Top 100 Greatest Music Albums
by emptysquares

After around 50 years of listening, these are some of my favourites so far (I kept it to a max of 4 albums per artist - man that was hard!)

• Chart updated: 03/11/2025 23:45
• (Created: 06/29/2018 17:01).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 8 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 91 out of 100 (from 25 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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1. (=)

Animals 

 Pink Floyd

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Roger Waters paints a dark dystopian landscape of life in 1970's Britain where a ruthless "dog eat dog" culture exists in order to control and subdue the general populous ruled by a greedy & corrupt political elite.
Aaah....those were the days.
But we can make Britain great again.....let's take back control!!
Baaaa…..Baaaa... [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1977

Appears in:

1,756 charts

Rank Score:

22,832

Rank in 1977:

2

Rank in 1970s:

8

Overall Rank:

35

Average Rating:

 88 (2,793 votes)

Comments:

202

2. (=)

In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson) 

 King Crimson

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Greg Lake's voice heralds an entire era of edgy symphonic prog rock that would go on to bore girllfriends and annoy rock "journalists" for many years to come. [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

2,063 charts

Rank Score:

28,510

Rank in 1969:

2

Rank in 1960s:

7

Overall Rank:

25

Average Rating:

 89 (2,429 votes)

Comments:

221

3. (=)

Hunky Dory 

 David Bowie

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Mr.Jones gives a lesson in the art of song-writing accompanied by Mr.Wakeman on his Joanna and also Mr.Ronson performing with his martian arachnid associates. [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,853 charts

Rank Score:

19,531

Rank in 1971:

3

Rank in 1970s:

14

Overall Rank:

46

Average Rating:

 87 (2,442 votes)

Comments:

159

4. (=)

The Beatles (The White Album) 

 The Beatles

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The one where that nice Mr. McCartney invites us all to "do it in the road", young Georgie plays with his little piggies whilst that nasty Mr. Lennon sings about his filthy "warm gun".

Don't you just love the sixties???


Number nine...….number nine...…number nine...… [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

2,944 charts

Rank Score:

37,662

Rank in 1968:

1

Rank in 1960s:

6

Overall Rank:

14

Average Rating:

 89 (3,821 votes)

Comments:

342

5. (8) 3

The Dark Side Of The Moon 

 Pink Floyd

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Roger Waters writes about some fundamental topics that people thought and worried about in the 1970's including religion, class, ageing, wealth, sanity and death.
A modern updating of the concept for the 21st century is set to also include additional songs about the challenges of taking a good selfie, lack of 5G coverage and videos of cute animals doing the sweetest things. [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

4,125 charts

Rank Score:

61,159

Rank in 1973:

1

Rank in 1970s:

1

Overall Rank:

2

Average Rating:

 92 (5,329 votes)

Comments:

592

6. (7) 1

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts 

 Brian Eno & David Byrne

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[First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

386 charts

Rank Score:

2,713

Rank in 1981:

5

Rank in 1980s:

99

Overall Rank:

637

Average Rating:

 77 (433 votes)

Comments:

32

7. (12) 5

Close To The Edge 

 Yes

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Rick Wakeman's cape has often been cited as a key element provoking the UK punk rock movement... [First added to this chart: 07/04/2018]

Year of Release:

1972

Appears in:

1,193 charts

Rank Score:

14,003

Rank in 1972:

4

Rank in 1970s:

24

Overall Rank:

87

Average Rating:

 85 (1,471 votes)

Comments:

119

8. (6) 2

Rain Dogs 

 Tom Waits

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Just 'alf a bitter for me thanks Tom pet. [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1985

Appears in:

1,139 charts

Rank Score:

11,756

Rank in 1985:

2

Rank in 1980s:

14

Overall Rank:

112

Average Rating:

 84 (1,338 votes)

Comments:

87

9. (10) 1

OK Computer 

 Radiohead

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You too are a pig in a cage on anti-biotics [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1997

Appears in:

4,411 charts

Rank Score:

64,774

Rank in 1997:

1

Rank in 1990s:

1

Overall Rank:

1

Average Rating:

 92 (5,630 votes)

Comments:

853

10. (11) 1

Remain In Light 

 Talking Heads

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And you may ask yourself
How did they do that? [First added to this chart: 06/29/2018]

Year of Release:

1980

Appears in:

2,028 charts

Rank Score:

27,928

Rank in 1980:

1

Rank in 1980s:

3

Overall Rank:

26

Average Rating:

 87 (2,295 votes)

Comments:

196

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Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	3	3%
1960s	16	16%
1970s	30	30%
1980s	17	17%
1990s	11	11%
2000s	15	15%
2010s	8	8%
2020s	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%
The Beatles	5	5%
Pink Floyd	4	4%
King Crimson	3	3%
Kate Bush	3	3%
Radiohead	3	3%
Steven Wilson	3	3%
Genesis	2	2%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	64	64%
	23	23%
	4	4%
	3	3%
	2	2%
	2	2%
	1	1%
Show all

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest climbers
Up 13 from 63rd to 50th Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel
Up 12 from 74th to 62nd Faith by The Cure
Up 7 from 79th to 72nd Juju by Siouxsie And The Banshees

Biggest fallers
Down 19 from 50th to 69th Graceland by Paul Simon
Down 12 from 61st to 73rd Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice
Down 6 from 5th to 11th Let England Shake by PJ Harvey

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts

Title	Source	Type	Published	Country
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	nextorgd	Overall chart	2025
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s	emptysquares	1970s decade chart	2021
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	Tihonovetsky	Overall chart	2025
If The BEA Overall Chart Had A One Album Per Artist Rule...	Romanelli	Custom chart	2015
Overall Top 100 Ranked Correctly	Mother Nature's Son	Custom chart	2014
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	NickGordons	Overall chart	2019
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums	luchofernando	Overall chart	2013
ranking the overall top 100	OKC1	Custom chart	2016
My Ranking of the BEA top 100	sszwalbenest	Custom chart	2021
My Personal Ranking of Best Ever Albums' Top 100	Xxnu99etxX	Custom chart	2022

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 25 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
85/100	04/18/2025 10:58	NowhereMan	291	82/100
85/100	03/12/2025 12:16	SomethingSpecial	1,106	85/100
100/100	03/20/2024 21:30	sssvnnn	2,858	83/100
95/100	02/15/2024 20:58	mrmcrook	694	92/100
90/100	06/14/2023 12:45	Johnnyo	2,533	80/100

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 2% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 90.8/100, a mean average of 92.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 92.9/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 6.9.

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums favourites

Showing all 3 members who have added this chart as a favourite

MadhattanJack

JoeyBones1986

emptysquares

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

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From C0NB9NN 09/27/2024 15:13

Great chart. Love the comments. Especially the ones about Sgt. Pepper and Dark Side.

#305444 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

95/100

From mrmcrook 02/15/2024 20:57

Nice picks. Great notes. Entertaining

#302021 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

90/100

From Johnnyo 06/14/2023 12:45

Love this chart and the comments.

#297597 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

85/100

From Moondance 10/15/2022 21:05

Loved the commentary - so much truth from so few lines. As for the chart - yeah, it's alright. Major reservation is no Aussie albums ~ folks may think we are the lucky country, but we got the same issues (childhood innocence, the solar system, ADHD, an ex-Aussie named Rolf) as anywhere else in the world ~ and some decent singers & bands to expose the truth about these life-altering subjects.

#290512 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

70/100

From RioBravo 07/14/2020 15:29

Didn't mean to piss you off, dude. You've got a good chart and the funniest commentary I've seen around here.

#255562 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

90/100

From gussteivi 11/14/2019 20:15

Nice chart, the comments I enjoyed the most were the ones I didn't understand.

#244826 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From Purplepash 07/05/2018 07:34

Great comments that made me laugh quite a few times. Some great selections too!!

#217788 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From LedZep 07/04/2018 20:19

Lol gotta love these top 5s. Haven't watched the Classic Who, but absolutely love the 10 series. Smith - Tennant - Capaldi - Ecclestone (only 1 season that's why last, Hurt is great but only 1 episode, and the rest are brilliant and tend to change places). Also Maradona - Messi - Pele - others. "Franco" meaning Zola, Baresi or Guillermo Franco? The chart itself is great, Animals and Crimson's debut are both in my top 10, and the whole thing is a very interesting read.

#217774 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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