Best Albums of the 1970s

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Listed below are the best albums of the 1970s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 5 hours ago).

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1970s decade summaryThe best artists of the 1970s were Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder and The Who.

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11.

Blood On The Tracks

Bob Dylan

"1 December 2013 "Blood On The Tracks". It's an album almost synonymous with maturity and the absolute expression of all the nuances of love and loss. It's an album that I notice I love more and more as my life ticks along. When I first heard it at the age of 12 I didn't get it. I didn't see what ...""1 December 2013 "Blood On The Tracks". It's an album almost synonymous with maturity and the absolute expression of all the nuances of love and loss. It's an album that I notice I love more and more as my life ticks along. When I first heard it at the age of 12 I didn't get it. I didn't see what was so great about it. And even now to this day, I feel their is a more relatable feeling I get from his 60s music. I am 24 years old as I write this. Dylan was 21 and 24 when he made my other 2 favorite albums of his. Is that all it comes down to? Perhaps. As for this album, well it's a legendary piece of art. It transcends my amateur description. There are just so many themes and details and emotions that are expressed here. The album is a roller coaster, it takes you through all the highs of love found and all the lows of regret. And in the end you leave this record wiser than when you entered. To name the highlights is basically to name off every track. It's literally that great. The songs that just absolutely gut me every time I hear them are "Simple Twist of Fate" (perhaps one of the most sobering songs ever), "You're A Big Girl Now", "Meet Me In The Morning" (so simple and beautiful and the fucking steel guitar and slide guitar at the end is pure aesthetic perfection), "Shelter From The Storm", and the closer "Buckets of Rain". Oh and about this closer...it's perfect. I use that word "perfect" too much, I know. But this song AS A CLOSER is perfection. It's like a little nugget of almost simpleton-level wisdom that floats in and soothes us after the emotional journey of the rest of the album that just ended. It's so damn simple and playful and REAL. This album feels so absolutely relaxed and natural. It's a grand example of the plain expression of very exact and thought-out art. It's an album that opens up more and more not only with each listen but also with each passing year of living. It's an album that is always there to help get me through. Thanks, Bob. Grade 100/100" [+] Reply

Mercury | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1975

Appears in:

1,873 charts

Rank Score:

20,178

Rank in 1975:

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12.

"One of the interesting things about this album is that it is punk while bearing many opposite qualities from what you traditionally associate with punk. Punk is thought of as short songs, aggressive, political, rudimentary, whereas Marquee Moon has a song approaching 11 minutes, is often laid-bac..." [+] Reply

colonelchibbers | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1977

Appears in:

1,806 charts

Rank Score:

19,124

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13.

"The Rolling Stones, shacked up in a French estate, dressed like pirates and loaded, produce a double album that reveals something new every time you listen to it. Maybe not my number one album ever, but without a doubt one of the coolest." Reply

- jjstraka | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +13 votes (13 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1972

Appears in:

1,971 charts

Rank Score:

18,977

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14.

"Fun album to listen. I don't find it inconsistent at all, every song in here contributes something to the album as a whole." Reply

Defago | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,878 charts

Rank Score:

18,861

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15.

"“In the morning, I’ll be alright my friend, but soon the night will bring the pain. Flying high in the friendly sky” What do you get when you combine the smoothest voice in the history of music with the greatest bass lines in the history of music, and hotbox a Motown studio full of marijuana? An ...""“In the morning, I’ll be alright my friend, but soon the night will bring the pain. Flying high in the friendly sky” What do you get when you combine the smoothest voice in the history of music with the greatest bass lines in the history of music, and hotbox a Motown studio full of marijuana? An album that is better than anything in its genre and in its decade - which is saying a lot when you consider all that happened in the 1970’s. If heroin could sing, it still wouldn’t sound as good as Marvin Gaye. I stand very firmly behind my opinion that Marvin Gaye possessed the greatest voice of all time. There are countless things to love about this album musically, the tight bass lines, the smooth aesthetic, the jazz feel, liberal use of assorted wind and stringed instruments, and the variety of percussion the crystal clear production that sounds as incredible in 2015 as it did in 1971. However, it’s Marvin’s show, and it’s his voice that carries the listener through the album. The man clearly had enormous talent, and it is displayed in its entirety on “What’s Going On”. Listening to Marvin Gaye perform live was akin to watching Michael Jordan make the final shot of the 1998 NBA finals, except better by several orders of magnitude because music is clearly a domain of excellence far superior to sports. One of his studio assistants was questioned at one point what the most difficult thing was when working with Marvin Gaye. The response was that it was so difficult to select which takes of his voice to keep and which to discard, because they were all so beautiful that it felt wrong to delete anything that he recorded. “What’s Going On” is about discontent - with culture, with politics, with discrimination, with the imperfect self. It came at a time when the Barry Gordy’s Motown record label was interested only in pumping out radio hits for profit and wasn’t interested in any of this introspective, challenging music. Gaye demanded it be released as he envisioned it and was nearly close to breaking ties with the record label. Marvin Gaye had a wild and remarkable career, plagued by the internal conflict which is was clear from his art, as well as his ongoing struggle with depression and multiple suicide attempts and drug addiction. It’s this struggle that fuels the beauty that is his music. His angelic voice carries just enough of a painful undertone to send shivers down the listener’s spine. That’s “What’s Going On”" [+] Reply

corenfro | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,660 charts

Rank Score:

18,709

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16.

"This is essential listening not only for the metal genre but for music in general as its importance in history is huge. The influence this album had is massive and it has the quality to back it up as well. Musically, it still sounds so fresh and exciting with side 1 being one of the strongest sid..." [+] Reply

- Untitled | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1970

Appears in:

1,750 charts

Rank Score:

18,563

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17.

"There's a certain beauty to this album that is inescapable. It has no gimmicks to it, just Drake alone on his acoustic guitar. It's an atmospheric and ethereal record that I will be returning to for a while." Reply

- camsh | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1972

Appears in:

1,563 charts

Rank Score:

17,080

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Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

86 (1,875 votes)

Comments:

144

18.

Low

David Bowie

"Pitchfork called this the best album of the '70s, a move I thought was pretty dubious until I got around to spinning Low half a dozen times on a long bus ride home from college. Low manages to embody the depth of absolute melancholy through manifestations vocal and instrumental, brash and serene;..." [+] Reply

- weedygonsalez | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1977

Appears in:

1,541 charts

Rank Score:

16,445

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19.

"Whereas Exile is chaotic and unrestrained, Sticky Fingers is remarkably disciplined for an album this raunchy and soaked in sin." Reply

- yonstein414 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,651 charts

Rank Score:

16,411

Rank in 1971:

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Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

86 (1,939 votes)

Comments:

138

20.

Blue

Joni Mitchell

"There are a few words used to describe music that typically indicate I won't like it. Sparse, intimate, and voice-driven are some of them. And all three of them describe this album perfectly - as others have said, it is the sound of an artist laying their life bare with songs reflecting over thei...""There are a few words used to describe music that typically indicate I won't like it. Sparse, intimate, and voice-driven are some of them. And all three of them describe this album perfectly - as others have said, it is the sound of an artist laying their life bare with songs reflecting over their experiences. But somehow, in this case, it all comes together and creates what I believe to be the most perfect album ever crafted. It's one thing to have a great voice, and it's quite another to be able to use that voice and make it sound honest. If there's one word that describes (nearly) all of the music I enjoy it's honest. And if someone is clearing trying to hit high notes and sing in key that honesty is lost; that's why I often prefer bad singers to good ones. But Joni makes hitting the high notes sound incredibly effortless, and she integrates them perfectly into the rest of the song so that they don't stand out as if she's trying to impress with her voice. It's an album that is so well crafted that the voice is irrelevant, but she still manages to sing perfectly. And the song-writing - the stream-of-consciousness style she writes in is just tremendous. Picture Kurt Cobain if the thoughts in his head actually made sense. There is no pretense, there is no thought. These are the things she is thinking, and she's not manipulating them to sound like poetry. There are moments on this record that are incredibly general and could apply to anyone, and there are moments where the specificity is brilliant ("Richard got married to a figure skater, and he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator"). The songs reflect the era she lived in (Little Green / Blue) and her dreams for the future (River). Even when the lyrics blend into a more manufactured poetry they sound so heartbreakingly beautiful you can't fault it (Case of You). And of course there's a central theme that ties things together nicely - it wouldn't be a true album if the songs didn't feel like they belonged together. Not only is there the general sentiment of heartbreak that is described by colors (Blue and Green, obviously), but each song seems to dwell on a different aspect of the feeling (or the moments leading up to it). The songs also progress nicely, starting off hopeful and glad and then straying into sadness, depression, and what I wouldn't hesitate to call despair. It starts with hopes and dreams (the dream theme culminates in Carey and California) but by the end the illusion is shattered and the truths about love and life come out. My love for this album goes even beyond words, but somehow it's the one I find the most to say about and the most to discover more in. The number of times I've broken down sobbing to this album is not a single digit number." [+] Reply

babyBlueSedan | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

1,385 charts

Rank Score:

15,685

Rank in 1971:

Rank in 1970s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

84 (1,525 votes)

Comments:

114

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 2 of 100

Best Albums of the 1970s composition

Year	Albums	%

1970	109	11%
1971	100	10%
1972	97	10%
1973	112	11%
1974	93	9%
1975	98	10%
1976	91	9%
1977	92	9%
1978	105	11%
1979	103	10%

Artist	Albums	%

David Bowie	11	1%
Genesis	9	1%
Yes	9	1%
Jethro Tull	8	1%
The Rolling Stones	8	1%
Miles Davis	8	1%
Electric Light Orchestra	8	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	387	39%
	375	38%
	42	4%
	39	4%
	38	4%
	21	2%
	20	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	976	98%
Yes	24	2%

Live?	Albums	%
No	943	94%
Yes	57	6%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	987	99%
Yes	13	1%

« View best albums of the 1960sView best albums of the 1980s »

Best Ever Artists
1. The Beatles
2. Radiohead
3. Pink Floyd
4. David Bowie
5. Bob Dylan
6. Led Zeppelin
7. The Rolling Stones
8. Arcade Fire
9. Neil Young
10. Nirvana