Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by 
Strangel 
These albums are my favourites. This is not meant to be a 'Greatest Album's' chart, although I would strongly argue for each of my chosen albums in being considered for a greatest albums list. My interest is more toward the alternative/indie and electronic genres with a tendency toward experimentation in the music. I also need to be able to comfortably immerse myself in the music. So while I appreciate, and want to explore the work of Autechre (for example), I get far more pleasure from listening to Burial which has more reverie to the sound rather than almost pure math and tech. Aphex Twin, in fact, manages to bridge these aspects perfectly.
It might be noted that Radiohead dominates the list which simply expresses my belief that they have the uncanny ability to release album after album of near perfect alternative music, shifting the landscape of what's possible whilst always remaining relevant. I don't apologise for this. They are that good.
- Chart updated: 10/31/2025 02:15
- (Created: 07/04/2016 14:26).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 35 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 54 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from the 1990s. (Remove this filter)
Alternative rock music is not for everyone, but this album is. There is something about it that didn't just speak for a generation of youths - it speaks for everyone who sees through all the deception and the bullshit thwarting our evolution as a species. And that is some sort of an extraordinary achievement.
Rating:100/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The building crescendo in Exit Music. It was the first eargasm I think I ever had. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating:100/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The building crescendo in Exit Music. It was the first eargasm I think I ever had. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
61,577
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For any electronic enthusiast, this album is like the template of how to captivate the listener without the explicit requirement to dance to the underlying beat. But it doesn't lose the capacity to make you dance or move to it either. And it isn't just tuneless, experimental bleeps and bloops. It is, instead, an incredibly pleasant sonic listening experience made through basic uncluttered layerings of atmospheric synth/sampling. And it hasn't lost any of its lustre in 24 years. Incredible!
Rating: 98/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The opening track, Xtal, has an nostalgic, comforting resonance as soon as it's subtle iconic beats begin to emerge. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 98/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The opening track, Xtal, has an nostalgic, comforting resonance as soon as it's subtle iconic beats begin to emerge. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,693
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Cave leaves behind the stories of the depraved, sinister, and murky characters and instead focuses more on his own existential musings. As such, we have a more visceral, emotional and moving experience when immersed in his crooning poetry.
He seems to be telling us that beauty truly eminates from the darkness and not from the light of which most of us presume. Few artists have the genius to make us realise this incredible insight.
Rating: 98/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Into My Arms setting the scene from the opening track. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
He seems to be telling us that beauty truly eminates from the darkness and not from the light of which most of us presume. Few artists have the genius to make us realise this incredible insight.
Rating: 98/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Into My Arms setting the scene from the opening track. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,021
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In an era where heavy music was less relevant as a means to voice generational disquiet, Tool came from out of the ether to smack us in the face with this album of sublime music. They came to us when we were in need of expressing intelligent anger whilst also connecting with the latent artistic sensibility of a wider collective. They got us in touch with the art of Alex Grey, the comedic social commentary of Bill Hicks, and the depth psychology of Carl Jung. All of this was interwoven into the package that was AEnima, the album. The music itself rumbled like thunder without ever getting overcooked with pretensions. The title track roused a passion from within for those who saw through the plastic world of Los Angeles America without ever making us want to hurt anyone, afterall, Mother Nature will take care of that. Won't she? The musicianship is cleverly layered and artistically motivated. It is one of the few heavy albums I can return to time and again.
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The visceral lyrical rant demonstrated by Maynard in the title track.
'Learn to Swim'! [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The visceral lyrical rant demonstrated by Maynard in the title track.
'Learn to Swim'! [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1996
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,515
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There must be something in the Icelandic air. It's as if the elder spirits are projecting themselves through music as it is the only universal language that can intimately reach us.
Rating: 98/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: So many to choose from, because this really is a complete album to be enjoyed in its entirety. Single tracks are not its focus so much as the whole. For now I'd probably settle for the reflective beauty of Olsen Olsen. But I also love the build from lulling ambient to euphoric cacophany in VVLT and NB, and the transcendent qualities of SGE and Staralfur. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 98/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: So many to choose from, because this really is a complete album to be enjoyed in its entirety. Single tracks are not its focus so much as the whole. For now I'd probably settle for the reflective beauty of Olsen Olsen. But I also love the build from lulling ambient to euphoric cacophany in VVLT and NB, and the transcendent qualities of SGE and Staralfur. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1999
Appears in:
Rank Score:
14,688
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There is no way I could ever have thought that Radiohead would end up producing 3 albums better than this one. The pure emotional outpouring, frenzied guitar crescendos, and contemplative lyrics all combined to create an album that would move a whole generation of emotionally intelligent music lovers. Thom Yorke broke down and cried after recording Fake Plastic Trees. A 50+ yr old neighbour of mine, who had no interest in alternative music, was also brought to tears when I played the same song to him for the first time. It is a song that is all too confronting for the universal truth it conveys about the futility and senselessness of living in a fabricated relationship with the world around us. Street Spirit is the closer that leaves you wondering about the premonition of a world that has been completely consumed by that same fabrication. And it is all so eerily beautiful. The album only suffers in that it still has the feel of a band finding its way out of the early 'Radiohead' sound that could have defined them. They are beginning to tap into their creative genius with songs like Street Spirit and Planet Telex, but mostly it is merely a supremely good guitar based rock album boosted massively by a few songs of deep visceral emotion. I say 'merely' because the creative flowering of the band thereafter makes 'mere' guitar rock seem a little passé.
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: A favourite moment of mine has always been Johnny's building guitar crescendo in Just that seems to take you to ever-increasing levels of eargasm. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: A favourite moment of mine has always been Johnny's building guitar crescendo in Just that seems to take you to ever-increasing levels of eargasm. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1995
Appears in:
Rank Score:
28,104
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In this astonishing album Beth Gibbons has managed to tap into the melancholic heartbreak of a neglected divine feminine. To have that sensibility alone is a grand feat but to also manage to define a whole genre (trip hop), to go with it, makes this album an absolute classic. This is not background music - instead this album implores you to listen attentively because She has been ignored for far too long.
Rating: 96/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The emotional fragility in Beth Gibbon's voice is almost unbearably palpable in the song Roads. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 96/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The emotional fragility in Beth Gibbon's voice is almost unbearably palpable in the song Roads. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,349
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Oh what might've been. We can only imagine the possibilities that may have arisen had he been around for the past 20 years releasing albums every few years. While his talent is undoubted, it is more the ablity to convey the deep emotons of human love and frailty that truly blows the mind. He had a truly gifted voice that angels would envy and he used it on this album in ways that have left an indelible impact on those who fell in love with it and grew with it. The pieced together posthumous albums that came after Grace never really recaptured this genius but I have no doubt that there would have been much more in store.
Rating: 96/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: It's a cover, but it's possibly the best cover ever done. Unlike with the original by Cohen, I could listen to Buckley's Hallelujah every day. The emotion permeating through every vocal exertion is heartbreakingly beautiful. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 96/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: It's a cover, but it's possibly the best cover ever done. Unlike with the original by Cohen, I could listen to Buckley's Hallelujah every day. The emotion permeating through every vocal exertion is heartbreakingly beautiful. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,819
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18. (=)
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Superseding the relevancy of heavy metal, Nirvana gave the alienated masses 'grunge' with this incredibly catchy collection of noise-tinged distemper. Nirvana riled against excesses (other than that coming from amps) and in so doing relegated the naffness of 80s to the realms of history. Nevermind relies on the quiet-loud-quiet-loud formula and it works so well in drawing out all the latent disaffection waiting to erupt in unrepentant youth.
Rating: 96/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Smells Like Teen Spirit signified the arrival of Grunge. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 96/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Smells Like Teen Spirit signified the arrival of Grunge. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
36,856
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I heard this album just before Nevermind, and just after Metallica's Black album. I feel like it is the bridging album between escaping the contained world of heavy metal and expanding my horizons through the grunge era and off into the world of alternative/indy music and ultimately the truly expansive world of Radiohead. For this reason it holds a special place in my music loving heart.
Vedder takes us into his world of alienation and personal difficulties with such an engaging depth of beauty. I'll never forget seeing him projecting his soul outward live on stage in Melbourne as he stared me in the eyes with an intensity that I had never seen before from a front-man as he sang Alive. Perhaps Jim Morrison may have outdone him but I'm not so sure.
Rating: 95/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Black, for me is the most complete song on this album. When somebody pulls out their acoustic guitar and starts playing this around a campfire I am immediately transfixed. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Vedder takes us into his world of alienation and personal difficulties with such an engaging depth of beauty. I'll never forget seeing him projecting his soul outward live on stage in Melbourne as he stared me in the eyes with an intensity that I had never seen before from a front-man as he sang Alive. Perhaps Jim Morrison may have outdone him but I'm not so sure.
Rating: 95/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Black, for me is the most complete song on this album. When somebody pulls out their acoustic guitar and starts playing this around a campfire I am immediately transfixed. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
18,032
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Total albums: 26. Page 1 of 3
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 6 | 6% | |
| 1970s | 7 | 7% | |
| 1980s | 4 | 4% | |
| 1990s | 26 | 26% | |
| 2000s | 36 | 36% | |
| 2010s | 16 | 16% | |
| 2020s | 5 | 5% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Radiohead | 8 | 8% | |
| Metallica | 4 | 4% | |
| Tool | 4 | 4% | |
| Aphex Twin | 4 | 4% | |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 3 | 3% | |
| The Smile | 3 | 3% | |
| Pearl Jam | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
43 | 43% | |
 |
40 | 40% | |
 |
6 | 6% | |
| |
5 | 5% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
There have been no changes to this chart.Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
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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 54 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08/27/2025 08:18 | Johnnyo | 2,592 | 80/100 | |
| 02/15/2025 09:18 |  DommeDamian | 1,005 | 89/100 | |
| 06/12/2024 20:18 | C0NB9NN | 20 | 85/100 | |
| 06/10/2024 10:58 |  Tamthebam | 651 | 85/100 | |
| 11/19/2023 10:55 |  Bach | 962 | 78/100 |
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 5% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 88.7/100, a mean average of 86.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 89.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 16.6.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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From Johnnyo 08/27/2025 08:20 | #310716
I love Radiohead. Four albums in the top 10 does seem a little excessive but it's your chart and your picks so that's obviously your purgative. The whole chart is great. Excellent stuff
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From DommeDamian 02/15/2025 09:18 | #307614
DommeDamian 02/15/2025 09:18 | #307614
Yeah, just like a few others, I'd wish the Radioheads could spread out a bit more. But it's forgivable because of some of the descriptions, always a win in my book.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Strangel 06/11/2024 00:13 | #303925
Strangel 06/11/2024 00:13 | #303925
Yeah, as I mentioned in the comments, a lot of bourbon and pot was had while listening to The Doors. It doesn’t detract from the fact that I love the album. Roadhouse Blues got played a lot in the mix around then and I completely forgot it was on Morrison Hotel which, as an album I didn’t take to as much. We probably played the song in addition to LA Woman on a regular basis. Funny what memories do.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From C0NB9NN 06/10/2024 15:03 | #303923
Very well thought out chart. I can start to picture where you go when you listen to these albums. Personally I don’t like Radiohead, but I don’t see that as a problem on your chart, as when you think an artist is good, they’re good.
I’d hate to be that one person, but Roadhouse Blues is on Morrison Hotel, not L.A. Woman.
17 albums in common.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Timooosterink 08/30/2019 10:38 | #241940
Love your chart! I agree on amok it is a very underated album.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Granny-Smith 06/26/2019 12:36 | #238311
I like your chart. Have a lot Artists and Albums in common.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Paule 03/06/2019 11:36 | #233128
Paule 03/06/2019 11:36 | #233128
Good list! We share the Radiohead "problem". I suggest you to dive into some older Krautrock and Ambient music. You will find a lot of Radioheads work is influenced by that stuff and there are some gems to be found.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Kurtco 01/29/2019 18:22 | #230975
We have 31 albums and 21 artists in common... It's very funny!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Kurtco 01/29/2019 18:18 | #230974
I find your chart very interesting and complete. You have musical tastes very similar to mine. Radiohead is one of my favorite bands!
I'm glad you like Icelandic music: Sigur Rós and Björk. I agree with you that "Vespertine" is Björk's best album: It's a real masterpiece. You put a lot of recent music in your chart and it's nice to see AMOK of Atoms For Peace in your rankings. This is surely one of Thom Yorke's underrated albums. I'm really happy to see artists not very well known as Burial, Nick Cave or Amon Tobin who are part of my favorite artist. The 90s are really well represented in your chart with great artists like Nirvana, Aphex Twin, Tool or Massive Attack. Really very good job and very good choice!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
guzguzgarbit 01/21/2019 20:08 | #230211
guzguzgarbit 01/21/2019 20:08 | #230211
Good choices, great descriptions, great diversity (even with 8 Radiohead albums!). I particularly appreciate the presence of some electronic (Four Tet, Jon Hopkins, Burial...) among all the rock picks.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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