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: 08/19/2025 04:45
• (Created: 02/04/2025 03:49).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 3 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 83 out of 100 (from 3 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:

3,482 charts

Rank Score:

44,650

Rank in 1967:

1

Rank in 1960s:

3

Overall Rank:

8

Average Rating:

 90 (4,586 votes)

Comments:

491

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:

411 charts

Rank Score:

3,081

Rank in 1993:

8

Rank in 1990s:

96

Overall Rank:

566

Average Rating:

 78 (537 votes)

Comments:

21

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:

683 charts

Rank Score:

5,125

Rank in 1977:

12

Rank in 1970s:

84

Overall Rank:

339

Average Rating:

 82 (798 votes)

Comments:

48

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:

696 charts

Rank Score:

6,734

Rank in 1992:

5

Rank in 1990s:

50

Overall Rank:

244

Average Rating:

 83 (890 votes)

Comments:

59

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:

4,128 charts

Rank Score:

62,281

Rank in 1973:

1

Rank in 1970s:

1

Overall Rank:

2

Average Rating:

 92 (5,323 votes)

Comments:

592

13. (=)

Steve McQueen 

 Prefab Sprout

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I am glad I listened to this when I did. Had I listened to this any time before the age of 28, I would have likely written it off as some stupid pop album. It was the album of the summer of 2023 for me.

Wonderful lyricism and tone from the start, see first two lines of the album >>>> 'Antiques, every other sentiment's an antique / As obsolete as warships in the Baltic'.

I once sent this to a good friend, Lucy, I worked with as a recommended album to listen to only for it to hit me that it could have been interpreted as a desperate plea for romance as she shared a name with one of the best songs on the album "Goodbye Lucille #1". Maybe it was... who knows... [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1985

Appears in:

387 charts

Rank Score:

3,716

Rank in 1985:

9

Rank in 1980s:

70

Overall Rank:

468

Average Rating:

 79 (372 votes)

Comments:

30

16. (=)

OK Computer 

 Radiohead

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Additional Albums from Artist:
Top 40: Kid A [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1997

Appears in:

4,411 charts

Rank Score:

66,186

Rank in 1997:

1

Rank in 1990s:

1

Overall Rank:

1

Average Rating:

 92 (5,625 votes)

Comments:

853

18. (=)

The English Riviera 

 Metronomy

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Additional Albums from Artist:
Top 100: Love Letters [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

2011

Appears in:

185 charts

Rank Score:

1,055

Rank in 2011:

34

Rank in 2010s:

256

Overall Rank:

1,613

Average Rating:

 74 (249 votes)

Comments:

10

29. (=)

New Forms 

 Roni Size And Reprazent

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[First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1997

Appears in:

106 charts

Rank Score:

573

Rank in 1997:

43

Rank in 1990s:

473

Overall Rank:

2,721

Average Rating:

 75 (79 votes)

Comments:

1

30. (=)

Avocet 

 Bert Jansch

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[First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]

Year of Release:

1979

Appears in:

14 charts

Rank Score:

97

Rank in 1979:

171

Rank in 1970s:

1,683

Overall Rank:

11,939

Average Rating:

 79 (16 votes)

Comments:

1

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Total albums: 23. Page 1 of 3

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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)

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	08/19/2025 04:15	LadyGodiva	96	97/100
85/100	06/23/2025 17:09	SomethingSpecial	1,109	85/100
30/100	02/05/2025 01:41	AbsurdCheesecake	6	79/100

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From jnmayles 08/19/2025 04:33

I didn't realize I published a very early version of this with like 15 albums on it... I think absurdcheesecake took it personally :) it's all good though! much love absurdcheesecake!

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

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From LadyGodiva 08/19/2025 04:19

Also.. what did you do to upset absurdcheesecake? What a weird rating!

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Rating:  

100/100

From LadyGodiva 08/19/2025 04:15

Some really interesting picks (always happy to see Heavenly on a chart)… and I like the comments - great chart x

Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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