Best Albums of the 1960s

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21.

Odessey And Oracle 

 The Zombies

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"This is when pop music was perfected. It boggles the mind how these guys weren't big in the 60s. Brian Wilson could only dream of making melodies as good as these. Perhaps the only band of the 60s that could have rivaled The Beatles, had they been more known. Theirs along with Nick Drake's must b...""This is when pop music was perfected. It boggles the mind how these guys weren't big in the 60s. Brian Wilson could only dream of making melodies as good as these. Perhaps the only band of the 60s that could have rivaled The Beatles, had they been more known. Theirs along with Nick Drake's must be two of the most unjust destinies of pop music history."  [+]  Reply

- serge2k6 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (9 helpful | 3 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:

1968

Appears in:

1,312 charts

Rank Score:

13,352

Rank in 1968:

4

Rank in 1960s:

21

Overall Rank:

88

Average Rating:

 85 (1,365 votes)

Comments:

123

22.

The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady 

 Charles Mingus

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"By all contemporary accounts an obsessive band leader, (think J.K. Simmons in Whiplash) Mingus suffered nothing less than perfection when he began work on his great composition for an imagined ballet. The moments of free improvisation on this thing have a funny knack of seeming somehow deliberate...""By all contemporary accounts an obsessive band leader, (think J.K. Simmons in Whiplash) Mingus suffered nothing less than perfection when he began work on his great composition for an imagined ballet. The moments of free improvisation on this thing have a funny knack of seeming somehow deliberate; every flourishing bassline, every wailing trumpet, every rolling snare – the songs cascade past your ears (/eyes?) like renaissance painting arranged to painstaking detail. With this record Mingus cut through the cool jazz of his predecessors to provide something simultaneously beautiful and horrifying. It may not be my personal favourite jazz record of all time, but if you listen to one jazz album your life, make it this one. Most of this is copied from the description of the album in my overall chart, do check it out if you have the time!!"  [+]  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:

1963

Appears in:

977 charts

Rank Score:

12,362

Rank in 1963:

1

Rank in 1960s:

22

Overall Rank:

91

Average Rating:

 86 (1,037 votes)

Comments:

74

23.

The Velvet Underground 

 The Velvet Underground

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"The softest Velvets album, at least of Lou Reeds tenure. Always has been my favorite. THe 3rd album is really an interesting departure from the first two in my opinion yet still original and artistic and creative and original like only they could be. A true gem. candy says and what goes on are tw...""The softest Velvets album, at least of Lou Reeds tenure. Always has been my favorite. THe 3rd album is really an interesting departure from the first two in my opinion yet still original and artistic and creative and original like only they could be. A true gem. candy says and what goes on are two of the better vu songs you don't hear as much about as some others but are bot entrancing.."  [+]  Reply

- glynspsa | 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:

1969

Appears in:

1,230 charts

Rank Score:

12,143

Rank in 1969:

6

Rank in 1960s:

23

Overall Rank:

95

Average Rating:

 86 (1,655 votes)

Comments:

118

24.

Bringing It All Back Home 

 Bob Dylan

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"This is a huge turning point in the history of music and not only is it incredibly influential it is also full of some of the greatest songs of Bob Dylan's career. Mr. Tambourine Man, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie's Farm and the two closing tracks are the example of this outstanding quality...""This is a huge turning point in the history of music and not only is it incredibly influential it is also full of some of the greatest songs of Bob Dylan's career. Mr. Tambourine Man, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie's Farm and the two closing tracks are the example of this outstanding quality. His writing is phenomenal as always making it a joy to explore his lyrics deeper and understand what he was trying to say. Dylan's harmonica and guitar work is brilliant on here as well with it sounding so personal and like he has completely mastered his instruments. There is also quite a bit more depth added to the music on here compared to his previous releases with a few more additional musicians backing him up and this only strengthens his sound making this an easier record to revisit. Overall, this is a hugely influential album that is one of the most important in Dylan's career and it also has so much musical quality on here as well. "  [+]  Reply

- Untitled | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 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:

1965

Appears in:

1,268 charts

Rank Score:

11,322

Rank in 1965:

4

Rank in 1960s:

24

Overall Rank:

112

Average Rating:

 86 (1,698 votes)

Comments:

104

25.

Songs Of Leonard Cohen 

 Leonard Cohen

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"Cohen is up there with the great writers of words to songs . While I can't listen to him everyday I enjoy this album and rate it as his best"  Reply

- BraddlesHendo | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 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:

1967

Appears in:

1,051 charts

Rank Score:

9,638

Rank in 1967:

7

Rank in 1960s:

25

Overall Rank:

138

Average Rating:

 84 (1,127 votes)

Comments:

46

26.

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society 

 The Kinks

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"Does anyone else realise that this is the first studio album by the Kinks that never made the album charts in the UK, and none of their subsequent albums did either. After Something Else - which only reached No 32 in 1967, only compilation LP's made the charts. I find this absolutely staggering, ...""Does anyone else realise that this is the first studio album by the Kinks that never made the album charts in the UK, and none of their subsequent albums did either. After Something Else - which only reached No 32 in 1967, only compilation LP's made the charts. I find this absolutely staggering, just what were the British public buying from 1967 onwards. Classics like this, Arthur, Muswell Hillbillies, Lola & Preservation Act's one & two seem to have been completely ignored at the time. I wonder how many copies these albums actually sold. I can't think of another band as huge as this that stopped making the charts at the height of their career. Does anyone have an explanation for this ?"  [+]  Reply

- Steppenwolf666 | 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:

1968

Appears in:

1,067 charts

Rank Score:

9,096

Rank in 1968:

5

Rank in 1960s:

26

Overall Rank:

149

Average Rating:

 84 (1,157 votes)

Comments:

77

27.

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn 

 Pink Floyd

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"Well badfaith, I don't think this album would have been forgotten. It is just cast down in the shadows of The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall. This is their first album, and Syd Barrett created (what I think is one of Floyd's best) "Interstellar Overdrive." He had a good sense of Br...""Well badfaith, I don't think this album would have been forgotten. It is just cast down in the shadows of The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall. This is their first album, and Syd Barrett created (what I think is one of Floyd's best) "Interstellar Overdrive." He had a good sense of British Psychedelia, and was advancing it by adding strange sound effects such as sounds by voice, and overlapping sounds of metal object being ran up the fretboard. After this album he went far out of it, but if he had continued, I believe that he would have brought great success to Floyd (not saying more than that has been precieved.) Think about it, at the end of "Bike" he has clock alarms going off (Time,) he influenced the Floyd to write some of their best songs (Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Where Here, Brain Damage,) and thought up the idea of bringing a saxophonist and two woman singers into the band (a statement straight from Water's mouth.) In my opinion, the Floyd did amazing albums without him, Water's is the greater song writer, and Gilmour is the better guitarist, but Syd was the jumpstart to the band spawning ideas that would later be used, and inspired the band. As for my review for this album: There are three great songs on this album, and the rest are mediocore. Interstellar Overdrive (which is amazing,) Lucifer Sam, and Astronomy Domine. This was Syd Barretts burst of creativity before his collapse. The album isn't the most enjoyable album listening from track one to eleven, but it's still alright. I believe that this album is a bit overrated due to the glory that Pink Floyd brought to Syd Barrett, but oh well, it's still nice to listen to."  [+]  Reply

- mikeyskywalker | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +11 votes (12 helpful | 1 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:

1967

Appears in:

1,218 charts

Rank Score:

8,868

Rank in 1967:

8

Rank in 1960s:

27

Overall Rank:

157

Average Rating:

 81 (2,025 votes)

Comments:

119

28.

Beggars Banquet 

 The Rolling Stones

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"Possibly the most consistent Stones album in that there isn't a bad track here. The obvious tracks of note are Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man of course, both of which have made it onto many compilations over the years, but Factory Girl, Salt Of The Earth, No Expectations and Dear ...""Possibly the most consistent Stones album in that there isn't a bad track here. The obvious tracks of note are Sympathy For The Devil and Street Fighting Man of course, both of which have made it onto many compilations over the years, but Factory Girl, Salt Of The Earth, No Expectations and Dear Doctor are all great tracks and well worth investigating."  [+]  Reply

- TheSmiths82-87 | 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:

1968

Appears in:

1,233 charts

Rank Score:

8,815

Rank in 1968:

6

Rank in 1960s:

28

Overall Rank:

160

Average Rating:

 84 (1,564 votes)

Comments:

99

29.

White Light/White Heat 

 The Velvet Underground

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"This is probably the groups least accessible album by a long way but it is also their most experimental and interesting album to explore both sonically and lyrically. The guitars are allowed to pretty much just run free on this album and we are really rewarded for them doing that. We get that cla...""This is probably the groups least accessible album by a long way but it is also their most experimental and interesting album to explore both sonically and lyrically. The guitars are allowed to pretty much just run free on this album and we are really rewarded for them doing that. We get that classic VU screeching guitar noise all over this record and there are times when they are fighting over which one can play louder which makes for some incredible moments on Sister Ray. The lyrics are amazing and so diverse and every time I listen to this record I am stunned by the genius and engaging lyrics that Reed gave us. They are delivered brilliantly by him as well. Every track is great and has its moments to shine and each cut is completely unique and the variety we are treated to is amazing. Instrumentally, I think they are at the strongest on this record and also on The Velvet Underground And Nico as demonstrated best on Sister Ray which is up there with one of their best ever tracks. Overall, an absolute classic from VU and while on first listen it may seem a little abrasive, once you have given it a few more tries you will fall in love with this album just like I have."  [+]  Reply

- Untitled | 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:

1968

Appears in:

986 charts

Rank Score:

8,605

Rank in 1968:

7

Rank in 1960s:

29

Overall Rank:

164

Average Rating:

 84 (1,425 votes)

Comments:

101

30.

Five Leaves Left 

 Nick Drake

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"Perfect album. The mood builds and builds throughout. The guitar finger-picking style and cluster-chords particularly give him one of the most distinctive guitar sounds around. The lyrics and the compositions really build off each other, including the arrangements by Robert Kirby, and his singing...""Perfect album. The mood builds and builds throughout. The guitar finger-picking style and cluster-chords particularly give him one of the most distinctive guitar sounds around. The lyrics and the compositions really build off each other, including the arrangements by Robert Kirby, and his singing style, with the beat more reminiscent of a sax line than a vocal line really melds the music and his soft voice together."  [+]  Reply

- DrQwert | 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:

1969

Appears in:

995 charts

Rank Score:

8,559

Rank in 1969:

7

Rank in 1960s:

30

Overall Rank:

165

Average Rating:

 85 (1,089 votes)

Comments:

51

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 3 of 100

Best Albums of the 1960s composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Year	Albums	%
1960	58	6%
1961	66	7%
1962	50	5%
1963	50	5%
1964	69	7%
1965	90	9%
1966	99	10%
1967	141	14%
1968	187	19%
1969	190	19%

Artist	Albums	%
The Beatles	17	2%
John Coltrane	17	2%
The Beach Boys	15	2%
Miles Davis	15	2%
The Rolling Stones	15	2%
Nina Simone	10	1%
Bob Dylan	10	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	635	64%
	202	20%
	37	4%
	23	2%
	23	2%
	17	2%
	11	1%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	969	97%
Yes	31	3%

Live?	Albums	%
No	960	96%
Yes	40	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	979	98%
Yes	21	2%