Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Droophus

One of the core missions of this site is to use tons of subjective lists, created by users, reviewers, and music publications to create the most objective list of the best ever albums. When I created my list I accepted that it’s based entirely on my musical upbringing and tastes, but I sought to add the air of objectivity by imposing a methodology to the ranking.

First off I want to describe my personal values and tastes when it comes to music in order to shed some light on where the initial list of 100 best albums comes from. The two key elements for me boil down to fun and power. Those are vague terms for sure, so let me try and explain them. Fun encompasses things like catchiness, how toe tappin it is, does the artist seem to have a good sense of humor and a joie de vivre. The original spirit of early rock n’ roll was uptempo good time rebel music for the youth. That’s my favorite flavor of music and the more an artist embodies that ethos the more likely they are to wind up on this chart. That’s why you see on this chart Beatles over Stones or Ramones over Floyd.

Power can be split into two categories sonically forceful adrenaline pumping and emotional resonance. Good heavy metal isn’t always fun to listen to but if they are doing it right it’ll make you want to rip off your shirt and go screaming into battle. Emotional resonance is the most subjective, the most personal, it’s simply what moves you. A really long, slow song may not be very much fun but if it moves your soul or heart it doesn’t necessarily need to move your feet. John Prines’s Aimless Love album might be the best example on this list of not being very fun, or having any adrenaline pumping tunes, but it hits like a freight train to the heart.

To start this list I just rated every album I owned that I felt like I was familiar enough with to accurately rate. From there I filled the chart with my highest rated albums and roughly sorted them with gut feeling and long held beliefs. This first draft chart troubled me though. I couldn’t rationalize why I put Help! ahead of Sgt. Peppers. I wanted a way to sort based on more concrete factors, so I set about to rating every song on my top 100 chart. Then I could take each album and give it a base score which is the average rating of all the songs on the album. This just gave me a more refined data point, but still very subjective. So I created a methodology that would add at least the air of objectivity.

Average the song scores
Bonus points for perfect songs, plus one for every one, first is 101, second 102 etc.
Loss of bonus points for songs rated 70 or lower, first is 69, second 68 etc.

Times 1.1 if deemed really unique.
Times 1.1 if considered really bold or unusual for the artist.
Times 1.15 if considered revolutionary.
Times 1.1 if top 5 of the genre.
Times 1.1 if considered culturally indispensable.
Times 1.1 if it’s got a Je ne sais quoi deep in the soul feeling.
Times .9 if not a true studio album.
Times .9 if under 10 songs.

Still fairly subjective and unscientific, but it helped give me some rational way to sort albums better.

• Chart updated: 03/28/2020 20:15
• (Created: 12/16/2019 01:46).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There is 1 comment for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 89 out of 100 (from 3 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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1. (=)

Blood On The Tracks 

 Bob Dylan

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[First added to this chart: 12/15/2019]

Year of Release:

1975

Appears in:

1,814 charts

Rank Score:

23,485

Rank in 1975:

2

Rank in 1970s:

11

Overall Rank:

41

Average Rating:

 87 (2,134 votes)

Comments:

165

2. (=)

Blonde On Blonde 

 Bob Dylan

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[First added to this chart: 12/15/2019]

Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

1,971 charts

Rank Score:

27,658

Rank in 1966:

3

Rank in 1960s:

11

Overall Rank:

32

Average Rating:

 88 (2,332 votes)

Comments:

173

3. (=)

Walk Among Us 

 Misfits

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[First added to this chart: 12/15/2019]

Year of Release:

1982

Appears in:

174 charts

Rank Score:

1,048

Rank in 1982:

26

Rank in 1980s:

255

Overall Rank:

1,636

Average Rating:

 77 (191 votes)

Comments:

16

4. (=)

Nevermind 

 Nirvana

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[First added to this chart: 12/16/2019]

Year of Release:

1991

Appears in:

3,115 charts

Rank Score:

42,231

Rank in 1991:

1

Rank in 1990s:

2

Overall Rank:

14

Average Rating:

 87 (4,240 votes)

Comments:

407

5. (=)

Sweet Revenge 

 John Prine

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[First added to this chart: 01/11/2020]

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

25 charts

Rank Score:

132

Rank in 1973:

164

Rank in 1970s:

1,376

Overall Rank:

9,137

Average Rating:

 78 (52 votes)

Comments:

3

6. (=)

Rust In Peace 

 Megadeth

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[First added to this chart: 12/15/2019]

Year of Release:

1990

Appears in:

473 charts

Rank Score:

4,592

Rank in 1990:

4

Rank in 1990s:

70

Overall Rank:

386

Average Rating:

 81 (737 votes)

Comments:

55

7. (=)

Bruised Orange 

 John Prine

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[First added to this chart: 12/15/2019]

Year of Release:

1978

Appears in:

25 charts

Rank Score:

128

Rank in 1978:

147

Rank in 1970s:

1,401

Overall Rank:

9,339

Average Rating:

 73 (44 votes)

Comments:

4

8. (=)

Catch A Fire 

 The Wailers

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[First added to this chart: 12/15/2019]

Year of Release:

1973

Appears in:

365 charts

Rank Score:

2,562

Rank in 1973:

20

Rank in 1970s:

162

Overall Rank:

707

Average Rating:

 81 (439 votes)

Comments:

18

9. (=)

Tim 

 The Replacements

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[First added to this chart: 01/12/2020]

Year of Release:

1985

Appears in:

478 charts

Rank Score:

4,030

Rank in 1985:

8

Rank in 1980s:

62

Overall Rank:

448

Average Rating:

 81 (547 votes)

Comments:

38

10. (=)

Graceland 

 Paul Simon

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[First added to this chart: 12/16/2019]

Year of Release:

1986

Appears in:

1,100 charts

Rank Score:

11,740

Rank in 1986:

3

Rank in 1980s:

16

Overall Rank:

126

Average Rating:

 81 (1,316 votes)

Comments:

79

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Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade	Albums	%
1930s	0	0%
1940s	0	0%
1950s	5	5%
1960s	15	15%
1970s	42	42%
1980s	23	23%
1990s	15	15%
2000s	0	0%
2010s	0	0%
2020s	0	0%

Artist	Albums	%
Bob Dylan	6	6%
John Prine	5	5%
The Beatles	5	5%
The Who	4	4%
Ramones	3	3%
Sepultura	2	2%
Screeching Weasel	2	2%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	63	63%
	26	26%
	4	4%
	4	4%
	2	2%
	1	1%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest climbers
Up 22 from 96th to 74th Revolver by The Beatles
Up 22 from 94th to 72nd New York Dolls by New York Dolls
Up 21 from 99th to 78th Strictly Business by EPMD

Biggest fallers
Down 22 from 75th to 97th Wiggle by Screeching Weasel
Down 21 from 78th to 99th Berry Is On Top by Chuck Berry
Down 19 from 79th to 98th The "Chirping" Crickets by The Crickets

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Showing all 3 ratings for this chart.

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	07/09/2020 20:34	jnfbn	314	96/100
100/100	03/28/2020 22:35	DJENNY	4,408	100/100
100/100	03/28/2020 20:20	buzzdainer	671	90/100

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

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Rating:  

100/100

From buzzdainer 03/28/2020 20:24

This is a really fun chart to sift through! I really appreciate the thoroughness with which you've approached the task of identifying your 100 top albums, and while we wound up with rather different charts, it's interesting to see the places where we agree. Purple Rain is one that we both love, and I think it's very cool that people with very different musical tastes can agree is an uncontroversial classic. "When Doves Cry" had to be one of the most singularly beautiful and creative things ever recorded.

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