Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by hairymarx1 
My key criteria for selection are innovation and originality, mainly within the various strands of electronic and psychedelic-based music, which are my major areas of interest.
The fourth, often overlapping criteria, are that albums engage on an emotional and intellectual level and have a consistent conceptual narrative thread running through them.
Entries 51-100 are subject to frequent change. I made the conscious decision to omit compilations, classical and jazz releases. Maximum of one album per artist.
I would like to thank the music critic Pierro Scaruffi (www.scaruffi.com) for introducing me to some of the artists in this chart who have made my life richer as a result.
- Chart updated: 08/04/2016 22:45
- (Created: 03/16/2011 02:09).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 127 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 119 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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'Astral Weeks' is a beautiful and brave work of art; an experimental success where poetry and music synthesize into an over-riding unity of purpose. Morrison's mesmerizing 'stream of consciousness' warbling celtic vocal style is like no other. Recorded over the space of 12 hours, 'Astral Weeks' represents an inspired and 'spontaneous' burst of creativity that has never been equalled. This, more than any other, is the album that I have been most drawn to over the last 35 years, having first listened to it as a 15 year old in 1977 when most of my friends were obsessing over the contemporary bands of the new wave. The sheer beauty of the music, and the timeless vivid poetic imagery conjured up by the lyrics, are unmatched in the history of rock music. This album, more than any other, has been the soundtrack to my life.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1968
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,335
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Arguably, punk aesthetics, alternative 'art' and indie rock was born the moment the Velvet Underground walked into a recording studio. The influence of the Velvet's debut can be heard in almost everything interesting that followed from the new-wave movement of the late 1970s through to the post-punk, noise and shoe-gazing movements of the 1980s and 1990s. Emerging from the UK indie scene generation of this latter period were the bands signed to the seminal Scottish 'Postcard' record label, many of whom would not have started a band if it were not for this album. That's an illustration of how significant the Velvets were to my generation.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
39,873
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'Tonight's The Night' is a solemn meditation on the pessimism of the 1970s that emerged from the idealism of the 1960s. This is a record of immense, but at the same time, subtle beauty borne out of loss and redemption. The warmth, humour and overriding sense of raw humanity and vulnerability depicted by Young's rich lyricism, crackling vocals and the all-round brilliant but understated musicianship, touches the deep recesses of the psyche in a very profound way. This is arguably Neil Young's most solidly consistent work from his most creatively fertile period. This is an album that will refuse to date because both the themes, raw poetic beauty of the lyrics and the quality of the musicianship are timeless.
[First added to this chart: 07/31/2011]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,162
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'Mirror Man' showcases The Magic Band at it's most deliberately shambolic and free. Long 'live' primordial rambling jams extend the notion of the Blues standard to its limits. Structurally, the Captain game-plays in the Delta tradition adding satirical and infantile elements over a creative carpet of complex rhythms and free Blues arrangements. The result is an extraordinary work of pyrotechnical brilliance. With its combination of a bedlam of guitars and tribal percussion, allied to Beefheart's atonality, 'Mirror Man' was the first album of it's kind to shape an aesthetic of 'anti-music' that was truelly revolutionary. The Captain's artistic vision transcends the superficiality of the acid trip by servicing it to the musical theatre of the absurd. As Scaruffi puts it, "This music is the most faithful expression of the Freak culture, of its marginalization more than its rebellion, of its inexhaustible creativity, of its academic disgust, of its infantile ferocity of its desecrating vision of the world"
[First added to this chart: 07/31/2011]
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Pink Floyd's first two albums epitomised the British psychedelic scene of the late 1960s. 'Piper' merges the three strands of US psychedelia - the eccentric melody of Jefferson Airplane, the improvised jam of the Velvet Underground and the abstract freak-out of Red Crayola. The end result was a new distinctive, highly inventive and groundbreaking form of pyschedelic rock music that merges the Dadaism of Syd Barrett with brilliant guitar riffs, wonderfully imaginative arrangements and memorable songs. The influence of Piper on subsequent generations of musicians cannot be underestimated.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,010
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'Parable' is one of the most influential and pioneering psychedelic albums of the 1960's and probably of all-time. The influence the albums deconstructed sound and industrial dissonance stretches all the way to the abstract rock of 'Faust' through to post-punk, new wave and the neo-psychedelic aesthetic of shoegaze. The expressionistic 'freakouts' are interspersed with conventional compositions and formally structured songs (all of which are timeless psychedelic classics in their own right), which nevertheless do not detract from the overall conceptual thread of the album. This unique-sounding and innovative psychedelic pandemonium is akin to a cross-fertilization of Edgar Varese, Frank Zappa, Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,333
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One of the most musically accomplished bands of their time (and of any time), Bardo Pond produced this brilliant album that comprises a maelstrom of guitar distortions and manic drumming underscored by repetitively brutal, cosmic and supersonic drones. The overall soundscape is one that merges the post-rock and avante-garde experimentalism of say, Sonic Youth, the acid jam of Grateful Dead, the powerhouse blues of MC5 and the shoegazing of My Bloody Valentine. This is one of the key albums of the 1990s - it's reputation grows with the passage of time.
[First added to this chart: 08/09/2011]
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This masterpiece was the album that introduced Nico's unique art to the world. There is no precedent for the chanteuse's icy gothic, medieval and neo-classical aesthetics - eerie and doom-laden but no less beautiful for that. This is a stunningly original, timeless and erudite work of art that transcends commercial considerations. As John Cale put it: "The Marble Index is an artefact, not a commodity."
[First added to this chart: 01/31/2013]
Year of Release:
1968
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Rank Score:
1,321
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Neu's 'motorik' beat of surging rhythmic impulses, obsessive repitition and cosmic futuristic and innovative soundscapes predicted the neurosis of the post-industrial era as exemplified in the work of artists like Pere Ubu, Joy Division and Public Image Limited. The repetitive tribal beats, particularly the melodic element of the music also anticipated the post rock of the early 1990s most notably in the work of Stereolab.
[First added to this chart: 07/31/2011]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
388
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The first track on this amazing album, 'Rachel Point', sets the scene for what is to come. Pounding drums, Miles Davis-style trumpet licks and looping keyboard wails are only the starting point for the mind-blowing 'Galina', a piece characterized by tribal pow-pow beats, heavy bass lines, organ drones and minimalist piano patterns set against a symphonic backdrop. The sonically extreme music is thrilling. This contrasts with the epic trumpet crescendo of 'Trouble And Luck' and the Bacharach-tinged orchestral aria of the dub tinged 'To Die A Little'. With this album, Coxon and Wales pioneered the genre 'ambient-jungle'.
[First added to this chart: 06/24/2011]
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 24 | 24% | |
| 1970s | 35 | 35% | |
| 1980s | 17 | 17% | |
| 1990s | 18 | 18% | |
| 2000s | 4 | 4% | |
| 2010s | 2 | 2% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Can | 1 | 1% | |
| Sonic Youth | 1 | 1% | |
| The Dream Syndicate | 1 | 1% | |
| Bob Dylan | 1 | 1% | |
| Miles Davis | 1 | 1% | |
| Thee Oh Sees | 1 | 1% | |
| The Velvet Underground & Nico | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
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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 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 119 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/24/2025 10:01 |  SomethingSpecial | 1,104 | 85/100 |
| ! | 02/24/2022 05:35 |  DriftingOrpheus | 78 | 91/100 |
| ! | 10/22/2020 04:59 | Szyfman | 174 | 85/100 |
| ! | 06/18/2020 03:22 |  RoundTheBend | 372 | 92/100 |
| ! | 03/11/2020 08:48 | LittleMatt | 107 | 80/100 |
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 85.7/100, a mean average of 81.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 85.6/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 22.0.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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From RoundTheBend 06/18/2020 03:22 | #253785
RoundTheBend 06/18/2020 03:22 | #253785
The actual reason is because he was an ass to me.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
dihansse 03/28/2018 18:51 | #211873
dihansse 03/28/2018 18:51 | #211873
many recs to seek out
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From 
JulianR 02/18/2018 22:17 | #208766
JulianR 02/18/2018 22:17 | #208766
You know, I decided to actually look into claims of plagirization of scaruffi. And I have decided that while this guy certainly mimicks him very closely, he is in fact stating his own opinions and beliefs. That doesn't mean that he doesn't fall prey to the same meaningless pretentious verbosity that scaruffi does, but I dont think he is downright stealing scaruffi's work, just heavily imitating. He still deserves a poor score for being both unoriginal and uninteresting, but not the 5/100 that he previously recieved from me.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From JulianR 10/27/2017 00:51 | #200130
JulianR 10/27/2017 00:51 | #200130
Scaruffi imitation at its most mediocre. See skeeter's comment below
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From voland 06/01/2017 15:59 | #191809
Thanks for Rickie Lee Jones. Never heard of her before. But it's very beautiful music.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From skeeter 04/20/2017 14:09 | #189574
The reason for all the low ratings on this chart is that its creator Daniel Margrain aka hairymarx1 plagiarized all the analysis and comments of the albums from Piero Scaruffi. He's also done this repeatedly elsewhere on this site, Amazon and his own website. See Scaruffi's website that he mentions in his introduction on here as being the music critic who "introduced him to some of the artists in the chart" (of course without giving credit for all the plagiarized reviews) and type in keywords "Daniel Margrain" and "plagiarist" in the search engine to see the full details and extent of this. I pointed this out before but since this site only displays the 10 most recent comments for a chart I guess the notice needs a boost now.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
CharlieBarley 02/07/2017 02:38 | #185038
CharlieBarley 02/07/2017 02:38 | #185038
One of the most refreshing charts I have read. Mine, by comparison is much more mainstream, I am finding. Love that you are a fan of psychedelic rock. I had no idea there were so many psych artists. I can't wait to discover some of these. I have got a few of these albums but not many. I am just getting into PIL and Metal Box is going to be my next purchase. I love Lydon gone psychotic, which seems to be his default setting. I also like Velvets, Neil young, Pink Floyd and Ms Patti Smith - I own 2 box sets of hers but only have Horses on my 70s chart. Maybe I should put it in my Top 100. I like that you stick to your guns, I love your notes (I read them all whilst listening to Joni Mitchell) and I admire your originality. I can only wait to see if reading this shakes up my charts a bit. Good work! Only reason it's not 100/100 is I only know a small amount of these albums. Only 5 albums in common but vive la difference! Is very good though.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
From zrommeke 02/06/2017 18:30 | #185009
Definitely not the easiest chart, but I like it a lot!!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From Josian 02/06/2017 18:15 | #185008
Very interesting list, thanks ;)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From 
phantom1305 02/06/2017 11:27 | #184991
phantom1305 02/06/2017 11:27 | #184991
I'm confused what's with all the low ratings?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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