Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
Arthurknight 
This chart has evolved a lot over the near 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. 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: 07/16/2023 09:15
- (Created: 07/26/2014 08:45).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 68 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 93 out of 100 (from 119 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 chart is currently filtered to only show albums from King Crimson. (Remove this filter)
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"Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools."
10/10
In The Court is often said to be the first prog-rock album. I think declaring this album as that is a sort of half truth but is ultimately a bit short sighted. It has a sort of puritanical taint about it that I don't really like or want to get involved with. What I mean is: any proto-prog or jazz fusion band of the late 60s could just as easily be declared as contemporary to this work, and one could similarly have a crack at declaring this album – at least in part – as a work of proto-prog Jazz fusion. Such a blanket declaration feels a little nuance lacking, it presupposes there was nothing before In The Court, and tends to accompany a sort of elitist suggestion that subsequent artist's releases are unoriginal hackneyed attempts at recreation.
Though it's difficult to suggest an alternative, there isn't exactly a second option, where then is the landmark release if not In The Court? Preceding albums, by comparison, seem a bit aesthetically and conceptually lost. the eponymous United States of America album, Colosseum, and bands in the Canterbury Scene all appear to be (if considering prog as a whole genre in retrospect) dabbling in the style. Perhaps the closest example of an album that could compete for the same title would be Yes's debut, though hardly as impactful of a release as In The Court. What can then be taken from this is that In the Court, though not necessarily the definitive first of its kind; it is no "out of nowhere" release, was the first album to be totally univocal in its embrace of reconstructed rock, and for that had a profound seminal impact. So much so that one could not only declare it the first of the genre, but rather, declare that prog is defined in its totality as a response to In The Court; it was a movement creating album and prog describes the movement.
I find what makes this album so canonical for me is that In The Court has a sort of contained energy to it - something I rarely observe in prog. Other prog albums I adore, such as Third or Close To The Edge, have a great deal of energy but that energy is released chaotically, perhaps to their benefit. However, King Crimson demonstrate a very tight hold of musical form in In The Court. The album has this controlled dynamic about it where the music sort of grips me much more singularly, and focuses my attention on where Fripp, Lake and co. wanted it. I think from this the beauty of the album is experienced in a way that I can appreciate better. King Crimson achieved this largely by avoiding the tendencies of the genre: virtuosity and finesse. This artistic shift of focus is what, to me, defines In The Court as a "Prog-rock" album, the first of its kind, rather than just an extension of the Canterbury scene.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/15/2014]
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools."
10/10
In The Court is often said to be the first prog-rock album. I think declaring this album as that is a sort of half truth but is ultimately a bit short sighted. It has a sort of puritanical taint about it that I don't really like or want to get involved with. What I mean is: any proto-prog or jazz fusion band of the late 60s could just as easily be declared as contemporary to this work, and one could similarly have a crack at declaring this album – at least in part – as a work of proto-prog Jazz fusion. Such a blanket declaration feels a little nuance lacking, it presupposes there was nothing before In The Court, and tends to accompany a sort of elitist suggestion that subsequent artist's releases are unoriginal hackneyed attempts at recreation.
Though it's difficult to suggest an alternative, there isn't exactly a second option, where then is the landmark release if not In The Court? Preceding albums, by comparison, seem a bit aesthetically and conceptually lost. the eponymous United States of America album, Colosseum, and bands in the Canterbury Scene all appear to be (if considering prog as a whole genre in retrospect) dabbling in the style. Perhaps the closest example of an album that could compete for the same title would be Yes's debut, though hardly as impactful of a release as In The Court. What can then be taken from this is that In the Court, though not necessarily the definitive first of its kind; it is no "out of nowhere" release, was the first album to be totally univocal in its embrace of reconstructed rock, and for that had a profound seminal impact. So much so that one could not only declare it the first of the genre, but rather, declare that prog is defined in its totality as a response to In The Court; it was a movement creating album and prog describes the movement.
I find what makes this album so canonical for me is that In The Court has a sort of contained energy to it - something I rarely observe in prog. Other prog albums I adore, such as Third or Close To The Edge, have a great deal of energy but that energy is released chaotically, perhaps to their benefit. However, King Crimson demonstrate a very tight hold of musical form in In The Court. The album has this controlled dynamic about it where the music sort of grips me much more singularly, and focuses my attention on where Fripp, Lake and co. wanted it. I think from this the beauty of the album is experienced in a way that I can appreciate better. King Crimson achieved this largely by avoiding the tendencies of the genre: virtuosity and finesse. This artistic shift of focus is what, to me, defines In The Court as a "Prog-rock" album, the first of its kind, rather than just an extension of the Canterbury scene.
_ [First added to this chart: 10/15/2014]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
31,606
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
219Total albums: 1. 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 | 14 | 14% | |
| 1970s | 28 | 28% | |
| 1980s | 20 | 20% | |
| 1990s | 29 | 29% | |
| 2000s | 8 | 8% | |
| 2010s | 1 | 1% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Lisa Germano | 1 | 1% | |
| The Gun Club | 1 | 1% | |
| LCD Soundsystem | 1 | 1% | |
| La Máquina De Hacer Pájaros | 1 | 1% | |
| Sweet Trip | 1 | 1% | |
| Can | 1 | 1% | |
| The Mothers Of Invention | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
40 | 40% | |
 |
26 | 26% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
| |
3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
93/100 (from 119 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 119 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
80/100  | 03/19/2024 11:07 |  Tamthebam | | 85/100 |
85/100 | 03/05/2024 19:32 | martintho | | 74/100 |
90/100 | 02/18/2024 09:24 | Tuur | | 86/100 |
 85/100 | 07/02/2023 08:02 |  MadhattanJack | | 84/100 |
| 100/100 | 11/10/2022 16:03 | Rm12398 | | 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 93.2/100, a mean average of 93.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 93.8/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 8.2.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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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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