Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by jnmayles

In terms of the purpose of this chart, I hope it's something somebody who is new to music or grow their taste can read and walk away with over a decade of blood, sweat, and tears of dedication to the art... okay mostly just sweat in my computer chair...

I first started seriously listening to music at age 14 (2008) when I got limited access to the internet. My uncle got me a Beatles album for Christmas each year growing up, so that is all I listened to up until 16 (and a free compilation (Levi's Talent Show) that came free with a pair of jeans my aunt gave me).

I started by listening to a few indie podcasts (Indie Spotlight, now defunct and unavailable, and Indie feed, which is archived on apple but has not been updated in over a decade). From there I couldn't stop consuming and exploring music. I continue to keep my nose to the ground for new music while I continue to concurrently explore new eras, genres, and regions.

I look for a three big things in an album when ranking it...
-Is it a complete/cohesive album end to end? This doesn't mean every song has to be good, rather that the album is treated as an entire project that's cohesive and intentional from track 1 to the end. There are some songs that would likely make it into my top 100 songs but the albums are nowhere near complete enough...
-The instrumental composition of the album. This might be a hot take, but I care very little about the vocals and lyrics when compared to the instrumentals. I still believe lyrics are important, but relative to the instrumentals I'd say it's a 70/30 split for me.
-How innovative is the album? Did it create a genre? Did the artist innovate their own sound? Are there multiple genres within the album?
-Replay-ability. Could I listen to these 100 albums for the rest of my life assuming I had to commit to these and only these.

Bonus points to the album include...
-Album cover art. I believe the album cover art is highly reflective of the pride and effort an artist puts into their work. It's interesting how the concept has evolved from the LP to the digital era. I still think this is very important. One day I hope to do a top 100 list based on album art work!
-Vocal clearness. I think a lot of music listeners are fooling themselves if they can understand the vocals on a lot of albums... I love some albums that are in foreign languages just as much as the only language I understand!
-Demo availability. I love listening to demos to see what was added and goes into polishing off a song.


A few rules about my top 100:
1. I'm keeping it to one album per artists to give people more albums to explore. I'll mark under a given album if one or more albums would have also made my Top 100 all things equal.

2. No compilations. I'll handle that with a custom chart in the future. If you're curious just look at my rated albums and filter for various artists....

3. Don't read too much into the order between bands. I've listened to thousands of albums... so the difference between 1 and 5 is negligible.... I focused on making sure my Top 10 was sorted between the next 10 (Top 20) and so on...

• Chart updated: 06/23/2025 18:15
• (Created: 02/04/2025 03:49).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 0 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 81 out of 100 (from 2 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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1. (=)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 

 The Beatles

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Cliché? Sure. Blasé? Probably. As I mentioned in my intro, my uncle gave me one beatles album a year for christmas. I didn't have access to the internet growing up and my parents did not listen to music, so the entirety of my childhood was spent listening to beatles CDs. As you can imagine, my favorite ones growing up were their earlier more digestible albums (however I listened to the White Album every night before bed for years....). There are so many things that have been said and written about the beatles and this album that I won't drone on. I will just drop a quick fact that up until embarrassingly recently I did not realize: the band's name replaces the second 'e' of the bug "beetle"and replaces it with an 'a'... a play on the word 'beat'. Crazy I went through most of my life so far without this realization.

Additional Albums from Artist:
Top 10: Revolver
Top 20: Help!
Top 40: Magical Mystery Tour
Top 40: The White Album
Top 60: Rubber Soul [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

3,474 charts

Rank Score:

45,362

Rank in 1967:

1

Rank in 1960s:

3

Overall Rank:

8

Average Rating:

 90 (4,575 votes)

Comments:

489

2. (=)

The Doors 

 The Doors

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One of the few albums I got a lot of exposure to before the internet with the local radio and Need for Speed Underground 2. Such a unique sound that was never really captured again by them or anyone else. This album makes me wonder what it was like living in LA in the late 60s... [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1967

Appears in:

2,402 charts

Rank Score:

27,411

Rank in 1967:

3

Rank in 1960s:

10

Overall Rank:

29

Average Rating:

 87 (2,834 votes)

Comments:

208

3. (=)

Suede 

 Suede

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In stark contrast to the first two on my list, this album is beautiful. As I mentioned in my scoring, I care less about vocals, but this is an exception to my rule. If not for the vocals, this album would be a bit lower. [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1993

Appears in:

407 charts

Rank Score:

3,093

Rank in 1993:

8

Rank in 1990s:

97

Overall Rank:

563

Average Rating:

 78 (532 votes)

Comments:

20

4. (=)

Pink Flag 

 Wire

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Best punk album in my opinion. Not because it's necessarily groundbreaking or genre defining, but because it's good from start to front and has so much variety throughout. The 33 1/3 on this was good as well as it dissects each track. I don't remember much from that book other than they recorded an intro of one song by hitting sticks on a brick wall... [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1977

Appears in:

682 charts

Rank Score:

5,227

Rank in 1977:

12

Rank in 1970s:

84

Overall Rank:

335

Average Rating:

 82 (796 votes)

Comments:

48

5. (=)

The Magnolia Electric Co. 

 Songs: Ohia

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This is the first album on my list that I found through this website. I'm originally from west virginia and I was forced to listen to country radio on my 45 minute one way bus ride to school every day from kindergarten to 8th grade... I know this isn't pure play country, but it amazes me an album like this gets zero air time. [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

2003

Appears in:

298 charts

Rank Score:

3,587

Rank in 2003:

8

Rank in 2000s:

78

Overall Rank:

491

Average Rating:

 82 (290 votes)

Comments:

15

6. (=)

Selected Ambient Works 85-92 

 Aphex Twin

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It's interesting that I don't really like Aphex Twin's other albums. The second ambient works album is mid in my opinion... but this is something else. I don't know much about the background of this one, but it's certainty the best electronic album I've ever heard. [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1992

Appears in:

693 charts

Rank Score:

6,885

Rank in 1992:

5

Rank in 1990s:

47

Overall Rank:

239

Average Rating:

 83 (888 votes)

Comments:

58

7. (=)

Afro-Harping 

 Dorothy Ashby

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This is such a tight album. It packs a lot into 37 minutes at 10 songs. Each one gets in and gets out but sound so distinct (yet obviously they have a high degree of harmony). [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1968

Appears in:

30 charts

Rank Score:

202

Rank in 1968:

101

Rank in 1960s:

503

Overall Rank:

6,409

Average Rating:

 76 (24 votes)

Comments:

0

8. (=)

The Dark Side Of The Moon 

 Pink Floyd

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It's hard to explain, but I think Animals is truly my favorite album of theirs; however, I think I've got to acknowledge this for just how groundbreaking this was. I envy people living in the early 70s where this was top of the pops... compared to what the masses listen to these days...

Additional Albums from Artist:
Top 40: Wish You Were Here
Top 50: Animals [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

4,119 charts

Rank Score:

63,246

Rank in 1973:

1

Rank in 1970s:

1

Overall Rank:

2

Average Rating:

 92 (5,311 votes)

Comments:

590

9. (=)

Forever Dolphin Love 

 Connan Mockasin

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Nothing sounds like this or will ever sound like this again. Connan seems to have gone a little off the deep end since this albums release. Caramel and Jazzbusters I/II were also good, but nothing like this. I think Mac Demarco coined the term jizz jazz and has owned it... however I think he's a hipster jimmy buffet and Connan Mockasin is the sole owner and propriety of the genre that I'd say is truly jizz jazz.

Saw him life in Chicago in a small headcount show and it was pretty nuts. Felt like some of his antics were sexual harassment by the current definition, but I'm not complaining. [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

2011

Appears in:

42 charts

Rank Score:

449

Rank in 2011:

72

Rank in 2010s:

564

Overall Rank:

3,314

Average Rating:

 77 (29 votes)

Comments:

0

10. (=)

Kaputt 

 Destroyer

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The first album to appear that I heard about through the Indie Spotlight podcast. It's difficult to say which track is my favorite... I'm not really a fan of any of Dan's other albums (exception for the Five Spanish Songs EP), but this one strikes a perfect balance in terms of production, vocal mix, and composition. The more I age the more I've got to knock it a little for Kaputt and Song for America sounding so similar... but in the end their both great songs (I think Song for America takes the cake in the head to head). [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

2011

Appears in:

490 charts

Rank Score:

3,877

Rank in 2011:

7

Rank in 2010s:

59

Overall Rank:

451

Average Rating:

 79 (591 votes)

Comments:

47

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	2	2%
1960s	8	8%
1970s	12	12%
1980s	6	6%
1990s	19	19%
2000s	19	19%
2010s	23	23%
2020s	11	11%

Artist	Albums	%
Glass Beach	1	1%
Slowdive	1	1%
The Flaming Lips	1	1%
The Beatles	1	1%
Tobacco	1	1%
Kero Kero Bonito	1	1%
Bahamadia	1	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	54	54%
	23	23%
	4	4%
	3	3%
	2	2%
	2	2%
	2	2%
Show all

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
85/100	06/23/2025 17:09	SomethingSpecial	1,102	85/100
30/100	02/05/2025 01:41	AbsurdCheesecake	6	79/100

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