Best Albums of the 1970s
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: 1 hour ago).
"What strikes me about this album is how LISTENABLE it is. While the songs certainly qualify as prog rock, they never fall into the trap of being overly complex and challenging for the sake of it, a criticism that can be made of many of the legendary prog rock groups such as ELP or King Crimson (n..." [+] Reply
- 
Caesar01 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,461
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"More hate than love, so that we can love it better..." Reply
- 
apeiron | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,413
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"In 1972 Steely Band, when their debut album "Can't Buy a Thrill" was released, the group was a real band and not just Becker / Fagan with handpicked back-up musicians. The lead vocals are not all sung by Donald Fagen, who leaves some of them to singer David Palmer. In fact two of the very best so..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,380
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"I purchased Tubular Bells in 1983, ten years after the release of the album but I didn't even have a turntable on which to listen to it. I can't remember exactly why I bought it other than seeing the cover at a record shop and thinking it looked really cool. Perhaps the attendant at the store men..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,373
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Elvis Costello's debut album is a classic. I'll admit, it's not the album that got me into him, but more recently, as I've entered adulthood, started to work part-time and my frustration with romance has grown, this album has really climbed for me. Welcome to the Working Week is my anthem for whe..." [+] Reply
- 
indieshins | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,369
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"How is this ranked so low? Does pop music get much better?" Reply
- 
flamingyesdept | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +12 votes (12 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,341
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"This is regarded as Joni's 2nd best album. It is all that & more it is hard for me to separate this and my favourite Joni album Hejira but this is also my 2nd best Joni album. It is full of great songs the first 3 tracks being an example of Joni at her best. Overall the album has a jazzy feel to ..." [+] Reply
- 
Tamthebam | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,337
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Ian Curtis killed himself after listening to The Idiot, maybe if he had listened to this one, he'd still be kicking it. Now the Idiot is a good album, but this one just kicks with life, Iggy's on fire and the band are just fanning the flames. Falls apart slightly near the end, but ends with a goo..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,324
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Despite being divided into multiple 'sections', Reich's minimalist masterpiece is performed in one take, and so has the curious property of being seemingly immobile and yet constantly washing over you. Listening to the strings undercut the vocals on Section VII has a desperate urgency that is dif..." [+] Reply
- 
ForegroundNoise | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,238
Rank in 1978:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"jazzy funk or funky jazz neither fazzy junk nor junky fazz" Reply
- 
jwammo12 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +8 votes (8 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,225
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 12 of 100
Best Albums of the 1970s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 110 | 11% | |
| 1971 | 100 | 10% | |
| 1972 | 97 | 10% | |
| 1973 | 112 | 11% | |
| 1974 | 93 | 9% | |
| 1975 | 98 | 10% | |
| 1976 | 90 | 9% | |
| 1977 | 92 | 9% | |
| 1978 | 105 | 11% | |
| 1979 | 103 | 10% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| David Bowie | 11 | 1% | |
| Genesis | 9 | 1% | |
| Yes | 9 | 1% | |
| Queen | 8 | 1% | |
| Jethro Tull | 8 | 1% | |
| The Rolling Stones | 8 | 1% | |
| Miles Davis | 8 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
388 | 39% | |
 |
374 | 37% | |
 |
42 | 4% | |
 |
39 | 4% | |
 |
38 | 4% | |
 |
21 | 2% | |
 |
20 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
