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: 09/27/2024 14:15
- (Created: 07/04/2016 14:26).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 34 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 53 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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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:
67,409
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850
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The thing that makes this album a masterpiece is that it stepped into the 21st century with a statement of pure progressive intent, leaving behind the 20th century formula that was tried and true. Most bands would either not be brave enough or wouldn't have the talent to pull it off. The thing I love about the music on Kid A is the sense of disembodiment that occurs with the studio production. Nigel Godrich should always be considered when discussing the genius of a Radiohead album. The disembodiment is unquestionably reflective of Thom's headspace during this phase of his life but to make it truly palpable it required some very astute studio production.
Rating: 99/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The metaphorical depiction of Yorke floating down the Liffey; he's not here, this isn't happening... [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 99/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The metaphorical depiction of Yorke floating down the Liffey; he's not here, this isn't happening... [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
2000
Appears in:
Rank Score:
44,935
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A celebration of the alchemy that exists amongst 5 (6) very talented artists. This alchemy is best expressed when on stage but to observe it in close detail in their 'From the Basement' sessions you can truly appreciate the cohesive mastery of a band at their peak.
Rating: 99/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS: Yorke hitting that elongated, emotive high note in Nude; 'You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thiiiiiiiiinking".
Also, the building crescendo in All I Need deserves mention. It becomes this extraordinary cacophony of sound that ends abruptly before it can outstay its welcome. To be honest, I personally would have liked it to stretch on for a lot longer than it does. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 99/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHTS: Yorke hitting that elongated, emotive high note in Nude; 'You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thiiiiiiiiinking".
Also, the building crescendo in All I Need deserves mention. It becomes this extraordinary cacophony of sound that ends abruptly before it can outstay its welcome. To be honest, I personally would have liked it to stretch on for a lot longer than it does. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
2007
Appears in:
Rank Score:
46,061
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The peak of their creative genius and an album I get more out of with each listen. They are just such a tight sounding group and the audiophiles amongst us who like to meditate on the nuances of their music will be well rewarded by a full attentive listening. It is an epic psychedelic journey into the core of our being. The theme of transcendence permeates every sinew of the album. Each track transitions/segues effortlessly to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts... and the parts are pretty fucking awesome.
Rating: 99/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The complexity within the lyrics, composition, and music is exhaustive. The title track is structured using the Fibonacci sequence, incorporating golden means, and invoking the sacred geometric imagery of spiraling out through a psychedelic wormhole and reaching our spiritual potential. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 99/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: The complexity within the lyrics, composition, and music is exhaustive. The title track is structured using the Fibonacci sequence, incorporating golden means, and invoking the sacred geometric imagery of spiraling out through a psychedelic wormhole and reaching our spiritual potential. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
2001
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Rank Score:
8,759
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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:
6,911
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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:
4,255
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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:
15,672
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This is a massively underrated album. It's definitely a grower and deserves headphone immersion to appreciate the genius in the composition and layering of sounds. It needs to be properly reviewed only after listening to it at least a dozen or so times. A review on first listen is an injustice. The song Amok, for example continues to grow on me and I've listened to it many many times. Let go of your Radiohead prejudices and listen with brand new ears. The term 'supergroup' irks me a little but this band is comprised of super-musicians who undoubtedly dedicated to the art of progressive composition. The contributions of Mauro Refosco and Joey Waronker is probably overlooked a bit but they are critical to the intricacy of the sound here. The interwoven rhythm/percussion, Yorke electronica, and understated Flea bass, makes for a sonic exploration every time you return to the album. Probably my favourite recent album.
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: For me it's probably the title track Amok. At first it seems a simple little closing track. After some listens you realise that there are many intricacies. Eventually you nod your head at how all the components that generate from previous layers of silence somehow, inexplicably work as a whole, fitting in just as they should. Other songs such as Default show this same mastery but Amok does it for me due to the subtleties.
Another highlight is the use of Yorke's voice on this album. It plays with his ethereal qualities as his voice comes at you from a distance, in the background, before moving to the foreground or supporting his own main vocal. The opening and closings tracks both demonstrate this personal highlight. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: For me it's probably the title track Amok. At first it seems a simple little closing track. After some listens you realise that there are many intricacies. Eventually you nod your head at how all the components that generate from previous layers of silence somehow, inexplicably work as a whole, fitting in just as they should. Other songs such as Default show this same mastery but Amok does it for me due to the subtleties.
Another highlight is the use of Yorke's voice on this album. It plays with his ethereal qualities as his voice comes at you from a distance, in the background, before moving to the foreground or supporting his own main vocal. The opening and closings tracks both demonstrate this personal highlight. [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
2013
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,825
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If anyone asks you how to define indy rock just throw this album at them. Each track is so damn good it's difficult to pick a standout track - not a weak track on the whole album. Catchy hooks come at you relentlessly. The lyrics are fantastically enigmatic, poetic, and quirky. Mercer's vocals are at their most expressive and emotive. The guitar has a raw edge yet the album production is far more polished than Oh, Inverted World. All in all I cannot fault Chutes Too Narrow. If I were to be picky it only suffers in comparison to other great albums in this chart due to the fact that it has few songs that can lay claim to being hailed as all time classics. However, any number of these songs have the quality to be seen as classics. Perhaps they get lost in amongst the company they keep...
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Probably Pink Bullets, but depending on the day it could be Mine's Not A High Horse, or Kissing the Lipless, or Those to Come. or... [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Rating: 97/100
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT: Probably Pink Bullets, but depending on the day it could be Mine's Not A High Horse, or Kissing the Lipless, or Those to Come. or... [First added to this chart: 07/05/2016]
Year of Release:
2003
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,891
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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:
30,531
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Total albums: 99. Page 1 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 | 6 | 6% | |
| 1970s | 7 | 7% | |
| 1980s | 5 | 5% | |
| 1990s | 29 | 29% | |
| 2000s | 34 | 34% | |
| 2010s | 17 | 17% | |
| 2020s | 2 | 2% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| Radiohead | 8 | 8% | |
| Metallica | 4 | 4% | |
| Aphex Twin | 4 | 4% | |
| The National | 3 | 3% | |
| Portishead | 3 | 3% | |
| Nirvana | 3 | 3% | |
| Tool | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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42 | 42% | |
| |
41 | 41% | |
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6 | 6% | |
| |
5 | 5% | |
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3 | 3% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 5 from 23rd to 18th A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead |
| Up 2 from 79th to 77th The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground & Nico |
| Up 2 from 78th to 76th Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 19 from 59th to 78th Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles |
| Down 16 from 69th to 85th Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
| Down 12 from 30th to 42nd Absolution by Muse |
| New entries |
|---|
 Wall Of Eyesby The Smile |
| Leavers |
|---|
 The Beatles (The White Album)by The Beatles |
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| An Objective Ranking Of BEA'S Top 100... |  covecove | Custom chart | 2017 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | Xygni1 | Overall chart | 2012 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | Strangel | 2000s decade chart | 2022 | |
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| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | fred911007 | Overall chart | 2016 |  |
| An Objective Ranking of the BEA Top 100 | PaperVinnie | Custom chart | 2018 | |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
89/100 (from 53 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 53 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
85/100  | 02/15/2025 09:18 |  DommeDamian | | 89/100 |
 90/100 | 06/12/2024 20:18 | C0NB9NN | | 85/100 |
| 90/100 | 06/10/2024 10:58 |  Tamthebam | | 85/100 |
| 90/100 | 11/19/2023 10:55 |  Bach | | 78/100 |
| 95/100 | 06/17/2020 14:47 |  DriftingOrpheus | | 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 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 86.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 89.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 16.7.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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85/100
From DommeDamian 02/15/2025 09:18
DommeDamian 02/15/2025 09:18
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.
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From Strangel 06/11/2024 00:13
Strangel 06/11/2024 00:13
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.
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90/100
From C0NB9NN 06/10/2024 15:03
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)
100/100
From Timooosterink 08/30/2019 10:38
Love your chart! I agree on amok it is a very underated album.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From Granny-Smith 06/26/2019 12:36
I like your chart. Have a lot Artists and Albums in common.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From 
Paule 03/06/2019 11:36
Paule 03/06/2019 11:36
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)
95/100
From Kurtco 01/29/2019 18:22
We have 31 albums and 21 artists in common... It's very funny!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From Kurtco 01/29/2019 18:18
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)
90/100
From 
guzguzgarbit 01/21/2019 20:08
guzguzgarbit 01/21/2019 20:08
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)
95/100
From 
jhuik 11/16/2018 14:00
jhuik 11/16/2018 14:00
I don't agree with your top ten, or some other picks, or (as has been noted by others) the excess of Radiohead, but who gives a shit about my opinion. I love the passion in your descriptions and the personalized responses. Great chart!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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