums: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=42751
- Chart updated: 01/24/2025 01:15
- (Created: 07/26/2014 08:45).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 69 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 93 out of 100 (from 125 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
View the complete list of 55,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.
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"A choke of grief
Heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry."
“At his own sorrow and the emptiness of his life. Because he can’t even cry for the suffering in the world, for his own suffering. And then, hope.” - From Brian Wilson's annotations to Surf's Up.
I've kept myself from including this album since its not a 'studio release' or even an 'album' in the strictest sense. It's kind of like Sappho's 'You burn me,' It's art, but it's fragments of art picked up and put together. That having been said, this is the closest thing to Smile that we're ever going to get and even this 4 decade later salvage job is the greatest thing in popular music.
This album has since taken on a lot of significance for me over the years. Smile Sessions, the pinnacle of a small collection of albums that are just filled with joy, genuinely helped me move on many years ago from depression. It was a significant shift for me to listen to euphoric sounds and really enjoy them. Why I connected with this album in particular is because of how Wilson situates hope in songs like Surf's Up, plays with humour in music almost as if it were a sound, and how throughout there are these ebbs and flows between psychedelic exuberance and true sorrow, yet resolving with a reinforcement that this inevitable dialectic is beautiful. It is an album that to me now signifies getting better.
_ [First added to this chart: 01/13/2017]
Heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry."
“At his own sorrow and the emptiness of his life. Because he can’t even cry for the suffering in the world, for his own suffering. And then, hope.” - From Brian Wilson's annotations to Surf's Up.
I've kept myself from including this album since its not a 'studio release' or even an 'album' in the strictest sense. It's kind of like Sappho's 'You burn me,' It's art, but it's fragments of art picked up and put together. That having been said, this is the closest thing to Smile that we're ever going to get and even this 4 decade later salvage job is the greatest thing in popular music.
This album has since taken on a lot of significance for me over the years. Smile Sessions, the pinnacle of a small collection of albums that are just filled with joy, genuinely helped me move on many years ago from depression. It was a significant shift for me to listen to euphoric sounds and really enjoy them. Why I connected with this album in particular is because of how Wilson situates hope in songs like Surf's Up, plays with humour in music almost as if it were a sound, and how throughout there are these ebbs and flows between psychedelic exuberance and true sorrow, yet resolving with a reinforcement that this inevitable dialectic is beautiful. It is an album that to me now signifies getting better.
_ [First added to this chart: 01/13/2017]
Year of Release:
2011
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,073
Rank in 2011:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
76
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"Welled up within me
A hunger uncurbed by nature's calling."
Following the godly moment sometime around 1986 when they must have realized they were absolute musical garbage, Talk Talk changed tact entirely for their next albums 'The Colour of Spring', 'Spirit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock', each in their own right astounding albums. However, with each successive release Talk Talk moved further in an experimental and adventurous direction. Laughing Stock, being the finale of their musical exploration, demonstrates Talk Talk's ability to construct vivid atmospheres and conjure raw emotions. If this album proves anything it is that silence can resonate.
This is one of the albums that moves me so much on a personal level, because I find myself listening to this album most in times of loneliness. It now harkens back to when I was in a dark place and found the tranquil beauty of Laughing Stock simultaneously understanding of my state of mind, and uplifting of it. I recall listening to Laughing Stock as I walked through the streets of my hometown Chester in the rain. The streets were empty, the park and the river bridge too, but the music made me so happy to look at the place I knew with fondness, even allowing me to see the poetic in a tossed empty pack of cigarettes – trying to – collect rain, as if it was looking for a purpose.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/28/2014]
A hunger uncurbed by nature's calling."
Following the godly moment sometime around 1986 when they must have realized they were absolute musical garbage, Talk Talk changed tact entirely for their next albums 'The Colour of Spring', 'Spirit of Eden' and 'Laughing Stock', each in their own right astounding albums. However, with each successive release Talk Talk moved further in an experimental and adventurous direction. Laughing Stock, being the finale of their musical exploration, demonstrates Talk Talk's ability to construct vivid atmospheres and conjure raw emotions. If this album proves anything it is that silence can resonate.
This is one of the albums that moves me so much on a personal level, because I find myself listening to this album most in times of loneliness. It now harkens back to when I was in a dark place and found the tranquil beauty of Laughing Stock simultaneously understanding of my state of mind, and uplifting of it. I recall listening to Laughing Stock as I walked through the streets of my hometown Chester in the rain. The streets were empty, the park and the river bridge too, but the music made me so happy to look at the place I knew with fondness, even allowing me to see the poetic in a tossed empty pack of cigarettes – trying to – collect rain, as if it was looking for a purpose.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/28/2014]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,201
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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“Under the cool, under the cool and under having a ball
What you gonna say to the real me, to the real me?”
It would be hard to pick a favourite Bowie album, if not for Low. I listened to this album a lot during a weird school language trip to Germany, alongside many other albums I'd either associated with the country or were in fact german. I was with a sort of ramshackle bunch that I didn't feel comfortably a part of, and I mostly spent the trip alone. If I was with others I was constantly worried about being peripheral, worrying about what the others thought of me or spoke about me in my absence. So I found solace in being able to wander down cobbled roads alone with an earphone in, it was something I could sort of focus on. I listened to Low above all because the trip was speckled with good times and bad times; this album embodied the heights of the trip, and – to be blatantly punny – the lows. I remember listening to Low as I - having given the group the slip and wandered out past the inner city wall - walked alone in wet post-downpour Nuremberg park. Afterwards I switched over to Heroes and ran blissfully back through the city centre like a complete idiot. Everyone stared but for a moment I couldn't care less.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
What you gonna say to the real me, to the real me?”
It would be hard to pick a favourite Bowie album, if not for Low. I listened to this album a lot during a weird school language trip to Germany, alongside many other albums I'd either associated with the country or were in fact german. I was with a sort of ramshackle bunch that I didn't feel comfortably a part of, and I mostly spent the trip alone. If I was with others I was constantly worried about being peripheral, worrying about what the others thought of me or spoke about me in my absence. So I found solace in being able to wander down cobbled roads alone with an earphone in, it was something I could sort of focus on. I listened to Low above all because the trip was speckled with good times and bad times; this album embodied the heights of the trip, and – to be blatantly punny – the lows. I remember listening to Low as I - having given the group the slip and wandered out past the inner city wall - walked alone in wet post-downpour Nuremberg park. Afterwards I switched over to Heroes and ran blissfully back through the city centre like a complete idiot. Everyone stared but for a moment I couldn't care less.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
18,445
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Rather than spend much time delving into any internal debate about which album is better - it's arbitrary in the end, they sound and feel so differently - It might be a better opportunity to mention how this reveals the limitations of the "1 Album per Artist" chart. One could very easily just say "Well to you they're all 10s so why not just include them all?" That's fine and all - not to be too hypercritical as I can't stand charts with half a dozen albums from one artist - but I think it's been quite enriching to compare Cave's (or anyone's for that matter) discography with a fine tooth comb and with stakes set. The challenge of picking a favourite is one that invites me to really intently listen to his music.
Whether Tender Prey remains here for long is a question for tomorrow, but this profound difficulty picking a favourite makes me all the more sure of my love for Nick Cave, and how he is most definitely my musical icon. I watch Wings of Desire regularly to try and vicariously experience being present in the mythic underground-Berlin wonder that 80s Bad Seeds inhabited. Cave's albums, and the early ones in particular, take me places, all dark, all sinister, and I love it - I want it.
_ [First added to this chart: 02/14/2015]
Whether Tender Prey remains here for long is a question for tomorrow, but this profound difficulty picking a favourite makes me all the more sure of my love for Nick Cave, and how he is most definitely my musical icon. I watch Wings of Desire regularly to try and vicariously experience being present in the mythic underground-Berlin wonder that 80s Bad Seeds inhabited. Cave's albums, and the early ones in particular, take me places, all dark, all sinister, and I love it - I want it.
_ [First added to this chart: 02/14/2015]
Year of Release:
1986
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,218
Rank in 1986:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"Trumpets, violins, I hear them in the distance
And my skin emits a ray, but I think it's sad, it's much too bad
That our friends can't be with us today."
Such a moving poetic voice. I had the privilege of seeing Patti perform horses in Melbourne in what was a sort of near out-of-body transcendental concert. I now listen to the 2005 live recording of horses in repeatedly more desperate attempts of re-living that experience. But, just as Patti ponders on our lives and our loved ones, such moments are too singular and ephemeral to clutch back at and actually grab. Still, I keep trying.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
And my skin emits a ray, but I think it's sad, it's much too bad
That our friends can't be with us today."
Such a moving poetic voice. I had the privilege of seeing Patti perform horses in Melbourne in what was a sort of near out-of-body transcendental concert. I now listen to the 2005 live recording of horses in repeatedly more desperate attempts of re-living that experience. But, just as Patti ponders on our lives and our loved ones, such moments are too singular and ephemeral to clutch back at and actually grab. Still, I keep trying.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,309
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"Acordei de um sonho estranho
Um gosto de vidro e corte."
"I woke up from a strange dream
With a taste of glass and cut."
The indisputable pinnacle of MPB, Clube Da Esquina is the conflagration of on one hand (literally), two relatively independent artists, Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, and – perhaps more meaningfully – the various genretic developments taking place in Brazil. What I mean is this album is very much a confluence of the Bossa Nova and Samba influences of Nascimento, and the rock, psychedelic, and MPB influences of Borges (I want to say funk too but it feels wrong). At the time of release, neither artist was necessarily that known, although Nascimento was at least established. Clube Da Esquina was the eponymous product of the group the two formed after Nascimento moved to Belo Horizonte. Off the success of this album, a sequel would later be made in 1978: Clube da Esquina 2. This album is a g o n i s i n g l y difficult to obtain, but for any diehards, you might want to have a go at it. Alternatively the Lô Borges self-titled is also incredible, as is fellow collaborator of the pair Chico Buarque's Construção.
It's hard to really say much about how I *feel* about this album, it's just something I really enjoy putting on and listening to on relaxing afternoons. Clube Da Esquina is an instantly transportive listen, and Nascimento's voice is angelic. Not to mention, as someone who grew up being taught to play many a bossa nova standard on guitar, hearing the form blasted open and reimagined is a freeing experience every time.
_ [First added to this chart: 04/27/2015]
Um gosto de vidro e corte."
"I woke up from a strange dream
With a taste of glass and cut."
The indisputable pinnacle of MPB, Clube Da Esquina is the conflagration of on one hand (literally), two relatively independent artists, Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, and – perhaps more meaningfully – the various genretic developments taking place in Brazil. What I mean is this album is very much a confluence of the Bossa Nova and Samba influences of Nascimento, and the rock, psychedelic, and MPB influences of Borges (I want to say funk too but it feels wrong). At the time of release, neither artist was necessarily that known, although Nascimento was at least established. Clube Da Esquina was the eponymous product of the group the two formed after Nascimento moved to Belo Horizonte. Off the success of this album, a sequel would later be made in 1978: Clube da Esquina 2. This album is a g o n i s i n g l y difficult to obtain, but for any diehards, you might want to have a go at it. Alternatively the Lô Borges self-titled is also incredible, as is fellow collaborator of the pair Chico Buarque's Construção.
It's hard to really say much about how I *feel* about this album, it's just something I really enjoy putting on and listening to on relaxing afternoons. Clube Da Esquina is an instantly transportive listen, and Nascimento's voice is angelic. Not to mention, as someone who grew up being taught to play many a bossa nova standard on guitar, hearing the form blasted open and reimagined is a freeing experience every time.
_ [First added to this chart: 04/27/2015]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,026
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"Searching for my black dope
Hallelalalaluwah."
Effectively, one need only listen to 'Aumgn' to understand why this album is so indisputably brilliant. I mean think about it, over half of this album was recorded without the band's knowing. The album is just a phenomenal jam session. That I find amazing.
I recently managed to get a copy of this album on a hazy blue vinyl from my housemate who was clearing their small but very good collection. It's become the prized gem of my collection – I sit back and listen to this album on hot Australian nights and can sort of feel it reverberate through the humid air, comfortable.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Hallelalalaluwah."
Effectively, one need only listen to 'Aumgn' to understand why this album is so indisputably brilliant. I mean think about it, over half of this album was recorded without the band's knowing. The album is just a phenomenal jam session. That I find amazing.
I recently managed to get a copy of this album on a hazy blue vinyl from my housemate who was clearing their small but very good collection. It's become the prized gem of my collection – I sit back and listen to this album on hot Australian nights and can sort of feel it reverberate through the humid air, comfortable.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,028
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"The captain is a one-armed dwarf
He's throwing dice along the wharf."
Actual genius, ugly and erotic, but mesmerising. When I listen to Waits I almost find the music wrong. There's an interview of Waits in Australia on the Don Lane Show where he, opening the interview after moving over to the chair half saunter swagger half drunken stumble – he looked like a shell of a man – says he feels "better than nothing." He was, just barely. He seemed to me a near parody of a music artist in the interview. Lane didn't take him seriously at all, he was obviously high as a kite. However, he later stepped over to the piano, touched fingers to keys, and the mood changed immediately. When asked, Waits said that his songs are all sort of travel logs, and that he "can't say really where they come from." It was then I experienced his music, it was them I fell for his music, in a way. Wait's songs straddle the ugly, but they’re also, at their core, beautiful. Other artists that disregard convention tend to never achieve this bizarre and moving duality; Waits most assuredly does. He is certainly no parody.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/10/2014]
He's throwing dice along the wharf."
Actual genius, ugly and erotic, but mesmerising. When I listen to Waits I almost find the music wrong. There's an interview of Waits in Australia on the Don Lane Show where he, opening the interview after moving over to the chair half saunter swagger half drunken stumble – he looked like a shell of a man – says he feels "better than nothing." He was, just barely. He seemed to me a near parody of a music artist in the interview. Lane didn't take him seriously at all, he was obviously high as a kite. However, he later stepped over to the piano, touched fingers to keys, and the mood changed immediately. When asked, Waits said that his songs are all sort of travel logs, and that he "can't say really where they come from." It was then I experienced his music, it was them I fell for his music, in a way. Wait's songs straddle the ugly, but they’re also, at their core, beautiful. Other artists that disregard convention tend to never achieve this bizarre and moving duality; Waits most assuredly does. He is certainly no parody.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/10/2014]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,471
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"She screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
She wants me to come, but I'm never going there
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory."
The idea you'd make music videos for these song samples is hilarious, but Guided By Voices at this point were now a thing proper and in the MTV hellscape of the 90s so it goes that Bee Thousand like all music was inescapably marketed on video. But Guided by Voices is totally unmarketable, you can't just convince someone this is cool by playing it; it's music for hot freaks only.
I've always loved the mass of short songs clumped together to make an album, it's like a musical sketchbook. Sometimes I'd sit around playing my fragments of song ideas hastily and poorly recorded in my bedroom and tell myself there was a conceptual album if I'd just come up with another 20 1-minute songs (let's generously call them that for the sake of ease) – that was absolutely inspired by maverick song-writing addict Robert Pollard. His songs are really the only pieces of music that let you in on how they're made just by being played.
Minutemen maybe created the blueprint for the "sketchbook" album, but across Vampire on Titus, Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, Bee Thousand and Alien lanes, Guided by Voices perfected it. I've listened to Bee Thousand innumerable times, played it to death even, but it somehow resists becoming "overplayed." I wanna fall apart in an audience to this music, I wanna listen to this while lying on my bedroom floor in my first sharehouse.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/14/2015]
She wants me to come, but I'm never going there
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory."
The idea you'd make music videos for these song samples is hilarious, but Guided By Voices at this point were now a thing proper and in the MTV hellscape of the 90s so it goes that Bee Thousand like all music was inescapably marketed on video. But Guided by Voices is totally unmarketable, you can't just convince someone this is cool by playing it; it's music for hot freaks only.
I've always loved the mass of short songs clumped together to make an album, it's like a musical sketchbook. Sometimes I'd sit around playing my fragments of song ideas hastily and poorly recorded in my bedroom and tell myself there was a conceptual album if I'd just come up with another 20 1-minute songs (let's generously call them that for the sake of ease) – that was absolutely inspired by maverick song-writing addict Robert Pollard. His songs are really the only pieces of music that let you in on how they're made just by being played.
Minutemen maybe created the blueprint for the "sketchbook" album, but across Vampire on Titus, Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, Bee Thousand and Alien lanes, Guided by Voices perfected it. I've listened to Bee Thousand innumerable times, played it to death even, but it somehow resists becoming "overplayed." I wanna fall apart in an audience to this music, I wanna listen to this while lying on my bedroom floor in my first sharehouse.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/14/2015]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,293
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places."
My mum listened to Kate Bush growing up. It was maybe one of the only teenage music finds where when I brought her name up at the dinner table I got a "oh, she's great!" Neither of my parents really listened to music in the strictest sense. They both had a radio station of choice pre-set in their cars, but outside of that my family never spoke about music. The same goes for really any art but music was maybe strongest felt by me as embodying a cultural void. I'd get iTunes gift cards and just not know what to do with them. In short, growing up I had no music recommended to me, introduced to me, or otherwise occurring around me.
Anyway at a certain point you inevitably learn that having a "taste in music" is a personality trait, and thus began that journey to find mine with really no guidance other than the internet. Kate Bush is an early find, an obvious one, but nonetheless it was a nice moment to have a conversation with my mum at that dinner table about how she loved Wuthering Heights and grew up listening to Kate Bush – I hadn't really had that before.
Hounds of Love is a classic and I don't really need to go into why, but I don't think I even could objectively if I tried. This album is just so utterly tangled up with my entering the music world and with those fleetingly nice moments at home during those first years of my parent's divorce. From the ethereal peaks of The Big Sky and Cloudbusting, to the visceral loving Britannic Jig Of Life, Hounds of Love sings to me of home; its truly liberating to listen to.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places."
My mum listened to Kate Bush growing up. It was maybe one of the only teenage music finds where when I brought her name up at the dinner table I got a "oh, she's great!" Neither of my parents really listened to music in the strictest sense. They both had a radio station of choice pre-set in their cars, but outside of that my family never spoke about music. The same goes for really any art but music was maybe strongest felt by me as embodying a cultural void. I'd get iTunes gift cards and just not know what to do with them. In short, growing up I had no music recommended to me, introduced to me, or otherwise occurring around me.
Anyway at a certain point you inevitably learn that having a "taste in music" is a personality trait, and thus began that journey to find mine with really no guidance other than the internet. Kate Bush is an early find, an obvious one, but nonetheless it was a nice moment to have a conversation with my mum at that dinner table about how she loved Wuthering Heights and grew up listening to Kate Bush – I hadn't really had that before.
Hounds of Love is a classic and I don't really need to go into why, but I don't think I even could objectively if I tried. This album is just so utterly tangled up with my entering the music world and with those fleetingly nice moments at home during those first years of my parent's divorce. From the ethereal peaks of The Big Sky and Cloudbusting, to the visceral loving Britannic Jig Of Life, Hounds of Love sings to me of home; its truly liberating to listen to.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
19,269
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 13 | 13% | |
| 1970s | 28 | 28% | |
| 1980s | 18 | 18% | |
| 1990s | 29 | 29% | |
| 2000s | 10 | 10% | |
| 2010s | 2 | 2% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Scott Walker | 1 | 1% | |
| Einstürzende Neubauten | 1 | 1% | |
| Broken Social Scene | 1 | 1% | |
| Kate Bush | 1 | 1% | |
| Joni Mitchell | 1 | 1% | |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor | 1 | 1% | |
| Bob Dylan | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
47 | 47% | |
 |
24 | 24% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
 |
5 | 5% | |
 |
4 | 4% | |
| |
3 | 3% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 1 from 42nd to 41st In Rainbows by Radiohead |
| Up 1 from 41st to 40th Closer by Joy Division |
| Up 1 from 40th to 39th Super Æ by ボアダムス [Boredoms] |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 6 from 36th to 42nd Court And Spark by Joni Mitchell |
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Other overall charts by Arthurknight
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
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| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | Arthurknight | 2025 | |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
93/100 (from 125 votes)
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 125 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
85/100  | 01/28/2025 11:30 | SomethingSpecial | | 85/100 |
 100/100 | 01/24/2025 00:51 | ThuramThugood | | 89/100 |
| 100/100 | 12/24/2024 21:42 | Exist-en-ciel | | 99/100 |
| 95/100 | 06/06/2024 02:35 | areminder | | 79/100 |
| 100/100 | 05/04/2024 20:36 |  Wasinski | | 89/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some charts can have several thousand ratings)
This chart is rated in the top 1% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 93.3/100, a mean average of 93.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 93.9/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 8.1.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums favourites
Showing latest 20 members who have added this chart as a favourite | Show all 30 members
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 69 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First |
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100/100
From Rm12398 11/10/2022 16:03
Love the Murmur- R.E.M. placement here! Have always felt that was my favourite record of theirs, so it's nice to see my opinion validated with your chart. “La Máquina De Hacer Pájaros” is fantastic to see here as well. Massively underrated on this site in my opinion. Love the multicultural feel of the list as well. Have recently been trying to get into more international music so your chart may be a great help to do that.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
cartoken 11/10/2022 09:53
cartoken 11/10/2022 09:53
Thanks for the comment and the rating.
Great tastes as well, very heavy on classical rock but still very sold chart
Kudos for including Youth of America 👌
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Johnnyo 11/09/2022 08:36
Fabulous chart. One of the best on the site
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From Moondance 11/09/2022 02:54
Was really hoping to see a few more exceptional Australian albums in the chart. Otherwise, cool chart and appreciate the effort in putting together your comments.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
flamingyesdept 10/05/2022 08:04
flamingyesdept 10/05/2022 08:04
Still my favourite chart! SMiLE Sessions really is the greatest thing in popular music ♥
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From rubysmith 07/21/2022 11:17
Nice.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
peate754 12/21/2021 00:48
peate754 12/21/2021 00:48
Wow Great job and very good list
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From 
seb7 12/07/2020 19:34
seb7 12/07/2020 19:34
one of the best lists on the site. Creative, methodical, and just overall cool
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From 
EyeKanFly 09/11/2020 16:18
EyeKanFly 09/11/2020 16:18
I'll definitely use this for recs!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
DommeDamian 09/11/2020 08:48
DommeDamian 09/11/2020 08:48
Brrrrrrravo!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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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.