Top 99 Greatest Music Albums
by nocturnaldelight

This chart is fun in progress. Currently It's dominated by 80's albums but I try to add more stuff from other decades in the future.

The first music I remember were tapes with songs from ABBA, Elton John and Jean-Michel Jarre from the late 70s. I wasn't exposed to rock or punk so the wave era of the 80s appeared to me as the logical evolution of music.

My first records were vinyl singles from David Bowie and the Eurythmics in the early 80s and I bought a lot of records until the beginning of the 90s. Then I focused more on electronic dance music (Techno, Trance & Progressive) for more than 20 years. Now I find more time to rediscover my old albums and fill the gaps. It's an interesting musical journey and BEA is a very cool place to organize your music collection.

The ranking is based on track by track ratings for every album. I calculate the album ratings with the following formula:

sum of single ratings of every track / number of tracks

Every rating above 50% means I like the song/album more or less
Every rating 80% and beyond means I really enjoy that song/album
Every rating below 50% means I don't like the song/album more or less
Every rating 20% and less means I really can't stand that song/album

short prelude or interlude tracks are excluded from album ratings

• Chart updated: 09/22/2023 22:45
• (Created: 09/03/2018 10:16).
• Chart size: 99 albums.

• Summary
• Composition
• Ratings
• Favourites
• Comments
• Your feedback

View the complete list of 58,000 charts on BestEverAlbums.com from The Charts page.

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• Num. Charts
• Avg. Rating
• Num. Ratings
• Release Date
• Title
• Artist

1. (=)

The Visit 

 Loreena McKennitt

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82,2% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1991

Appears in:

49 charts

Rank Score:

497

Rank in 1991:

43

Rank in 1990s:

513

Overall Rank:

3,036

Average Rating:

 73 (50 votes)

Comments:

7

2. (=)

Starfish 

 The Church

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80,5% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1988

Appears in:

236 charts

Rank Score:

1,438

Rank in 1988:

19

Rank in 1980s:

193

Overall Rank:

1,206

Average Rating:

 78 (229 votes)

Comments:

12

3. (=)

The Big Area 

 Then Jerico

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79,44% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1989

Appears in:

12 charts

Rank Score:

133

Rank in 1989:

134

Rank in 1980s:

1,309

Overall Rank:

9,116

Average Rating:

 73 (12 votes)

Comments:

2

4. (=)

Scoundrel Days 

 a-ha

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78,5% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1986

Appears in:

117 charts

Rank Score:

654

Rank in 1986:

33

Rank in 1980s:

362

Overall Rank:

2,424

Average Rating:

 72 (185 votes)

Comments:

14

5. (=)

Cosmic Thing 

 The B-52's

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78,5% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1989

Appears in:

183 charts

Rank Score:

815

Rank in 1989:

26

Rank in 1980s:

307

Overall Rank:

2,021

Average Rating:

 74 (207 votes)

Comments:

8

6. (=)

Indigo 

 Wild Nothing

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77,3% [First added to this chart: 09/06/2018]

Year of Release:

2018

Appears in:

31 charts

Rank Score:

148

Rank in 2018:

147

Rank in 2010s:

1,621

Overall Rank:

8,323

Average Rating:

 73 (32 votes)

Comments:

1

7. (=)

Five 

 White Lies

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76,66 % [First added to this chart: 08/07/2020]

Year of Release:

2019

Appears in:

26 charts

Rank Score:

136

Rank in 2019:

142

Rank in 2010s:

1,742

Overall Rank:

8,921

Average Rating:

 70 (60 votes)

Comments:

5

8. (=)

The Road To Hell 

 Chris Rea

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75,5% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1989

Appears in:

65 charts

Rank Score:

303

Rank in 1989:

62

Rank in 1980s:

668

Overall Rank:

4,626

Average Rating:

 73 (85 votes)

Comments:

4

9. (=)

Hunting High And Low 

 a-ha

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75% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1985

Appears in:

223 charts

Rank Score:

942

Rank in 1985:

24

Rank in 1980s:

276

Overall Rank:

1,787

Average Rating:

 73 (301 votes)

Comments:

19

10. (=)

Disintegration 

 The Cure

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75,00% [First added to this chart: 09/03/2018]

Year of Release:

1989

Appears in:

1,843 charts

Rank Score:

26,169

Rank in 1989:

2

Rank in 1980s:

4

Overall Rank:

30

Average Rating:

 86 (2,069 votes)

Comments:

152

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Total albums: 99. Page 1 of 10

Top 99 Greatest Music Albums composition

Country	Albums	%
	57	58%
	25	25%
	5	5%
	3	3%
	3	3%
	2	2%
	2	2%
Show all

Top 99 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Top 99 Greatest Music Albums similar charts

Title	Source	Type	Published	Country
Top 52 Music Albums of the 1980s	nocturnaldelight	1980s decade chart	2022
My All Time Top Tracks	nocturnaldelight	Custom chart	2019
My Audio Quality Reference Collection	nocturnaldelight	Custom chart	2019
Top 98 Music Albums of the 1980s	amassini	1980s decade chart	2018
Top 93 Music Albums of the 1980s	elton229	1980s decade chart	2012
Top 71 Music Albums of the 1980s	Bristoc	1980s decade chart	2018
Top 93 Music Albums of the 1980s	2nd-Impressions	1980s decade chart	2020
Top 87 Music Albums of the 1980s	Bungalowracoon	1980s decade chart	2018
Top 75 Music Albums of the 1980s	patip1	1980s decade chart	2014
Die besten Alben der 80er	laut	1980s decade chart	2014

Top 99 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)

Top 99 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 12 ratings for this chart.

Sort by

• Rating
• Date updated
• Member

Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
90/100  !	03/20/2025 17:18	SomethingSpecial	1,095	85/100
80/100  !	09/14/2019 09:45	ForegroundNoise	473	87/100
85/100  !	09/11/2019 10:25	Timooosterink	131	90/100
95/100  !	04/12/2019 17:02	craola	217	96/100
75/100  !	10/28/2018 22:10	LedZep	1,103	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 has a Bayesian average rating of 85.4/100, a mean average of 85.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 85.0/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 10.0.

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Top 99 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing all 4 comments |
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Rating:  

80/100

From ForegroundNoise 09/14/2019 09:46 | #242566

Sure, by your own admission a bit 80s heavy, but still a really cool mix of alternative rock and pop from that period. Good stuff

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

Rating:  

75/100

From LedZep 10/28/2018 22:12 | #223454

Interesting choices but looks incomplete. I'll have to rate again after you finish the chart. A nice start that's for sure

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

Rating:  

90/100

From bobbyb5 09/25/2018 10:39 | #221656

Lots of long-forgotten but very good albums by 80s acts like Icehouse, Robert Cray, Enya, Billy Idol, Toni Childs, Simple Minds, The The. Very very cool.

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

Rating:  

85/100

From DeusExMackia 09/05/2018 19:34 | #220617

Really, properly off the beaten track compared to a lot of charts here. Two Kate Bush albums in the top 10 is a big thumbs up for me!

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

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