Best Albums of the 1970s

Listed below are the best albums of the 1970s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 5 hours ago).
Best albums by year or decade
Decade:
Year:
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.
View chart at point in time
 Show this chart as it was on the following date
Share this chart
Collector's summary (top 1,000) Help The maximum rank used by the Collector's Summary is configurable from your profile (top 1,000 is currently selected). Log in or register to discover the great albums that are missing from your music collection!
Sort Sort by
"Kate Bush's debut album is an excellent collection of slightly quirky songs from one of music's most unique artists. There is a beautiful innocence to some tracks, especially on the lovely, the man with the child in his eyes. Other highlights include, them heavy people, saxophone song, and the ab..."  [+]  Reply
- garycottier | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
3,204
Rank in 1978:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,124
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Underrated album, The first Stones album that was just flat out in your face rock...fav song: "When the whip comes down"...by far their biggest album (8M copies)due largely to the controversy of the song "Some girl" with the lyric "...black girls just want to get F**ked all night"..many chains to..."  [+]  Reply
- ffudnebbuh | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (5 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
3,119
Rank in 1978:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
124.
Super Fly 
Soundtrack
"I've found myself coming back to this album much more often than What's Goin On, the album that inspired it and is often compared to. Both albums are classics tackling similar themes of the plights of black men living in 60's and 70's America, with What's Goin On talking more generally about the ..."  [+]  Reply
- CJMishellsan | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,093
Rank in 1972:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"A most unusual debut album for Waits- hardly indicative of his material to come, though perhaps topically relevant. Pretty much in every subsequent album, Waits sounds as if he's getting drunk at a bar. Here, he's already been there and done that- the album's title "closing time" couldn't be more..."  [+]  Reply
- poppmusic | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
3,081
Rank in 1973:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"This album is an absolute masterpiece, and has a sound like no other album ever released, even by Neil himself. You can truly feel raw emotion here, and this is definitely Neil's most emotional album. After the loss of Daniel Whitten, Neil recorded this album on one dark night in 1972 in only one..."  [+]  Reply
- | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,048
Rank in 1975:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Someone here commented "A gospel choir has to cover this entire album at my funeral", really without exaggeration, this album seems to be spiritual, it's like a compilation due to the quantity of great songs, with a difference, it's a portrait of a specific moment, without the coldness of a colle..."  [+]  Reply
- CollectorNoName | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,033
Rank in 1970:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"sheer bloody genius. If this lp only contained Tightrope alone it would be classic (like carry on my wayward son is the only classic song on that Kansas lp) but there is also Telephone Line, Do Ya and Livin Thing. In it's day, it sold for a new world record too."  Reply
- CG | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
1976
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,981
Rank in 1976:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"The first album is great, but this is their defining statement. The sound and feel is better, even on the buzz saw songs which is what the first album was almost all about. The writing here is stronger over two full sides, and this one even boasts some variety. 'Sheena' and 'Cretin' maintain the ..."  [+]  Reply
- ninecurses | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
2,930
Rank in 1977:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"Solid album all the way through; lots of blues-rock goodness with Morrison's iconic vocals and lyrics. Roadhouse Blues, Waiting for the Sun, and Peace Frog are the highlights, but I also quite like You Make Me Real. Everything else is enjoyable."  Reply
- MetaKoopa99 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful) Help 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:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,912
Rank in 1970:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 13 of 100

Best Albums of the 1970s composition

Recognised  Decade Charts (2020s)
1. 100 Best Albums of the 2010s: Staff Picks by Billboard (2019)
2. The Needle Drop's Top Albums Of The 2010s by The Needle Drop (2019)
3. All The Best Albums Of The 2010s, Ranked by Uproxx (2019)
4. The A.V. Club's 50 best albums of the 2010s by The A.V. Club (2019)
5. Gorilla vs. Bear Albums of the 2010s by Gorilla vs. Bear (2019)
6. NME's Greatest Albums of The Decade: The 2010s by New Music Express (2019)
7. Top 100 Albums of the Decade by Crack Magazine (2019)
8. 100 Best Albums of the 2010s by Rolling Stone (2019)
9. The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s by Pitchfork (2019)
10. Top 50 Albums of the 2010s by The Wild Honey Pie (2019)
11. BrooklynVegan's Top Albums of 2010s by BrooklynVegan (2020)
12. The 50 best albums of the decade – 2010 to 2019 by Independent (2019)
13. The 100 Best Albums Of The 2010s by Stereogum (2019)
14. The 50 Best Albums of the Decade by Deep Cuts (2019)
15. The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s by Spin (2020)
16. BEST OF 2011 - 2020: Die besten Alben des Jahrzehnts by laut (2020)
17. Los 30 mejores discos de la década de 2010 by Esquire España (2023)
18. The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s by Paste (2019)
19. Die 100 besten Alben der 10er Jahre by Musikexpress.de (2020)
20. Tiny Mix Tapes 2010s: Favorite 100 Music Releases of the Decade by Tiny Mix Tapes (2019)