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: 1 hour ago
Last updated: 1 hour ago
"A strong debut. Isn't that what any artist would want? While some might go for instant fame, many artists don't want to have that super top of the charts hit right away. Selling a few hundred thousand singles and a Christmas number 1 before being forgotten. Known as the guy or girl who "sung that..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,198
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Comments:
"Controversial opinion: This is better than What’s Going On." Reply
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,111
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"Classical music, hard rock, and pop perfection. There may not be any guitar solos or explicitly deep lyrics, but Lynne does what he does best here." Reply
Year of Release:
1976
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Rank Score:
3,063
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"Very good Cat Stevens is like a teacher when he sings Father And Son from this song you can learn very much for life but the first song is also good where do the children play and the last track Tea For The Tillerman a classical music pieces. A must have in every collection. I say very favorable ..." [+] Reply
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StefanR10 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,059
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"I absolutely hate their version of "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)", but every other track on this album is really good. Coming out of their mid-70s slump, this album feels like the band being reenergised and discovering their youth. I guess you can thank punk and disco for that. "Mis..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,004
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"I like just about everything Tom Waits has ever recorded, but this is my favorite of all his albums. Which probably says a lot about me as a listener. While I love the weirdness, goofiness, and twistedness of later Waits albums, it is this collection of guilelessly sentimental, lonely love songs ..." [+] Reply
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buzzdainer | 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:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,994
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"probably the most fun and party-friendly doors album. you can play it front to back without feeling like you need to get your hands on some peyote, they probably had fun just jamming while makin this album" Reply
Year of Release:
1970
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,967
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"The debut album from one of America's greatest bands. '77, is a superb record with great punchy songs. This is before they would start collaborating with Brian Eno so it's more about melody and songs rather than production. Psycho killer, off course is one of Talking Heads greatest songs and argu..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,953
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"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
Year of Release:
1975
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Rank Score:
2,938
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"Ramones 3rd album completes the legendary trilogy with the original lineup. The sound has more of a surfer vibe this time around but as usual the songs are fast and the lyrics are cleverly cynical." Reply
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Brandon8 | 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:
2,916
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Total albums: 1,000. Page 13 of 100
Best Albums of the 1970s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 111 | 11% | |
| 1971 | 101 | 10% | |
| 1972 | 96 | 10% | |
| 1973 | 113 | 11% | |
| 1974 | 95 | 10% | |
| 1975 | 97 | 10% | |
| 1976 | 89 | 9% | |
| 1977 | 91 | 9% | |
| 1978 | 104 | 10% | |
| 1979 | 104 | 10% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Neil Young | 11 | 1% | |
| David Bowie | 11 | 1% | |
| Frank Zappa | 11 | 1% | |
| Yes | 9 | 1% | |
| Genesis | 9 | 1% | |
| Bob Marley | 9 | 1% | |
| Paul McCartney | 9 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
386 | 39% | |
 |
376 | 38% | |
 |
42 | 4% | |
 |
38 | 4% | |
 |
38 | 4% | |
 |
20 | 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 94th to 92nd |
Up 2 from 89th to 87th |
Up 2 from 65th to 63rd |
| Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Down 2 from 64th to 66th |
Down 2 from 92nd to 94th |
Down 1 from 13th to 14th |
