Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by Johnnyo

The rules; I have to own it, no best of's or greatest hits. The occasional compilation is allowed

I'm doing write ups for each album. A lot to go but starting to make progress
There are 116 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 136 votes). Please log in or create an account to leave a comment or assign a rating.

Log in or create an account to rate this chart, leave comments or join the discussion.
Share this chart
Collector's summary Help The maximum rank used by the Collector's Summary is configurable from your profile (top 100 is currently selected). Log in or create an account to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!
Sort Sort by
I can’t put my figure on precisely why this is my favourite album of all time. Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that it has four 100/100 tracks on it, Adam Raised A Cain, Candy’s Room, Racing In The Street & Factory.

Maybe it’s because it flows seamlessly from one fabulous track to another. It’s not that there’s no filler here, it’s that there’s not even an average track on the album. Every, and I mean every, track is at least a 90/100.

How do you follow up your breakthrough album? Born To Run has been described as a “Wall Of Sound” album, and although I think that it’s a great album, it’s way too over produced for my liking. DOTEOT is leaner. Some say angrier. Not sure about that but it’s certainly more, lyrically anyway, in your face. There’s something of the punk sensibility to the album with it’s raw energy

I think that I warm to the characters depicted so eloquently by Springsteen on the album, their struggles and their fights.
It feels real to me. What I think sounds like, The real New Jersey but, not coming from there, I might be way off the mark.

So many songs were written for the album that didn’t fit the albums narrative that Springsteen famously “gave them away” to other artists
• "Hearts of Stone" & "Talk to Me" to Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes;
• "Because the Night" to Patti Smith;
• "Fire" to Robert Gordon;
• "Rendezvous" to Greg Kihn;
• "Don't Look Back" to the Knack;
• "This Little Girl" to Gary U.S. Bonds

You have more guitar solos and less sax (although it’s still there) than on his previous albums, which I prefer.
[First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,943
Rank in 1978:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
The first Rolling Stones studio album to feature Mick Taylor and for me this is the best Stones line up.

With the occasional exception, this album returned to the basics of drums, guitar, bass, and percussion with keyboards and sax included on various tracks. This for me is the Stones happy place.

The album moves seamlessly from hard rock, blues, through elements of rock and roll to Americana / country. It’s a masterpiece of all the elements that made the Stones the greatest rock N rock band in the world and this is one of the greatest albums in history.

NME wrote that the album "captures the Stones bluesy swagger" in a "dark-land where few dare to tread". I like that description

David Hepworth, a favourite writer of mine wrote that the contributions of guest performers such as Keys, Jim Dickinson, and Preston gave the album "more musical range than any other Rolling Stones album", including "Dickinson's honky-tonk piano on 'Wild Horses'" and "Preston's churchy organ solo on 'I Got the Blues'". He also suggested that Taylor's "Latin-flavoured guitar solo" on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" was influenced by Santana's 1970 album Abraxas.
[First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
15,995
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (86/100 - 1945 votes)  86 (1,945 votes)
Comments:
The third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and produced by Jimi, this is his greatest work. The production is exceptional with unique effects developed by Jimi and the band (but mostly Jimi!). I love the experimentation going on here

This is my favourite Experience album

I have always struggled to articulate this album to other people so I’m going to use the words of other, more eloquent individuals to articulate my thoughts on the album. Hendrix called the tracks on this album “sound paintings” and I think that sums up the concept and delivery of the album particularly well. David Stubbs, said that it is "undoubtedly a rock album, albeit rock on the point of evolving into something else." I think that’s a good description. To have been in his head when he was making this. Where might Jimi have gone if he had lived?

In my words it’s a far-out funky / psychedelic blues album that draws heavily on psychedelia. It feels messy in places and sprawling, maybe even mixed-up and muddled and I love it. There are few albums ever recorded that have as much energy
flowing through them as ladyland.

It’s an amazing piece of work that’s essential for anyone’s record collection
[First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1968
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,492
Rank in 1968:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (86/100 - 2020 votes)  86 (2,020 votes)
Comments:
Where do you start when writing something about such an iconic and well-known album and probably the most famous hard-rock album ever recorded?

First off, it’s the most consistent album that Led Zeppelin, the greatest rock band of all time released, with every track rating 85 / 100 or better and two tracks, Stairway To heaven and When The Levee Breaks (probably Zeppelins best ever cover) scoring the magic 100
What also makes this their best album is that they are at their creative peak and the tracks seem to have a flow to them, whether this is deliberate or not I don’t know. The tracks feel like they have the space to develop in their own way. With the odd exception, i.e. Kashmir, this is the pinnacle of Zeppelin’s songwriting. I also don’t think that Jimmy ever played better than on this album

This is a masterpiece of heavy rock and defined not only Led Zeppelin but the sound and style of '70s hard rock. It’s that important an album. I’ve read this album described as Heavy Metal! Heavy Rock certainly but metal? Not sure that it is TBH
[First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
36,011
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (90/100 - 4045 votes)  90 (4,045 votes)
Comments:
Some may pick Dark Side Of The Moon (SOTM), Animals or The Wall as their favourite Pink Floyd album (all valid choice by the way) but I choose Wish You Were Here (WYWH) as their greatest album.

Very much a homage to Syd Barrett, the album contains the wonderful Shine On You Crazy Diamond, for me a 100 / 100 track on a 100 / 100 album. As a top and tailing for the album I don’t mind Shine On You Crazy Diamond being split in intro and outro.

In addition to Pink Floyd, another musical hero of mine is Roy Harper, so his inclusion on lead vocals on Have a Cigar is just another bonus on an album that delivers across the board.

Roger Waters called it their "most complete" album. Wright and Gilmour also cited the album as their favourite Pink Floyd album. Wright said: "It's an album I can listen to for pleasure, and there aren't many Floyd albums that I can." Gilmour said: "The end result of all that, whatever it was, definitely has left me an album I can live with very very happily. I like it very much." It’s hard to argue with that to be honest

Another aspect of the album that I love is that each track crosses seamlessly into the next, almost as if they are one continuous piece of music.

On the surface, I think that this is a more accessible and even simpler album than DSOTM, which, although brilliant, can feel a little weighty, whereas WYWH is lighter and quite beautiful all round.
[First added to this chart: 08/23/2011]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
41,477
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (91/100 - 4107 votes)  91 (4,107 votes)
Comments:
Stephen Stills is the debut solo album by, not surprisingly, Stephen Stills and what a debut it is.

This was one of four albums released by each member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young following the release of Déjà Vu. The other three were, After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, If I Could Only Remember My Name by David Crosby and Songs for Beginners by Graham Nash. Of the four albums, this is my favourite

This album includes an array of stellar musicians, many only contributing to a track to two but what a line up it was. In addition to Stephen Stills you had . Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Booker T. Jones, Ringo Starr, Dallas Taylor, Rita Coolidge, David Crosby, Priscilla Jones, John Sebastian, Cass Elliot, Claudia Lennear and Graham Nash. No too shabby.

Although nowadays, the lyrics to "Love the One You're With" don’t sit that well with me now, you cannot deny that it’s a great track and one of the best opening tracks to any album ever and it sets the scene for a number of killer tracks including; “Do For The Others”, “Old Times, Good Times”, “Go Back Home” and “Black Queen”, just to name a few.

Is this album flawed, absolutely, do I love it to death, you bet, can I put my finger on why I love it, not really but everything that Shephen Stills touched at this time had a little magic sprinkled over it. He was on fire as a musician, a composer and performed. It was a purple patch not to be repeated in his career.

This album has all of the elements of a classic album. Performances off the scale, a defined direction, with songs that are among the best he's ever written. It also got brilliant arrangements which elevate the album
[First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
465
Rank in 1970:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
I would guess that very few album have had as much written about them as this one, so what to add that's new. My personal perspective is that this was an album that I was introduced to by a friend who became one of the greatest influences on my musical tastes for years to follow. [First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
55,653
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Top rated album (92/100 - 5393 votes)  92 (5,393 votes)
Comments:
Not to be confused with the 1989 truncated release, which is a stellar album in its own right, this, as the title suggests, is the Complete gig, unabridged. If you come across either version, and you love raw, live rock n roll (in the broadest sense) albums, buy it.

This album captures one of the greatest live bands. Raw, powerful, energetic and simply enjoying what they do best. Playing together and entertaining their fans.

I guess I love this album so much because I've seen the syndicate play live for over 40 years and it's one of my greatest musical experiences of my life, every time.

It is the last album released before the band broke up, they reunited in around 2010, and came out initially as a double album on the heels of their last studio album, Ghost Stories. A great studio album by the way

The album was incorrectly reported to have been recorded after Ghost Stories; in fact, the recordings were made on 31 January 1988, before Ghost Stories was recorded. The show took place at Raji's, a Los Angeles club, "in front of a delirious hometown audience". Oh, to have been there that night!

Post release and hearing that the Syndicate were disbanding this felt like a fitting career ending release. It encapsulated what fans loved about their Velvet Underground meets Television sound. Dream Syndicate are the quintessential Paisley Underground band.

If you love albums like Neil Youngs Live Rust, you’ll dig this a lot
[First added to this chart: 07/19/2020]
Year of Release:
2004
Appears in:
Rank Score:
130
Rank in 2004:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Deadwing is my favourite album by progressive rock band Porcupine Tree.

I’m not the biggest fan of prog but when done well, like with this concept album, it can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best albums ever made.

This is the “heaviest” Trees album by quiet a stretch, almost veering into metal at certain points, which might go some way to explaining why I love it so much. Shallow is an example of the metal influences here. But it’s not all about the noise. There are quieter tracks like Glass arm Shattered, so something for everyone I think

Every song is a classic heavy rock masterpiece with standout tracks being, Arriving Somewhere, Mellotron Scratch and Halo but to be honest, every track here is great

The production, as you would expect from Steven Wilson is pretty much perfect

I hadn’t appreciated until just recently that the album is based on a screenplay written by Steven Wilson and Mike Bennion and is a ghost story. Steven Wilson described the album as a surreal "ghost story” and said that "the idea is ultimately that this album will form a kind of companion with the feature film." The film never happened but the album did

As you might expect from a concept album, the flow on this is exquisite. It can at times feel like one continuous performance broken down into its constituent parts. From that standpoint I think that it’s brilliant.
[First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
2005
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,316
Rank in 2005:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Fav Track = Reach Down [First added to this chart: 02/11/2011]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,928
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
Don't agree with this chart? Create your own from the My Charts page!

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

There have been no changes to this chart.
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Top studio albums of all timeJohnnyoCustom chart2022
My top scoring albums of all timeJohnnyoCustom chart2022
Minus BEA Top 100JohnnyoCustom chart2023
1 album per artist - greatest albums of all timeJohnnyoCustom chart2026
Top 100 greatest music albums (alternative list)JohnnyoCustom chart2026
Greatest US albumsJohnnyoCustom chart2019
Minus BEA Top 1000JohnnyoCustom chart2023
Greatest albums by US artists (1 - 100)JohnnyoCustom chart2020
The best album from each yearJohnnyoCustom chart2024
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970sJohnnyo1970s decade chart2026

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


Join 50,000+ music fans


Join now It only takes a moment.

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
86/100 (from 136 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this chart.  | Show all 136 ratings for this chart.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberChart ratingsAvg. chart rating
The chart has been updated since this rating was assigned   
80/100
 !
09/16/2026 17:22 Olli  Ratings distribution  3073/100
The chart has been updated since this rating was assigned   
90/100
 !
08/05/2026 17:32 areminder  Ratings distribution  5479/100
The chart has been updated since this rating was assigned   
95/100
 !
06/01/2026 18:14 jnmayles  Ratings distribution  3691/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 has a Bayesian average rating of 86.1/100, a mean average of 85.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 86.1/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 10.9.


Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to leave a rating

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this chart as a favourite  | Show all 20 members

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums forum mentions

This chart has been referenced 10 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Johnnyo () 1. by (1978) 2. by (1971) 3. by (1968) 4. by (1971) 5. by (1975) 6. by (1970) 7. by (1973) 8. by (2004) 9. (2005) 10. by (1991) 11. by (1975) 12. (1991) 13. (1988) 14. by (1969) 15. by (1967) 16. by (1969) 17. (1976) 18. by (1989)…”
(10 mentions across Chart of the Day topics)
View latest topic →

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 116 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
From 09/01/2013 22:19 | #84986
Seems like you and I listen to a lot of the same music, but we disagree as to which of our favorite groups' albums were best. Give me "The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle" over "Darkness", "After the Gold Rush" over "Everbody Knows" and "Led Zeppelin" over "IV".

Very enjoyable list, of course.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 2
Log in to reply
From 07/30/2013 11:39 | #82730
Thanks an outlaw. Actually, I went to meattrain's chart after he / she commented on mine to see what good musical taste looks like to find just 1 album.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 2
Log in to reply
From 08/04/2011 02:05 | #25677
Neil Young is one of my all time favs and that's what make this chart for me, not necesarilly of my taste but still some great selections all and all, I will stand by your side on two things Resistance is a good album and the fact that Bono is an asshole with his political activism should not be a reason for failing to recognize U2 as one of the all time greats...
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
Log in to reply
From 11/06/2011 17:55 | #29886
Cool list, I like that although your heyday would appear to be the early 70's you've clearly continued to keep your ears open to new things as there's plenty of good stuff from the last 3 decades as well. I will definitely have a listen to some of the stuff I'm not familiar with. Cheers.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
Log in to reply
From 02/01/2011 14:15 | #17952
Lovely Stuff ! Neil Young is criminally missing from my first draft !
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 2
Log in to reply
Anonymous
What do you think of this chart? Join the conversation!!

Log in or create an account to rate this chart, leave comments or join the discussion.