Best Albums of 1978
Explore the best albums of 1978, 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
"After finally making it big with Born to Run, the Boss was hit with legal troubles that kept him from releasing another album for 3 years. That sounds like nothing now but in the 70s that was in eternity. He holed up with the band on a farm and they just kept writing and recording. Some of the an..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,075
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"It has some catchy songs on there, like One Way or Another, or Heart of Glass, but overall there's a lot of filler. Not bad, though." Reply
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Space-Dementia | 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:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,221
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"As many people have said before, this is essentially The Cars' greatest hits album. Much like Boston's debut, there were other great songs by this band, but no subsequent album could match what they did right out of the gate. Every single song is worth listening to, from the classic roar of the o..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,536
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Comments:
"This one was where I knew I'd found something special. The magic of Costello's new band the Attractions was immediately obvious in the furious, white-hot energy that permeated opener No Action. The group just seemed to gel, even as the new band was rushed into recording songs that they barely kne..." [+] Reply
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indieshins | 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:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,061
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"It's Trans-Europe-Express, but with a poppier vibe and more dance beats. How can you argue with that?" Reply
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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:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,351
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"What's most amazing about this album is how it sounds absolutely nothing like anything that came before it. Simply: the most original debut album by a major artist ever released. Although generations of bands tried to copy this sound, doing VH a great disservice in the process, blaming Van Halen ..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,336
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Comments:
""Minimalism" seems to be an unfortunate term to describe a piece of music, where so much is going on. The only gripe I have with this is that it could be easily cut by about 5-10 mins. Not that it isn't great throughout, but the ideas are the same, so I think the perfect length for this would be ..." [+] Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,203
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"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:
"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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Comments:
"85/100 Better overall album than 77, almost all gongs are good, no much highlights but solid album" Reply
Year of Release:
1978
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,738
Rank in 1978:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100
Best Albums of 1978 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Various Artists | 14 | 1% | |
| Sun Ra | 4 | 0% | |
| Vangelis | 4 | 0% | |
| Elvis Presley | 3 | 0% | |
| Bob Dylan | 3 | 0% | |
| Culture | 3 | 0% | |
| Woody Shaw | 3 | 0% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
379 | 38% | |
 |
201 | 20% | |
 |
43 | 4% | |
 |
43 | 4% | |
 |
40 | 4% | |
 |
30 | 3% | |
 |
29 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Best Albums of 1978 chart changes
| Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Up 20 from 95th to 75th |
Up 7 from 50th to 43rd |
Up 3 from 41st to 38th |
| Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Down 7 from 72nd to 79th |
Down 3 from 38th to 41st |
Down 2 from 45th to 47th |
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
