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 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 6 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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151.

Bat Out Of Hell

Meat Loaf

"An absolutely bonkers LP. Andrew Lloyd Webber meets Bruce Springsteen in this wonderfully bombastic and over the top album. It's incredibly theatrical, a kind of rock'n'roll musical all about love, sex and having a whale of a time. The title track is off course the most famous song here but, for ..." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1977

Appears in:

456 charts

Rank Score:

2,583

Rank in 1977:

Rank in 1970s:

151

Overall Rank:

668

Average Rating:

72 (688 votes)

Comments:

152.

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

"I have 225 records and only 224 listed on this site, I kept going through them over and over to see which one I hadn't yet listed.... b4 doing this though, I went through the top 1000 albums on this site and added all of them to either my wish list or collection.... so when going through my recor..." [+] Reply

- jackbrown8786 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1975

Appears in:

452 charts

Rank Score:

2,574

Rank in 1975:

Rank in 1970s:

152

Overall Rank:

673

Average Rating:

81 (660 votes)

Comments:

153.

Tusk

Fleetwood Mac

"Rumors was an incredibly focused, accessible, and well written album. Most of Fleetwood Mac's fanbase undoubtedly came from that album for those reasons. Tusk has the misfortune of being the followup to Rumors, and was specifically designed to turn the Rumors formula on its head, while still maki...""Rumors was an incredibly focused, accessible, and well written album. Most of Fleetwood Mac's fanbase undoubtedly came from that album for those reasons. Tusk has the misfortune of being the followup to Rumors, and was specifically designed to turn the Rumors formula on its head, while still making a great piece of art. This means that Tusk was designed to be messy, inaccessible, but still well written. I feel that a lot of the detractors that this album has are hung up on the fact that this album is long and varied, and tend to overlook the incredible innovation and incredible songwriting on this beast. I first listened to this album probably seven years ago, and I could not make it through on my first few listens. However, as I have grown older, I have learned to appreciate this album more than Rumors. If Rumors is about the deconstruction of relationships, then Tusk is about the deconstruction of the self. Here we have a band who know each other very intimately- Stevie and Lindsay were a couple, Stevie and Mick had a fling, and the McVie's recently had a divorce. Each member is dealing with the memories of their intense relationships with each other, and coping in different ways. Buckingham has devolved into a paranoid cocaine abuser, Stevie Nicks is clearly traumatized by the betrayal of her new lover Mick Fleetwood as well as her recent abortion, and Christine McVie is still processing her divorce, and the breakdown of the band. This leads to a variety of music that ranges from beautiful, to heart-wrenching, to utterly deranged. "Sara" has one of my favorite drumming performance of all time, and is an utterly beautiful song where Nicks alludes to her aborted baby, Sara, as well as her friend that Fleetwood left her for (also Sara). Fleetwood apparently put 24 hours straight of effort into making the drumming for this song as perfect as possible, and it shows. I could be reading into it to much, but the drum tone almost conveys a sense of remorse that adds to the ethereal bitter-sweetness of the song. McVie's songs aren't quite as depressing as Nicks' contributions, but they exude a similar energy. "Over and Over" is a beautiful opener that sets the tone for what the rest of the album will be, but then is quickly subverted by the bonkers "The Ledge". Buckingham had succumbed to a "blizzard of cocaine" when writing this album, and was apparently obsessed with appealing to Talking Heads fans and Beach Boys fans alike with his compositions. This leads to occasionally beautiful harmonies like those in "Save Me a Place", but usually results in paranoid, angry songs like "Not that Funny". "Tusk" is the culmination of Buckingham's paranoia, which is essentially a song about telling Nicks and Fleetwood that he knows their dirty little secret and can blackmail them whenever he wants, then forces Fleetwood to give the best damn drumming performance of his career on it. At this point I am rambling, but that in a way is part of what Tusk is. It is rambling and unfocused, but contrary to what other commenters on here say, is devoid of filler. Filler implies that an artist wanted to reach the length of time required for a full album, but that is definitely not what is going on here. Each song has a unique soundscape and purpose that contributes to themes and sound that is Tusk." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1979

Appears in:

434 charts

Rank Score:

2,555

Rank in 1979:

Rank in 1970s:

153

Overall Rank:

677

Average Rating:

77 (613 votes)

Comments:

154.

Let's Get It On

Marvin Gaye

"Another quick review.... Yes, this is perhaps the sexiest and most romantic record ever made. As a single guy who isn't a ladies man by any stretch of the imagination, it can be kinda strange to think how much I empathize with this record. The first half in particular is flawless as far as I'm co..." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

415 charts

Rank Score:

2,470

Rank in 1973:

Rank in 1970s:

154

Overall Rank:

701

Average Rating:

80 (509 votes)

Comments:

155.

Artaud

Pescado Rabioso

"Luis Alberto Spinetta was a big fan of John Lennon, and the latter's Plastic Ono Band is a point of reference to begin to understand the masterpiece known as Artaud. Both albums were recorded at times of turmoil in both artists' lives and in their respective countries, and this is reflected on th..." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

257 charts

Rank Score:

2,454

Rank in 1973:

Rank in 1970s:

155

Overall Rank:

705

Average Rating:

81 (264 votes)

Comments:

156.

Mothership Connection

Parliament

"I was first introduced to Parliament a year after I graduated from college by a girl who put "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" and "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" on a mix tape for me. It was only then that I discovered how badly I had always wanted to improve my intergalactic ..." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1975

Appears in:

420 charts

Rank Score:

2,436

Rank in 1975:

Rank in 1970s:

156

Overall Rank:

706

Average Rating:

80 (457 votes)

Comments:

157.

Mirage

Camel

"Ethereal music springs out of this one, their 2nd effort. The interplay of Latimer's flute and Bardens' keyboards is simply ecstatic. Unfortunately it remains another underrated brilliant classic album. On a personal note, I’ve been listening to it for the last couple of days continuously through..." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1974

Appears in:

353 charts

Rank Score:

2,425

Rank in 1974:

Rank in 1970s:

157

Overall Rank:

712

Average Rating:

81 (416 votes)

Comments:

158.

Queen II

Queen

"This is one of the best Queen albums. It shows that the band was much better when they took risks. The theatrical progressive rock here blows away any tame classic rock sounds this album has to offer. Procession is a decent intro, but also aids well in allowing the album to flow with how it seaml..." [+] Reply

AAL2014 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Year of Release:

1974

Appears in:

378 charts

Rank Score:

2,412

Rank in 1974:

Rank in 1970s:

158

Overall Rank:

717

Average Rating:

78 (763 votes)

Comments:

159.

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Joni Mitchell

"Nominally, Joni Mitchell is Folk. This is really only true insofar as it indicates where she began as a songwriter. Mitchell's career quickly evolved into something far greater, and progressively harder to define. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is not only the greatest example of Joni Mitchell's cre...""Nominally, Joni Mitchell is Folk. This is really only true insofar as it indicates where she began as a songwriter. Mitchell's career quickly evolved into something far greater, and progressively harder to define. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is not only the greatest example of Joni Mitchell's creative individuality as a musician, but is also arguably the point at which all of the disparate pieces that comprise the woman who is "Joni Mitchell" came together in perfect harmony. Her impeccable skill as a songwriter, her unique guitar style, her jazz influence; on the Hissing of Summer Lawns, all of these pieces come together into a whole that is far greater than its individual parts. These “parts” have all been around Joni Mitchell at various points in her career; her songwriting and guitar skill were there from the start, but even from her beginnings of a masterful folk storyteller, she was to go in a slightly different direction with each coming album; toying with and sometimes fully implementing, at various points in her career, everything from pop-melodicism to African rhythmic structures. But the most important influence that hovered around Mitchell’s work, (and which had been since the early 70s) was that of jazz. By the time her massive commercial breakthrough came 1974’s “Court and Spark”, her folk origins were all but absent. In their place stood melodic and thoughtful pop-influenced ballads of the kind of self-expression that we had seen in her confessional masterpiece “Blue”. It would appear that no matter what kind of music Mitchell is delving into at any given time, her songwriting skill (which, by the way, easily matches if not trumps the likes of fellow lyrical geniuses Bob Dylan and Neil Young) is always present, but with every new album, there is always a twist in the way with which her words are displayed. Mitchell’s lyrical prowess, along with her mature vision of pop song construction, may have taken the forefront of Court and Spark, what is often overlooked is what may have been the beginning of what was to define Joni Mitchell’s most ambitious and most artistically rewording period as a musician, and that is that “Court and Spark”, behind it’s romantic orchestration, actually exhibited a substantial jazz influence. Of course, that did nothing to prepare Mitchell’s fan base for what was to come. In 1975, Joni Mitchell releases “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”, an album where the jazz that was hinted at in its predecessor takes full form, just as the folk that defined her early career makes a reappearance, and fuses itself with her love for the likes of Charles Mingus and Jaco Pastorius into an album that can only be loosely defined as “Jazz-folk”, but that contains a degree of ambition and sheer unexpectedness far greater than such a narrow genre pigeonholing would suggest. In the end, The Hissing of Summer Lawns exists outside of the realm of normal classification or judgment. Further description would do this album no justice. Joni has crafted a world that is entirely her own, and to which no parallels can or should be drawn. That was too analytical. I want to give this album a hug." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1975

Appears in:

325 charts

Rank Score:

2,411

Rank in 1975:

Rank in 1970s:

159

Overall Rank:

718

Average Rating:

80 (418 votes)

Comments:

160.

Nursery Cryme

Genesis

"nursery cryme was the first very good genesis album. The prior two albums were not as good -- 1969 debut from genesis to revelation was carved in a generic 60s-music template mold and follow-up trespass didn't yet carve out a unique identity for genesis yet (although sporting one of their better ..." [+] Reply

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

Year of Release:

1971

Appears in:

391 charts

Rank Score:

2,388

Rank in 1971:

Rank in 1970s:

160

Overall Rank:

720

Average Rating:

81 (592 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 16 of 100

Best Albums of the 1970s composition

Year	Albums	%

1970	110	11%
1971	99	10%
1972	97	10%
1973	112	11%
1974	94	9%
1975	97	10%
1976	89	9%
1977	93	9%
1978	106	11%
1979	103	10%

Artist	Albums	%

David Bowie	11	1%
Yes	9	1%
Genesis	9	1%
Miles Davis	8	1%
Electric Light Orchestra	8	1%
Pink Floyd	8	1%
AC/DC	8	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	388	39%
	373	37%
	43	4%
	39	4%
	38	4%
	20	2%
	20	2%
Show all

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

Live?	Albums	%
No	944	94%
Yes	56	6%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	986	99%
Yes	14	1%

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