Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by zgarrison88
Music ought to serve us. It ought to help us explore ourselves and the world we live in. It ought to express the true excitements of life. It ought to bring clarity to our lives by capturing a moment, an emotion, something beyond ourselves.
These are the Top 100 Albums, in my opinion, that do that best--combining high quality music with the ability to leave the listener better off than when they started.
- Chart updated: 04/26/2021 15:15
- (Created: 01/24/2015 19:20).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 14 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 88 out of 100 (from 30 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from the 1960s. (Remove this filter)
Top Tracks: Heroin, Venus in Furs
Lyrically, this is an honest look at life's underbelly: drugs, prostitution, relationships gone wrong. Musically, it's like nothing you've ever heard. Makes for a one-of-a-kind listening experience.
Best Line: “I don't know just where I'm going
But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can” [First added to this chart: 03/24/2016]
Top Tracks: Come Together, Here Comes the Sun, You Never Give Me Your Money - The End
This was the end of the Beatles, and they all knew it. It strikes the perfect balance of what the Beatles had always been and lets them go out on the best high note in music history.
Best Line: “Here comes the sun, doo da doo doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right” [First added to this chart: 03/22/2016]
Top Tracks: Alone Again Or, A House Is Not a Motel
Released in the Summer of Love, this album is "grim but blissful", from an artist "who intuitively understood that letting the sunshine in wouldn't instantly vaporize the world's (or his own) dark stuff". That being said, the sunshine certainly came through.
Best Line: “This is the only thing that I am sure of
And that's all that lives is gonna die
And there'll always be some people here to wonder why" [First added to this chart: 01/24/2019]
Top Tracks: Wouldn't It Be Nice, That's Not Me, God Only Knows, Caroline No
As one writer said, this is an album filled with "sad songs about loneliness and heartache; sad songs even about happiness." An essential listen that, despite its content, sure cheers me up anyway.
Best Line: “Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong?” [First added to this chart: 03/27/2016]
Top Tracks: Visions Of Johanna, I Want You, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
Another Dylan classic that merits praise for getting the listener to really think, even if they're not really sure what on earth they're thinking about.
Best Line: “To live outside the law, you must be honest" [First added to this chart: 03/22/2016]
Top Tracks: 21st Century Schizoid Man, The Court Of The Crimson King
Parental Advisory: EXPLICIT - (21st Century Schizoid Man)
The album that started Prog-Rock is infused with allusions to the Vietnam War, elements of folklore, and epic instrumental sections. One of a kind.
Best Line: “Death seed, blind man's greed
Poets' starving, children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty-first century schizoid man” [First added to this chart: 03/24/2016]
Top Tracks: Like A Rolling Stone, Ballad of a Thin Man, Desolation Row
Parental Advisory: RELIGIOUS EXCLAMATION - (Ballad of a Thin Man)
The album that "started" the 1960s is so densely poetic that he's either a lyrical genius or talking complete nonsense. Either way, this album has proved itself to be timeless.
Best Line: “They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town” [First added to this chart: 03/22/2016]
Top Tracks: Care of Cell 44, This Will Be Our Year, Time of The Season
This album is 95% about love, and 5% about the horrors of World War I. Gotta give them credit, it works. Even with the lines about how the singer's whole body won't stop shaking in terror, this album provides an extremely pleasant, happy-go-lucky listening experience.
Best Line: “The warmth of your love's like the warmth of the sun
And this will be our year, took a long time to come” [First added to this chart: 08/26/2019]
This is jazz at its very best. A masterpiece from the extremely talented John Coltrane, dedicated to his Supreme Love.
Best Line: "A love supreme" [First added to this chart: 08/26/2019]
Top Tracks: Blowin' In The Wind, Masters Of War, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Parental Advisory: SEXUAL CONTENT - (I Shall Be Free)
Dylan’s first commercially successful venture has several absolute gems to offer. Prominently tackling themes about the Civil Rights Movement and heartbreak, this early record is lyrically much less abstract than his later work and a true folk classic.
Best Line: “The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind” [First added to this chart: 03/27/2016]
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
Decade | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
1930s | 0 | 0% | |
1940s | 1 | 1% | |
1950s | 3 | 3% | |
1960s | 13 | 13% | |
1970s | 20 | 20% | |
1980s | 5 | 5% | |
1990s | 12 | 12% | |
2000s | 24 | 24% | |
2010s | 21 | 21% | |
2020s | 1 | 1% |
Artist | Albums | % | |
---|---|---|---|
|
|||
Bob Dylan | 5 | 5% | |
Radiohead | 5 | 5% | |
Switchfoot | 4 | 4% | |
Josh Garrels | 4 | 4% | |
Sufjan Stevens | 3 | 3% | |
Pink Floyd | 3 | 3% | |
U2 | 3 | 3% | |
Show all |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
Biggest climbers |
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Up 1 from 96th to 95th Where The Light Shines Through by Switchfoot |
Biggest fallers |
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Down 1 from 95th to 96th Vice Verses by Switchfoot |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
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Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 30 ratings for this chart.
Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
12/25/2021 07:00 | craab | 14 | 95/100 | |
11/29/2021 12:42 | Cytoma | 171 | 90/100 | |
11/25/2021 16:40 | Tamthebam | 549 | 85/100 | |
11/25/2021 13:20 | desh79 | 1,281 | 93/100 | |
02/25/2021 02:51 | RoundTheBend | 373 | 92/100 |
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This chart is rated in the top 12% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 87.8/100, a mean average of 85.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 88.4/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 17.1.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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I love the values vision of your chart. Thank you! I LOVE Switchfoot, and am glad to see another fan out there on BEA! Based on your chart, I think you should check out the Hold Steady album: Separation Sunday.
Illinois is so deserving of a number 1 spot. Nice chart
What a beautiful and honest chart! Love it!!
Strong to your beliefs this is good.
Also enjoyed seeing Switchfoot getting the credit they deserve. Cheers
The joy of music is how varied it is and how different people's tastes are. Fascinating list. I've never seem one before with so many Christmas based albums in it. I liked your notes indicating what genre each album was in. And as you said, 'what makes the best music for each one of us is it's ability to leave us feeling better off than when they started'.
You like it epic.
Good list
what is Switchfoot?
the rest good
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Pretty good! You cant go wrong with these albums
you have alot of great albums and a few surprises.
im definitely going to have to listen to switchfoot- since you give it such high value.
i think all the critics/members will be faced with this observation.
But, thank you, for making me aware of switchfoot. i hope it is as good as you think it is.
Love your list. Need to check out Switchfoot, though
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