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.
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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:
8,911
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
81
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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:
17,230
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"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:
18,294
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"Knowledge is a deadly friend
When no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools."
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."
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:
28,549
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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"Your madness fits in nicely with my own
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own, my very own
We're not alone."
Alright, I'll use this listing to make reference to the real god of music criticism - and no, it is not the melon, Robert Christgau or Greil Marcus, fight me - Piero Scaruffi. If you haven't already, please do lose yourself in Piero Scaruffi's Knowledge Base. All the thanks to my own introduction to him goes to the similarly great Ms Mojo Risin (Imogen), whose own chart on this website you should also trawl for recommendations. Scaruffi's Best Albums list is a remarkable way to both decentralise oneself from the normative hegemonies of "Greatest Albums", itself a fraught category built off the heralding of mostly white men, and to decolonise from the music of US/UK and the music of the english language. Scaruffi is not the be-all-and-end-all by no means, his lists are still relatively euro-centric and male dominated - but his choices are just such a musically radical take on what constitutes greatness in music that it opens one up to these possibilities.
Instead of me pondering on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and rather than pulling a Hairymarx1 and just plagiarising every word the man ever wrote, I instead implore you to read Scaruffi's own review, which has been conveniently translated from the Italian by Imogen (the aforementioned one). To quote:
"Rock Bottom is a "eulogy to chaos" and is dedicated to the cosmos. The anti-epic pessimism, made of profound sadness and fatuous joy, reaches here its most perfect enunciation. Madness and melancholy merge into a single feeling of solitude in the crowd, of impotence in the universe."
-Piero Scaruffi
Check him out (Also if you haven't, give this album a listen with open ears and maybe when you definitely don't have a migraine): https://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/wyatt.html#roc
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Your lunacy fits neatly with my own, my very own
We're not alone."
Alright, I'll use this listing to make reference to the real god of music criticism - and no, it is not the melon, Robert Christgau or Greil Marcus, fight me - Piero Scaruffi. If you haven't already, please do lose yourself in Piero Scaruffi's Knowledge Base. All the thanks to my own introduction to him goes to the similarly great Ms Mojo Risin (Imogen), whose own chart on this website you should also trawl for recommendations. Scaruffi's Best Albums list is a remarkable way to both decentralise oneself from the normative hegemonies of "Greatest Albums", itself a fraught category built off the heralding of mostly white men, and to decolonise from the music of US/UK and the music of the english language. Scaruffi is not the be-all-and-end-all by no means, his lists are still relatively euro-centric and male dominated - but his choices are just such a musically radical take on what constitutes greatness in music that it opens one up to these possibilities.
Instead of me pondering on Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, and rather than pulling a Hairymarx1 and just plagiarising every word the man ever wrote, I instead implore you to read Scaruffi's own review, which has been conveniently translated from the Italian by Imogen (the aforementioned one). To quote:
"Rock Bottom is a "eulogy to chaos" and is dedicated to the cosmos. The anti-epic pessimism, made of profound sadness and fatuous joy, reaches here its most perfect enunciation. Madness and melancholy merge into a single feeling of solitude in the crowd, of impotence in the universe."
-Piero Scaruffi
Check him out (Also if you haven't, give this album a listen with open ears and maybe when you definitely don't have a migraine): https://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/wyatt.html#roc
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,105
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"No chains can hold me, no walls confine me
Come on now people, come on and slide with me
Cause I'm blind, but not as blind as blind as you."
I keep coming back to this. A once no.1 spot pick. I overlistened to Ladies and Gentlemen to death in my teens so much so that I couldn't touch it with a ten foot pole for awhile. But even then hearing its songs live at my first Spiritualized gig was a transcendental, or one could say spiritual, moment. More recently, Jason Piece fell asleep on a plane next to me with a book in his hands like a true middle aged man (not to mention vaping in the airport too), breaking the spell of sun-glassed mystery entirely – but I don't care. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" is the best opener to any album, and "Cop Shoot Cop" very well may be the best closer to any album. This is one of those ones I'm just too invested in to deny it's a forever favourite.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/08/2014]
Come on now people, come on and slide with me
Cause I'm blind, but not as blind as blind as you."
I keep coming back to this. A once no.1 spot pick. I overlistened to Ladies and Gentlemen to death in my teens so much so that I couldn't touch it with a ten foot pole for awhile. But even then hearing its songs live at my first Spiritualized gig was a transcendental, or one could say spiritual, moment. More recently, Jason Piece fell asleep on a plane next to me with a book in his hands like a true middle aged man (not to mention vaping in the airport too), breaking the spell of sun-glassed mystery entirely – but I don't care. "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" is the best opener to any album, and "Cop Shoot Cop" very well may be the best closer to any album. This is one of those ones I'm just too invested in to deny it's a forever favourite.
_ [First added to this chart: 11/08/2014]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,529
Rank in 1997:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"All the clouds turn to words
All the words float in sequence
No one knows what they mean
Everyone just ignores them."
I should note that the lyrics above - from the opening track, sky saw - run simultaneous to meaningless babel. This, for me, really explicates Eno's focus in this album. Another Green World is more about atmosphere and the creation of a feeling. Eno was influenced a great deal at the time by phonetic poetry, especially that of Hugo Ball, whose poem "I Zimbra" ended up being the opening track on Talking Heads' Fear of Music - with the instrumental laid out by Eno and David Byrne. Another Green World is also the album in which Eno famously made use of his and Peter Schmidt's card deck "Oblique Strategies," which was a series of injunctions and commands to generate "lateral thinking." It may appear that this system of composition isn't reconcilable with "music about feelings," but the cards, at least as I see It, are less of a system for composition than they are a system for creative stimulation.
Another Green World's breadth of sound plays into Eno's expansive body of work. Eno situates himself in this record between the glam rock pop of roxy music, his prog influences, and his forays into ambient music, which all congeal in this project that moves me to euphoria and mourning almost together at once. This is what makes this album all the more transportive, it creates an atmosphere that is otherworldly, and evokes a series of feelings that are not normally felt so soon after one another.
I should probably also make clear that I think Eno may well be my favourite contributor to music in recent history. Few can hold a torch to Eno's achievements and influence, even if he is largely the man behind the mixing board and not the mic. This album proves that even when he is behind the mic, he is phenomenal. He has consistently demonstrated this across albums that I also adore; Taking Tiger Mountain, Before and After Science, and Here Come the Warm Jets (which sat in this place for some time).
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
All the words float in sequence
No one knows what they mean
Everyone just ignores them."
I should note that the lyrics above - from the opening track, sky saw - run simultaneous to meaningless babel. This, for me, really explicates Eno's focus in this album. Another Green World is more about atmosphere and the creation of a feeling. Eno was influenced a great deal at the time by phonetic poetry, especially that of Hugo Ball, whose poem "I Zimbra" ended up being the opening track on Talking Heads' Fear of Music - with the instrumental laid out by Eno and David Byrne. Another Green World is also the album in which Eno famously made use of his and Peter Schmidt's card deck "Oblique Strategies," which was a series of injunctions and commands to generate "lateral thinking." It may appear that this system of composition isn't reconcilable with "music about feelings," but the cards, at least as I see It, are less of a system for composition than they are a system for creative stimulation.
Another Green World's breadth of sound plays into Eno's expansive body of work. Eno situates himself in this record between the glam rock pop of roxy music, his prog influences, and his forays into ambient music, which all congeal in this project that moves me to euphoria and mourning almost together at once. This is what makes this album all the more transportive, it creates an atmosphere that is otherworldly, and evokes a series of feelings that are not normally felt so soon after one another.
I should probably also make clear that I think Eno may well be my favourite contributor to music in recent history. Few can hold a torch to Eno's achievements and influence, even if he is largely the man behind the mixing board and not the mic. This album proves that even when he is behind the mic, he is phenomenal. He has consistently demonstrated this across albums that I also adore; Taking Tiger Mountain, Before and After Science, and Here Come the Warm Jets (which sat in this place for some time).
_ [First added to this chart: 10/23/2014]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,232
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"I've fallen far down the first time around
Now I just sit on the ground in your way."
As beautiful as it is, Nick Drake's music is always belying a sort of misery. It's hard to listen to sometimes, but when the time is right there's nothing that'll do other than him. Drake's acoustic guitar speaks with that very same tension, and it's got everything to do with tension. Drake didn't really change his guitar strings frequently enough, and so the nickel strings he used would wear down and lose their tension over time, producing that forlorn but plucky sound. For awhile I tried to have my acoustic guitar do the same, but I can't deal with the dust build-up.
Ironically, I find Bryter Layter the most upbeat of his projects. It's jazzy and rhythmic all-throughout, yet still that sorrow is emergent, pushing back a true brightness for later.
_ [First added to this chart: 12/06/2017]
Now I just sit on the ground in your way."
As beautiful as it is, Nick Drake's music is always belying a sort of misery. It's hard to listen to sometimes, but when the time is right there's nothing that'll do other than him. Drake's acoustic guitar speaks with that very same tension, and it's got everything to do with tension. Drake didn't really change his guitar strings frequently enough, and so the nickel strings he used would wear down and lose their tension over time, producing that forlorn but plucky sound. For awhile I tried to have my acoustic guitar do the same, but I can't deal with the dust build-up.
Ironically, I find Bryter Layter the most upbeat of his projects. It's jazzy and rhythmic all-throughout, yet still that sorrow is emergent, pushing back a true brightness for later.
_ [First added to this chart: 12/06/2017]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,760
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"Can I go on with this train of events?
Disturbing and purging my mind,
Back out of my duties, when all's said and done,
I know that I'll lose every time."
_ [First added to this chart: 10/22/2015]
Disturbing and purging my mind,
Back out of my duties, when all's said and done,
I know that I'll lose every time."
_ [First added to this chart: 10/22/2015]
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
15,371
Rank in 1980:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
"Flies are buzzing 'round my head
Vultures circling the dead
Picking up every last crumb
The big fish eat the little ones."
_ [First added to this chart: 01/09/2018]
Vultures circling the dead
Picking up every last crumb
The big fish eat the little ones."
_ [First added to this chart: 01/09/2018]
Year of Release:
2007
Appears in:
Rank Score:
44,434
Rank in 2007:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 24. Page 1 of 3
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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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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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| Best Ever Artists | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Beatles | |
| 2. Radiohead | |
| 3. Pink Floyd | |
| 4. David Bowie | |
| 5. Bob Dylan | |
| 6. Led Zeppelin | |
| 7. The Rolling Stones | |
| 8. Arcade Fire | |
| 9. Nirvana | |
| 10. The Velvet Underground | |
| 11. Neil Young | |
| 12. Kendrick Lamar | |
| 13. Miles Davis | |
| 14. The Smiths | |
| 15. The Beach Boys | |
| 16. R.E.M. | |
| 17. Kanye West | |
| 18. Pixies | |
| 19. Bruce Springsteen | |
| 20. Jimi Hendrix |
