Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by mianfei 
This is a rough guide to the 100 greatest albums I have listened to.
Two albums only per artist – with artists related by personnel counted as one – and with the classical recordings one recording per composition.
Especially the lower-ranked albums on the list will be subject to revision as I have a very large backlog of recordings to listen (and re-listen) to.
- Chart updated: 08/30/2024 13:15
- (Created: 05/13/2019 10:35).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 25 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 86 out of 100 (from 44 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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The purest and greatest “soul” album ever made, taking the simple funk rhythms of James Brown and Sly Stone into something completely un-earthbound and mysterious. The nocturnal beauty and autumnal lyrics of the title tune never loses anything with any number of listens, whilst ‘Caravan’, ‘And It Stoned Me’ and ‘Crazy Love’ are unrivalled testaments to the power of mystical passion. Then on ‘Into the Mystic’, Van perfects the folk/jazz/soul fusion into a completely acoustic chill-out beat, and the delightful and joyful harpsichord-based ‘Everyone’ expresses the theme of rebirth with more joy than any soul or gospel song before or since. A funk record so joyful that one immerses in the beats rather than dance to them, a white soul album expressing redemption better than any of the original gospel masters – either way or any other, ‘Moondance’ is a complete masterpiece.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,055
Rank in 1970:
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Average Rating:
Comments:
769. (=)
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This album’s importance can be seen in the way it re-uses traditional songs in a unique manner — to tell the story of Britain’s population during World War One, without so much as changing their lyrics. Dolly Collins’ flute-like pipe organ and Shirley’s dark, deep voice are never seen to the same effect as they are here, not merely on ‘A Song-Story’ itself but also on the second side, with the authentic imagery of ‘Ca the Yowes’, ‘Nellie the Milkman’, ‘Rambleaway’ and Robin Williamson’s ‘God Dog’. More than that, the other traditional instruments – viol, sackbutt – blend in so well as to make a record that is both ancient and timeless like nothing else.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
11. (=)
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The greatest work of art-rock, and one which shows Ferry at both his most emotional and most creative — moving from orchestral rock on ‘The Thrill of It All’ ‘Casanova’ and ‘All I Want Is You’ to the mystical ‘Bitter Sweet’ and ‘Triptych’. Whereas every other “glam” artist just tried to look “androgynous” and came across as childish and shallow, Ferry sounded feminine and dark in a way no other male vocalist in rock ever did. Paul Thompson’s drumming, Phil Manzanera and John Gustafson on guitar and bass, plus Andy Mackay and Eddie Jobson’s woodwind and string work, create orchestrations that cascade like an overflowing waterfall to back up Ferry’s spiritual and romantic obsessions to create an emotional overflow few records match.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,615
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The quintessential mystical female singer/songwriter album — the “Sophia” of pop music — ‘Hounds of Love’ possesses unsurpassed otherworldliness and tight-linked personal quest-seeking. Whereas the Romeros were looking to the East, Kate Bush looked to ancient Arthurian traditions to create a work of even purer mysticality united around an entire personal quest — and in my view not merely on the conceptual “Ninth Wave” side. The mysteriousness of the lyrics, backed up by Stuart Elliott’s underappreciated drumming, reaches cosmic depths in ‘Running Up That Hill’, ‘The Big Sky’, ‘Mother Stands for Comfort’, yet the unearthliness is matched by equally otherworldly tenderness in ‘And Dream of Sheep’, ‘Hello Earth’, ‘Watching You Without Me’ and ‘The Morning Fog’. A truly popular — it made #6 on the charts — recording with such impenetrable mystery is a true wonder and ‘Hounds of Love’ remains just that.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1985
Appears in:
Rank Score:
18,490
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Like ‘Laughing Stock’, ‘Dummy’ re-established the definition of “alternative” in a manner I did not notice from my cloistered suburban background. Whereas rap of the era was simply removing the melody from 1970s soul music to create noise suitable for advertising, ‘Dummy’ did just the reverse, it used sampling and rhythm to expand the melodies and atmospheres of such past masters as Laura Nyro, Bryan Ferry, Al Green etc. In the process Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley created a genre equally incomparable with anything preceding it as Slint or the Romeros. The songs, especially the first four, are utterly flawless compositions.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,822
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Almost as important as ‘Spiderland’, ‘Laughing Stock’ is where “alternative” music really diverged into two camps — tuneless noisy grunge or artier experimental forms. Talk Talk’s incorporation of orchestral elements was much deeper than attempted by 1970s progressive rock bands — on ‘Myrrhman’, ‘Taphead’ and ‘Runeii’ they form a wholly integral part of the sound and texture, creating something with a similar “post-rock” aesthetic to ‘Spiderland’ but even more despairing. Then, ‘Ascension Day’ is simultaneously the most hellish cry for redemption from sin, and the most powerful rock song of the 1990s.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,085
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The purest example of a traditional art, Anne Briggs’ a capella singing on ‘A Collection’ reveals a genuine bard(ess) at her most touching. Whilst folk singing and the songs here have been around for centuries, the way in which Anne Briggs places her person in the form of her jazzy voice into these traditional songs is something everybody should hear. The simple beauty of ‘The Doffing Mistress’, ‘Lowlands’, ‘The Whirly Whorl’ and ‘The Stonecutter Boy’ goes to the deepest roots of English culture. Then in the second half — recorded eight years after Anne’s first A.L. Lloyd-inspired recordings — there is ‘Living by the Water’ the most beautiful and simplest statement of profound solitude in nature ever put into song, and the equally beautiful and simple traditional songs ‘The Snow It Melts the Soonest’ and ‘Thorneymoor Woods’ which evoke a lost beauty that modernity cannot quench the desire for.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
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A male Nico, or male Laura Nyro? The first post-rock record, inasmuch as it was the first to play rock without (prominent) guitars or synthesisers? Either way, Van der Graaf Generator stripped back the instrumental bounds and made possible the post-rock experimentation of the 1990s and 2000s. The preceding ‘The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other’ had hinted at their capacities, but it was on ‘H to He Who Am the Only One’ that Hugh Banton’s organ, Dave Jackson’s expansive saxophone and Guy Evans’ drums provided a pulse that surpasses the electric guitar men of the era, whilst Hamill’s lyrics tackled dark depths of the sea seldom described, and remote reaches of space equally rarely expressed so well. The horrors of ‘Killer’ and the fantasy of ‘Pioneers Over C’ are particular highlights of a unique record.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
553
Rank in 1970:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Although you might call this a “supergroup” with Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny, ‘Liege and Lief’’s immortality rests on it being the first record to seamlessly fuse traditional folk music with rock instrumentation into its own distinct sound. Rather than minor additions of electric guitars, bass and drums to folk, on ‘Liege and Lief’ a complete use of both genres’ instruments is exploited to the full, updating the dark fairytales of “Old England” for a modern audience. The dark infidelity tale of ‘Matty Groves’ recalls what Lloyd and Verlaine were to do on songs like ‘Venus’ and ‘Friction’ a decade later, and the rhythm of ‘Come All Ye’ is as goth in the 1960s yet as catchy as anything on the radio. Then, ‘Tam Lin’ takes you into a fairy realm that will never want to be departed, and ‘Reynardine’ and ‘The Deserter’ truly touch one’s heart with longing for their times.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,872
Rank in 1969:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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The most singular quartet album ever? The first blending of folk and jazz? Either way, ‘Third Ear Band’ was a combination of jazzy woodwinds (Paul Minns’ oboe) with folk percussion and strings that are of no genre, but would find echoes on the many efforts at combining the ancient and modern. Intended as a cycle celebrating the classical ‘Elements’ and with each piece inspired by its namesake, this album is throughout a revolutionary soundscape that has — like ‘The Doors’ — never been remotely imitated (although Oregon’s first few albums come close). The follow-up ‘Abelard and Heloïse’ is even more abstract and almost as good, but ‘Elements’ overall beats it for sheer power.
[First added to this chart: 05/13/2019]
Total albums: 27. 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 | 12 | 12% | |
| 1970s | 30 | 30% | |
| 1980s | 16 | 16% | |
| 1990s | 21 | 21% | |
| 2000s | 10 | 10% | |
| 2010s | 9 | 9% | |
| 2020s | 2 | 2% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
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|
|
| Talk Talk | 2 | 2% | |
| Roxy Music | 2 | 2% | |
| Julia Holter | 2 | 2% | |
| Joanna Newsom | 2 | 2% | |
| Laura Nyro | 2 | 2% | |
| Van Morrison | 2 | 2% | |
| Steely Dan | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
53 | 53% | |
 |
27 | 27% | |
 |
5 | 5% | |
 |
4 | 4% | |
 |
3 | 3% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
| |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 1 from 87th to 86th The Power Of The True Love Knot by Shirley Collins |
| Up 1 from 86th to 85th The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen |
| Up 1 from 23rd to 22nd Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome by Parliament |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 3 from 17th to 20th Laughing Stock by Talk Talk |
| Down 2 from 21st to 23rd Aviary by Julia Holter |
| Down 2 from 85th to 87th Witchy Activities And The Maple Death by Monika Roscher Bigband |
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | mianfei | 1970s decade chart | 2023 | |
| Top 65 Music Albums of the 1990s | mianfei | 1990s decade chart | 2021 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | hairymarx1 | Overall chart | 2016 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  The Gollux | Overall chart | 2024 | |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | boyd94 | Overall chart | 2025 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  paologabriel | Overall chart | 2025 |  |
| Top 100 Greatest Music Albums |  AfterHours | Overall chart | 2025 | |
| PPV Overall Ranking | bea | Custom chart | 2021 | |
| Mojo 100 Greatest Albums of All Time (1995) | WayneMC | Custom chart | 2019 | |
| RYM Average Rating | Imaybeparanoid | Custom chart | 2016 | |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
86/100 (from 44 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 44 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
85/100  | 03/06/2025 20:34 | SomethingSpecial | | 85/100 |
95/100 | 11/29/2024 21:59 | oilnoilnoilnoil | | 93/100 |
 100/100 | 01/14/2024 06:23 | shanelovesyou111 | | 82/100 |
| 100/100 | 10/25/2023 17:49 |  sageamagoo | | 92/100 |
| 100/100 | 03/25/2023 12:27 |  LedZep | | 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 86.3/100, a mean average of 84.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 86.4/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 20.0.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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95/100
From oilnoilnoilnoil 11/29/2024 22:00
Awesome chart! Love the comments! I'm coming here for my next music recommendation.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
Hayden 09/14/2024 14:57
Hayden 09/14/2024 14:57
Thank you Mianfei— you may very well be right. That sole entry from the 80s window isn't even technically an album! Please Don't Play "A Rainy Night In Georgia" is much closer to an EP than anything. I only recently removed an 80s album (Accordion & Voice by Pauline Oliveros), albeit from early on in the decade.
Candidates from that window? MBV's You Made Me Realise, Swordfishtrombones, Lubomyr Melnyk's The Voice Of Trees, maybe After Dinner's s/t— but I'm not going to act like the mid-80s were my favourite time for music. I lean far more towards the vibe of '80-82.
Hope you find something you like though. I have about 3-4 albums being swapped out somepoint soon. Going through a slight rejig.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From sageamagoo 01/15/2024 19:59
sageamagoo 01/15/2024 19:59
Hejira blew my mind, clearly a landmark work of fusion and poetry! This is exactly the kind of music I've spent my life searching for. Hearing the essential contributions women have made to music could not be more important to me, and your chart is full of exactly that.
Not hard to tell when someone's true passion lies in exploring the depths of this world's music. Your chart is learned with a lifetime of research and I will happily reference it for my own pursuits.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From zrommeke 03/25/2023 11:41
Impressive, interesting, inspiring!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From uphill 01/05/2023 15:26
Laika, Linda Perhacs, Joanna Newsom... lots of stuff that i would also rate high...
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
70/100
From Santiago 08/26/2021 04:57
I have discovered some artists that seem interesting and I am looking forward to listen to their records. On the other hand there are some artists that I know, but I think they are just OK and not good enough to be considered for the top positions of a "Greatest Music Album" chart. Thanks for posting this chart!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
75/100
From Moondance 07/06/2021 00:28
A thought provoking chart and your commentary on the first 50 albums reveals the deepest reflection in your music journey and should be applauded. I was a little disappointed not to see a single Australian artist/album make the top 100 grade.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From 
seb7 07/05/2021 21:34
seb7 07/05/2021 21:34
Not my picks, but a diverse chart nonetheless. Love seeing Hejira getting love.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From 
DommeDamian 07/05/2021 21:23
DommeDamian 07/05/2021 21:23
Oh my god this is great work buddy!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From Johnnyo 07/05/2021 15:54
Really nice and unique chart. I like it a lot
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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| Best Artists of the 1980s | |
|---|---|
| 1. The Smiths | |
| 2. Prince | |
| 3. Pixies | |
| 4. The Cure | |
| 5. Talking Heads | |
| 6. U2 | |
| 7. Metallica | |
| 8. Kate Bush | |
| 9. R.E.M. | |
| 10. The Stone Roses | |
| 11. Sonic Youth | |
| 12. Michael Jackson | |
| 13. Bruce Springsteen | |
| 14. Iron Maiden | |
| 15. Prince And The Revolution | |
| 16. Tom Waits | |
| 17. Joy Division | |
| 18. New Order | |
| 19. Talk Talk | |
| 20. Rush |