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 57,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.
This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from Germany. (Remove this filter)
Buy album 
- #Sponsored
"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:
9,418
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
77
Buy album
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" - Warum bloß? Wahrscheinlich... nä... aber... warum isst du denn nicht Mohrrüben?
- Ja, das wäre wirklich schön.
- Wollen wir das machen?
- Ja."
- But why? Maybe... no... but... why don't you eat carrots?
- Yes, that would really be nice.
- Shall we do that?
- Yes."
_ [First added to this chart: 01/12/2017]
- Ja, das wäre wirklich schön.
- Wollen wir das machen?
- Ja."
- But why? Maybe... no... but... why don't you eat carrots?
- Yes, that would really be nice.
- Shall we do that?
- Yes."
_ [First added to this chart: 01/12/2017]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,384
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"Seinem Geiste bekenne ich mich
Ein Sehnen verzehret sein schönes Gesicht
Das ermattet, von Güte beschattet, allmächtig ist
Sein Körper bewegt sich nicht."
"His spirit I plead
A tendon devoured his beautiful face
The exhausted, shaded by kindness, is almighty.
His body does not move."
Warhollian damsel, rocking harmonium player, and lowkey nazi, the one and only Christa Päffgen (??), produces an ethereally voiced, mysterious, and mesmerising record that is always a delight to listen to.
_ [First added to this chart: 02/13/2016]
Ein Sehnen verzehret sein schönes Gesicht
Das ermattet, von Güte beschattet, allmächtig ist
Sein Körper bewegt sich nicht."
"His spirit I plead
A tendon devoured his beautiful face
The exhausted, shaded by kindness, is almighty.
His body does not move."
Warhollian damsel, rocking harmonium player, and lowkey nazi, the one and only Christa Päffgen (??), produces an ethereally voiced, mysterious, and mesmerising record that is always a delight to listen to.
_ [First added to this chart: 02/13/2016]
Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,988
Rank in 1970:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
-Instrumental
Hosianna Mantra is undeniably an album about spirituality, Florian Fricke had recently before starting recording converted to both Christianity and Hinduism, and this duality finds itself greatly informing Hosianna Mantra. The title itself suggests this: "hosianna" is a Judeo-Christian plea or call out to god, and "mantra" has Hindu roots in vedic hymn and meditative chanting. In this way, this album can be seen as sort of music epiphany, a revelation of Fricke's sense of total spirituality, drawn from a coalescence of western and eastern religion, practice, and musical culture. Vuh execute this bringing together of sound beautifully.
The album has long been the go-to alone on long train rides album. I listened to it on trains across Britain, France, and Germany and starred out the window at the lush green - and in some cases snowy white - fields. Listening to the album always brings me back to the European train carriage so vividly.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/16/2015]
Hosianna Mantra is undeniably an album about spirituality, Florian Fricke had recently before starting recording converted to both Christianity and Hinduism, and this duality finds itself greatly informing Hosianna Mantra. The title itself suggests this: "hosianna" is a Judeo-Christian plea or call out to god, and "mantra" has Hindu roots in vedic hymn and meditative chanting. In this way, this album can be seen as sort of music epiphany, a revelation of Fricke's sense of total spirituality, drawn from a coalescence of western and eastern religion, practice, and musical culture. Vuh execute this bringing together of sound beautifully.
The album has long been the go-to alone on long train rides album. I listened to it on trains across Britain, France, and Germany and starred out the window at the lush green - and in some cases snowy white - fields. Listening to the album always brings me back to the European train carriage so vividly.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/16/2015]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,620
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"So sicher wie Falschgeld
Verbrannt mit Liebe
leuchte Blei
Blei Blei Blei und Blei verbrennt Liebe
Liebe."
"As certain as fake money
Burned with love
Light, lead
Lead lead lead and lead burns love
Love."
Einsturzende Neubauten are a special love of mine. I became semi-obsessed with Blixa Bargeld around the age of 16 - for years a photo of him was my profile picture on this site, I have since gone for a more arbitrary but eye-catching gif; oh how i've sold out to cheap marketing. I loved his presence in 80s Bad Seeds so much so that I dug deep to find the bizarre bar guitar tuning he uses and have still to this day a guitar permanently in that tuning; I even ritualistically smashed up said guitar whilst listening to Neubauten and contemporaries like Die Haut and Grazhdanskaya Oborona. Most of the songs I write are in this tuning, though I'm finding my proficiency in the tuning has shifted away from Blixa's style, which I'm happy with, derivative writing/composition is boring. Blixa and Einsturzende Neubauten are anything but derivative, and have consistently released challenging, visceral, and unique albums, which makes it all the more difficult to pick a favourite. Zeichnungen Des Patienten is not the album I would recommend to anyone as their first listen of Neubauten, it's their most visceral release. The album focuses on schizophrenic artist and patient of Klosterneuburg Hospital Oswald Tschirtner, and the sounds Neubauten produce embody that state of mind; the music drives you crazy in a way, if only for a moment. Obscure found sounds and samples are employed, as well as an array weird scratches, glitches, bangs, clambering and ringing. Neubauten achieve this by attaching contact mics to weird objects. I only learnt of this when seeing a Melbourne based band called Kollaps (inspired by the Neubauten album of the same name) who employed the same technique for their live setup. We spoke afterwards at length about the whole process and how it is a really counterintuitive way of music-making. Neubauten's impactful usage of these sounds, tied together with minimal bass guitar and Blixa's indifferent vocals make for a more interesting listen from a compositional standpoint as well as one of appreciation.
Still, picking Zeichnungen as the best Neubauten album is a decision riddled with self-doubt. My favourite songs appear on a variety of other albums: Sabrina on Silence is Sexy, Blume on Tabula Rasa (although neither of these albums live up to those two songs that inhabit them), the title track on Kollaps, The Garden on Die Ende, or Neubauten's best song with comfortable margin, Yü-Gung (Fütter Mein Ego) on Halber Mensch. This makes picking Zeichnungen feel somewhat of a confused pick, almost as if because my favourite songs are split across Neubauten's discography, I pick Zeichnungen as a way of getting out of choosing a favourite among the others; the so-called real competition. But that's not really the case and whenever this strikes me I know it's the Neubauten madness getting the better of me. Zeichnungen is not a song based album the same way others may be, the closest a track gets to being a 'song' is the title track, and only because you can hear a faint chord progression somewhere underneath the manic and overwhelming noise. Zeichnungen is Neubauten's concept album, and as far as concept albums go, the most phonetic of them. Bargeld manages to say a lot without saying much at all.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/21/2015]
Verbrannt mit Liebe
leuchte Blei
Blei Blei Blei und Blei verbrennt Liebe
Liebe."
"As certain as fake money
Burned with love
Light, lead
Lead lead lead and lead burns love
Love."
Einsturzende Neubauten are a special love of mine. I became semi-obsessed with Blixa Bargeld around the age of 16 - for years a photo of him was my profile picture on this site, I have since gone for a more arbitrary but eye-catching gif; oh how i've sold out to cheap marketing. I loved his presence in 80s Bad Seeds so much so that I dug deep to find the bizarre bar guitar tuning he uses and have still to this day a guitar permanently in that tuning; I even ritualistically smashed up said guitar whilst listening to Neubauten and contemporaries like Die Haut and Grazhdanskaya Oborona. Most of the songs I write are in this tuning, though I'm finding my proficiency in the tuning has shifted away from Blixa's style, which I'm happy with, derivative writing/composition is boring. Blixa and Einsturzende Neubauten are anything but derivative, and have consistently released challenging, visceral, and unique albums, which makes it all the more difficult to pick a favourite. Zeichnungen Des Patienten is not the album I would recommend to anyone as their first listen of Neubauten, it's their most visceral release. The album focuses on schizophrenic artist and patient of Klosterneuburg Hospital Oswald Tschirtner, and the sounds Neubauten produce embody that state of mind; the music drives you crazy in a way, if only for a moment. Obscure found sounds and samples are employed, as well as an array weird scratches, glitches, bangs, clambering and ringing. Neubauten achieve this by attaching contact mics to weird objects. I only learnt of this when seeing a Melbourne based band called Kollaps (inspired by the Neubauten album of the same name) who employed the same technique for their live setup. We spoke afterwards at length about the whole process and how it is a really counterintuitive way of music-making. Neubauten's impactful usage of these sounds, tied together with minimal bass guitar and Blixa's indifferent vocals make for a more interesting listen from a compositional standpoint as well as one of appreciation.
Still, picking Zeichnungen as the best Neubauten album is a decision riddled with self-doubt. My favourite songs appear on a variety of other albums: Sabrina on Silence is Sexy, Blume on Tabula Rasa (although neither of these albums live up to those two songs that inhabit them), the title track on Kollaps, The Garden on Die Ende, or Neubauten's best song with comfortable margin, Yü-Gung (Fütter Mein Ego) on Halber Mensch. This makes picking Zeichnungen feel somewhat of a confused pick, almost as if because my favourite songs are split across Neubauten's discography, I pick Zeichnungen as a way of getting out of choosing a favourite among the others; the so-called real competition. But that's not really the case and whenever this strikes me I know it's the Neubauten madness getting the better of me. Zeichnungen is not a song based album the same way others may be, the closest a track gets to being a 'song' is the title track, and only because you can hear a faint chord progression somewhere underneath the manic and overwhelming noise. Zeichnungen is Neubauten's concept album, and as far as concept albums go, the most phonetic of them. Bargeld manages to say a lot without saying much at all.
_ [First added to this chart: 06/21/2015]
Total albums: 5. 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% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Lisa Germano | 1 | 1% | |
| Tortoise | 1 | 1% | |
| Broken Social Scene | 1 | 1% | |
| Patti Smith | 1 | 1% | |
| Stereolab | 1 | 1% | |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor | 1 | 1% | |
| Eno | 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 |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driving Albums | Arthurknight | Custom chart | 2022 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  paologabriel | Overall chart | 2025 |  |
| The BEA Friendly Chart |  alelsupreme | Custom chart | 2015 | |
| PPV Overall Ranking | bea | Custom chart | 2021 |  |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | Arthurknight | 1970s decade chart | 2022 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | josh333 | Overall chart | 2016 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  The Gollux | Overall chart | 2024 | |
| BEA Forum Regulars' Top 100 (2015) |  HigherThanTheSun | Custom chart | 2015 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | newbands1 | Overall chart | 2015 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | Arthurknight | 1990s decade chart | 2022 | |
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
90/100  | 03/22/2025 02:21 |  slatsheit | | 88/100 |
85/100 | 01/28/2025 11:30 |  SomethingSpecial | | 85/100 |
 100/100 | 01/24/2025 00:51 | ThuramThugood | | 90/100 |
| 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 93.3/100, 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
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90/100
From slatsheit 03/22/2025 02:21
slatsheit 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)
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.
#291200 | 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 ?
#291189 | 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
#291164 | 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.
#291157 | 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 ♥
#290182 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From rubysmith 07/21/2022 11:17
Nice.
#287667 | 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
#277734 | 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
#262233 | 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!
#258057 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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