Top 99 Greatest Music Albums by DeusExMackia

Yo! Thanks for checking out my list of my favourite albums ever. Like most people on BEA, I listen to an absolute ton of music, a lot of which isn't on here. This then is a list of what I consider to be give or take the best music ever made (in my humble opinion).


As of 28th November 2022, this is the rough outline:
- Positions 1 to 20 are as good as it gets. Ordered based on what I'd choose with a gun to my head, so the ones nearer the top are 'better', but it's all relative.

- 20 to ~60 are the albums I'd consider "runner-up best albums ever", a.k.a. "there's not enough room to fit everything into the top 10" and really might as well just be one big joint position.

- Everything below is structured to reflect how highly I regard it, but all can be considered "albums to listen to before you die (in my humble opinion)".


Also, the comments I have made about each album; for some records I could wax lyrical about them for days, and for others I can barely say a word. This, however, in no way determines whether I like a record more than another. And for quite a few of them, I can't even properly articulate why I love them.

For something extra, here are my favorite artists of all time. It's not properly reflected in my choice of albums.
In a rough-but-no-particular order:

David Bowie, Lady Gaga, The Smiths, Kate Bush, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Prince, R.E.M., Lana Del Rey, Slowdive, FKA twigs, Kylie Minogue, New Order, The Doors, Suede, Beyoncé/Destiny's Child, The Prodigy, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Joy Division, Fontaines DC, Charli XCX, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Nina Simone, Diana Ross/The Supremes, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, The Clash, Gorillaz, Pet Shop Boys, The Rolling Stones, Chet Baker, Oscar Peterson, George Michael, The KLF, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Idles, Lou Reed, Talking Heads, Madonna, Squid, Little Simz, Kendrick Lamar, The Notorious B.I.G., Girls Aloud, Bruce Springsteen, Paramore, Pavement, SOPHIE, System Of A Down, Grace Jones, Kraftwerk, MBV, Missy Elliott

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Update 10/01/25: WOAH, Nelly!!! This is a real time of change. Lots of movers and shakers. Plenty of stalwarts of the 30-50 positions making way for new stuff. This list must reflect how I'm feeling about music and this is how I feel right now!

Update 06/01/25: Woah, Nelly! So 2024 was casually one of the best years for music in a hot minute, good grief. Five albums of which I couldn't get enough of, and all of which have earned a place in my heart. Some loved ones had to be chucked out for them to make room on this list, but I long since let go of historical weighting. This is about what I want at the end of the day, and the music I'm living with right now is the music that matters to me most.

Update 23/04/24: Welcome Hounds Of Love to the top 10. It's been a long time coming. Kate Bush is never far from my rotation at any given point, but something about my recent listening to her has hit harder than before. 'The Big Sky' is genuinely insane, and that alone might be why I've finally decided the album deserves to be here. I love it so much.

Update 12/11/23: Some big ol' changes in the midfield. With the leaves falling off the trees I've conveniently remembered how obsessed with Slowdive I've always been, so welcome Souvlaki to the top 20 at last. A few other big moves.

Update 21/09/23: Welcome back Wish You Were Here, gone for 2.5 years, and now back on here because I don't think life is quite right without it. Far lower than before, but that's okay. A recent spur of 60s and 70s listening for me has led to the Stones gaining a new entry, and OK Computer making a return too. Two 2010s EPs from some of the most exciting artists living today - Miss Azealia and Miss Twigs - join the mid-pack in the form of 1991 and M3LL155X respectively.

Update 28/11/22: A great purge has occurred. Wholesale reorder. New entries from across the universe. Shock and Awe in the top 20 - I've finally let go of DSOTM's number 2 spot. It better reflects who I am now and what I love. The beautiful thing with a having a list like this is the work it takes to cultivate it and keep it in tune with who you are. See the previous versions of this chart for my older notes :)

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Best songs: Big Shot, Jackie Down The Line, I Love You

Potent, astonishingly accomplished. Hooks, bass lines and guitar tunings leave you in awe at how accomplished the Dublin 5-piece are now, twinkling with seminality. Its assessment of Irish existence in Capital London, of marginalised culture in a broken society, achieves the poetic inspirations the band have always drawn from. An arresting calm and pause against the whirl of the Post Punk scene; a record that is carving out a sound this band own totally. A soundtrack to repair the immediate surroundings of a defective nation.
[First added to this chart: 02/17/2023]
Year of Release:
2022
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,478
Rank in 2022:
Rank in 2020s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Best Songs: Starburster, Here's The Thing, Favourite

The achievement of a band once inseparable from the label of Post Punk to embrace an almost whacky attire, both in real life and on that striking album cover, is not to be underestimated. Romance’s confidence to go further than ever before into the nuanced and inferred for one of the most articulate and incisive creative voices around proves the five piece to be a band far more capable than just their outstanding representation of Irish culture in the modern age. When they’re making alternative rock that speaks so truthfully to the love we all desperately want to find in our mad times, it would be remiss for them not to be the figureheads of all those who wear their hearts on their sleeves. “Each new day I get another year older”, and yet another Fontaines album delivers a lyric I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
[First added to this chart: 01/08/2025]
Year of Release:
2024
Appears in:
Rank Score:
955
Rank in 2024:
Rank in 2020s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Best songs: Sha Sha Sha, The Lotts, Dublin City Sky

An instant classic, post-punk encapsulation of modern Dublin, capturing the people, the sights and their stories in intricate, blunt detail. Like the anecdotes you tell yer mates over a few pints, Dogrel is a straight talking, prosaically dramatised notation of life in a world weary of capitalism, worn down by politics and greyed by an inability to escape urban life.
[First added to this chart: 03/10/2020]
Year of Release:
2019
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,268
Rank in 2019:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 3. Page 1 of 1

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Top 99 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade Albums %


1930s 0 0%
1940s 0 0%
1950s 0 0%
1960s 3 3%
1970s 19 19%
1980s 18 18%
1990s 15 15%
2000s 8 8%
2010s 23 23%
2020s 13 13%
Artist Albums %


David Bowie 7 7%
Radiohead 4 4%
Lana Del Rey 3 3%
The Smiths 3 3%
Sonic Youth 3 3%
Kendrick Lamar 3 3%
Pink Floyd 3 3%
Show all
Country Albums %


United Kingdom 49 49%
United States 37 37%
Mixed Nationality 6 6%
Ireland 3 3%
Canada 2 2%
Germany 1 1%
Australia 1 1%
Compilation? Albums %
No 95 96%
Yes 4 4%
Live? Albums %
No 94 95%
Yes 5 5%
Soundtrack? Albums %
No 96 97%
Yes 3 3%

Top 99 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest climbers
Climber Up 8 from 51st to 43rd
Ultraviolence
by Lana Del Rey
Climber Up 8 from 49th to 41st
★ [Blackstar]
by David Bowie
Climber Up 5 from 52nd to 47th
M3LL155X
by FKA twigs
Biggest fallers
Faller Down 8 from 53rd to 61st
In Rainbows
by Radiohead
Faller Down 6 from 43rd to 49th
Kid A
by Radiohead
Faller Down 6 from 44th to 50th
The Bends
by Radiohead
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Top 99 Greatest Music AlbumsFlapJackJoeyOverall chart2025Unknown
Objectively Ranking BEA’s Top 100 AAL2014Custom chart2024
Top 99 Greatest Music AlbumsLimpLimbsOverall chart2017
Rearranging the top 100 flamingyesdeptCustom chart2022
Top 70 Greatest Music AlbumsVirtualMuffinOverall chart2017Unknown
Highest Rated Albums by Yearjonny5244Custom chart2025
Top 74 Greatest Music AlbumsacolabellaOverall chart2022
Top 86 Greatest Music AlbumsF1AaronOverall chart2022
Top 46 Music Albums of the 2010s DeusExMackia2010s decade chart2024
Top 99 Greatest Music Albumsvtzach14Overall chart2015

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Top 99 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
89/100 (from 58 votes)
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This chart is rated in the top 3% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 89.3/100, a mean average of 88.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 89.9/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 11.1.

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Top 99 Greatest Music Albums comments

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Rating:  
90/100
From 03/30/2024 17:17
Great chart. Lovin the accompanying notes
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 11/02/2023 09:12
So no Beatles?
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Rating:  
100/100
From 07/26/2022 00:35
Picks are absolutely fantastic and the commentary on how your music taste changes throughout must be great to look back on from a personal perspective. Great list!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 01/05/2021 22:37
Any chart with this much commentary attached to it is an amazing one in my book!
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Rating:  
90/100
From 12/02/2019 12:17
Gorillaz! I love every chart with gorillaz!
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Rating:  
90/100
From 06/05/2019 17:15
Nice chart, I like a lot of your picks for best tracks, crazy how you're so into Bowie, only think a couple of his albums are really up there with the best of all time
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 11/13/2018 09:04
@Sandinistar very good question, they're up there mainly for personal reasons, as in they have personal meaning to myself. They all mean a lot to me in one way or another.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 11/13/2018 01:34
I'm intrigued, because almost all of your Top 10 are highly regarded albums that I like okay and think are good but think are overrated because they fail as cohesive albums. Would like to understand why you think they're all great, because I'm not opposed to that view I just don't fully get it.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 10/08/2018 14:42
Ha it's taken me long enough to figure out how this site works, but here I am bby xoxo
Love your music, you're such an inspiration, I can't wait for Saturday Night Alternative to start up again.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 10/08/2018 14:40
Ha it's taken me long enough to figure out how this site works, but here I am bby xoxo
Love your music, you're such an inspiration, I can't wait for Saturday Night Alternative to start up again.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of the 1980s
1. The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths
2. Doolittle by Pixies
3. Remain In Light by Talking Heads
4. Disintegration by The Cure
5. The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses
6. Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush
7. The Joshua Tree by U2
8. Thriller by Michael Jackson
9. Purple Rain by Prince And The Revolution
10. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
11. Closer by Joy Division
12. Master Of Puppets by Metallica
13. Surfer Rosa by Pixies
14. Rain Dogs by Tom Waits
15. Appetite For Destruction by Guns N' Roses
16. Graceland by Paul Simon
17. Spirit Of Eden by Talk Talk
18. Murmur by R.E.M.
19. Back In Black by AC/DC
20. Ride The Lightning by Metallica
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