Top 40 Greatest Music Albums
by 
Timhop 
- Chart updated: 04/21/2021 19:15
- (Created: 12/05/2014 09:15).
- Chart size: 40 albums.
There are 3 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 40 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 4 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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There is simply no way this could NOT be my number one album. I was lucky enough to have three older brothers who had great taste in music. I first heard this album when I was 7 years old, and from the first listen was totally captivated by its sound. I would listen to it extremely loud when no-one else was at home. I got a peverse thrill in thinking it was unsettling the neighbours. A masterpiece.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
60,087
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Rank in 1970s:
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In the mid eighties I lost all interest in current music. It all seemed so lame: Modern Talking, OMD, AHA, all that junk. Only a few eighties bands like Talking heads and the Waterboys really held interest for me. I went back in time and began digging around in record shops to expand the musical grounding my brothers had left for me: Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, David Bowie, Rodriguez, Floyd. This album changed everything. I’ll never forget where I was and who I was with when I first heard it.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
63,584
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A truly remarkable record of deep introspection, layered with all kinds of transcendental imagery from his Belfast childhood. Nothing quite like it had ever been done before, and he never did anything quite like it again, except perhaps on snatches of Veedon Fleece.
[First added to this chart: 12/06/2014]
Year of Release:
1968
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,342
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Quite a few friends at university had been into REM and I don’t know why but I just didn’t get it. I heard this album a bit and it also didn’t do much for me. Then one day we were at a party at the photographic studio I shared with two other guys. One of our friends put this album on. I’d had a toke or two of a joint and suddenly everything fell into place and what they were doing with their sound all made perfect sense. I’ve become a huge fan of theirs especially the older stuff like Murmur and Fables of the Reconstruction, but this one will always remain one of my all-time favourite albums. Just one song jars for me though: Ignoreland, although less so now than it did at first.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
19,148
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Comments:
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This guy and Nick Drake were introduced to the older generation of guitarists in the town I live in South Africa in the early 70's, and had a huge influence on many of them, and later on me too. A great, hugely under-rated album, dark, woozy and brooding, with fantastic double-bass by Danny Thompson.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,423
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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After hearing lots of early Waits and not liking it much, I finally clicked with him after hearing this album. You have to chuckle a bit while listening to Waits. There's a comic element on this and Swordfish that I just love.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,683
Rank in 1985:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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By far my favourite Dylan album. Can't stand the pronounced nasal whine on all his earlier stuff. Amazing what a decade or two of smoking did for both his and Joni's voices.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
20,867
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Average Rating:
Comments:
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This album really was a vindication for me. It took all that bland 80s junk and blew it right out the water. Listening to it was an intense, cathartic, almost spiritual experience. Its banks of layered acoustic guitars, violins, pianos and brass set it apart from anything else in 1987. That was the year I first heard it, although it was released in 85. It remains one of my all-time favourites, and I think Mike Scott and Karl Wallinger were one of Britain’s all-time great song-writing teams, even though their partnership was all-too brief. Just listening to it now and realise I really have to bump it up my chart a bit...
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,887
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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This album stunned me. Prophetic, apocalyptic, tender and dark. It made me realise just how powerful music can be when it has poetry in the lyrics, and just how lame most song lyrics really are. I read an interview with Mogwai once. They asked them why they don’t write lyrics for their music. They said, “Who can compete with Leonard Cohen?”
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
673
Rank in 1992:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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This guy and a few musician mates turned the Afrikaner establishment on its head with their music, just before the collapse of Apartheid. The Bob Dylan of South Africa. I rate him up there with Dylan and Cohen as a lyric writer. His dark and scandalous reworking of the national album (the song Swart September on this album) is the bravest thing I've ever heard on record. A hero and inspiration to me and many, many white South African musicians. The album was released as Niemandsland, only on vinyl. Niemandsland and Beyond is a later CD re-release.
[First added to this chart: 12/05/2014]
Total albums: 40. Page 1 of 4
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Top 40 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 3 | 8% | |
| 1970s | 12 | 30% | |
| 1980s | 13 | 33% | |
| 1990s | 9 | 23% | |
| 2000s | 1 | 3% | |
| 2010s | 2 | 5% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Van Morrison | 3 | 8% | |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 8% | |
| Leonard Cohen | 2 | 5% | |
| Nick Drake | 2 | 5% | |
| Radiohead | 1 | 3% | |
| Beach House | 1 | 3% | |
| Linton Kwesi Johnson | 1 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 40 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 13 from 31st to 18th Lost In The Dream by The War On Drugs |
| Up 3 from 20th to 17th Naturally by J.J. Cale |
| Up 3 from 19th to 16th Poetic Champions Compose by Van Morrison |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 6 from 13th to 19th Cold Fact by Rodriguez |
| Down 3 from 17th to 20th So by Peter Gabriel |
| Down 3 from 18th to 21st London Calling by The Clash |
| New entries |
|---|
| Bloom by Beach House |
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Top 40 Greatest Music Albums ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
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.
N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing all 4 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/12/2021 12:19 |  Goliath | 351 | 86/100 |
| ! | 04/14/2018 08:21 | Ulf | 186 | 80/100 |
| ! | 12/24/2014 02:43 |  benpaco | 142 | 85/100 |
| ! | 12/18/2014 16:40 |  BasdeWit97 | 448 | 89/100 |
Top 40 Greatest Music Albums favourites
Top 40 Greatest Music Albums comments
Showing all 3 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First |
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From Ulf 04/14/2018 08:21 | #212856
Great chart and comments
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Drzozzy 02/15/2017 19:01 | #185699
Any chart with Naturally in it is alright with me
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From benpaco 12/24/2014 02:43 | #130022
benpaco 12/24/2014 02:43 | #130022
While largely generic, there's a lot here, even in your top 10, that is surprising and interesting. Will be cool to see where it goes!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
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