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...

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Buy album United States
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I don't often have LP purchase regret, but I do regret not picking up a copy of this when it dropped from LUNA in Indianapolis when I was visiting my girlfriend in 2016. Recorded in 11 days with vocals on each track done in one take.... amazing. A silly R&B/Rap mixtape with phones being the central theme just misses the top 10 :) [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]
Year of Release:
2015
Appears in:
Rank Score:
144
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Buy album United States
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[First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]
Year of Release:
1997
Appears in:
Rank Score:
28
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Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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.... kind of a compilation... but it's one artist so I'll let it slide. [First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]
Year of Release:
2022
Appears in:
Rank Score:
19
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Buy album United States
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[First added to this chart: 06/23/2025]
Year of Release:
2007
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11
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Total albums: 4. Page 1 of 1

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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%
Country Albums %


United States 54 54%
United Kingdom 23 23%
Canada 4 4%
Brazil 3 3%
Mixed Nationality 2 2%
France 2 2%
Australia 2 2%
Show all
Compilation? Albums %
No 96 96%
Yes 4 4%
Soundtrack? Albums %
No 99 99%
Yes 1 1%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

There have been no changes to this chart.
TitleSourceTypePublishedCountry
Top 100 Greatest Artists flamingyesdeptCustom chart2025
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsTidus1997Overall chart2020
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsEcethZig3010Overall chart2022Unknown
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums flamingyesdeptOverall chart2025
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsNepologyOverall chart2013
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsBurndenAceOverall chart2024
Top 100 Greatest Music AlbumsMARTINBORSOverall chart2022
101-200 AvalancheGripsCustom chart2021
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums JoaoMoreiraOverall chart2024
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums0129114Overall chart2022Unknown

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
81/100 (from 2 votes)
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06/23/2025 17:09 SomethingSpecial  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,10285/100
  
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02/05/2025 01:41 AbsurdCheesecake  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 679/100

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Best Ever Albums
1. OK Computer by Radiohead
2. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd
3. Abbey Road by The Beatles
4. Revolver by The Beatles
5. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
6. In Rainbows by Radiohead
7. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie
8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
9. Kid A by Radiohead
10. The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground & Nico
11. Untitled (Led Zeppelin IV) by Led Zeppelin
12. Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys
13. Nevermind by Nirvana
14. The Beatles (The White Album) by The Beatles
15. Funeral by Arcade Fire
16. The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths
17. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
18. To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
19. Doolittle by Pixies
20. London Calling by The Clash
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