Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by calsper

The difficult task of turning something as subjective as the power of music into an objective measure seems both arbitrary and heuristic if one is to avoid leaving readers with an undifferentiated overview.

In this chart I try to take into consideration certain aspects that I regard as crucial in order to rank the top 100 albums in music history, in which I believe a multifaceted approach is needed.

I rank by taking into account components of the individual album related to:
- Memories: my personal testemonies, confessions and experiences related to the music album as a listener, musician and human being
- History: the significance of music history and the vast impact and ways that single recordings have echoed throughout time as seminal artistic testamonies
- State-dependent emotion: the creative impact that I experience in listening and the emotional states that emerge during the course of the album's runtime
- Production: the soundstage, instrumentation, transparency and mastering of certain albums inducted into this chart as musical detail and presence to me is a highly enriching aspect of experiencing music.

This is a wonderful website. I am honored to be part of it and to have the privilege of being inspired by the whole-hearted music lovers in it. ..Enjoy

Best Casper

• Chart updated: 06/01/2022 08:45
• (Created: 03/09/2015 01:47).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 40 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 90 out of 100 (from 67 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

• Summary
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4. (=)

Funeral 

 Arcade Fire

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2004 was a genre defining year for music. This is linearly channelled; this is tormented childhood memories, which Arcade Fire turn into something so brave and empowering that one cannot help but to be moved by the story of nostalgic childhood and loss that the album revolves around. Butler is terrifyingly vulnerable and delivers the lyrics in a most beautiful and desperate manner.

The album is celebratory, emotionally rich and life-affirming, and this makes the revolving theme of death as polarised to its nature as possible.

Filled with so much beautiful songwriting and an awe inspiring track-list, music history's biggest post-modern classic is right here in my opinion.

Although Indie by definition died in 2011 (the year which in itself marked a frightening shift in terms of music relativism, e.g. streaming-services, death of listening and album focus) when The Suburbs received Album of the Year at the Grammy's, it was revived right here on their debut and masterpiece. [First added to this chart: 03/10/2015]

Year of Release:

2004

Appears in:

2,881 charts

Rank Score:

36,115

Rank in 2004:

1

Rank in 2000s:

3

Overall Rank:

15

Average Rating:

 88 (3,657 votes)

Comments:

401

22. (=)

Blue 

 Joni Mitchell

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Naked to the bare bone is the emotional impression that I am left with after each listen - so bare and ultimately vulnerable. An album in such a contrast to "Heijra" - her ultimate feminist effort of '76, five years later to this release.

Mitchell is singing of her personal defeats, helplessness, disaster, her love for the man she couldn't get a hold of this "Richard".

Actually, the pivotal experience in Mitchell's life that drove the emergence of the album was her relationship with James Taylor. Her love and anguish is so beautifully expressed.

Simply put, so beautiful and the defining break-up album for me. [First added to this chart: 03/10/2015]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,375 charts

Rank Score:

16,780

Rank in 1971:

6

Rank in 1970s:

20

Overall Rank:

68

Average Rating:

 85 (1,499 votes)

Comments:

114

47. (46) 1

The Suburbs 

 Arcade Fire

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[First added to this chart: 03/25/2015]

Year of Release:

2010

Appears in:

1,846 charts

Rank Score:

19,854

Rank in 2010:

2

Rank in 2010s:

4

Overall Rank:

47

Average Rating:

 85 (2,725 votes)

Comments:

255

70. (69) 1

After The Gold Rush 

 Neil Young

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I heard this album for the first time in Tuscany with my family, driving up and down the beautiful cypress hills with the landscape making a beautiful music video for what first appeared to me as a banal soundtrack for a family road trip. Actually, and literally, the album was inspired by an unmade screenplay called "After The Gold Rush".

However, as the album unfolded to me and after several and subsequent listens, I absolutely fell in love with Young's fragile nature and silent protests.

Neil Young takes the listener on his journeys, telling stories of lost integrity with a frustrated and broken heart, both on behalf of himself individually as well as collectively. Lastly, Young's often criticised guitar soloing is great and very well fitting for the lyrical themes on this record. [First added to this chart: 03/25/2015]

Year of Release:

1970

Appears in:

1,580 charts

Rank Score:

15,193

Rank in 1970:

2

Rank in 1970s:

23

Overall Rank:

83

Average Rating:

 86 (1,780 votes)

Comments:

129

99. (=)

Songs Of Love And Hate 

 Leonard Cohen

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[First added to this chart: 03/25/2015]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

538 charts

Rank Score:

3,714

Rank in 1971:

21

Rank in 1970s:

109

Overall Rank:

472

Average Rating:

 83 (619 votes)

Comments:

21

Total albums: 5. Page 1 of 1

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	3	3%
1960s	17	17%
1970s	27	27%
1980s	14	14%
1990s	9	9%
2000s	11	11%
2010s	19	19%
2020s	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%
The Beatles	5	5%
Radiohead	4	4%
Steely Dan	3	3%
Kendrick Lamar	2	2%
Bon Iver	2	2%
Arcade Fire	2	2%
Bob Dylan	2	2%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	51	51%
	31	31%
	5	5%
	5	5%
	3	3%
	1	1%
	1	1%
Show all

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest fallers
Down 1 from 25th to 26th Histoire De Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg
Down 1 from 26th to 27th Skylarking by XTC
Down 1 from 27th to 28th The Doors by The Doors

New entries
Africa by Toto

Leavers
Astral Weeks by Van Morrison

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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 67 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
85/100	03/20/2025 22:50	SomethingSpecial	1,108	85/100
100/100	11/08/2022 02:33	Larcx13	1,141	86/100
80/100	11/07/2022 21:53	Moondance	475	85/100
95/100	11/07/2022 14:04	flamingyesdept	103	84/100
90/100	01/03/2022 17:10	Goliath	348	86/100

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 2% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 90.4/100, a mean average of 90.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 91.1/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 9.0.

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

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Rating:  

80/100

From Moondance 11/07/2022 21:57

Some terrific comments that I enjoyed reading. The chart reads like a reshuffling of the best of the best BEA rated albums - which is fine....but the chart didn't excite me like the more adventurous charts do.

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

Rating:  

100/100

From DommeDamian 04/28/2022 12:13

Nærmest endnu bedre end 4 år siden.

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

Rating:  

90/100

From Goliath 01/03/2022 17:11

22 in common, contains many classics, as it should.

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

Rating:  

65/100

From Boltzmann 09/02/2018 11:20

The most PC chart I have ever seen on this site, and that’s saying something. Do you even have a taste of your own?

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (1 helpful | 2 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From DommeDamian 11/23/2017 11:09

11 albums og 18 kunstnere. Vi har virkeligt meget til fælles. Fed liste og endnu bedre beskrivelser, homie

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

Rating:  

90/100

From CharlieBarley 11/16/2017 19:57

Good chart like the notes plenty of heavy hitters

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

Rating:  

85/100

From platus 11/16/2017 18:33

very nice chart

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

Rating:  

90/100

From PanheadWarrior 08/02/2017 22:33

A lot of great albums and some albums I will have to check out! I liked reading your album reviews. Very good stuff!

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

Rating:  

80/100

From LedZep 05/01/2017 12:18

It's got all the classics but that's just it, not a single choice I didn't see on basically every chart ever. This is good and bad at the same time. The second thing is that I don't like some of the choices, but descriptions compensate for that. Not that diverse, but still very charming. I'm confused.

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

Rating:  

80/100

From Liedzeit 04/28/2017 07:52

Too many albums that everybody seems to like, for my taste. No wonder it resembles the Top 100 rearranged most. Only 2 2digits albums (in less than 100 charts). This is hard too understand for me. There is joy in loving albums that are obscure.

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

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