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

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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Art Rock • Jazz-Rock
100/100
Cover Art: 9/10

If You Like This: The For Carnation - self-titled

It's a broodingness that never quite explodes in anger or in sadness, but simply falls deeper into the brooding. It's a beauty that never allows itself to be fully realized.

What strikes you first about this album is its minimalism. And it can be hard to understand, at first. Very hard in fact. The first time I listened to this record, I didn't really hear anything at all. Every once in a while some guy would whisper an incomprehensable phrase, and then fade back while a flute played three notes for a minute and a half. That's what it felt like. That just takes time, but eventually you hear deliberateness instead of silence. Then you begin to marvel at the complexity of the music, in the way one begins to marvel at the complexity of a surface, such as a mirror, a plain wall, if you look at it long enough. The layers and dynamics of this record draw one in, as they have done to me on this record. But after a while, the thing that stands out most about this album is how darn simple it is, on a fundamental level. Some of my favorite moments on Laughing Stock are the choruses, if you could call them that. They are just a short hummable phrase that only appears a few times, but somehow they stick with you so much. I think they are so powerful because they are put in perspective by the ramblings of the woodwinds and lack of melody essentially everywhere else. They are the anchor with which the rest of the fluttering flutes and glittering guitars are tethered down.
This use of melodic and structural contrast is probably the most important aspect of this album. When in the context of the album, Ascension Day is one of may favorite songs of all time. It just feels so powerful. But if you just listen to it on its own, not bookended by Myrrhman and After The Flood, it doesn't have that same power. The minimalism of Myrrhman is what makes the highs of Ascension Day and After The Flood feel so high. Taphead does the same for New Grass, which in turn makes Runeii feel so dark and desolate. Spirit of Eden comes to a close with with Wealth; a prayer, a beautiful, peaceful resolution, a shimmering organ that I imagine as the light blue sky upon which a snow-white dove flaps its wings. Runeii fades Laughing Stock from a dark blue, almost bruised purple, to a deep black, with the threat of shattering into innumerable shards.

Best Moments:
Ascension Day - When the guitars suddenly crash in to those powerful chords
[First added to this chart: 03/28/2018]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,258
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
3. (=)
Low 
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Art Rock • Electronic • Ambient (side 2)
95/100
Cover Art: 8/10

IYLT: Brian Eno - Another Green World

"Must have been touching close to 94"

Side 1 is some of the most innovative music made in the 70's. It manages to toe the intersection between being extremely artistic and very catchy/accessible as a good chunk of Bowie's career did (some parts... well, not so much of either). It's just such a creative feat to have written this album 40 years ago and still have it sound interesting, creative, cutting edge, and new. It blows my mind every time. The sounds that Eno (Brian Eno, producer and co-composer of much of Side 2 and prolific ambient artist) gets out of the synths and other instruments is really great. That searing synth in Breaking Glass, that somber background in Warzawa, all fit perfectly with the piece. Timbre is something that is underappreciated in western music, but this album is a masterpiece in that variety. Side 2 (you can probably lump in the last track of side one) is an entirely different experience, although it doesn't feel out of place or awkward in relation to Side 1. It's a brooding collage of textures, where song structure is barely existent. It combines the typical Bowie grandiosity with Eno's minimalist arrangement sensibilities. It is some of the better ambient music I've heard. The result is 20 minutes of a dream.

To sum it up, I will quote my dad, who says Side 1 is David Bowie at his best, while Side 2 is Brian Eno at his best. And I think that's pretty accurate.
[First added to this chart: 12/13/2016]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
19,445
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Rock • Prog • Rock Ballads
95/100
Cover Art: 5/10

If You Like This: Roger Waters' solo work

"They disembarked in '45
And no-one spoke and no-one smiled
There were too many spaces in the line"

I would like to boast that, of the entire site, I have this album ranked the highest. It's kinda cool (everyone likes being unique, right), but this album honestly deserves so much more recognition.

If I could sum up my childhood musically, it would be in the words "Pink Floyd". Ever since I have consciously listened to music, I have always been to hum along to every single note of every single solo of every single song of every single album from Dark Side to the Final Cut. It was never a conscious choice, I just have Gilmour ingrained in my brain, and my father to thank for it. Since I have begun rediscovering music on my own terms, I have discovered, for a fact, that this is the best Pink Floyd album. Sure, PF has some great albums. Everything from Meddle to this record is just top tier in my opinion. They are all grandiose, deep, insightful, innovative, but none are even close to this album, to be honest. None of them quite reach the deep, heartfelt, painful feeling that this album is able to capture. I think in order to get to this true, honest, painful place in his music, Roger Waters needed to cut through the excess at the core of what prog rock is, and for this he needed to cut a lot of the excess of the other members, exercising almost total creative control. With that he was able to create this album ("written by Roger Rogers, Performed by Pink Floyd", as the liner notes specify). You can call it a Waters solo album, but that doesn't make it any worse. It's still fantastic, no matter who got shafted in the process.

Every song feels like it was made through a deeply painful process to Roger; even The Wall, though he is supposedly speaking about himself, feels detached, inflated, melodramatic, abstract. But this album is very real; maybe the most real on this list, maybe of all time. It is an album about real experiences. They may not be Roger's exactly, but they might as well have been. He talks about it as if growing up in a world defined by a war he was barely alive for imbued him with an intimate knowledge of it--and it must have. Growing up, where every man either saw war himself or knew ten others who went and didn't make it back, must have been a strange experience. Roger Waters is conveying multi-generational wounds on this album, deep pain that, though he hasn't felt it, has felt the effects of every day of his life. In "your possible pasts", he is singing about the way could tell, growing up, that everyone was holding a strange and invisible burden, one that everyone saw but no-one talked about. And he also gets very personal. "When the tigers broke free" (ya i know it wasnt on the original release but its on the one I have and I consider it part of the album) is about his firsthand experience with how his dad died.

But this isn't an album just for him. It talks about his childhood experiences, but it also talks about the lives of the adults around him during that time through their eyes. And even more than that, it's an album for an entire country. A country he saw as sliding right back into the tendencies that led to all the pain he saw in the first place. The tendencies that have the possibility to kill us all in nuclear catastrophe, as he points out in what may be the greatest closer to an album ever.

" Finally, I understand, the feelings of the few
Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend
We were all equal in the end "
[First added to this chart: 12/13/2016]
Year of Release:
1983
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,453
Rank in 1983:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Prog Rock • Rock Opera
95/100
CA: 7/10

IYLT: Steven Wilson's more famous project, Porcupine Tree (which is proggier).

"Hey brother, it's been a while now
I bet you thought that I was dead"

THIS is what a rock opera is supposed to be. Epic. In my mind, it is both the natural progression of the more mainstream parts of Animals/WYWH era Pink Floyd and a brave new deviation from the more experimental parts, into uncharted territories. Wilson doesn't just ride the line between anthemic rock and heavy progressive rock, he finds whole new spaces in between the two, and creates one of the more creative pieces in either genre. It builds on itself in amazing ways, and flows so well that sometimes it's hard to know when one song ends and the next begins. It's all so natural. And I might dare to say that it is the best produced album of all time. Just listen to Ancestral and tell me I'm wrong.

And the story is awesome, if not very defined or linear. It is inspired by the life (and more importantly death) of a girl named Joyce Carol Vincent, who, despite having friends and family, died in her apartment and wasn't found until 3 years later. Crazy right. Wilson is able to craft a story that, if not quite a story line, does give a glimpse into how easily we can slip in and out of eachothers lives without noticing.

BM:
Ancestral: "Come baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack if you want to!", and the ensuing, face melting, guitar solo
[First added to this chart: 03/23/2017]
Year of Release:
2015
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,216
Rank in 2015:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
13. (=)
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Art Rock • Electronic Rock
95/100
Cover Art: 10/10

If You Like This: Massive Attack - Mezzanine; David Bowie - Low;

This album was my number one for so long that it's image in my mind has overcome my actual feelings of it; it has been mythologized, in a way. I'm going to let it sit here for a while and then come back to it.
[First added to this chart: 12/17/2016]
Year of Release:
2000
Appears in:
Rank Score:
51,383
Rank in 2000:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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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:
Buy album United States
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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]
Year of Release:
1988
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,269
Rank in 1988:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Rock • Rock Opera
90/100
CA: 4/10

IYLT: Jethro Tull - Aqualung

"You're too old to lose it, too young to choose it
And the clock waits so patiently on your song"

Sometimes, music isn't all artsy or high-minded or anything. Sometimes it's just damn good music. This is one of those times.

I think of Ziggy Stardust as the quintessential rock album. It's just pure awesome songs with great sing-along lyrics throughout. It flows so well the entire album, although I think the track "Lady Stardust" detracts from the generally upbeat mood. The highlight of the album is probably the closing track, which builds to a powerful climax and then comes to a close with a beautiful sweeping string section.

BM:
The end of rock n roll suicide (along with the rest of the track) is one of my favorite ends to an album ever
[First added to this chart: 12/13/2016]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
50,096
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Rock • The Beatles (if beatlesque is a genre, so are the beatles)
90/100
CA: 5/10

"Love is old, love is new"

A great album, one of those records that is always better than I remember it. Side 1 is a collection of some of the best material the Beatles have released; Come Together, Something, Oh Darling, etc. It's just a collection of great tunes.

But Side 2 is the real winner. It has some great individual songs itself - Here Comes the Sun is beautiful, Because is a brilliant harmony - but the medley is the true highlight of the album. It really is ingenious how all the tracks flow together so nicely. Every track in it is so wonderful and upbeat and it creates such a great mood (aside from sun king, which is kinda eh). And then it closes with the perfect little ditty Her Majesty, which doesn't get enough love.
[First added to this chart: 12/13/2016]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
65,405
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Prog Rock • Art Rock
90/100
CA: 7/10

"And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?"

A really beautiful album. The split, 10-part epic, is the real crowning achievement. It's a gorgeous, flowing piece, progressive but never overwhelming, subtle but never boring. Welcome to the machine is alright but a little grating, Have a cigar is pretty good, and Wish you were here is a great song, if a little overplayed. Then, it's back to the grand suite; this half a little faster and more energetic. Beautiful.

BM:
Shine on you crazy diamond part 2(?): when the guitar part comes in for the first time, going "doo-daahhhh-doo-duhhhhhhhh" (low-high-low-medium)
[First added to this chart: 12/13/2016]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
50,798
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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 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 %


United States 58 58%
United Kingdom 26 26%
Canada 5 5%
Mixed Nationality 5 5%
Australia 2 2%
Ireland 1 1%
New Zealand 1 1%
Show all
Live? Albums %
No 99 99%
Yes 1 1%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest fallers
Faller Down 1 from 60th to 61st
The Glow Pt. 2
by The Microphones
Faller Down 1 from 61st to 62nd
Souvlaki
by Slowdive
Faller Down 1 from 62nd to 63rd
Yank Crime
by Drive Like Jehu

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
92/100 (from 106 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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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).
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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).
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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

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 72 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
100/100
From 01/22/2023 22:17
What a chart!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 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 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)
Rating:  
85/100
From 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)
Rating:  
100/100
From 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)
Rating:  
80/100
From 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)
Rating:  
95/100
From 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)
Rating:  
100/100
From 12/04/2019 10:20
Really nice chart, maybe you like Gorillaz?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 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)
Rating:  
90/100
From 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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