Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
Onater 
I've been listening to music as albums rather than individual songs since July 2015, and every album on this list is one I have discovered in that time. I previously had 3 favourite tracks from each album in chronological order. I changed that to 2-5 favourite tracks from each in order from best to worst, but now I've decided that I don't need any limit on how many favourite tracks.
I've pretty much moved this over to Rateyourmusic at https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Onater/onaters-top-however-many-albums-2/ because they allow more than 100 there.
Just updated this for the first time in a while and good god was it out of date. The comments and favourite tracks probably still are but whatever. I may have cheated a bit and snuck in a compilation or two.
My Top 20 songs of all time:
20. Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren (Starsailor, 1970)
19. Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (Ain't That Good News, 1964)
18. Kermit - The Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie, 1979)
17. Television - Marquee Moon (Marquee Moon, 1977)
16. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road (Born To Run, 1975)
15. Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear (The Milk-Eyed Mender, 2004)
14. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends (Sound Of Silver, 2007)
13. Animal Collective - Fireworks (Strawberry Jam, 2007)
12. Sonic Youth - The Diamond Sea (Washing Machine, 1995)
11. Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind (If You Could Read My Mind, 1970)
10. Car Seat Headrest - Beach Life-In-Death (Twin Fantasy, 2018)
9. Joanna Newsom - Cosmia (Ys, 2006)
8. R.E.M. - Nightswimming (Automatic For The People, 1992)
7. Joanna Newsom - Sawdust & Diamonds (Ys, 2006)
6. The Tragically Hip - Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man (Phantom Power, 1998)
5. David Bowie - "Heroes" ("Heroes", 1977)
4. Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) (Speaking In Tongues, 1983)
3. The Tragically Hip - Bobcaygeon (Phantom Power, 1998)
2. Joanna Newsom - Only Skin (Ys, 2006)
1. The Tragically Hip - Ahead By A Century (Trouble At The Henhouse, 1996)
- Chart updated: 07/26/2019 07:15
- (Created: 04/30/2016 05:27).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 31 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 92 out of 100 (from 86 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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"Pick up here and chase the ride, the river empties to the tide. All of this is coming your way."
Really, this shouldn't be this high on the chart. It is a very straightforward pop rock album. Yet memories connected to it have, as they so often do, made it mean something to me that it doesn't quite mean to anyone else, and that alone justifies its place.
First listen March 2016
Favourite Tracks: Nightswimming, Find The River, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Man On The Moon [First added to this chart: 05/17/2016]
Really, this shouldn't be this high on the chart. It is a very straightforward pop rock album. Yet memories connected to it have, as they so often do, made it mean something to me that it doesn't quite mean to anyone else, and that alone justifies its place.
First listen March 2016
Favourite Tracks: Nightswimming, Find The River, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Man On The Moon [First added to this chart: 05/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
20,427
Rank in 1992:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
174
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"Why can't we all just walk away."
I'm considering this as the entire Inmost Light trilogy 'cause you just can't separate them from each other.
Favourite Tracks: The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home, The Blood Bells Chime, Calling For Vanished Faces II, The Frolic, Patripassian, The Inmost Light Itself [First added to this chart: 04/15/2019]
I'm considering this as the entire Inmost Light trilogy 'cause you just can't separate them from each other.
Favourite Tracks: The Starres Are Marching Sadly Home, The Blood Bells Chime, Calling For Vanished Faces II, The Frolic, Patripassian, The Inmost Light Itself [First added to this chart: 04/15/2019]
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"Our love lines grew hopelessly tangled, and the bells in the chapel went jingle... jangle..."
I have a theory that this is secretly a concept album, with the theme being of a protagonist searching for love from various sources, and never truly finding it. Starting out with Do You Love Me, Cave tells the story of falling in love with a girl though he knew from the start it wouldn't work out. Nobody's Baby Now is about his pain after the breakup, and him turning to religion in search of acceptance there. Loverman seems to be a deranged attempt at seducing and possibly raping a woman. Jangling Jack seems detached from the rest of the album, but note the similarity between the title and the "jingle jangle" line from both versions of Do You Love Me. God only knows what Red Right Hand is actually about, whether the "tall handsome man" is a drug dealer, the media, the government, a priest, god himself, or just some abstract force of temptation. What matters is that the song ends with an obsession, even love for this figure, as "you'll see him in your nightmares, you'll see him in your dreams," even though they were in control the whole time: "You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his red right hand." The title track is perhaps the most obvious example of the theme in the album, as Cave tells of the pains he has went through in all his experiences with love. Thirsty Dog is Cave trying to find forgiveness his sins, maybe in an attempt to reacquire a lost love. It Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore is the realization that he is alone, and will never truly be able to find the love he seeks in his lifetime... and so, in Lay Me Low, he completely snaps and commits suicide, convincing himself that people will only appreciate him for who he was when he is gone: "They'll bang a big old gong, the motorcade will be ten miles long, the world will join together for a farewell song, when they put me down below." The finale, a dark reprise of the opening track, begins with what seems to be Cave entering the afterlife: "I'm grazing with the dinosaurs and the dear old horses." Eventually, the focus shifts to a memory of Cave's childhood, putting a sinister twist on the album: when he was raped in a theatre as a boy. As he repeats the question he has asked throughout the album, "do you love me, like I love you," you hear the voice of who is presumably his rapist answering "I love you, handsome." The only time that he ever finds the love he seeks on the album is here, in this horrible memory, which was probably the cause of all of the self-doubt and need for acceptance that is behind the lyrics of this whole thing. So it's pretty much a masterpiece and one of the greatest albums ever.
First listen May 2017
Favourite Tracks: Red Right Hand, Law Me Low, Do You Love Me? (Part 2), Do You Love Me?, Loverman, I Let Love In [First added to this chart: 06/06/2017]
I have a theory that this is secretly a concept album, with the theme being of a protagonist searching for love from various sources, and never truly finding it. Starting out with Do You Love Me, Cave tells the story of falling in love with a girl though he knew from the start it wouldn't work out. Nobody's Baby Now is about his pain after the breakup, and him turning to religion in search of acceptance there. Loverman seems to be a deranged attempt at seducing and possibly raping a woman. Jangling Jack seems detached from the rest of the album, but note the similarity between the title and the "jingle jangle" line from both versions of Do You Love Me. God only knows what Red Right Hand is actually about, whether the "tall handsome man" is a drug dealer, the media, the government, a priest, god himself, or just some abstract force of temptation. What matters is that the song ends with an obsession, even love for this figure, as "you'll see him in your nightmares, you'll see him in your dreams," even though they were in control the whole time: "You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his red right hand." The title track is perhaps the most obvious example of the theme in the album, as Cave tells of the pains he has went through in all his experiences with love. Thirsty Dog is Cave trying to find forgiveness his sins, maybe in an attempt to reacquire a lost love. It Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore is the realization that he is alone, and will never truly be able to find the love he seeks in his lifetime... and so, in Lay Me Low, he completely snaps and commits suicide, convincing himself that people will only appreciate him for who he was when he is gone: "They'll bang a big old gong, the motorcade will be ten miles long, the world will join together for a farewell song, when they put me down below." The finale, a dark reprise of the opening track, begins with what seems to be Cave entering the afterlife: "I'm grazing with the dinosaurs and the dear old horses." Eventually, the focus shifts to a memory of Cave's childhood, putting a sinister twist on the album: when he was raped in a theatre as a boy. As he repeats the question he has asked throughout the album, "do you love me, like I love you," you hear the voice of who is presumably his rapist answering "I love you, handsome." The only time that he ever finds the love he seeks on the album is here, in this horrible memory, which was probably the cause of all of the self-doubt and need for acceptance that is behind the lyrics of this whole thing. So it's pretty much a masterpiece and one of the greatest albums ever.
First listen May 2017
Favourite Tracks: Red Right Hand, Law Me Low, Do You Love Me? (Part 2), Do You Love Me?, Loverman, I Let Love In [First added to this chart: 06/06/2017]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,610
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all."
I know, I know, it's a meme and "entry-level" and whatever else you'd like to call it, but there's a reason that this album has the reputation that it does. Some of the most disturbingly surreal yet beautiful lyrics ever written that seem to contain a hidden story beneath them, yet nobody can really agree on what exactly that story is. I'd like to say that the story it tells is whatever story you decide to hear in it.
First listen April 2016
Favourite Tracks: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Two-Headed Boy Part 2, Holland 1945, Two-Headed Boy, Oh Comely [First added to this chart: 05/17/2016]
I know, I know, it's a meme and "entry-level" and whatever else you'd like to call it, but there's a reason that this album has the reputation that it does. Some of the most disturbingly surreal yet beautiful lyrics ever written that seem to contain a hidden story beneath them, yet nobody can really agree on what exactly that story is. I'd like to say that the story it tells is whatever story you decide to hear in it.
First listen April 2016
Favourite Tracks: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Two-Headed Boy Part 2, Holland 1945, Two-Headed Boy, Oh Comely [First added to this chart: 05/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1998
Appears in:
Rank Score:
39,454
Rank in 1998:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"Where you gonna be? Where will you spend eternity? I'm gonna be perfect from now on. I'm gonna be perfect, starting now."
First listen April 2017
Favourite Tracks: Randy Described Eternity, Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else), Velvet Waltz, I Would Hurt A Fly, Kicked It In The Sun [First added to this chart: 05/13/2017]
First listen April 2017
Favourite Tracks: Randy Described Eternity, Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else), Velvet Waltz, I Would Hurt A Fly, Kicked It In The Sun [First added to this chart: 05/13/2017]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,366
Rank in 1997:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"One day, I am going to grow wings, a chemical reaction, hysterical and useless, hysterical and..."
I've listened to this album at least a hundred times, and I swear, it just gets better every time. Every single track from it has been my favourite at some point (yes, even Fitter Happier).
First listen February 2016
Favourite Tracks: Let Down, No Surprises, Exit Music (For A Film), Paranoid Android, Airbag, The Tourist [First added to this chart: 05/17/2016]
I've listened to this album at least a hundred times, and I swear, it just gets better every time. Every single track from it has been my favourite at some point (yes, even Fitter Happier).
First listen February 2016
Favourite Tracks: Let Down, No Surprises, Exit Music (For A Film), Paranoid Android, Airbag, The Tourist [First added to this chart: 05/17/2016]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
76,742
Rank in 1997:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"You have to listen to him groan and say disgusting things, but, I suppose those things are only disgusting if that's the way you're looking at it."
Favourite Tracks: Helpless Child, The Sound, I Was A Prisoner In Your Skull, The Final Sacrifice, Animus [First added to this chart: 03/04/2017]
Favourite Tracks: Helpless Child, The Sound, I Was A Prisoner In Your Skull, The Final Sacrifice, Animus [First added to this chart: 03/04/2017]
Year of Release:
1996
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,510
Rank in 1996:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"I've kissed your mother twice, and now I'm working on your dad."
Jarvis Cocker has got to be one the horniest guys in rock history. There's maybe one song on the album that doesn't mention sex in some way or another. He also happens to be a master a putting a climax to a song. There isn't a chorus here that can't be belted out like a lunatic.
Favourite Tracks: Disco 2000, Common People, I Spy, Bar Italia, Mis-Shapes [First added to this chart: 10/22/2017]
Jarvis Cocker has got to be one the horniest guys in rock history. There's maybe one song on the album that doesn't mention sex in some way or another. He also happens to be a master a putting a climax to a song. There isn't a chorus here that can't be belted out like a lunatic.
Favourite Tracks: Disco 2000, Common People, I Spy, Bar Italia, Mis-Shapes [First added to this chart: 10/22/2017]
Year of Release:
1995
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,835
Rank in 1995:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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"When I look at you, oh, I don't know what's real."
It'll give you tinnitus, but it's worth it.
Favourite Tracks: When You Sleep, Sometimes, Soon, Only Shallow, Come In Alone [First added to this chart: 08/18/2016]
It'll give you tinnitus, but it's worth it.
Favourite Tracks: When You Sleep, Sometimes, Soon, Only Shallow, Come In Alone [First added to this chart: 08/18/2016]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
33,774
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Favourite Tracks: Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Spiritual, India
[First added to this chart: 05/31/2019]
Total albums: 24. Page 1 of 3
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 4 | 4% | |
| 1960s | 9 | 9% | |
| 1970s | 16 | 16% | |
| 1980s | 11 | 11% | |
| 1990s | 24 | 24% | |
| 2000s | 23 | 23% | |
| 2010s | 13 | 13% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Joanna Newsom | 4 | 4% | |
| Swans | 3 | 3% | |
| Tom Waits | 3 | 3% | |
| Radiohead | 3 | 3% | |
| Godspeed You! Black Emperor | 2 | 2% | |
| The Tragically Hip | 2 | 2% | |
| Angelo Badalamenti | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 14 from 19th to 5th Just Got Back From The Discomfort - We're Alright by The Brave Little Abacus |
| Up 11 from 88th to 77th Dummy by Portishead |
| Up 11 from 72nd to 61st F♯ A♯ ∞ (LP Version) by Godspeed You! Black Emperor |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 14 from 68th to 82nd The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus |
| Down 12 from 71st to 83rd Since I Left You by The Avalanches |
| Down 11 from 74th to 85th For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver |
| Leavers |
|---|
 In A Silent Wayby Miles Davis |
| Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan |
| Push The Sky Away by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
| At The Mountains Of Madness by Electric Masada |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
92/100 (from 86 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 86 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
95/100  | 03/30/2021 01:12 |  DriftingOrpheus | | 91/100 |
 100/100 | 11/29/2019 15:48 |  ForegroundNoise | | 87/100 |
90/100 | 10/04/2019 19:14 | pctrooper | | 88/100 |
100/100 | 08/12/2019 11:05 | Timooosterink | | 90/100 |
| 95/100 | 06/14/2019 13:34 |  gidgidi | | 88/100 |
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 is rated in the top 1% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 92.0/100, a mean average of 92.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 92.7/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 6.9.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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100/100
From ForegroundNoise 11/29/2019 15:49
ForegroundNoise 11/29/2019 15:49
Not sure why I hadn't already given this 100, since your chart is obviously a brilliant labour of love. One of my faves on this site for sure!!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Timooosterink 11/29/2019 10:27
nice
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From pctrooper 10/04/2019 19:14
Great choices. you crushed it.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Timooosterink 08/12/2019 11:06
Nice chart! I like the effort you have put into this
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From gidgidi 06/14/2019 13:34
gidgidi 06/14/2019 13:34
Great picks!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From mianfei 06/14/2019 07:10
It is rare to see a chart with so many as sixteen artists in common with my own (this figure includes Steven Osborne for his Messiaen works). Moreover, there are others in my large backlog of recordings to listen to , including ‘Escalator Over the Hill’.
One recording I would recommend you that it seems you haven’t heard is ‘I’m the One’ by Annette Peacock. Little-known on this site, ‘I’m the One’ is undoubtedly a masterful work of soul power that surpasses most black artists at soul music. The title track and ‘Pony’ turn funk into lush soundscapes of both beauty and personal power.
Two other recommendations are the Trees Community’s ‘The Christ Tree’ and Victoria Williams’ ‘Swing the Statue’. These in many ways predate the “freak folk” of the mid-2000s by thirty and fifteen years respectively, with the former being the most beautifully transcendent psalms as communitarian music-making and the latter a deeply personal work of wonder at the beauty of little things.
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100/100
From 
Glitterboiii 01/26/2019 18:36
Glitterboiii 01/26/2019 18:36
Fantastic chart! So many of my favorites up here!
Please update this like in any way so Twin Fantasy gets its points.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
100/100
From ForegroundNoise 12/10/2018 09:29
ForegroundNoise 12/10/2018 09:29
Absolutely love the notes you've added and the lyrics from each album too, really great stuff :)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Azbest2000 05/13/2018 17:54
Professionaly made list. You have an eclectic taste and it's clear to see that you are really interested in music.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
DommeDamian 11/24/2017 07:05
DommeDamian 11/24/2017 07:05
By any means one of the greatest charst, man. The descriptions really hits hard, as of how well-written and well-structured they are. Keep up the phenomenal work :)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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