Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
JulianR 
Hey!
I am quite excited to discuss literally anything about music ("literal" used in the literal, not figurative sense). I don't really know anyone that listens to the breadth and depth of music that I do. So if you disagree with something I say, or just want to talk about music, totally message me. Also if you want recommendations, or have some for me, totally message me or comment. Thank you!
Just as a heads up, the descriptions for these albums could have been written yesterday, or 18 months ago. They may not be totally reflective of my opinions on them now, though they were at one point at least.
Chart of the Day: 2/21/18, 4/23/19
Questions, comments, concerns, and especially recommendations are all heavily encouraged
Thanks
- Julian
- Chart updated: 02/07/2020 06:45
- (Created: 12/14/2016 01:31).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 72 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 92 out of 100 (from 106 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 05/16/2018]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
23,674
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
165
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 11/20/2018]
Year of Release:
1990
Appears in:
Rank Score:
805
Rank in 1990:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Psychedelic Pop • Baroque Pop
95/100
CA: 3/10
IYLT: The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle; The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions
"And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through"
We have the benefits of hindsight now. We can see what music affected what, and where it has led to now. We know that this album was the first truly great album (of rock/pop). But it also gives us perspective. It's easy to think of music as a winding path, with many innovations and great masterpieces, that leads here to the present day, and kind of ends. This might be human nature; through a historical lens, I think we tend to see the past is long and eventful, and the future short and obscure. This must have been thought at every point in history. Yet, still, it is hard to imagine living in the time of this album, when (rock) music was just flourishing, and to have this album come out. Even to be living in the 1980's, and think that this form of music, as an art form, was essentially born after you were. And yet I can imagine people a hundred years from now marveling at how little removed we are from the very roots of this art.
I've always liked this album. But just recently I've become quite addicted to it. It's on of a handful of albums that just keeps getting better even listening to it over and over, day and day again. At the time of this writing, I've listened to the album multiple times a day for the past week or more. Doing that with any other album would almost surely make me very bored with it. But this one keeps getting better. [First added to this chart: 06/16/2017]
95/100
CA: 3/10
IYLT: The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle; The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions
"And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through"
We have the benefits of hindsight now. We can see what music affected what, and where it has led to now. We know that this album was the first truly great album (of rock/pop). But it also gives us perspective. It's easy to think of music as a winding path, with many innovations and great masterpieces, that leads here to the present day, and kind of ends. This might be human nature; through a historical lens, I think we tend to see the past is long and eventful, and the future short and obscure. This must have been thought at every point in history. Yet, still, it is hard to imagine living in the time of this album, when (rock) music was just flourishing, and to have this album come out. Even to be living in the 1980's, and think that this form of music, as an art form, was essentially born after you were. And yet I can imagine people a hundred years from now marveling at how little removed we are from the very roots of this art.
I've always liked this album. But just recently I've become quite addicted to it. It's on of a handful of albums that just keeps getting better even listening to it over and over, day and day again. At the time of this writing, I've listened to the album multiple times a day for the past week or more. Doing that with any other album would almost surely make me very bored with it. But this one keeps getting better. [First added to this chart: 06/16/2017]
Year of Release:
1966
Appears in:
Rank Score:
45,162
Rank in 1966:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Jazz-Rock • Improv • Art Rock
95/100
CA: 9/10
Just as the cover art would suggest, this album is the lighter counterpart to Laughing Stock. The noon-time sun shines on a colorful array of birds. At times, I find it prettier than Laughing Stock. The floating organs of Wealth, compared to the sparse, broken guitar of Runeii. This album is the sound of artists reaching their creative potential. Realizing the benefits of their years of hard work and learning. Wealth, Inheritance, Belief, the beauty of nature, the biblical gardens of Eden. This is where they arrive. It is beautiful. Laughing Stock marks the Ascension beyond the earthy, the beautiful. The sun setting on the same tree, darkened and hardened. That is the album of the end.
I'm sorry that I can't talk about this album without its relation to Laughing Stock. It's. just the only thing that compares to that incomparable work. [First added to this chart: 04/08/2018]
95/100
CA: 9/10
Just as the cover art would suggest, this album is the lighter counterpart to Laughing Stock. The noon-time sun shines on a colorful array of birds. At times, I find it prettier than Laughing Stock. The floating organs of Wealth, compared to the sparse, broken guitar of Runeii. This album is the sound of artists reaching their creative potential. Realizing the benefits of their years of hard work and learning. Wealth, Inheritance, Belief, the beauty of nature, the biblical gardens of Eden. This is where they arrive. It is beautiful. Laughing Stock marks the Ascension beyond the earthy, the beautiful. The sun setting on the same tree, darkened and hardened. That is the album of the end.
I'm sorry that I can't talk about this album without its relation to Laughing Stock. It's. just the only thing that compares to that incomparable work. [First added to this chart: 04/08/2018]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,280
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Fuzz-Folk • Lo-Fi • Indie Rock
95/100
CA: 6/10
"God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life"
This is the ultimate sing along album. You don't have to be a great singer to do it; Jeff certainly wasn't, by all technical standards. All you have to do is feel the emotion, the power. Yet despite that intangible sing-along quality that his cadence and style of singing has, it is his lyricism that really makes this album the masterpiece it is. He is masterful in his command of words and the way we think about them. For example, this passage from "Oh Comely":
" Soft silly music is meaningful magical,
The movements were beautiful, all in your ovaries.
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers,
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines.
Smelling of semen all under the garden
Was all you were needing when you still believed in me. "
He basically just says "sex" in about 50 words, but you get a myriad of connotations and associations from the way that the words are used and combined. Jeff has a strange way of created scenes with no real features, only mirages of half formed images and concepts with no way to describe them. It's either like (a) he describes all the elements of picture, without ever telling you what it is a picture of, or (b) he somehow conveys a picture without ever telling you what any of the individual elements are. One of those analogies is correct, and I can't decide which. Maybe both, at different times, or maybe I'm just making sh*t up. But, I know that Jeff can somehow paint with words in a way unsurpassed by anyone else, even the immortal Bob Dylan. [First added to this chart: 06/14/2017]
95/100
CA: 6/10
"God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life"
This is the ultimate sing along album. You don't have to be a great singer to do it; Jeff certainly wasn't, by all technical standards. All you have to do is feel the emotion, the power. Yet despite that intangible sing-along quality that his cadence and style of singing has, it is his lyricism that really makes this album the masterpiece it is. He is masterful in his command of words and the way we think about them. For example, this passage from "Oh Comely":
" Soft silly music is meaningful magical,
The movements were beautiful, all in your ovaries.
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers,
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines.
Smelling of semen all under the garden
Was all you were needing when you still believed in me. "
He basically just says "sex" in about 50 words, but you get a myriad of connotations and associations from the way that the words are used and combined. Jeff has a strange way of created scenes with no real features, only mirages of half formed images and concepts with no way to describe them. It's either like (a) he describes all the elements of picture, without ever telling you what it is a picture of, or (b) he somehow conveys a picture without ever telling you what any of the individual elements are. One of those analogies is correct, and I can't decide which. Maybe both, at different times, or maybe I'm just making sh*t up. But, I know that Jeff can somehow paint with words in a way unsurpassed by anyone else, even the immortal Bob Dylan. [First added to this chart: 06/14/2017]
Year of Release:
1998
Appears in:
Rank Score:
39,574
Rank in 1998:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 04/01/2018]
Year of Release:
2002
Appears in:
Rank Score:
20,614
Rank in 2002:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Blues Rock • Folk-Rock
95/100
CA: 7/10
"He built a fire on main street
And shot it full of holes"
One of the more emotional albums I've ever heard, in that Dylan is able to create such a wide variety of feelings, each executed perfectly. Overall, I would probably describe the album as melancholy, or maybe heartbroken, but as I write this I'm listening to Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, so I may be biased by that.
Musically, it represents the best Dylan has ever done. To be frank, Dylan's straight blues of Highway 61 Revisited just wasn't that great. It had some good songs, but he's just not really a blues man in that way. The songs I enjoy on that album most (excluding Like a Rolling Stone, of course) are Ballad of a Thin Man and Desolation Row. Ballad of a Thin Man seems to be the song most similar to the feel of Blonde on Blonde. It is more complex, less derivative of basic blues. The balladry of Desolation Row also has a similar feel to parts of this album. Basically I think what I'm saying is that Dylan sounds his best when he sounds like Blonde on Blonde. The organ gives the album a much softer and more beautiful feel throughout, making tracks like I Want You, Just like a Woman, and the closer feel like beautiful folk songs but with more behind them than your average folk song. This allows the lyrics to really dominate, and agian, I think they are Dylan at his best. He drops most of the absurd surrealism of previous releases and sings quite a few much more personal songs. You can tell he's not just making words, he's telling us about himself. And he does it gorgeously.
BM:
The intro of "Fourth Time Around", where the gorgeous classical guitars come in [First added to this chart: 09/19/2017]
95/100
CA: 7/10
"He built a fire on main street
And shot it full of holes"
One of the more emotional albums I've ever heard, in that Dylan is able to create such a wide variety of feelings, each executed perfectly. Overall, I would probably describe the album as melancholy, or maybe heartbroken, but as I write this I'm listening to Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, so I may be biased by that.
Musically, it represents the best Dylan has ever done. To be frank, Dylan's straight blues of Highway 61 Revisited just wasn't that great. It had some good songs, but he's just not really a blues man in that way. The songs I enjoy on that album most (excluding Like a Rolling Stone, of course) are Ballad of a Thin Man and Desolation Row. Ballad of a Thin Man seems to be the song most similar to the feel of Blonde on Blonde. It is more complex, less derivative of basic blues. The balladry of Desolation Row also has a similar feel to parts of this album. Basically I think what I'm saying is that Dylan sounds his best when he sounds like Blonde on Blonde. The organ gives the album a much softer and more beautiful feel throughout, making tracks like I Want You, Just like a Woman, and the closer feel like beautiful folk songs but with more behind them than your average folk song. This allows the lyrics to really dominate, and agian, I think they are Dylan at his best. He drops most of the absurd surrealism of previous releases and sings quite a few much more personal songs. You can tell he's not just making words, he's telling us about himself. And he does it gorgeously.
BM:
The intro of "Fourth Time Around", where the gorgeous classical guitars come in [First added to this chart: 09/19/2017]
Year of Release:
1966
Appears in:
Rank Score:
27,873
Rank in 1966:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 12/11/2017]
Year of Release:
2011
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,332
Rank in 2011:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 12/27/2017]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,815
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
30. (=)
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 07/26/2018]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,226
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 3 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 13 | 13% | |
| 1970s | 12 | 12% | |
| 1980s | 8 | 8% | |
| 1990s | 25 | 25% | |
| 2000s | 21 | 21% | |
| 2010s | 21 | 21% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| The Flaming Lips | 5 | 5% | |
| Pink Floyd | 4 | 4% | |
| Kendrick Lamar | 3 | 3% | |
| Kanye West | 3 | 3% | |
| Talk Talk | 3 | 3% | |
| Radiohead | 3 | 3% | |
| Bob Dylan | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
58 | 58% | |
 |
26 | 26% | |
 |
5 | 5% | |
 |
5 | 5% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 60th to 61st The Glow Pt. 2 by The Microphones |
| Down 1 from 61st to 62nd Souvlaki by Slowdive |
| Down 1 from 62nd to 63rd Yank Crime by Drive Like Jehu |
| New entries |
|---|
 Turn On The Bright Lightsby Interpol |
| In The Flat Field by Bauhaus |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
92/100 (from 106 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 106 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
100/100  | 01/22/2023 22:16 | Rm12398 | | 89/100 |
80/100 | 07/13/2022 22:08 |  Applerill | | 75/100 |
85/100 | 12/10/2020 00:38 | ars2458 | | 78/100 |
100/100 | 06/14/2020 12:47 | BraddlesHendo | | 91/100 |
90/100 | 03/30/2020 09:20 | RomanRelic | | 84/100 |
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 92.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 92.6/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 10.3.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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100/100
From Rm12398 01/22/2023 22:17
What a chart!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From Juneof44 04/29/2021 06:58
I really appreciate your effort, a solid chart and i love the rating to the cover
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Foxforce5 02/05/2021 03:26
Thanks for the hard work. I came to your chart after reading your comments about Rubber Soul and Bringing It All Back Home being ‘transitional’ albums and thought to myself ‘there’s someone with a similar pair of ears’!
Anyhow, your comments inspired me to listen to the ‘transitional’ Bon Iver album, and I’ll give Lorde another go. I mean listening is what it’s all about, right?
In answer to your question on Mezzanine, Pet Sounds is better produced, so now you know.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From ars2458 12/10/2020 00:38
Wow, I truly love FEFEA and Age of Adz, but I don't have the depth on older stuff. I am going to give those specific albums a chance. I have listened to Bowie and Pink Floyd, but not those albums, so maybe I will hear something different this time.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Vegetariat 02/03/2020 10:16
Great list with wonderful notes and recommendations. Your description of Loveless and Shoegaze is as touching as it is true. You're right about Touched, haha
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From mianfei 12/16/2019 13:05
Although the list is really an odd mix of soul/hip of and progressive rock/post-rock (if I am not mistaken, I did see a similar combination somewhere else on this site on an earlier browse last autumn), there is not that much of real note in the chart.
However, the lack of really unusual albums and a grouping of genres that is merely on the “eccentric” side is certainly compensated for by some impressive notes, which substantially add to the rating.
Some albums you might not have heard that I could attempt to recommend based on your taste:
— ‘Yeti’ by Amon Düül II
— ‘H to He Who Am the Only One’ and ‘Pawn Hearts’ by Van der Graaf Generator
— ‘A Return to the Inner Experience’, ‘This Timeless Turning’ and ‘Moonbathing on Sleeping Leaves’ by Sky Cries Mary
— ‘Gala’ and ‘Spooky’ by Lush
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From bonnequestion 12/04/2019 12:41
Very nice and unique chart, very inspiring! And also, good job on all those comments.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Timooosterink 12/04/2019 10:20
Really nice chart, maybe you like Gorillaz?
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From 
kynes 12/04/2019 09:07
kynes 12/04/2019 09:07
the final cut getting some deserved appreciation is nice to see! i will always have respect for users who take the time to write significant blurbs for many of the records in their charts
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From pctrooper 11/12/2019 23:34
Not a huge fan of all these albums, but I really like the chart with its descriptions and stuff.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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