Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by 
Charicature 
7/29/11 - List expanded to top 100. No consideration given to order.
9/7/11 - fixed the order a bit. Added Second Coming. Deleted the old notes from before the list expanded to 100. Due to trouble posting the changes, album #100 got deleted - I don't remember what it was just now, so I'll figure it out later.
9/25/11 - added Coming Up and Songs for Dustmites...regrettably as always having technical difficulty actually updating my changes. Monkees are off the list again.
9/21/12 - Tough choice, need to put Strangeland into the chart, guess I'll boot Pablo Honey - I skip most of that album these days when it comes up on my shuffle.
2/4/13 - Strangeland jumps 10 spots to #10
3/8/13 - Dropped Ferment to 100 pending removal when something better comes along, moved a couple other albums around.
3/26/13 Added Sundown (debuts at #100 pending further listening) and removed Ferment.
3/29/13 Dropped Hotwired, added Tea for the Tillerman
8/26/13 Dropped Beneath the Rhythym and Sound and added Where You Stand.
12/3/15 Just tweaked my top 15 based on current listening habits revealing I consider certain albums better than previously rated. Gotta figure the ones I'm still listening to are the best. Keane breaks into the top-3, Travis and The Killers make the top-10 for the first time (big leap for Hot Fuss, from #53 to #4 - whenever songs from that album come on my Sirius radio, I change to them).
6/20/16 - Added Purple Rain after finding out I hadn't included it (oversight brought to my attention by the unfortunate untimely death of the artist). Easily ditched American Lesion to make room.
9/11/18 - some tweaks, a few more comments, and one new album. Dropped Garbage by Garbage, just find myself skipping over them whenever I see them come up. Don't even know why, since I still like the music, just never want to listen to it anymore lol.
6/4/22 - Haven’t updated the chart in almost 4 years, shifted some positions to account for changing tastes and to prepare the list for some additions/subtractions. Only added one album, may have to make some decade charts for albums based on best singles.
7/6/23 - listened to True in recent months and wasn’t disappointed. Definitely deserving of consideration of one of the best albums of the 80s, and Tony Hadley is without a doubt the strongest male singer of the decade. Going to insert this at #40 without considering what’s around it, it’s that good.
- Chart updated: 07/06/2023 20:45
- (Created: 11/18/2008 22:44).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 35 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 69 out of 100 (from 50 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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After more than two months of listening to this album, I'm convinced it's one of the best I've ever heard. Great songs, and not a weak track on the album...soulfull, emotional, energetic - there's a range on this album that one might miss if they dismiss Keane over their "clean" sound. EDIT: now 8 months, and I'm still convinced this is one of the best albums I've ever heard. So emotionally sincere, very well crafted songs...I've made up my mind to boost it to top 10 status. EDIT EDIT: it's been what...6 years give or take? I still love this album. I've decided to boost it to #1. EDIT EDIT EDIT 10 years hasn’t changed my mind on this.
Best tracks:
Silenced by the Night, Disconnected, Sovereign Light Cafe, On the Road, The Starting Line, Day Will Come [First added to this chart: 09/21/2012]
Best tracks:
Silenced by the Night, Disconnected, Sovereign Light Cafe, On the Road, The Starting Line, Day Will Come [First added to this chart: 09/21/2012]
5
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Besides every song being a sonic masterpiece, no album I know of flows so perfectly through a range of emotions...the songs seem to parallel the 5 stages of grief and come together as a single beautiful work because of it.
Best tracks:
Crank, Broken Head, Pain, Strange Fruit, Show Me Mary, but you need to listen to the whole album to appreciate why I put it at #1. [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
Crank, Broken Head, Pain, Strange Fruit, Show Me Mary, but you need to listen to the whole album to appreciate why I put it at #1. [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Year of Release:
1993
Appears in:
Rank Score:
561
Rank in 1993:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Severely underrated album - the first album ever recorded 100% digitally, it has an edge that up to that point electronic music simply didn't have. Regrettably it was cast aside by the fans who wanted a more "pop" sound and only the diehard fans remained to buy their next two albums.
Best tracks:
Zeroes and Ones, The Devil You Know, Magazine, The Right Decision, Idiot Stare [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
Zeroes and Ones, The Devil You Know, Magazine, The Right Decision, Idiot Stare [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
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Like Catherine Wheel's Chrome and even its own Sweet predecessor Girlfriend, another gem of beautifully crafted songs that all flow around an emotional theme of conflict, grief, and resolution.
Best tracks:
Devil With the Green Eyes, Time Capsule, Someone To Pull the Trigger, Evergreen [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
Devil With the Green Eyes, Time Capsule, Someone To Pull the Trigger, Evergreen [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
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With the exception of Top of the World by Shonen Knife, the covers on this album are incredible versions of The Carpenters' classics.
Best tracks:
Goodbye to Love (American Music Club), Superstar (Sonic Youth), For All We Know (Bettie Serveert), Hurting Each Other (Johnette Napolitano w/Marc Moreland), We've Only Just Begun (Grant Lee Buffalo) [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
Goodbye to Love (American Music Club), Superstar (Sonic Youth), For All We Know (Bettie Serveert), Hurting Each Other (Johnette Napolitano w/Marc Moreland), We've Only Just Begun (Grant Lee Buffalo) [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
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I've come to respect this album much more, and decided to bump it up again. It rocks and it glides, hard and soft, with absolutely haunting ballads - I've recently decided Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck is one of my all-time top songs, probably top-5.
Best tracks:
God Inside My Head, Waydown, Heal, Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck, Judy Staring At the Sun, Love Tips Up [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
God Inside My Head, Waydown, Heal, Eat My Dust You Insensitive Fuck, Judy Staring At the Sun, Love Tips Up [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
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Travis is rapidly rising to be one of my favorite bands. Their music is undoubtedly easy-listening, but crafted with a mastery that few can touch, with that added element of great songwriting to help them rise to the top.
[First added to this chart: 01/24/2010]
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Another band that masterfully crafts pop-rock songs to make them something more than cookie-cutter crap. The sound is so amazing that I can't discount this as a top album of all time, even if their other albums fall a bit short of top-50 material.
Best tracks:
Somewhere Only We Know, Bend and Break, We Might as Well Be Strangers, Everybody's Changing, She Has No Time, This is the Last Time, Bedshaped [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
Somewhere Only We Know, Bend and Break, We Might as Well Be Strangers, Everybody's Changing, She Has No Time, This is the Last Time, Bedshaped [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Year of Release:
2004
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,884
Rank in 2004:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Don't know why this didn't make my chart before.
[First added to this chart: 07/29/2011]
Year of Release:
2004
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,147
Rank in 2004:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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Might need to be the higher-ranked of Sweet's albums, but regardless of where this album so beautifully spells out the emotions Sweet was dealing with at the time, dealing with his divorce.
Best tracks:
I've Been Waiting, Girlfriend, Nothing Lasts [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Best tracks:
I've Been Waiting, Girlfriend, Nothing Lasts [First added to this chart: 11/23/2009]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
672
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1960s | 4 | 4% | |
| 1970s | 5 | 5% | |
| 1980s | 9 | 9% | |
| 1990s | 57 | 57% | |
| 2000s | 21 | 21% | |
| 2010s | 4 | 4% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Travis | 4 | 4% | |
| Grant Lee Buffalo | 4 | 4% | |
| Depeche Mode | 4 | 4% | |
| Keane | 4 | 4% | |
| Catherine Wheel | 4 | 4% | |
| Jesus Jones | 4 | 4% | |
| Matthew Sweet | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 60 from 100th to 40th True by Spandau Ballet |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 40th to 41st Friction, Baby by Better Than Ezra |
| Down 1 from 41st to 42nd Hungry Ghosts by OK Go |
| Down 1 from 42nd to 43rd The Great Escape by Blur |
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
69/100 (from 50 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 50 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 90/100  | 03/22/2019 03:25 | NSPE | | 77/100 |
| 60/100 | 03/08/2019 18:31 |  mickilennial | | 77/100 |
| 75/100 | 04/24/2017 12:49 |  LedZep | | 84/100 |
| 55/100 | 09/13/2015 20:22 |  Applerill | | 75/100 |
| 80/100 | 12/04/2014 08:02 | joathome | | 80/100 |
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 69.1/100, a mean average of 65.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 65.8/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 22.4.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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75/100
From LedZep 04/24/2017 12:50
LedZep 04/24/2017 12:50
Not nearly as bad as the rating suggests, actually quite enjoyable chart
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From 
sageamagoo 04/29/2013 00:17
sageamagoo 04/29/2013 00:17
Not bad- lots of stuff I don't know, which is often a good sign. Bonus points for including Resident Alien: if you haven't heard their 2nd album, you definitely need to. I find Resident Alien can sound a bit corny or amateurish at times, but The Chinese Album is a masterpiece far beyond what I was expecting.
I'll have to give Catherine Wheel a listen.
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100/100
From 
drakonium 04/02/2013 15:57
drakonium 04/02/2013 15:57
Wow, so many albums I've never heard... Stunning! I'll have to catch up on that. Anyway, great job, it's a fantastic chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From Charicature 03/07/2013 21:58
Charicature 03/07/2013 21:58
paladisiac - I was actually born in the middle of the 70s - 1975 :P But thanks.
Do I really have 5 CW albums? LOL - gotta fix that, I don't really think Ferment belongs there. Gotta find something that wows me, and meanwhile should bump that one down.
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From 
paladisiac 03/07/2013 21:29
paladisiac 03/07/2013 21:29
Points up for the comments and the unique taste. It works best as a "best of 90s" chart. It's not your fault you were born in the 80s. I admire sticking to your favs, even if that means 5 catherine wheel albums.
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80/100
From ecwashere 11/07/2012 13:19
Good!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
75/100
From 
junodog4 09/04/2012 16:12
junodog4 09/04/2012 16:12
Lots of 90s, and does a good job of representing the decade... I don't know much about Catherine Wheel... I totally forgot about Matthew Sweet. Time to reacquaint myself.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
joedec 06/23/2012 05:29
joedec 06/23/2012 05:29
Nice list. Very diverse
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
60/100
From 
Captain Spacker 04/12/2012 11:24
Captain Spacker 04/12/2012 11:24
Two Smashing Pumpkin albums in the top 20? Ummmm . . .
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From daveybaker 01/10/2012 16:27
Only heard 50% of this, which I consider a good thing. I shall def try out Catherine Wheel. Great to see Urge Overkill on a chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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