Best Albums of 1971

Sort by

• Overall Rank
• Num. Charts
• Avg. Rating
• Num. Ratings
• Release Date
• Title
• Artist

1.

Untitled (Led Zeppelin IV) 

 Led Zeppelin

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"Not often can an artist make an album so wonderfully masterful of the rock genre. But this is obviously the case with what is quite possibly the greatest rock album ever made. Despite it doing it doing things that have been done before, many by Led Zeppelin themselves, the ambitiousness of this a...""Not often can an artist make an album so wonderfully masterful of the rock genre. But this is obviously the case with what is quite possibly the greatest rock album ever made. Despite it doing it doing things that have been done before, many by Led Zeppelin themselves, the ambitiousness of this album transforms it into something bigger, into a truly timeless piece of art. As for the actual tracks, not one is out of place, and all are wonderful to listen to and are among the best ever written. The music is so wonderful it gives me chills every time, although mostly at specific moments (every second of Starirway To Heaven, When The Levee Breaks, Going To California). Also, despite the fact that these guys were all pretty much the best of the best at what they did, the one just about everyone can easily agree on altogether is the late John Bonham being the greatest drummer to have ever lived, and I simply can't disagree. And the icing on the cake for this album is the fact that it's basically like a tribute to the beloved drummer without anyone realizing it until Bonham's unfortunate death at age 32, making this not only cementing Led Zeppelin's legacy, but his as well. I think I love this album."  [+]  Reply

- BreadSandvich | 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:

1971

Appears in:

3,179 charts

Rank Score:

36,949

Rank in 1971:

1

Rank in 1970s:

4

Overall Rank:

11

Average Rating:

 90 (4,031 votes)

Comments:

307

2.

Who's Next 

 The Who

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"From start to finish, this album is perfect. The Who is one of the greatest rock bands of all time, and they proved that with this album. I may consider Won't Get Fooled Again to be my favorite song ever."  Reply

- MetaKoopa99 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +5 votes (7 helpful | 2 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:

1971

Appears in:

2,215 charts

Rank Score:

20,532

Rank in 1971:

2

Rank in 1970s:

10

Overall Rank:

40

Average Rating:

 86 (2,600 votes)

Comments:

203

3.

Hunky Dory 

 David Bowie

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"Hunky Dory is an astonishing, career defining piece from Bowie. Its semi-autobiographical lyrics, varied and developed use of both acoustic and electric guitars, its near perfect structure and its countless allusions to Bowie's past, his inspirations and even the future. I've often come to think ...""Hunky Dory is an astonishing, career defining piece from Bowie. Its semi-autobiographical lyrics, varied and developed use of both acoustic and electric guitars, its near perfect structure and its countless allusions to Bowie's past, his inspirations and even the future. I've often come to think of it as a self-assessment; at the time (1971), the world was still leaving the 60s behind, Bowie was becoming famous and he was still experimenting with styles. This, however, is the definitive point where it all came together. Bowie - the musician, the artist, the writer - had been founded. He seemingly found himself by looking to his past, looking to where he had come from and almost addressing this all as though they were individual issues that he'd been hiding away. His skill as a music writer was no longer being honed; it was being flaunted. This is a shining example of Bowie at his most pure, before he began to be defined by his many wondrous personas, taking inspirations both from his hard rock explorations in TMWSOTW but also folk and soft rock too. It's insightful, enigmatic, debatable and more than anything else, utterly compelling to listen to. Hunky Dory stands out as one of the greatest albums of all time, because its one of the greatest artists ever at his simplest, most basic level."  [+]  Reply

- DeusExMackia | 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:

1971

Appears in:

1,879 charts

Rank Score:

18,562

Rank in 1971:

3

Rank in 1970s:

14

Overall Rank:

48

Average Rating:

 87 (2,466 votes)

Comments:

159

4.

What's Going On 

 Marvin Gaye

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"“In the morning, I’ll be alright my friend, but soon the night will bring the pain. Flying high in the friendly sky” What do you get when you combine the smoothest voice in the history of music with the greatest bass lines in the history of music, and hotbox a Motown studio full of marijuana? An ...""“In the morning, I’ll be alright my friend, but soon the night will bring the pain. Flying high in the friendly sky” What do you get when you combine the smoothest voice in the history of music with the greatest bass lines in the history of music, and hotbox a Motown studio full of marijuana? An album that is better than anything in its genre and in its decade - which is saying a lot when you consider all that happened in the 1970’s. If heroin could sing, it still wouldn’t sound as good as Marvin Gaye. I stand very firmly behind my opinion that Marvin Gaye possessed the greatest voice of all time. There are countless things to love about this album musically, the tight bass lines, the smooth aesthetic, the jazz feel, liberal use of assorted wind and stringed instruments, and the variety of percussion the crystal clear production that sounds as incredible in 2015 as it did in 1971. However, it’s Marvin’s show, and it’s his voice that carries the listener through the album. The man clearly had enormous talent, and it is displayed in its entirety on “What’s Going On”. Listening to Marvin Gaye perform live was akin to watching Michael Jordan make the final shot of the 1998 NBA finals, except better by several orders of magnitude because music is clearly a domain of excellence far superior to sports. One of his studio assistants was questioned at one point what the most difficult thing was when working with Marvin Gaye. The response was that it was so difficult to select which takes of his voice to keep and which to discard, because they were all so beautiful that it felt wrong to delete anything that he recorded. “What’s Going On” is about discontent - with culture, with politics, with discrimination, with the imperfect self. It came at a time when the Barry Gordy’s Motown record label was interested only in pumping out radio hits for profit and wasn’t interested in any of this introspective, challenging music. Gaye demanded it be released as he envisioned it and was nearly close to breaking ties with the record label. Marvin Gaye had a wild and remarkable career, plagued by the internal conflict which is was clear from his art, as well as his ongoing struggle with depression and multiple suicide attempts and drug addiction. It’s this struggle that fuels the beauty that is his music. His angelic voice carries just enough of a painful undertone to send shivers down the listener’s spine. That’s “What’s Going On”"  [+]  Reply

- corenfro | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +10 votes (10 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:

1971

Appears in:

1,669 charts

Rank Score:

18,503

Rank in 1971:

4

Rank in 1970s:

15

Overall Rank:

49

Average Rating:

 85 (1,976 votes)

Comments:

146

5.

Sticky Fingers 

 The Rolling Stones

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"An excellent record, easily up there with the Stones’ best work. Brown Sugar was the big hit, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is very highly rated, Wild Horses is just sublime, and I’m really loving Sway at the moment too. The last 3 tracks are also quite fascinating - Sister Morphine is wonderfully d...""An excellent record, easily up there with the Stones’ best work. Brown Sugar was the big hit, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is very highly rated, Wild Horses is just sublime, and I’m really loving Sway at the moment too. The last 3 tracks are also quite fascinating - Sister Morphine is wonderfully dark, Dead Flowers is a great country pastiche, and Moonlight Mile has to be the most underrated Stones’ track ever."  [+]  Reply

- TheSmiths82-87 | 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:

1971

Appears in:

1,653 charts

Rank Score:

16,280

Rank in 1971:

5

Rank in 1970s:

18

Overall Rank:

63

Average Rating:

 86 (1,940 votes)

Comments:

139

6.

Blue 

 Joni Mitchell

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"There are a few words used to describe music that typically indicate I won't like it. Sparse, intimate, and voice-driven are some of them. And all three of them describe this album perfectly - as others have said, it is the sound of an artist laying their life bare with songs reflecting over thei...""There are a few words used to describe music that typically indicate I won't like it. Sparse, intimate, and voice-driven are some of them. And all three of them describe this album perfectly - as others have said, it is the sound of an artist laying their life bare with songs reflecting over their experiences. But somehow, in this case, it all comes together and creates what I believe to be the most perfect album ever crafted. It's one thing to have a great voice, and it's quite another to be able to use that voice and make it sound honest. If there's one word that describes (nearly) all of the music I enjoy it's honest. And if someone is clearing trying to hit high notes and sing in key that honesty is lost; that's why I often prefer bad singers to good ones. But Joni makes hitting the high notes sound incredibly effortless, and she integrates them perfectly into the rest of the song so that they don't stand out as if she's trying to impress with her voice. It's an album that is so well crafted that the voice is irrelevant, but she still manages to sing perfectly. And the song-writing - the stream-of-consciousness style she writes in is just tremendous. Picture Kurt Cobain if the thoughts in his head actually made sense. There is no pretense, there is no thought. These are the things she is thinking, and she's not manipulating them to sound like poetry. There are moments on this record that are incredibly general and could apply to anyone, and there are moments where the specificity is brilliant ("Richard got married to a figure skater, and he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator"). The songs reflect the era she lived in (Little Green / Blue) and her dreams for the future (River). Even when the lyrics blend into a more manufactured poetry they sound so heartbreakingly beautiful you can't fault it (Case of You). And of course there's a central theme that ties things together nicely - it wouldn't be a true album if the songs didn't feel like they belonged together. Not only is there the general sentiment of heartbreak that is described by colors (Blue and Green, obviously), but each song seems to dwell on a different aspect of the feeling (or the moments leading up to it). The songs also progress nicely, starting off hopeful and glad and then straying into sadness, depression, and what I wouldn't hesitate to call despair. It starts with hopes and dreams (the dream theme culminates in Carey and California) but by the end the illusion is shattered and the truths about love and life come out. My love for this album goes even beyond words, but somehow it's the one I find the most to say about and the most to discover more in. The number of times I've broken down sobbing to this album is not a single digit number."  [+]  Reply

- babyBlueSedan | 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:

1971

Appears in:

1,390 charts

Rank Score:

15,606

Rank in 1971:

6

Rank in 1970s:

21

Overall Rank:

69

Average Rating:

 84 (1,527 votes)

Comments:

114

7.

Tago Mago 

 Can

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"My favorite rock album ever, currently. Amazing and engaging throughout without any significant drops, which says something for a record of this length. So so so good."  Reply

- ColumnatedRuins | 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:

1971

Appears in:

951 charts

Rank Score:

8,947

Rank in 1971:

7

Rank in 1970s:

39

Overall Rank:

153

Average Rating:

 83 (1,056 votes)

Comments:

78

8.

Meddle 

 Pink Floyd

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"I find it impossible to say that this one or that one is the best Pink Floyd album. I own 14 or 15 and love everyone of them just like children. They are all different and have personalities. Meddle is great and I could listen to Echoes on an endless loop. The one Pink Floyd album that can't seem...""I find it impossible to say that this one or that one is the best Pink Floyd album. I own 14 or 15 and love everyone of them just like children. They are all different and have personalities. Meddle is great and I could listen to Echoes on an endless loop. The one Pink Floyd album that can't seem to find any love from anyone but me is Ummagumma. it is definitely a headphones album! Maybe I just like it so much because when I first heard it 40 years ago I was tripping?"  [+]  Reply

- Freddie55 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +13 votes (13 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:

1971

Appears in:

1,127 charts

Rank Score:

8,442

Rank in 1971:

8

Rank in 1970s:

42

Overall Rank:

173

Average Rating:

 84 (2,010 votes)

Comments:

103

9.

L.A. Woman 

 The Doors

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"That's the kind of blues that I really like. Steady and soul inspired blues mood, deep and impressive voice.. Album that I'll never get tired of listening to.."  Reply

- pa | 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:

1971

Appears in:

1,046 charts

Rank Score:

7,743

Rank in 1971:

9

Rank in 1970s:

45

Overall Rank:

193

Average Rating:

 83 (1,436 votes)

Comments:

76

10.

Tapestry 

 Carole King

Buy album

• EBAY
• APPLE MUSIC
• SPOTIFY
• AMAZON (US)
• #Sponsored

"Wow, where did this come from? Before listening to it, I was somehow pretty sure I wouldn't be able to connect with this. Totally unexpected, it blew me away. This is what pop heaven sounds like, so many catchy tunes. This kind of albums are usually based on two or three hits and the rest is the ...""Wow, where did this come from? Before listening to it, I was somehow pretty sure I wouldn't be able to connect with this. Totally unexpected, it blew me away. This is what pop heaven sounds like, so many catchy tunes. This kind of albums are usually based on two or three hits and the rest is the so called "filler". Here every song is a hit."  [+]  Reply

- kokkinos | 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:

1971

Appears in:

857 charts

Rank Score:

6,586

Rank in 1971:

10

Rank in 1970s:

57

Overall Rank:

241

Average Rating:

 82 (962 votes)

Comments:

52

• « prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• ...
• 99
• 100
• next »
• Goto Page: 

Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100

Best Albums of 1971 composition

Top 1,000 Top 500 Top 250 Top 100

Artist	Albums	%
Various Artists	11	1%
The Rolling Stones	4	0%
Elvis Presley	4	0%
Grant Green	3	0%
Fela Kuti	3	0%
Jimi Hendrix	3	0%
Elton John	3	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	390	39%
	244	24%
	52	5%
	43	4%
	29	3%
	25	3%
	21	2%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	956	96%
Yes	44	4%

Live?	Albums	%
No	958	96%
Yes	42	4%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	984	98%
Yes	16	2%