Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by KineticEchoes02 
So, creating a Greatest 100 Albums chart is never an easy task. It is so hard to choose just 100. I honestly want to do 500. For this chart, the difficulty I had was differentiating between albums that personally clicked for whatever reason, and those which I was plain gobsmacked with or just deserve undivided respect and attention. I am a guitarist and bassist and have played in a few bands over the years. I learned piano as a kid. For me these albums were hugely influential in relation to my music instrument learning progression, stood out in landmark moments of my life, were the perfect escape and launched me on indescribable journeys, gave me energy, or have been purely inspiring and emotionally uplifting (or the opposite, but perfect in darker times).
You may notice I have a bias towards rock. I also especially love blues, folk, jazz, funk, metal, soul, world music and electronica. However, it would be extremely boring without cross-over into other genres. So, we have for instance blues rock, country rock, folk rock, art rock, experimental rock, progressive rock, funk rock, progressive metal, funk metal, jazz fusion, psychedelic rock/jazz/soul/funk, and so on. Even talking about genres isn’t necessary in music, but for me, the best artists are those that are genre defining/pioneering, genre bending or groundbreaking. In order to pull this off these artists need to be extremely creative, not just virtuosos with their instruments. And for the most part that is consistent for all the artists or albums in this chart. That’s what impresses me, but sometimes you can’t describe why you love an artist or an album so much – it just fits with you for whatever reason, and that is the beauty and mystery of music.
I must say, the great thing about members creating charts on this site is that we get to appreciate everyone’s tastes in music – it is awesome when discovering someone with very similar tastes, but even when they are polar opposites, man it is amazing how diverse and unique people can be, and insights are passed on for new music to be heard. That’s why I love this site.
Apologies if I have chosen too many albums per artist – but if I want to be honest, these artists have created nothing but bangers and deserve this recognition, and it is very difficult to choose which is their best. Having said that, this chart is absolutely a work in progress…
- Chart updated: 01/08/2024 08:45
- (Created: 01/17/2022 07:23).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
There are 13 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 91 out of 100 (from 26 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.
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When I first heard “Wish You Were Here” it stopped me in my tracks. I didn't hear it until nearly two decades after its release. It was an album that set my perspective of music on a different path for all the right reasons. To their credit - the Floyd settled on a more introspective journey for this album, ignoring the lure of commercial success (not easy given the success of Dark Side) and avoided selling their souls to the music industry. Yet 20 million copies of this album have been sold worldwide! Thematically, it is a tribute to the late Syd Barrett and in the broader sense staying true to yourself, in a world of greed, excess and alienation. Aside from that this to me is music perfection, and similar to Dark Side has moments of amazing innovation, emphasising the all encompassing beauty in its sound (for example the use of wine glasses filled to different levels and multi-tracked to chords in the introduction of Shine On You Crazy Diamond). In my view there is no other album that flows better than this - yes, prog rock is supposed to be like this, yet despite fitting perfectly with this genre it basically transcends it. An amazing experience from start to finish.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1975
Appears in:
Rank Score:
50,927
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308
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A simply phenomenal album by this very unique and extremely gifted band. It only took me a handful of listens of this to realise its sheer brilliance. The chaotic start is absolutely justified and still makes perfect sense in the big picture of what this album is conveying. The instrumentation is otherworldy and while the lyrics are highly metaphorical the key theme I interpreted is the ever present interconnectness or 'oneness' between our species, our planet and ultimately the universe. So to genuinely convey a theme as strong as that, the songwriting and accompanying musicianship needs to be on a very high level, and it absolutely is. Takes you on an incredible journey if you're willing to let it guide you. Yes were at their peak here but sadly Bill Bruford moved on following its release.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1972
Appears in:
Rank Score:
14,541
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Sometimes interchangeable with Wish You Were Here as my favourite Floyd album. I think conceptually it might hit home just as hard. I can very well recall the first time I heard this album at the age of 18 sitting down with a mate in his lounge room and sharing a couple of bottles of red wine, cranking this on his stereo with the lights turned off. It blew my mind - there was no turning back. Taken individually all the songs are beyond brilliant, but the sum is greater than the parts. There is even pioneering of electronica (e.g. "On the Run") or synth-driven psychedelic funky space rock (eg. "Any Colour You Like") - well ahead of its time. Features an amazing vocal cameo from Clare Torry on "Great Gig in the Sky". The guitar solo on "Time" is one of the best I've ever heard, not for its pace but every note of it has incredible purity and meaning (and if you focus hard enough on it time appears to slow down) - similar to the immensity of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Gilmour at his best. Powerful songwriting by Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason throughout on this album. A work of genius that remains completely relevant to this day.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1973
Appears in:
Rank Score:
70,915
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Where to start with this great album? Let’s put the potential “borrowing” of Page’s introductory guitar intro in Stairway to Heaven behind us – it can never be absolutely proven it was taken from Spirit’s Taurus. Descending/ascending triad sequences of a similar nature have been used way back in time. Maybe I am a little biased towards my favourite band? Anyhow, I’ve tried my hardest not to let the faint possibility of that get me down, as I have loved that song from when I first heard it as a kid, and what a magic song it is regardless. This album is full of extraordinary songs, with no obvious weak link, the music is highly diverse, and the running order is perfect. Partly the massive impact of the sound created here could be put down to the location it was recorded (Headley Grange, also used by Zep in part for other albums), which not only had great acoustics, it was haunted according to Page. He believes that the music they compiled on this album helped brighten up the dark energy created from a tumultuous history as a workhouse for the poor and the insane. Jimmy was never spooked out by it, but the other band members apparently were. "When the Levee Breaks" (in which Bonham’s drumming borne on an incredible infinite echo was recorded in the stairwell) and "The Battle of Evermore" especially seem to have captured a greater presence in them, but all tracks have a similar ethereal vibe going on, possessing intertwining elements of otherworldly dark and light energy. Going to California is one of the very beautiful acoustic ballads that spurred my interest in guitar (and alternate/open tunings) from early on. Whilst the band managed to conjure a perfect blend of hard rock, blues and folk here, this was where heavy metal had its proper birth. But above all, this album is enshrined in pure unrivalled rock'n'roll immortality and its spirit will live on.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
44,252
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“Electric Ladyland” is my favourite of the Jimi Hendrix Experience - one of those albums in which, once you have a proper listen, you realise there are no boundaries in rock music. I just love how the tracks run together and the daring, adventurous nature of it. Jimi veers off into funk and progressive soul to go with his usual hard rock and blues, crossing over into jazz, and of course including a solid injection of psychedelia. It is unique to the other albums, a double LP and being the last from the Experience. It is widely viewed as having some of Jimi’s best, most innovative works, where he reached some of those dizzying heights he had been seeking from the outset. It has a couple of epic, unusually long tracks by Jimi’s standards, eg. “Voodoo Chile” where he takes the blues to a new level and “1983…” an amazing underwater psychedelic odyssey. One of the very first artists to utilise the 16-track recording desk, this was new territory. It has some of his biggest hits, eg. the legendary cover of Dylan's “All Along the Watchtower” and “Voodoo Chile (slight return)” where his guitar wizardry is in full swing. There are some great guest musician appearances as well on this album, including Steve Winwood on the organ in Voodoo Chile.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1968
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Rank Score:
18,872
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If you are looking for a penultimate album that perfectly fuses rock, blues and funk mixed in with some folk that is perfectly cohesive from start to finish then look no further. The opening track Whole Lotta Love is like an awakening of rock gods. Led Zep's debut is an amazing album, but to be fair more than half that album might as well be rehashed blues standards (done extremely well). Led Zeppelin II takes the band's roots to a new level. Not a single weakness here - all songs are brilliant and link together as a whole exceptionally well. There's even a taste of fantasy with Tolkienisms in Ramble On (an introduction to the otherworldly material that the band brought properly into fruition on III and IV). And if you are looking for some top shelf bass playing, check out JPJ's work on The Lemon Song - in fact the whole album. Jimmy's guitar (both electric and acoustic) is simply amazing throughout the album, but one of the absolute highlights is his shredding solo on Heartbreaker at about the halfway mark - simply phenomenal. Bonzo is an immovable force - just dynamite and shows off his wares in Moby Dick, which he would take to a new level in live shows. Plant is a sonic prodigy, a master of phrasing and leaving nothing in the tank - he is absolutely extraordinary on vocals here.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
22,909
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[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
65,397
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[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1977
Appears in:
Rank Score:
25,587
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Superunknown, released in 1994 is the follow up album to “Badmotorfinger”. I had just finished school and recall Superunknown being the perfect diversion for my state of mind at the time. The follow up album “Down on the Upside” was also one of my favourites, but for me overall this probably had their best work. Whereas Badmotorfinger had more of a metal edge to it, Superunknown definitely delved into metal whilst encapsulating all the essential elements of grunge, and taking it to other realms. That said, the material on this album had quite a unique, refreshing feel that was hard to place into a genre. There were some subtle differences in approach, still heavy at times but being sonically more diverse than its predecessor with a bit more experimentation which worked very well. There was a darker edge to it with very sombre themes, perhaps well balanced out by some dark humour and random moments in the music. Chris Cornell took it to another level – both in his singing and song writing.
The album features 15 tracks, some brilliant, the rest very good. I could be here a fair while describing all 15 of them, so I’ll try and condense it. It had five commercially successful hit songs. The opening song “Let Me Drown” sets the scene nicely, but the following two songs “My Wave” and “Fell on Black Days” are absolute belters. It goes up another level with “Black Hole Sun”. This song is my favourite off the album, and it was the biggest hit. For starters, when breaking down the guitar chord progression (done in drop D tuning) it had something unconventional and unique about it. Brooding and dark, there is a strong sense of Armageddon about this song but surrounding it awaits a strange melancholic beauty. Lyrically, Cornell might have been speaking of flushing the world of all the sick, corrupt and fake aspects of society. It appeared he wouldn’t properly open up about it when he was questioned about it by various media, and you wouldn’t blame him. It remains open for interpretation and a bit of a mystery, but sometimes it is best that way. “Spoonman” is another cracker, a rhythmically very tight piece that’s mainly played in the unusual 7/4 time signature (similar to Pink Floyd’s “Money” and Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”). I can remember being blown away by how awesome the spoons sounded in the middle part of the song when I first heard it - one of the great moments. There are plenty more highlights – songs that spring to mind are “Limo Wreck”, “Head Down”, “The Day I Tried to Live”, and “4th of July”. There is much more to be said about this great album so I probably haven’t done it justice.
RIP Chris [First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
The album features 15 tracks, some brilliant, the rest very good. I could be here a fair while describing all 15 of them, so I’ll try and condense it. It had five commercially successful hit songs. The opening song “Let Me Drown” sets the scene nicely, but the following two songs “My Wave” and “Fell on Black Days” are absolute belters. It goes up another level with “Black Hole Sun”. This song is my favourite off the album, and it was the biggest hit. For starters, when breaking down the guitar chord progression (done in drop D tuning) it had something unconventional and unique about it. Brooding and dark, there is a strong sense of Armageddon about this song but surrounding it awaits a strange melancholic beauty. Lyrically, Cornell might have been speaking of flushing the world of all the sick, corrupt and fake aspects of society. It appeared he wouldn’t properly open up about it when he was questioned about it by various media, and you wouldn’t blame him. It remains open for interpretation and a bit of a mystery, but sometimes it is best that way. “Spoonman” is another cracker, a rhythmically very tight piece that’s mainly played in the unusual 7/4 time signature (similar to Pink Floyd’s “Money” and Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”). I can remember being blown away by how awesome the spoons sounded in the middle part of the song when I first heard it - one of the great moments. There are plenty more highlights – songs that spring to mind are “Limo Wreck”, “Head Down”, “The Day I Tried to Live”, and “4th of July”. There is much more to be said about this great album so I probably haven’t done it justice.
RIP Chris [First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,908
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I find it agonisingly difficult to choose between this album and Edges of Twilight as the best Tea Party album, however I've leant towards this one given it was the first one I heard from them. Splendor Solis is raw, organic and very spiritual and to me it still packs a serious punch to this very day. It shows the beginnings of their experimentalism with the Indian and Eastern sounds, less exotic than its successor but for me it is so beautifully crafted, with stunning six and twelve string guitars, sublime bass playing, rock solid drumming/percussion and a very strong and cohesive mystical theme that binds it all together. The light and shade is very well balanced on this album with great songwriting structure constructed with awesome rock riffs to go with folkier elements, blending Celtic, Eastern and Indian flavours sometimes all within the one song. One is very easily reminded of Led Zep in some of these songs (and some might say The Doors), but again, it doesn't at all sound like an impersonation (unlike some bands that are quite obviously guilty of this) - it just draws from that realm and takes it to new places.
[First added to this chart: 01/17/2022]
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 1 | 1% | |
| 1960s | 18 | 18% | |
| 1970s | 33 | 33% | |
| 1980s | 14 | 14% | |
| 1990s | 23 | 23% | |
| 2000s | 5 | 5% | |
| 2010s | 6 | 6% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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| Pink Floyd | 7 | 7% | |
| The Beatles | 7 | 7% | |
| Led Zeppelin | 6 | 6% | |
| The Doors | 4 | 4% | |
| Metallica | 3 | 3% | |
| Deep Purple | 3 | 3% | |
| Tool | 3 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
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48 | 48% | |
| |
34 | 34% | |
| |
9 | 9% | |
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2 | 2% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
2 | 2% | |
 |
1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings
91/100 (from 26 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 26 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
100/100  | 05/04/2024 21:11 | StreakyNuno | | 85/100 |
 85/100 | 01/01/2024 14:59 | ThuramThugood | | 87/100 |
| 90/100 | 10/27/2023 08:24 |  Tamthebam | | 85/100 |
| 85/100 | 10/27/2023 08:23 | Moondance | | 85/100 |
| 90/100 | 04/26/2023 19:04 | Johnnyo | | 80/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some charts can have several thousand ratings)
This chart is rated in the top 2% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 90.7/100, a mean average of 92.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 92.5/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 5.9.
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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments
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100/100
From StreakyNuno 05/04/2024 21:12
Congratulations.
we have so many albums in common.
Fantastic chart
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From craab 04/26/2023 14:01
The chart chooses depth over breadth without being indifferent to breadth. I appreciate the love and loyalty you show to your favorites. Nice to see someone who loves both Metallica and the Beatles. I will have to check out Tea Party.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From BraddlesHendo 02/25/2023 02:32
Great seeing Midnight Oil getting great recognition.Love your list mate
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From 
ExTeaSea 01/28/2023 20:42
ExTeaSea 01/28/2023 20:42
Dig this chart. Would love to see more artists represented but you like what you like. Love that you have Midnight Oil! So underrated. I'll have to check out Tea Party, I've heard pretty much everything else besides them.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From Nkelleyslc 10/23/2022 17:42
Hey man, I'm learning a lot from this chart; thanks so much!
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From KineticEchoes02 10/09/2022 00:00
Appreciate the feedback Moondance, cheers. Though I still think there's plenty of breadth here, not just "classics". Hard to beat the classics having said that, hence why they're in my greatest 100. There are plenty of good Aussie artists/albums I've listened to over the years - quite a few more are probably just missing my 100, but now you've thrown the gauntlet out there I'll try to dive a little deeper :)
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
85/100
From Moondance 10/01/2022 21:43
A nice enough chart with lots of classic artists/albums. For me, what it lacks it breadth ~ to go beyond the classics; to discover exceptional albums that require some scratching below the surface. There are plenty more in the Australian arena if you are willing to dive a little deeper.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
90/100
From Johnnyo 10/01/2022 18:13
Nice chart.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
80/100
From 
sssvnnn 10/01/2022 15:45
sssvnnn 10/01/2022 15:45
very classical chart - fine
a bit too redundant.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
100/100
From mrmcrook 02/09/2022 22:47
Love your list. Very similar tastes. Great to see some Tea Party rated highly up there.
Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
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