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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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from Kanye West. (Remove this filter)
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Industrial Hip-Hop
95/100
CA: 8/10
"Y'all 'bout to turn shit up?
I'm 'bout to tear shit down
I'm 'bout to air shit out
Now what the fuck they gon' say now?"
This album has made me re-evaluate a lot of how I think about music. As one who comes from a classic rock background, as I suspect most (or at least a good number) on this site do, it's hard not to think of Kanye as one of those new rappers writing pop-rap for a bunch of teenagers to drink and party to. To a certain extent, that not incorrect. But this album is a whole lot more.
While MBDTF was definitely an artistic statement, it was one designed to generate radio hits. Yeezus is, to a certain extent, anti-commercial. Or at least as anti-commercial as any serious album by the most popular artist in the world could be. On Sight is abrasive as hell. The same is true of most of the rest. As hard as it might be to understand coming from the high-brow land of rock n' roll, this is a thoroughly artistic, not commercial, endeavor.
The next hurdle of course is that you might point out, "Look at all the shitty stuff he says! He's just vulgar, obscene, and misogynistic!". Again, you would not be entirely wrong. In defense, I call to the stand Lou Reed. He in fact named this one of his favorite albums of the past decade or so shortly before passing away, but thats not what he's been called to the stand for. Instead, it is for his magnum opus track, Sister Ray. A song almost universally revered by rock "oldheads," it literally details a drug fueled orgy, in the strongest language that 60's would allow. More evidence could be presented, such as the Sex Pistols in general. These artists aren't considered vulgar unintelligent provocateurs, but as visionaries of the art form that is music. The same is true of Kanye West. If one reframes his vulgar digressions as either playful jibes or an attempt to see how far boundaries can be pushed (they are often both), one gets a figure not unlike the late Lou Reed.
That said, I don't think that he is immune from criticism. I'm still unsure how I feel about the politics surrounding using Billy Holiday's "Blood On The Leaves" as the basis for a song about ecstacy fueled affairs. But overall the album is a pretty awesome listen. Just a quick shoutout to the real highlights of the album: I Am A God is a banger, and quite a good distillation of Kanye himself; a self-aware, yet flamboyantly excessive exercise in self-worship. New Slaves is a surpringly nuanced look at what it means to be black and successful in America. And Hold My Liquor is possibly Kanye's greatest accomplishment of all time. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2017]
95/100
CA: 8/10
"Y'all 'bout to turn shit up?
I'm 'bout to tear shit down
I'm 'bout to air shit out
Now what the fuck they gon' say now?"
This album has made me re-evaluate a lot of how I think about music. As one who comes from a classic rock background, as I suspect most (or at least a good number) on this site do, it's hard not to think of Kanye as one of those new rappers writing pop-rap for a bunch of teenagers to drink and party to. To a certain extent, that not incorrect. But this album is a whole lot more.
While MBDTF was definitely an artistic statement, it was one designed to generate radio hits. Yeezus is, to a certain extent, anti-commercial. Or at least as anti-commercial as any serious album by the most popular artist in the world could be. On Sight is abrasive as hell. The same is true of most of the rest. As hard as it might be to understand coming from the high-brow land of rock n' roll, this is a thoroughly artistic, not commercial, endeavor.
The next hurdle of course is that you might point out, "Look at all the shitty stuff he says! He's just vulgar, obscene, and misogynistic!". Again, you would not be entirely wrong. In defense, I call to the stand Lou Reed. He in fact named this one of his favorite albums of the past decade or so shortly before passing away, but thats not what he's been called to the stand for. Instead, it is for his magnum opus track, Sister Ray. A song almost universally revered by rock "oldheads," it literally details a drug fueled orgy, in the strongest language that 60's would allow. More evidence could be presented, such as the Sex Pistols in general. These artists aren't considered vulgar unintelligent provocateurs, but as visionaries of the art form that is music. The same is true of Kanye West. If one reframes his vulgar digressions as either playful jibes or an attempt to see how far boundaries can be pushed (they are often both), one gets a figure not unlike the late Lou Reed.
That said, I don't think that he is immune from criticism. I'm still unsure how I feel about the politics surrounding using Billy Holiday's "Blood On The Leaves" as the basis for a song about ecstacy fueled affairs. But overall the album is a pretty awesome listen. Just a quick shoutout to the real highlights of the album: I Am A God is a banger, and quite a good distillation of Kanye himself; a self-aware, yet flamboyantly excessive exercise in self-worship. New Slaves is a surpringly nuanced look at what it means to be black and successful in America. And Hold My Liquor is possibly Kanye's greatest accomplishment of all time. [First added to this chart: 12/08/2017]
Year of Release:
2013
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,317
Rank in 2013:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
15530. (=)
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95/100
[First added to this chart: 07/26/2018]
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,224
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Hip-Hop • Soul-Rap
90/100
CA: 5/10
IYLT: Common - Be
This album is just a blast to listen to. Even though I tend to like moody/sad music more (just look at my chart!), I can't help but have fun with Late Registration. Literally every song aside from skits 1-4 is just so urgent and invigorating. It does get a little moodier with Drive Slow, Roses and Addiction in the middle, but that's not to say they aren't excellent songs as well. But it's really the from and back where this album shines. Heard Em Say to Touch The Sky to Gold Digger is of couse one of the best album openings there is. And then Diamonds, Gone, and the highlight Hey Mama in the back, along with a couple other fun tracks really make this album what it is. Which would be absolutely fun.
This is one of the few long form rap albums that I really love. It seems like for a long time, and maybe still, hour-long plus albums were the norm in hip-hop, greatly to the detriment of the music in my opinion. Music has to have a lot of variety in sound in order to be effective for that long, and for hip-hop, especially the stripped down beat-heavy style that dominated early hip hop, it tended to get tiresome. Kanye, in the process of saving hip-hop of course, went along and saved the long form hip-hop album format as well. College Dropout, while not a personal favorite of mine (it just has too many really weak or even problematic songs to enjoy the whole album), was able to provide enough variety because of it's sample-based sound. Late Registration is essentially just an extension of that, but soooo much better. This will be the standard to which I compare all of Kanye's future works, as well as most any hip hop album that attempts to be a long-form artistic and conceptual statement.
BM:
"She take my mo-neyyyy!" [First added to this chart: 05/10/2018]
90/100
CA: 5/10
IYLT: Common - Be
This album is just a blast to listen to. Even though I tend to like moody/sad music more (just look at my chart!), I can't help but have fun with Late Registration. Literally every song aside from skits 1-4 is just so urgent and invigorating. It does get a little moodier with Drive Slow, Roses and Addiction in the middle, but that's not to say they aren't excellent songs as well. But it's really the from and back where this album shines. Heard Em Say to Touch The Sky to Gold Digger is of couse one of the best album openings there is. And then Diamonds, Gone, and the highlight Hey Mama in the back, along with a couple other fun tracks really make this album what it is. Which would be absolutely fun.
This is one of the few long form rap albums that I really love. It seems like for a long time, and maybe still, hour-long plus albums were the norm in hip-hop, greatly to the detriment of the music in my opinion. Music has to have a lot of variety in sound in order to be effective for that long, and for hip-hop, especially the stripped down beat-heavy style that dominated early hip hop, it tended to get tiresome. Kanye, in the process of saving hip-hop of course, went along and saved the long form hip-hop album format as well. College Dropout, while not a personal favorite of mine (it just has too many really weak or even problematic songs to enjoy the whole album), was able to provide enough variety because of it's sample-based sound. Late Registration is essentially just an extension of that, but soooo much better. This will be the standard to which I compare all of Kanye's future works, as well as most any hip hop album that attempts to be a long-form artistic and conceptual statement.
BM:
"She take my mo-neyyyy!" [First added to this chart: 05/10/2018]
Year of Release:
2005
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,506
Rank in 2005:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 3. Page 1 of 1
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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 favourites
Showing latest 20 members who have added this chart as a favourite | Show all 22 members
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
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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