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.

• Summary
• Composition
• Ratings
• Favourites
• Comments
• Your feedback

View the complete list of 57,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.

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14. (=)

98.12.28 男達の別れ [98.12.28 Otokotachi No Wakare] 
Live

 フィッシュマンズ [Fishmans]

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"夕暮れ時を二人で走ってゆく
風を呼んで 君を呼んで
東京の街のスミからスミまで
僕ら半分 夢の中."

"Running in the evening twilight just two of us
Calling the wind, calling you
From Tokyo city corner to corner
We are half in a dream."

Lyrics from Long Season. A truly spectacular live album, It's transformative in the ways the band treats their own music, and in how they chose to approach a live show and by extension a live album.

_ [First added to this chart: 03/26/2017]

Year of Release:

1999

Appears in:

292 charts

Rank Score:

4,818

Rank in 1999:

4

Rank in 1990s:

67

Overall Rank:

353

Average Rating:

 87 (365 votes)

Comments:

32

96. (=)

At Folsom Prison 
Live

 Johnny Cash

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_ [First added to this chart: 12/01/2024]

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

797 charts

Rank Score:

5,331

Rank in 1968:

10

Rank in 1960s:

46

Overall Rank:

319

Average Rating:

 83 (987 votes)

Comments:

54

Total albums: 2. Page 1 of 1

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

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

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts

Title	Source	Type	Published	Country
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 Music Albums of the 1990s	Arthurknight	1990s decade chart	2022
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	Mechalodon	Overall chart	2017

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

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 126 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
90/100  !	03/22/2025 02:21	slatsheit	26	88/100
85/100  !	01/28/2025 11:30	SomethingSpecial	1,104	85/100
100/100  !	01/24/2025 00:51	ThuramThugood	106	90/100
100/100  !	12/24/2024 21:42	Exist-en-ciel	145	98/100
95/100  !	06/06/2024 02:35	areminder	52	79/100

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 favourites

Showing latest 20 members who have added this chart as a favourite | Show all 30 members

Johnnyo

ThuramThugood

DiogoSRNunes

flamingyesdept

seb7

ssteve

Jameth

joshbrooker2001

sunflowerblues

O.T.

Lihini1

daftpunter

Purplepash

Lgk21

ForegroundNoise

splashfoop

Rhett

Cojo7

ShadowColossi

Amirkhosro

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 69 comments |
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Rating:  

90/100

From slatsheit 03/22/2025 02:21 | #308142

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.

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From Rm12398 11/10/2022 16:03 | #291200

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)

Rating:  

80/100

From cartoken 11/10/2022 09:53 | #291189

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)

Rating:  

100/100

From Johnnyo 11/09/2022 08:36 | #291164

Fabulous chart. One of the best on the site

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

85/100

From Moondance 11/09/2022 02:54 | #291157

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)

Rating:  

100/100

From flamingyesdept 10/05/2022 08:04 | #290182

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)

Rating:  

100/100

From rubysmith 07/21/2022 11:17 | #287667

Nice.

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From peate754 12/21/2021 00:48 | #277734

Wow Great job and very good list

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

95/100

From seb7 12/07/2020 19:34 | #262233

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)

Rating:  

95/100

From EyeKanFly 09/11/2020 16:18 | #258057

I'll definitely use this for recs!

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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