Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
MadhattanJack 
- Chart updated: 07/15/2025 23:15
- (Created: 08/28/2021 02:46).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 11 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 26 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from the 1990s. (Remove this filter)
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Though this album was released in 1993, most of us folks in the USA prefer to go with the 1994 US release date because the British music press inexplicably and unfairly trashed the album as "boring" in 1993. The later release date is our way of "giving them a mulligan" because it's such a good album, and everyone in the USA is obsessed with cheating at golf.
[First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,193
Rank in 1993:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
79
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This album really "blew my mind," as they say. It's a "mindblower," which is a little like a snow-blower, except that it serves no practical purpose during a heavy snowfall. Anyway, they say the same thing about Radiohead's "OK Computer," released just two years earlier, but "OK Computer" doesn't need any ranking help from me on this particular website.
[First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]
Year of Release:
1999
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,198
Rank in 1999:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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All the Pixies' albums from 1988 to 1992 were great, and any one of them would be appropriate for an all-time top 100 list, but "Bossanova" has the best track sequencing and the most sonic/stylistic diversity of them all. It also has the best title, even though none of the tracks are actually bossanovas. Honestly, it's almost *too* good, as though there must have been some sort of bizarre conspiracy involved, which there probably was.
[First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]
Year of Release:
1990
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,013
Rank in 1990:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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If you're only just now getting into the Cocteau Twins, this is probably the album to start with. Also, be sure to pronounce it "cuh-TOW" rather than "COCK-tow," so that people like me who have been into them from the beginning won't suspect that you're just some sort of callow dilettante.
[First added to this chart: 06/26/2022]
Year of Release:
1990
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,934
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Of all the albums that I bought because they were recommended to me by an anonymous person on the internet, this is my second-favorite. It's a bummer that Jellyfish only made two albums, but you just have to take what you can get, I guess. Still, I've always wondered if they might have stayed together longer if they'd called themselves "Swordfish" or "Tunafish" instead.
[First added to this chart: 05/25/2022]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
924
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Average Rating:
Comments:
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After this album, XTC went "on strike" for about 5 years, due to their horrifically bad Virgin Records recording contract as well as Virgin's mishandling of this album, in all phases. This 5-year period coincided with the rise of the now-ubiquitous World Wide Web, so to this day, whenever I see a website (like this one you're visiting now), I get these terrible feelings of of strife, desolation and despair. Of course, sure, I probably would anyway, that's what the web is all about after all. But that 5-year strike just kind of makes it that much worse.
[First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]
Year of Release:
1992
Appears in:
Rank Score:
774
Rank in 1992:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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I should probably rank this album a bit higher, if only as a "thank you" to Luke Haines and the band for having the intelligence and good taste to not use a photo of an actual cowboy on the album cover.
[First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]
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The Wannadies were really more of a singles band, and their previous album, "Be a Girl," is just as good as this one and even has their best-known song on it ("The You and Me Song"). This one just seems more "solid" to me overall, but I might change my mind about that. Also, for some reason, the Wannadies had a "thing" about cover-art photos of children sleeping on the ground as if they were dead. But since they're from Sweden, I figure that's just some sort of local cultural thing, like those solstice festivals where they burn people alive to appease their terrifying ancient gods.
[First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]
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XTC spent the five "on-strike" years working on songs, just in case they might someday end the strike. They even upgraded all their home-recording gear, so that their demos now sounded fantastic. Unfortunately, they handed out cassettes of their demos to a fairly large number of people in order to re-establish themselves, and copies were leaked and extensively distributed on the internet. Things only got worse when the new album was completed, because their new (post-Virgin) distributor, Cooking Vinyl, sent out advance promo copies three months before the official release date — leading to a scramble among fans for the advance promo version. When the album actually hit the shops, it was almost an afterthought. Andy Partridge did a personal-appearance/autograph-signing tour of the US to promote it, and the song "I'd Like That" got some airplay, but it wasn't enough. I only mention this because some people will tell you this is XTC's best album, and in many ways, they're right. But for lifelong fans such as myself, this album is representative of a career full of managerial screw-ups and lost potential. And yes, the cover art does sort of look like a vagina.
[First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]
Year of Release:
1999
Appears in:
Rank Score:
763
Rank in 1999:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Weird, clever, smooth, silly, poignant, piquant, fun, spasmodic, abrasive, catchy, evocative... this album is all over the place. It should probably merit a higher rank than this, but unfortunately it's also a classic case of a band's later output dragging down the high regard people had for their earlier output. (There, I said it.)
[First added to this chart: 06/28/2022]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,657
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Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 26. Page 1 of 3
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| 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 | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
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|
|
| XTC | 7 | 7% | |
| David Bowie | 3 | 3% | |
| Roxy Music | 3 | 3% | |
| Wire | 2 | 2% | |
| The Chameleons | 2 | 2% | |
| The Beatles | 2 | 2% | |
| I Like Trains | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
72 | 72% | |
| |
21 | 21% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
There have been no changes to this chart.Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similar charts
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| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | DanielU | 1980s decade chart | 2020 |  |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | Secondsoul | 1990s decade chart | 2015 | |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
89/100 (from 26 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 26 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
90/100  | 08/02/2025 21:26 | Vulgarplacards | | 90/100 |
 100/100 | 07/12/2025 16:21 |  baystateoftheart | | 96/100 |
| 90/100 | 07/12/2025 15:32 | BorderFreeAndrew | | 81/100 |
| 90/100 | 07/03/2025 01:26 |  urmom22 | | 93/100 |
| 95/100 | 06/08/2025 02:32 | matterhornrider | | 92/100 |
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 4% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 89.1/100, a mean average of 87.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 90.4/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 14.4.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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90/100
From Vulgarplacards 08/02/2025 21:27
Great choices, some new to me- I’ll seek them out!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From baystateoftheart 07/12/2025 16:23
baystateoftheart 07/12/2025 16:23
Great unique choices, and the entertaining write-ups especially make it shine. Your notes about excluding Radiohead do make me wonder what a totally unaltered list of your favorites would be like.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From BorderFreeAndrew 07/12/2025 15:32
Kudos for a refreshingly unique chart. And for being even more obsessed with XTC than I used to be.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From urmom22 07/03/2025 01:27
urmom22 07/03/2025 01:27
That's really suuuuuuuuper super girl
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From matterhornrider 06/08/2025 02:34
7 Albums by the amazing XTC, no problem with me. So many bands I love here and so many Albums I look forward to listening to.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From 
seb7 08/12/2024 16:03
seb7 08/12/2024 16:03
Very cool and fairly specific taste. Dig it!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 
CassidyInc 03/29/2024 22:12
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.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Steppenwolf666 10/10/2023 15:53
Great chart, not because of the music, because of the hilarious comments. Of course it could be a great chart music wise, but I wouldn't know, although the few albums in it I do know are very good. I would never have thought of checking out XTC's go2, but now I just might! P.S. The DIV I DED album is now in another chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From Tony58 06/19/2023 17:11
Very interesting chart. Glad to see included a number of artists I like who don't usually get as much recognition as they deserve, eg The Auteurs, The Associates and Lush. Also, I enjoyed the witty comments, eg on the Beatles and Paul McCartney albums!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
95/100
From Moondance 05/06/2023 22:17
I've had a lot of fun checking out this chart and reading the comments. Definitely different to most BEA charts and that's what I really like. It ooooozes personality & sincerity (no BEA peer pressure here!)
I love it that we only have 1 album in common.
I love it that a citizen of the USA significantly favours the music of the UK (very very rare in my observation of BEA charts).
I love it that I can return to this chart and (hopefully) discover an album/artist (or 2) who has evaded my line of sight & hearing for the past 50 - 10years ¬ and be everly grateful for the guided discovery.
I love it that someone from the northern hemisphere has included 1 album from Australia (that is not Nick Cave, AC/DC, Tame Impala or KG&TLW) AND 1 album from New Zealand (any album from NZ is amazing!).
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.