Top 100 Music Albums of 1977
by 
neilgee 
- Chart updated: 07/02/2025 08:45
- (Created: 10/29/2015 23:15).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
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What to say about this album apart from it's an absolute gem? The only thing I can think of doing is retrieving my comments on the individual tracks one by one to give some idea of why I love it so.
One of the classic opening tracks of all time for me. It works perfectly. It's the best of his imput to Genesis meets the best of Peter the solo artist. I always thought this could have been a double a-side with Solisbury Hill.
Track 2 continues where Moribund leaves off, magical music. The first 3 tracks on this album hit heights never seen on one album for me.
Track 3: Just superb, classy rock n roll. Hard to comprehend that this wasn't a hit in it's own right as the follow up to Solisbury Hill.
4: I love it, I think it's interesting and inspired, it breaks all the rules, Gabriel's vocals never grate but they are great (Groan). It starts out like A Capella but almost develops into a rock ballad and the lyrics on this album are simply unsurpassed by any other album he's recorded. Terrific stuff!
5: After the pounding of Modern Love and the exquisite strangeness of Excuse Me, Humdrum is where Gabriel's ability to create an atmosphere in music comes to the fore.
I ride tandem with a random
Things don't run the way I planned them
In the humdrum
he sings with that faux ennui, and then the lilting, undercutting chorus before the song begins to build and build like a symphony towards it's climax. This is extraordinary stuff. Love it.
6: We're character actors from the Tower of Babel
Bewildered, burned out, hardly able
To sit astride the high wire cable
It's hard to balance, a little unstable.
sings PG in this beguiling start to the second side of the album, this song changes pace 3 times in the first 3 verses and held me mesmerised when I first turned my vinyl copy of this over in 1977.
Dont get me wrong, I'll be strong
When the slow burn sunset come along
goes the powerful chorus, one that I'm sure many teenagers identified with at the time and since as PG creates an atmosphere of pure pathos. God, I love this stuff!
7: The wine's all drunk and so am I
slurs PG against a background of a tinkling bar-room piano in another perfect example of atmosphere in song. Waiting for the Big One is supremely crafted piece of easy to listen to melody and stop/start tension. If the album was going to have a weak link it may be this one but it isn't because this song is superb and just adds to the spellbinding nature of this album. Phenomenal stuff!
8: An uplifting rock rhythm after the inebriated atmosphere of Waiting For the Big One but it's contrasted with the dark lyrics:-
And the sea is whipping up a welcome
If hell come we're all easy prey,
Trying to find a way
to make it alive"
and the repeated despairing refrain of 'You guys are crazy!' yet there's something shiningly optimistic in the music that defies the lyrics. A supreme example of a contrast/contradiction that works and all part and parcel (one part in nine equal parts) that makes up the most perfect album of all time, for me.
9: The superb show closer on the best album of all time, Flood builds slowly to a thundering chorus reminscent of crashing waves and ends with PG's plaintive:
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.
before that magnificient chorus breaks over us and ends the perfect album, God this is lovely stuff, writing about it makes me want to go and put it on right now! Brilliant!
As you can see I rather like PG's lyrics on this album, but the band is so tight too that finally here's a list of the personnel who played on it:
Peter Gabriel – vocals, keyboards, flute, recorder
Allan Schwartzberg – drums
Tony Levin – bass, tuba, leader of the Barbershop Quartet
Jimmy Maelen – percussion, synthibam, bones
Steve Hunter – acoustic guitars on "Solsbury Hill"; lead guitar on "Slowburn" and "Waiting for the Big One"; electric, acoustic & rhythm guitars; pedal steel
Robert Fripp – electric & classical guitars, banjo
Jozef Chirowski – keyboards
Larry Fast – synthesizer, pro [First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
One of the classic opening tracks of all time for me. It works perfectly. It's the best of his imput to Genesis meets the best of Peter the solo artist. I always thought this could have been a double a-side with Solisbury Hill.
Track 2 continues where Moribund leaves off, magical music. The first 3 tracks on this album hit heights never seen on one album for me.
Track 3: Just superb, classy rock n roll. Hard to comprehend that this wasn't a hit in it's own right as the follow up to Solisbury Hill.
4: I love it, I think it's interesting and inspired, it breaks all the rules, Gabriel's vocals never grate but they are great (Groan). It starts out like A Capella but almost develops into a rock ballad and the lyrics on this album are simply unsurpassed by any other album he's recorded. Terrific stuff!
5: After the pounding of Modern Love and the exquisite strangeness of Excuse Me, Humdrum is where Gabriel's ability to create an atmosphere in music comes to the fore.
I ride tandem with a random
Things don't run the way I planned them
In the humdrum
he sings with that faux ennui, and then the lilting, undercutting chorus before the song begins to build and build like a symphony towards it's climax. This is extraordinary stuff. Love it.
6: We're character actors from the Tower of Babel
Bewildered, burned out, hardly able
To sit astride the high wire cable
It's hard to balance, a little unstable.
sings PG in this beguiling start to the second side of the album, this song changes pace 3 times in the first 3 verses and held me mesmerised when I first turned my vinyl copy of this over in 1977.
Dont get me wrong, I'll be strong
When the slow burn sunset come along
goes the powerful chorus, one that I'm sure many teenagers identified with at the time and since as PG creates an atmosphere of pure pathos. God, I love this stuff!
7: The wine's all drunk and so am I
slurs PG against a background of a tinkling bar-room piano in another perfect example of atmosphere in song. Waiting for the Big One is supremely crafted piece of easy to listen to melody and stop/start tension. If the album was going to have a weak link it may be this one but it isn't because this song is superb and just adds to the spellbinding nature of this album. Phenomenal stuff!
8: An uplifting rock rhythm after the inebriated atmosphere of Waiting For the Big One but it's contrasted with the dark lyrics:-
And the sea is whipping up a welcome
If hell come we're all easy prey,
Trying to find a way
to make it alive"
and the repeated despairing refrain of 'You guys are crazy!' yet there's something shiningly optimistic in the music that defies the lyrics. A supreme example of a contrast/contradiction that works and all part and parcel (one part in nine equal parts) that makes up the most perfect album of all time, for me.
9: The superb show closer on the best album of all time, Flood builds slowly to a thundering chorus reminscent of crashing waves and ends with PG's plaintive:
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.
before that magnificient chorus breaks over us and ends the perfect album, God this is lovely stuff, writing about it makes me want to go and put it on right now! Brilliant!
As you can see I rather like PG's lyrics on this album, but the band is so tight too that finally here's a list of the personnel who played on it:
Peter Gabriel – vocals, keyboards, flute, recorder
Allan Schwartzberg – drums
Tony Levin – bass, tuba, leader of the Barbershop Quartet
Jimmy Maelen – percussion, synthibam, bones
Steve Hunter – acoustic guitars on "Solsbury Hill"; lead guitar on "Slowburn" and "Waiting for the Big One"; electric, acoustic & rhythm guitars; pedal steel
Robert Fripp – electric & classical guitars, banjo
Jozef Chirowski – keyboards
Larry Fast – synthesizer, pro [First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,199
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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A highlight of the vibrant 70's reggae scene for me. No shame in coming second to Peter Gabriel.
[First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
403
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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What can I say about the Pistols only album as a complete band: terrific? If the songs John Lydon had wrote for a follow up that made their way onto the first PIL album (Low life, Attack, Religion) are anything to go by then a second album would only have spoiled the perfect legacy of these one album wonders.
[First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,568
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
Elvis Costello's debut has a couple of duff tracks but the awesome strength of the better tracks more than makes up for that. Once I decided I liked Costello I went in both feet first, buying both of his first 2 albums together. I was going to be well pissed off if he didn't live up to expectations, but fortunately this wasn't the case as both albums are now in my all time top 100.
[First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,438
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
This was the album where I really got into Roxy, a bit late, but, hell, what's a few years out of time on this site? I'd enjoyed the singles before this but it was only when I bought this album padded out by Roxy's strongest tracks from the early albums that I became a fan.
[First added to this chart: 11/06/2015]
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[First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Buy album
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[First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
577
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 10/31/2015]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
684
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 01/02/2016]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
483
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 11/17/2015]
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Iggy Pop | 2 | 2% | |
| Johnny "Guitar" Watson | 2 | 2% | |
| The Stranglers | 2 | 2% | |
| WAR | 2 | 2% | |
| Fela Kuti & Africa 70 | 2 | 2% | |
| The Jam | 2 | 2% | |
| Ultravox | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| |
41 | 41% | |
| |
39 | 39% | |
 |
9 | 9% | |
 |
5 | 5% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 35th to 36th I Robot by The Alan Parsons Project |
| Down 1 from 36th to 37th Love You by The Beach Boys |
| Down 1 from 37th to 38th The Idiot by Iggy Pop |
| New entries |
|---|
| Forever Gold by The Isley Brothers |
| Leavers |
|---|
| Sweet Passion by Aretha Franklin |
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neilgee has created 71 other 1977 year charts - click here to explore them all.
Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
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n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/17/2019 23:03 |  Repo | 562 | 100/100 |
| ! | 01/20/2019 10:46 |  NoisyBeast | 86 | 91/100 |
| ! | 06/09/2018 14:53 |  bobbyb5 | 725 | 90/100 |
| ! | 07/20/2017 20:07 |  authorunknown | 64 | 83/100 |
Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 favourites
Top 100 Music Albums of 1977 comments
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From authorunknown 07/20/2017 20:07 | #194680
authorunknown 07/20/2017 20:07 | #194680
Wow. Good list. Like PG at #1. Culture - never heard of, must be fantastic since it's number 2 in this context. Stranglers and Ian Dury, and CHRIS SPEDDING! Nice.
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