Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by Arthurknight

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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

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.

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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from The Fall. (Remove this filter)

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46. (=)
This Nation's Saving Grace 
United Kingdom The Fall
Buy album United States
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"All those whose mind entitles themselves,
And whose main entitle is themselves,
Shall feel the wrath of my bombast!"

_ [First added to this chart: 11/26/2014]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
373 charts
Rank Score:
1,902
Rank in 1985:
14
Rank in 1980s:
137
Overall Rank:
905
Average Rating:
 78 (447 votes)
Comments:
View 20
Total 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 13 13%
1970s 28 28%
1980s 18 18%
1990s 29 29%
2000s 10 10%
2010s 2 2%
2020s 0 0%
Country Albums %


United States 47 47%
United Kingdom 24 24%
Canada 6 6%
Germany 5 5%
Mixed Nationality 4 4%
Russia 3 3%
Australia 3 3%
Show all
Live? Albums %
No 98 98%
Yes 2 2%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

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Biggest fallers
Faller Down 6 from 36th to 42nd
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by Joni Mitchell
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Driving Albums ArthurknightCustom chart2022
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums paologabrielOverall chart2025
The BEA Friendly Chart alelsupremeCustom chart2015
PPV Overall RankingbeaCustom chart2021Unknown
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s Arthurknight1970s decade chart2022
Top 100 Greatest Music Albumsjosh333Overall chart2016
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums The GolluxOverall chart2024
BEA Forum Regulars' Top 100 (2015) HigherThanTheSunCustom chart2015
Top 100 Greatest Music Albumsnewbands1Overall chart2015Unknown
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s Arthurknight1990s decade chart2022

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)


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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
93/100 (from 125 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
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.

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RatingDate updatedMemberChart ratingsAvg. chart rating
 
90/100
 Report rating		03/22/2025 02:21 slatsheit  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2688/100
 
85/100
 Report rating		01/28/2025 11:30 SomethingSpecial  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,10685/100
  
100/100
 Report rating		01/24/2025 00:51 ThuramThugood  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 10690/100
  
95/100
 Report rating		06/06/2024 02:35 areminder  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 5279/100
  
100/100
 Report rating		05/04/2024 20:36 Wasinski  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2789/100

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 93.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 93.8/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 8.1.

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 69 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)

Rating:  
90/100
From 03/22/2025 02:21
Your taste is fairly divergent from mine, but I really appreciated many of your picks. Not a fan (at all) of the "one per artist" rule, because it makes a Top 100 albums list a misrepresentation of your opinion, since the list is not really your 100 favorite albums, but rather what your favorite 100 albums would be with the duplicate artist appearances removed. But I do appreciate how it allows you to *include* more artists. On the other hand, since each poster's Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart has the most significant weight for ranking, it also takes away rating points from the artists who have "earned" them in terms of how they reflect your personal taste by virtue of the removal of other albums, while perhaps having other artists' albums benefit "unfairly" from the exercise (less of a problem in the sense that those artists with albums at the end of your list wouldn't have gotten too many extra points). And of course this almost certainly did indeed happen, or you would not have had to establish that that guideline for yourself was how you made the chart to begin with. That said, I am not the boss of you, you are free to make your list as you see fit (as long as it isn't done with the intent to game the system, which sadly does happen on this site, and which I don't believe you're engaging in at all), and I did appreciate the broader cross section it revealed of your taste, so I do see why you set it up that way. Really enjoyed your personal reflections as well.
#308142 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 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.
#291200 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 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 ?
#291189 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 11/09/2022 08:36
Fabulous chart. One of the best on the site
#291164 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 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.
#291157 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 10/05/2022 08:04
Still my favourite chart! SMiLE Sessions really is the greatest thing in popular music ♥
#290182 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 07/21/2022 11:17
Nice.
#287667 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 12/21/2021 00:48
Wow Great job and very good list
#277734 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 12/07/2020 19:34
one of the best lists on the site. Creative, methodical, and just overall cool
#262233 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 09/11/2020 16:18
I'll definitely use this for recs!
#258057 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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