Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by 
DommeDamian 
Welcome to this danish Aspie, asexual alien's top 100 favorite albums of all time.
What I hope I can get out of this chart, is to inspire some readers and viewers to check out/revisit some music, and/or not be ashamed or afraid of their honest taste. [For more specific chart criteria, visit the beginning of the description of Born To Do It.] If I don't know which record has been spinning the most, I rank higher the ones that are most inspiring to me, either to my life or to my own music*
Compilations, EP's, and especially Posthumous releases are not included!
Also, I want to thank Albummaster for taking action. There is a reason why I have religiously visited this place ever since 2017 (at least thrice a day). Throughout, I've met new people, heard more about music, and been given a platform to create my chart.
10-month-Challenge: In July 2018 I felt I was done working my a$$ off this chart, but then I thought I should challenge myself to something huge, to kind of give my chart a bit of legacy (meaning I didn't put all this effort into my chart, for nothing). For those next 10 months, I MUST NOT listen to ANY other records than these 100, but not only that - it's 10 albums a month: So it went 100-91 in August, 90-81 in September .. all the way to 10-1 in May. Not one song outside the ten LPs of that current month, could be listened to with me not handling the turn-off bottom.
Writing in June: I'm finally done. I did it. I really did it. "I'm FREEEEE" [- The Who]. But for any passionate BEA-user out there, with a Top 100 Albums chart, full of descriptions, I challenge you to do that. Wait, no no no don't do it - you'll get in a lot of mental pain trust me.
*Speaking of which, please please please check my music out at:
https://hyperfollow.com/dommedamian
- Chart updated: 08/05/2024 17:15
- (Created: 05/24/2018 06:11).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 61 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 91 out of 100 (from 103 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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Not only was this probably the first real album ever, but Frank Sinatra is the OG sadboy. A lotta times when I go back to this era of music, I think maybe I am in a chill vocal jazz phase, only to find that this record captures my melancholic soul better than anything else, as much as I do dig what I jam. I can say that this is a sort of stand-in for Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart's TMR. But come on, it's number one of the Tom Club. This collection of tuneful nocturnal vocal jazz pieces puts you in a trance, not only with Sinatra's iconic crooning but also the instrumentation, rich and colorful romanticism.
The album begins with the sort of title-track that lyrically has aged the most significantly and bluntly. With everlasting words like "When your lonely heart has learned its lesson, you'd be heard if OOOOONLY she would call / In the wee small hours of the morning, that's the time you miss her most of all" it's painstakingly real. That the empathetic attention of a specific person you know won't give you what you need, as well as when you shouldn't be thinking of anything, let alone what discomforts your heart, is when you do, is indescribably on point. The fact it was written and recorded in '55 and still gets me, is proof this is a classic. The songs that follow simply tries to cope with the truthfully aching situation. The song Deep In A Dream describes the escapism and long-lost memory he craves for his love, and what I find odd but fitting about this song is that even though it's about that, it sits in the album about being awake walking through the streets in the night. A bit of a stretch but like that dream is gone, like his lover (pun kind of intended). Speaking of that, When Your Lover Has Gone has wanna the most truthful sad lyrics that rings of obvious reliability to me in "When you're alone who cares for starlit skies?", striking the emotion that naturally coming beauty means fuckall when the pain is realer and more overwhelming than it will ever be.
The big hot concept is heartbreak, and there is awareness in my opinion. He says, in I See Your Face Before Me the line "I cannot erase your beautiful face before me", which indicates he both tries, and still views his ex as something beautiful. And raise a hand to the ill wind if you see yerself in "I took each word she said as gospel truth, the way a silly little child would [...] I thought I'd found the girl of my dreams / Now it seems this is how the story ends / She's gonna turn me down and say / "Can't we be friends?"". Sinatra spoke for us sadboys before our mothers walked this Earth.
Helplessness is also the blues for a lot of these tunes, a theme also flowing through the story of my own life, and it hits with lyrics like "Cause there's nobody who cares about me, I'm just a soul who's bluer than blue can be" (Mood Indigo), "I know down deep inside I'll never be the same" (Never Be The Same) and the oh-so empathetically deep-cutting "It's a pleasure to be sad" (Glad To Be Unhappy). Perhaps my favorite is What Is This Thing Called Love, simply because it has wanna my favorite melodic progressions of any song, and Sinatra expressing in its simplicity, what this supposed love is as what he previously thought "threw his heart away". It all ends at This Love of Mine, capturing lyrics such as "Since nothing matters, let it break". It ties both into the mentioned line from When Your Lover Has Gone, but kind of his acceptance of lonesomeness and depression that he has sung throughout the innovatively 50minute album.
In the midst of all this, you forget that Sinatra doesn't have a writing credit, because he sings every single last line like it came from the purest brook in his soul. Even when breakup albums would be an acclaimed thing in the fifties' foreseeable future, it's still super difficult to find one as heartwarming as the kickstarter.
The album begins with the sort of title-track that lyrically has aged the most significantly and bluntly. With everlasting words like "When your lonely heart has learned its lesson, you'd be heard if OOOOONLY she would call / In the wee small hours of the morning, that's the time you miss her most of all" it's painstakingly real. That the empathetic attention of a specific person you know won't give you what you need, as well as when you shouldn't be thinking of anything, let alone what discomforts your heart, is when you do, is indescribably on point. The fact it was written and recorded in '55 and still gets me, is proof this is a classic. The songs that follow simply tries to cope with the truthfully aching situation. The song Deep In A Dream describes the escapism and long-lost memory he craves for his love, and what I find odd but fitting about this song is that even though it's about that, it sits in the album about being awake walking through the streets in the night. A bit of a stretch but like that dream is gone, like his lover (pun kind of intended). Speaking of that, When Your Lover Has Gone has wanna the most truthful sad lyrics that rings of obvious reliability to me in "When you're alone who cares for starlit skies?", striking the emotion that naturally coming beauty means fuckall when the pain is realer and more overwhelming than it will ever be.
The big hot concept is heartbreak, and there is awareness in my opinion. He says, in I See Your Face Before Me the line "I cannot erase your beautiful face before me", which indicates he both tries, and still views his ex as something beautiful. And raise a hand to the ill wind if you see yerself in "I took each word she said as gospel truth, the way a silly little child would [...] I thought I'd found the girl of my dreams / Now it seems this is how the story ends / She's gonna turn me down and say / "Can't we be friends?"". Sinatra spoke for us sadboys before our mothers walked this Earth.
Helplessness is also the blues for a lot of these tunes, a theme also flowing through the story of my own life, and it hits with lyrics like "Cause there's nobody who cares about me, I'm just a soul who's bluer than blue can be" (Mood Indigo), "I know down deep inside I'll never be the same" (Never Be The Same) and the oh-so empathetically deep-cutting "It's a pleasure to be sad" (Glad To Be Unhappy). Perhaps my favorite is What Is This Thing Called Love, simply because it has wanna my favorite melodic progressions of any song, and Sinatra expressing in its simplicity, what this supposed love is as what he previously thought "threw his heart away". It all ends at This Love of Mine, capturing lyrics such as "Since nothing matters, let it break". It ties both into the mentioned line from When Your Lover Has Gone, but kind of his acceptance of lonesomeness and depression that he has sung throughout the innovatively 50minute album.
In the midst of all this, you forget that Sinatra doesn't have a writing credit, because he sings every single last line like it came from the purest brook in his soul. Even when breakup albums would be an acclaimed thing in the fifties' foreseeable future, it's still super difficult to find one as heartwarming as the kickstarter.
Year of Release:
1955
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,608
Rank in 1955:
Rank in 1950s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1. Page 1 of 1
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 1 | 1% | |
| 1960s | 12 | 12% | |
| 1970s | 14 | 14% | |
| 1980s | 9 | 9% | |
| 1990s | 27 | 27% | |
| 2000s | 19 | 19% | |
| 2010s | 17 | 17% | |
| 2020s | 1 | 1% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Bob Dylan | 3 | 3% | |
| XXXTentacion | 2 | 2% | |
| Tim Buckley | 2 | 2% | |
| Damien Rice | 2 | 2% | |
| Michael Jackson | 2 | 2% | |
| Eels | 2 | 2% | |
| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| |
66 | 66% | |
 |
19 | 19% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 83 from 99th to 16thDifferent Stars by Trespassers William |
| Up 63 from 73rd to 10thHi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album by Daniel Johnston |
| Up 51 from 77th to 26thOf The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience by P.M. Dawn |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 68 from 17th to 85thWonderful Life by Black |
| Down 56 from 36th to 92ndSlow, Deep And Hard by Type O Negative |
| Down 54 from 23rd to 77th+ [Plus] by Ed Sheeran |
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| 10-month Challenge "Top 100 Greatest Music Albums" | DommeDamian | Custom chart | 2019 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | DommeDamian | 1990s decade chart | 2025 | |
| Dark Albums... |  covecove | Custom chart | 2017 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | space22ify | Overall chart | 2021 |  |
| When the melancholy fit shall fall |  CellarDoor | Custom chart | 2013 |  |
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| If son of Scaruffi marry RS editor, this would be their... |  SingingPeasant96 | Custom chart | 2013 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | ZTAS | Overall chart | 2017 | |
| My Top 100 Greatest Albums of All Time (One Album Per Artist) | Rm12398 | Custom chart | 2023 | |
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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 103 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 5 days ago | jnmayles | 11 | 88/100 |
| ! | 02/05/2025 15:25 |  SomethingSpecial | 1,104 | 85/100 |
| ! | 01/16/2025 14:19 | Exist-en-ciel | 147 | 98/100 |
| ! | 09/03/2024 07:03 | mianfei | 168 | 62/100 |
| ! | 09/03/2024 04:04 | Moondance | 476 | 85/100 |
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 91.3/100, a mean average of 89.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 91.9/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 17.2.
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums favourites
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 61 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
From mianfei 09/03/2024 07:07 | #305118
This probably the best chart I have seen on the site. The level of dedication to write the notes that must have been written is far beyond me — I admit I have trouble writing notes for my own chart, and the write-ups I do make are nothing like as detailed as those seen here.
Then the list itself is very interesting beyond the notes, even with only five artists in common with my own chart. It is obviously very personal and well thought-out, like I feel charts must be but almost never are, and contains a combination of genres that is nothing stereotyped.
An interesting point is how you mention Scaruffi re ‘Yerself Is Steam’ — I feel similarly about how he turned me onto that one.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Moondance 09/03/2024 04:04 | #305113
We may only have 2 albums in common - but we do have a passionate love of modern music in all its weird shapes & sizes. I got nothing but love & admiration for this chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Mercury 08/11/2024 04:56 | #304703
Mercury 08/11/2024 04:56 | #304703
Great chart!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From Johnnyo 12/05/2022 07:39 | #291777
I don’t agree with a lot of the picks but this is a very personal chart, which is the point, and the work that has gone into each entry has to be admired. Keep up the good work
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From leniad 04/14/2022 22:59 | #284263
good chart
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
EyeKanFly 09/14/2021 21:11 | #273732
EyeKanFly 09/14/2021 21:11 | #273732
Still going through a lot of this. Thanks for the insane amount of writing you've done on every single album (and the intro!). My only qualm so far is the way you've written Close to the Edge is... annoying to read through lol, but hey it's your vision. Honestly not a ton of disagreement about the albums themselves, and a few which your descriptions have led me to add to my wishlist.
This is an incredible effort, and I'll definitely be pinning this for a revisit! Whether to read another take on some of my favorite albums, to hear an alternate opinion on an album I don't much like, or to get an insanely comprehensive recommendation on an album I haven't heard of, there's a lot to do here.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
DriftingOrpheus 04/28/2021 08:38 | #269063
DriftingOrpheus 04/28/2021 08:38 | #269063
Nothing but respect for this level of dedication. These fruits of labor really show how special music can be to us and why this platform is so necessary in stoking that fire. Great work!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
seb7 03/17/2021 18:57 | #267433
seb7 03/17/2021 18:57 | #267433
I appreciate next to none of the picks here but GODDAM the amount of work put into this.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
calsper 01/04/2021 10:55 | #263803
calsper 01/04/2021 10:55 | #263803
What a chart!
Brilliant, personal, informative, original. Keep up the good work!
Kind regards C
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
danmarzella 11/29/2020 02:41 | #261614
danmarzella 11/29/2020 02:41 | #261614
Good list too!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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| Best Ever Artists | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Beatles | |
| 2. Radiohead | |
| 3. Pink Floyd | |
| 4. David Bowie | |
| 5. Bob Dylan | |
| 6. Led Zeppelin | |
| 7. The Rolling Stones | |
| 8. Arcade Fire | |
| 9. Nirvana | |
| 10. Neil Young | |
| 11. The Velvet Underground | |
| 12. Kendrick Lamar | |
| 13. Miles Davis | |
| 14. The Smiths | |
| 15. The Beach Boys | |
| 16. R.E.M. | |
| 17. Kanye West | |
| 18. Bruce Springsteen | |
| 19. Pixies | |
| 20. Jimi Hendrix |
