Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by MadhattanJack

Chart updated: 09/10/2023 06:45
(Created: 08/28/2021 02:46).
Chart size: 100 albums.

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2. (=)

Black Sea

XTC

If I were being completely OB-jective, then this would be the all-time #1 album, since this is actually XTC's "best" album. And they knew it, too — that's why they needed the deep-sea diving suits. The original title was going to be "Work Under Pressure," but "Black Sea" was just easier to pronounce underwater. [First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]

Year of Release:

1980

Appears in:

202 charts

Rank Score:

1,533

Rank in 1980:

Rank in 1980s:

185

Overall Rank:

1,157

Average Rating:

78 (218 votes)

Comments:

4. (=)

Element Of Light

Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians

This is Hitchcock at the peak of his powers, which at the time included mass hypnosis, producing streams of an unidentified liquid from the apex of his head ("the tops"), and the ability to make carrots disappear, seemingly without eating them. [First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]

Year of Release:

1986

Appears in:

27 charts

Rank Score:

240

Rank in 1986:

Rank in 1980s:

813

Overall Rank:

5,519

Average Rating:

76 (30 votes)

Comments:

5. (=)

Blue Bell Knoll

Cocteau Twins

Most people pick "Treasure" or "Heaven or Las Vegas" as the best Cocteau Twins album, but if you bought the US vinyl LP version with the fancy gatefold cover when it first came out, as I did, you got a special "golden ticket" that gained you admission to the strange-yet-wonderful chocolate factory just up the street. [First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]

Year of Release:

1988

Appears in:

191 charts

Rank Score:

1,004

Rank in 1988:

Rank in 1980s:

263

Overall Rank:

1,693

Average Rating:

77 (231 votes)

Comments:

8. (=)

What Does Anything Mean? Basically

The Chameleons

This is the album that made me want to play guitar, and not just PLAY guitar, but play guitar through a dizzying array of effects pedals and studio trickery, "just like Dave Fielding." Admittedly, I already had a guitar and knew how to play, and I was even in a band and everything. I just didn't WANT to before I heard this album. [First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]

Year of Release:

1985

Appears in:

94 charts

Rank Score:

530

Rank in 1985:

Rank in 1980s:

441

Overall Rank:

2,875

Average Rating:

78 (105 votes)

Comments:

13. (=)

Skylarking

XTC

Most people will tell you this is XTC's best album, but that's only because they haven't heard the fully-remastered 2010 corrected-polarity vinyl double-LP original-artwork reissue which completely ruins the whole experience, forcing it to be ranked below Go 2, Black Sea, and Drums & Wires. Still, it's good enough for the #13 spot, proving once again that it doesn't matter if the pubic hair on your album cover is a stylized drawing or a photo of the real thing, as long as the photo wasn't taken surreptitiously without the person's consent. [First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]

Year of Release:

1986

Appears in:

570 charts

Rank Score:

4,908

Rank in 1986:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

366

Average Rating:

80 (621 votes)

Comments:

15. (=)

Virgins And Philistines

The Colourfield

Of all the albums that I bought because they were recommended to me by an anonymous person on the internet, this is my favorite. I consider it Terry Hall's best work, and by a fairly wide margin. It's even possible that the stained glass background on the album cover is real. [First added to this chart: 06/26/2022]

Year of Release:

1985

Appears in:

23 charts

Rank Score:

159

Rank in 1985:

Rank in 1980s:

1,153

Overall Rank:

7,799

Average Rating:

71 (17 votes)

Comments:

16. (=)

From The Lion's Mouth

The Sound

I listened to the song "Sense of Purpose" from this album so many times, I actually developed a semblance of perfect pitch from it. It's in the key of A, you see, so if I had to identify a key or a note from another song, I would just play "Sense of Purpose" back in my head, from memory, and compare whatever else I was hearing to that. These days you can just use your smartphone, but back in the 1980s this was actually considered a moderately useful talent. That's probably not why they named the band "The Sound," though — I'm sure that was just a coincidence. [First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

142 charts

Rank Score:

1,075

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

250

Overall Rank:

1,597

Average Rating:

79 (157 votes)

Comments:

22. (=)

Faith

The Cure

This will sound really nerdy, but the first thing I did when I got my first copy of the Sound Forge digital audio editor back in the 90s was to cut 'n' paste repeating sections of "All Cats Are Grey" so as to increase the run-time from 5:28 to over 9 minutes, thereby making it almost twice as depressing as the original version. [First added to this chart: 06/26/2022]

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

377 charts

Rank Score:

2,225

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

123

Overall Rank:

804

Average Rating:

78 (571 votes)

Comments:

27. (=)

Juju

Siouxsie And The Banshees

Easily the best Banshees album, and for me at least, also the best John McGeoch album, the best proto-Goth album, and my favorite album made by anyone directly associated with the original ca. 1977 wave of British punk. And yet, despite this heaping-upon of accolades, I still can't help but think the choice of title was directly influenced by Alice Cooper's song "Black Juju" from their Love it to Death album. Am I nuts? Probably. [First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]

Year of Release:

1981

Appears in:

380 charts

Rank Score:

2,868

Rank in 1981:

Rank in 1980s:

Overall Rank:

618

Average Rating:

80 (421 votes)

Comments:

28. (=)

Chips From The Chocolate Fireball
Compilation

The Dukes Of Stratosphear

As anyone likely to have read this far down are aware, the Dukes are actually XTC recording as a psychedelic-60s pastiche band, so this is technically an XTC album, compiled from their "25 O'Clock" Dukes mini-LP and the full-length "Psonic Psunspot." Back in the mid-80s, it was still possible to keep your recording and release plans secret right up until the day a record appeared in the shops, so I didn't know about "25 O'Clock" at all until I physically encountered it in my favorite record shop. Maybe that's why I'm ranking this so highly — I love surprises! I also love chocolate-chip ice cream, so naturally I bought this compilation too. [First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]

Year of Release:

1987

Appears in:

38 charts

Rank Score:

239

Rank in 1987:

Rank in 1980s:

819

Overall Rank:

5,541

Average Rating:

78 (62 votes)

Comments:

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%

1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	0	0%
1960s	3	3%
1970s	21	21%
1980s	32	32%
1990s	26	26%
2000s	10	10%
2010s	7	7%
2020s	1	1%

Artist	Albums	%

XTC	7	7%
David Bowie	3	3%
Roxy Music	3	3%
I Like Trains	2	2%
Slowdive	2	2%
Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians	2	2%
Cocteau Twins	2	2%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	72	72%
	21	21%
	1	1%
	1	1%
	1	1%
	1	1%
	1	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	97	97%
Yes	3	3%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	99	99%
Yes	1	1%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

There have been no changes to this chart.

Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by MadhattanJack (2023)
Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s by MadhattanJack (2023)
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s by DanielU (2020)
Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s by MadhattanJack (2022)

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating:

89/100 (from 20 votes)

Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 20 ratings for this chart.

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Rating
Date updated
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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	03/29/2024 22:11	CassidyInc	8	100/100
90/100	11/07/2023 08:06	cronadigallina	40	86/100
90/100	10/17/2023 05:51	Tha1ChiefRocka	54	96/100
100/100	10/10/2023 15:50	Steppenwolf666	89	89/100
85/100	06/19/2023 17:07	Tony58	39	77/100

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 6% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 88.6/100, a mean average of 86.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 90.0/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 16.1.

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

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Rating:

100/100

From

CassidyInc 03/29/2024 22:12

Fun chart with some downright hilarious write-ups. I listened to an XTC album (Skylarking) yesterday at your suggestion. Unfortunately not a vibe for me.