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
- Chart updated: 3 days ago
- (Created: 01/22/2011 20:07).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 12 | 12% | |
| 1970s | 33 | 33% | |
| 1980s | 15 | 15% | |
| 1990s | 19 | 19% | |
| 2000s | 14 | 14% | |
| 2010s | 5 | 5% | |
| 2020s | 2 | 2% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Neil Young | 7 | 7% | |
| Bob Dylan | 5 | 5% | |
| Crosby, Stills & Nash | 4 | 4% | |
| Led Zeppelin | 4 | 4% | |
| U2 | 3 | 3% | |
| The Dream Syndicate | 3 | 3% | |
| Black Sabbath | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)
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Top 100 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.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this chart. | Show all 136 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/16/2026 17:22 | Olli | 30 | 73/100 |
| ! | 08/05/2026 17:32 | areminder | 54 | 79/100 |
| ! | 06/01/2026 18:14 | jnmayles | 36 | 91/100 |
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 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.
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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.
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.
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...
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.
Lovely Stuff ! Neil Young is criminally missing from my first draft !




