Best Albums of the 1970s
Explore the best albums of the 1970s, based on over 2 million album rankings across 60,000 charts.
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Last updated: 4 hours ago
Last updated: 4 hours ago
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"Pure masterful prog rock. This album has everything a prog act must have: long tracks, virtuosism, weird lyrics, heavy keyboard use and time and mood changes. It's a rare example of balance between technicism and emotional, never boring, always flowing, with sound that come from psicedelic, beat,..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
13,446
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Comments:
"This entire album is perfect. There isn't a single thing that I would change in it. It's the best emotional roller coaster I've ever been. I feel like as soon as the album is over I already want to listen to it again. Close to the edge is also amazing and it was really hard to pick my favorite, b..." [+] Reply
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patriciatoledo | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,995
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"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
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Caesar01 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,391
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"One of the most underrated albums in history." Reply
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,303
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"For a long time I thought this was a mess of an album with very little actual music but it turns out it's now one of my favourites from them. Definitely more processing needed for this one though." Reply
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,285
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"By no means a masterpiece but it doesn't deserve all the scorn it's accumulated over the years. I admire it's ambition even when it falls on it's face." Reply
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40footwolf | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
840
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"A great live album from a great band. Impressive not only for the material but the musicianship. Playing this stuff live and having it sound so good is an incredible feat." Reply
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
331
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"Nice album actually bit like the nice in parts but not really so yeah. Anyways a while since I heard this and it's much enjoyment. Vinyl sounding good, not sure if original press but cover being attacked by mold. Love the pre wakeman heavy Hammond. Bass in yr face. Top vox. And some wonderful pro..." [+] Reply
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Graeme2 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
298
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"It is a long time since I heard a friends copy of this album, and one that was missing form my Yes collection. It is as i remembered, a rather good album. I note that some on here have given rather negative comments or views on the songs, I think quite unfairly. There are some very good compositi..." [+] Reply
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AJSki2fly | 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.
Total albums: 9. Page 1 of 1
Best Albums of the 1970s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 111 | 11% | |
| 1971 | 101 | 10% | |
| 1972 | 96 | 10% | |
| 1973 | 112 | 11% | |
| 1974 | 94 | 9% | |
| 1975 | 97 | 10% | |
| 1976 | 90 | 9% | |
| 1977 | 91 | 9% | |
| 1978 | 105 | 11% | |
| 1979 | 103 | 10% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Neil Young | 11 | 1% | |
| David Bowie | 11 | 1% | |
| Frank Zappa | 11 | 1% | |
| Bob Marley | 9 | 1% | |
| Paul McCartney | 9 | 1% | |
| Yes | 9 | 1% | |
| Genesis | 9 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
385 | 39% | |
 |
375 | 38% | |
 |
42 | 4% | |
 |
38 | 4% | |
 |
38 | 4% | |
 |
21 | 2% | |
 |
20 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Best Albums of the 1970s chart changes
| Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Up 2 from 89th to 87th |
Up 1 from 100th to 99th |
Up 1 from 91st to 90th |
| Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Down 2 from 87th to 89th |
Down 1 from 20th to 21st |
Down 1 from 37th to 38th |
Best Ever
Artists
1.
The Beatles
2.
Radiohead
3.
Pink Floyd
4.
David Bowie
5.
Bob Dylan
6.
Led Zeppelin
8.
Arcade Fire
9.
Neil Young
10.
Nirvana
