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 128 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 118 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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'United States Of America' is one of the most audacious and inventive albums in the history of rock. It manages to successfully straddle the fine line between parody, cabaret, electronic and psychedelic experimentation. The musical montages are brilliant and the album sounds like it's from the future while paradoxically remaining an atypical expression of both time and place.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1968
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,870
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Comments:
23
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This beautifully crafted and played classic is a spritual meditation that evokes a memory of a place lost in the mists of time. The atmosphere conveyed is one of sadness - a kind of dreamy lament which is overlayed by a philosophical resignation and existentialism. This is a work that is a tonal and harmonic baroque masterpiece that defines the era of disenchantment in which it was made better than any other of the period.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,083
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'Faust' is vaguely reminiscent of aspects of Zappa-esque collage allied to the psychedelia of Red Crayola and prog-rock. Nevertheless, the album has a unique musical language and atmosphere. It is an audacious attempt at fusing expressionism, surrealism, theatre of the absurd, Brecht/Weill's cabaret, Wagner-ain melodrama and musique concrete to rock music. On the surface, the sound appears incoherent and 'ugly'. It's only upon repeated listens does the album start to make sense in its totality, akin to the solving of a cryptic puzzle. It's not an easily accessible listen for the untrained ear. However, its appeal is one that tends to grow over time. 'Faust' is a beautifully demented, fun and ultimately moving creation.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,450
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'The Band' is the groups masterpiece. It is a superbly arranged and exquisitely played piece of music - a mature and beautifully varied, dense and understated work that nonchanantly chugs to a syncopated rhythm. 'Whispering Pines', in many ways the albums centrepiece, is a work of immense beauty.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,906
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'Exile' is the Stones ultimate masterpiece and represents their coming of age, the completion and maturation, in other words, of their sound. The playing is absolutely top notch throughout - at times restrained and understated, whilst at others forceful and aggressive. This album represents the sound of the greatest rock and roll band on the planet at the top of its game. 'Beggar's Banquet' is a close second, but 'Exile' is the Stones at their brilliant all-round decadent best.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
22,523
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The austere and elegant chamber music of Penguin Cafe Orchestra is steeped in Renaissance and Baroque traditions combining elements of folk and cabaret. Exotic arrangements consisting of delicate and languid laments create feelings of nostalgic longing. This is the ensembles best and most experimental work.
[First added to this chart: 11/18/2011]
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Television retained the attitude of punk, but in reality are linked to the gloomy acid of the old psychedelic bands. Television's lyrics were symbolic and allegorical as those of Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison and their 'jamming' was influenced by the free-jazz of John Coltrane which was framed in a setting of sustained guitar chords. With 'Marquee Moon', Tom Verlaine created a distinctive sound with his extradordinary free improvisational guitar playing style. This album is one of the most influential and innovative of the new wave. The band were too musically accomplished to be punks.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
21,650
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The groups most accomplished record, Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, is a psychedelic-folk classic that integrates a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments and was one of the key recordings that helped nurture the development of world music.
[First added to this chart: 09/13/2011]
Year of Release:
1968
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,300
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The sound of 'Underwater Moonlight' is reminscent of the work of Television and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. The band manage to straddle the early new-wave of the former and the psychedlic whimsy of the latter with the discordant fragmented blues of Beefheart and the catchy power-pop of the Kinks and the Who. The end result is a distinctive and accomplished modern psychedelia that set in motion the psychedelic revival of the 1980s. Robyn Hitchcock is one of the most important British artists in rock history.
[First added to this chart: 03/16/2011]
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,232
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The first and best of Roxy Music's opening trilogy of masterpieces sounds as original and fresh today as it did on its release. Merging avantgarde, pathos, jazz-rock and electronic elements, Roxy Music revolutionized prog-rock by linking it to both the punk/new wave movements of the late 1970s and the post-punk/synth-pop of the 1980s. Roxy Music are one of Britain's greatest and most influential bands.
[First added to this chart: 01/29/2013]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,969
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Total albums: 100. Page 4 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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|
|
| 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 | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Gallon Drunk | 1 | 1% | |
| Matching Mole | 1 | 1% | |
| Suicide | 1 | 1% | |
| Jon Hassell | 1 | 1% | |
| Eric Burdon & The Animals | 1 | 1% | |
| Yo La Tengo | 1 | 1% | |
| Pink Floyd | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
86/100 (from 118 votes)
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 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 118 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
95/100  | 02/24/2022 05:35 |  DriftingOrpheus | | 91/100 |
50/100 | 10/22/2020 04:59 | Szyfman | | 85/100 |
 5/100 | 06/18/2020 03:22 |  RoundTheBend | | 92/100 |
75/100 | 03/11/2020 08:48 | LittleMatt | | 80/100 |
100/100 | 05/10/2018 14:57 |  Genga009 | | 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 85.7/100, a mean average of 81.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 85.7/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 22.0.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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5/100
From RoundTheBend 06/18/2020 03:22
RoundTheBend 06/18/2020 03:22
The actual reason is because he was an ass to me.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From 
dihansse 03/28/2018 18:51
dihansse 03/28/2018 18:51
many recs to seek out
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
65/100
From 
JulianR 02/18/2018 22:17
JulianR 02/18/2018 22:17
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)
65/100
From JulianR 10/27/2017 00:51
JulianR 10/27/2017 00:51
Scaruffi imitation at its most mediocre. See skeeter's comment below
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From voland 06/01/2017 15:59
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)
0/100
From skeeter 04/20/2017 14:09
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)
95/100
From 
CharlieBarley 02/07/2017 02:38
CharlieBarley 02/07/2017 02:38
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)
80/100
From zrommeke 02/06/2017 18:30
Definitely not the easiest chart, but I like it a lot!!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
90/100
From Josian 02/06/2017 18:15
Very interesting list, thanks ;)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
phantom1305 02/06/2017 11:27
phantom1305 02/06/2017 11:27
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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| Best Artists of the 1990s | |
|---|---|
| 1. Radiohead | |
| 2. Nirvana | |
| 3. Neutral Milk Hotel | |
| 4. The Smashing Pumpkins | |
| 5. My Bloody Valentine | |
| 6. Oasis | |
| 7. Pearl Jam | |
| 8. R.E.M. | |
| 9. Weezer | |
| 10. Richard David James | |
| 11. Nick Cave | |
| 12. Björk | |
| 13. Pavement | |
| 14. Jeff Buckley | |
| 15. Blur | |
| 16. Portishead | |
| 17. Elliott Smith | |
| 18. Nas | |
| 19. Sigur Rós | |
| 20. Massive Attack |