Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by slatsheit

I've tried to put this chart together the way that I believe everyone should: 1) ***no*** limitations on the number of albums by a single artist, because that would automatically make the chart a bald-faced lie (at least in my case), and 2) to rank every album meticulously in terms of desert island standards, rather than some sort of objective evaluation - with every single rank number, "hm, if I can only take this many albums with me to the desert island, would I rather have this album, or some other album I haven't included yet?" The desire to be absolutely honest with myself and others has led (and will continue to lead, until I die) to numerous revisions.

In terms of how I personally rate albums, I personally consider there to be four levels of "5 stars." The first three, I give 100 ratings to on this site; the others (more numerous) get 95s. 4.5s get 90s, 4s get 80 or 85, 3.5s get 70 or 75, 3s get 60 or 65, and so on. My ratings tend to trend higher on average than most here because if I listen to an album, something grabbed me that made me want to listen to it.

But I digress. #1-15 I would consider 5+++, #16-34 is 5++, 35-75 is 5+, and everything below (and everything contained on my "101-200" and "201-241" custom charts) is a straight 5.

I'm a self-proclaimed Gen X curmudgeon. I hate hip-hop and everything significantly influenced by it on principle - too meta and too non-musical, and I can't stand the non-stop foul language and degradation. That said, it's absolutely not a racial thing - I love and esteem plenty of r 'n' b, soul, and jazz. The first two of those three genres tend to be underrepresented here compared to my actual tastes because those genres are more singles-oriented. Jazz will probably grow in representation in time - up to this point, I generally haven't evaluated the jazz I like vs. the pop/rock because they're so apples and oranges. I do have to cop to having heard far fewer jazz albums than pop/rock albums (hundreds vs. thousands). I like classical more than jazz, and love certain pieces more than some of the pop/rock albums included here. However, classical is virtually impossible to rate in terms of albums, because classical albums are about performances, whereas I approach classical by finding a performance I like and listening to that, whereas my sense of classical favorites is a matter of pieces, not performances. If pop/rock vs. jazz, is apples and oranges, pop/rock vs. classical is apples and sweet potatoes. In terms of the album-oriented stuff I do like, I strongly believe that there was a precipitous drop-off in music in general after about 1988. Shoegaze and Radiohead's OK Computer are the only developments since which are both 1) original and 2) worthwhile. Everything else that is good is synthetic of prior styles. That's not necessarily a bad thing - there are many very good albums in such veins.

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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from David Bowie. (Remove this filter)

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This album has grown and grown on me in the 33-odd years I've been listening to it. A dramatic rock 'n' roll masterpiece, and forever cool. Bowie didn't need to grow beyond something this great, and yet he did, which is why he's number two in my book after only The Beatles. Of course Mick Ronson is huge to the triumph of this record, with his absolutely ripping-for-’72 guitar tone and playing and his orchestrations – very much a collaborative effort. My favorite here is the soaring “Moonage Daydream,” with its fantastic Ronson guitar work; shortly after it, the rampaging “Suffragette City,” and the myth-making rock glory of “Ziggy Stardust.” Then the super-cool “Soul Love,” of course elevated by concrete-ripping guitar from Ronson, then the dramatic rock masterpiece which is “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.” “Five Years” is a brilliantly-written song, carried off by Bowie with striking commitment for a sci-fi scenario. “Starman” took a while to grow on me, as I didn’t realize it was a huge hit in the UK, but it’s a tremendous anthem, with the cool Bowie acoustic and Bolder bass verses as well. “Hang on to Yourself” is tremendously fun glam-boogie, the balladry of “Lady Stardust” solidifies the album’s glam bonafides, and “It Ain’t Easy,” while usually cited as the weakest track, is actually quite well-performed, with great guitar work from Ronson. I dig it. “Star” is the weakest track for me, and it *still* has that ripping (sorry for using that word so much) guitar work from Ronson, and Lennon-esque melodic singing choices from Bowie. In short, a masterpiece from beginning to end, and one of the rock era’s most important albums for sure. [First added to this chart: 11/08/2024]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
44,866
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
29. (=)
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It's the instrumentals. The five tracks with lyrics on side one are very cool and bring Krautrock into the mainstream with magnificent elan, but those instrumentals are profound; Bowie's greatest post-Ziggy achievement. Best of all is the gloriously moody, even tragic, “Warszawa,” with Bowie’s plangent vocalizing and the orchestral layering of Chamberlin and mini-Moog by Eno, who co-wrote the music. A masterpiece, one of the best things Bowie ever did. “Weeping Wall,” with its tuned percussion and wordless vocals from Bowie, is also magnificent, as is “Subterraneans,” with Bowie’s sax and overdubbed harmonies. “Art Decade” is the weakest of the four, and it still rules. The more up-tempo instrumentals on side one, “Speed of Life” and “A New Career in a New Town,” lack the cinematic moodiness of side two, but incorporate the band well and still introduce new sonics. The vocal tracks are more hit-and-miss. “Always Crashing in the Same Car” and “Be My Wife” are undeniably great, and “Breaking Glass” is gloriously demented. I understand that Brits are going to view “Sound + Vision” differently than us Yanks since it was released as a (hit) single over there, but I’ve always heard it as good, not great, and I really have to be in the mood to tolerate the in-your-face bloopy squawkiness of “What in the World.” But the bulk of the album is wonderful, changing the soundscapes of all of the music that came after it while delighting in and of itself. Let's put it this way - Bowie's next three albums are all classics and major statements. To me, this is better than all three of them considered together. [First added to this chart: 11/08/2024]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,472
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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I don’t rate this nearly as high as most, even as a huge Bowie fan. I love the feel and approach of the album in general, and “Life on Mars,” “Changes,” and “Queen Bitch” are brilliant, and “Quicksand” and “The Bewley Brothers” are also excellent, but some of the songs – “Andy Warhol,” “A Song for Bob Dylan,” “Eight Line Poem,” “Kooks” – are weaker than 97% or so of the songs on the other 99 albums on this list. Like ‘em, don’t love ‘em. There are several albums in 1971 which were much better (8 of ‘em, if you don’t want to look and count). That said, this is still my third-favorite album by my second-favorite artist. The persona he was putting across here is one of the best he ever devised in his chameleonic career, which is why it stands above a few of his albums which may be more solid song-for-song than this one. [First added to this chart: 11/16/2024]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
19,835
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 3. Page 1 of 1

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade Albums %


1930s 0 0%
1940s 0 0%
1950s 1 1%
1960s 40 40%
1970s 36 36%
1980s 17 17%
1990s 5 5%
2000s 1 1%
2010s 0 0%
2020s 0 0%
Country Albums %


United Kingdom 56 56%
United States 37 37%
Canada 4 4%
Mixed Nationality 2 2%
Ireland 1 1%
Live? Albums %
No 98 98%
Yes 2 2%
Soundtrack? Albums %
No 98 98%
Yes 2 2%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

There have been no changes to this chart.
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Mojo Readers: The 100 Greatest Albums Ever MadeMojoOverall chart1996United Kingdom
AllMusic's Greatest Albumsmusicologist97Custom chart2019
Ya joking? Should've been higher! All Time edition PurplepashCustom chart2025
BEA Top 100 Reorganized According To My TastebonnequestionCustom chart2025
200 Greatest albums of all time (1 - 100) - Uncut 2016JohnnyoCustom chart2020
200 Greatest Albums of All TimeUncutOverall chart2016United Kingdom
My Personal Ranking of Best Ever Albums' Top 100 Xxnu99etxXCustom chart2022
Going With My Gut: The Overall Chart Top 100 Re-ranked CharlieBarleyCustom chart2024
Top 100 Greatest Music Albumsalbum guru joeOverall chart2013
BEA+RYM Overall RankImaybeparanoidCustom chart2017Unknown

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
89/100 (from 5 votes)
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

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From 08/18/2025 04:16
Nice list - lost of albums that I love here :) A little Beatles heavy but hey… you love what you
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Rating:  
90/100
From 04/01/2025 00:34
Thanks for pointing out the Overall Chart and how it can be distorted. It's true, technically, but this would be a much more valid critique of me making custom charts for certain genres instead of placing their best in the greatest. Right now, they're hardly counting for the Overall Chart, when they could be counting a lot more. I've thought about that a little bit over the years since the website as a whole has a massive rock bias as it stands, but it doesn't outweigh how annoying it is for me to try and compare them in good faith (I, like you, have my genre preferences).

You've made me think a little bit about that line in my description. It's been there for over a decade now and had you strolled in at the start and said what you've said it'd ring a lot more true. Back then, I enforced it on myself to get away from a list that had double ups on double ups. It was also part of an impetus to go and listen to new things. Today, all the albums in the list are -- I think -- 5/5 records, and consequently there's actually a very small cross section of possible records I could consider that this rule presently excludes, here they are:

The Beatles - The Beatles [White Album]
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
David Bowie - Station to Station
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks
The Fall - Hex Enduction Hour
Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Velvet Underground - White Light / White Heat
The Wrens - Album 4.5 (bootleg wouldn't qualify)
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush
Neil Young - Tonight's the Night

Would I add any of them to my list though? Maybe like 1 or 2 at any random given day, or certainly I'd be more likely right after listening to one of them, but I think they fight against my no. 100 on pretty equal footing and there's at least as many more left out that are from artists not in the list at all. This is a result of 10+ years of such a rule. I just have a very wide tastes now and I kind of like it that way. It doesn't mean anything really because I'd still defend the rule as it stands but food for thought. Interested in hearing more from you mate keep in touch.
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Rating:  
90/100
From 03/26/2025 08:27
Thanks for your comment. I wouldn't describe our tastes as majorly divergent, at least not from where I'm sitting. There's only a handful of records in your list I don't rate at least an 8, and many more I utterly adore.

Regarding the one artist limit, I can see why you might take issue with it considering the effect it would have on your list, but I'll hazard a minor challenge to your reasoning. You -- correctly -- dismiss the premise of objectivity in the construction of your list, and instead defer to your heart. I do so too, but isn't there a tension here with how you rationalise what a list should be?

I don't have a problem with your rules per se; do your thing. However, you argue that a list with restriction is in some way a lie. You then go on to volubly articulate all the ways your own list is limited in favour of how you personally imagine and derive joy from music. My point being, we are both using the list to document and convey us and how we see our own tastes, far more so than making a claim to what is good. It seems you're aware of that but it's lost on me you'd consider my version of how to demonstrate mine somehow me lying to myself.

Simply put, I kind of figure that when someone sees I like Neil Young's On The Beach that they can also figure I like the rest of catalogue; and if they're so curious as to what extent that information is readily available on my profile. Moreover, it's compelling for me to make that commitment to a favourite by an artist that I could otherwise proliferate my list with indiscriminately, and it frees me up to self-express a modicum more and to make recommendations.

A list can do more than one thing at a time.

In any case, I enjoyed reading through your list. I appreciated picks like New York Tendaberry and the wild self-reporting of being a Gen-Xer (with that Joe Jackson live album, I promise you we can tell), however I am also left without anything new to go discover which leaves me wanting.
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