Top 64 Greatest Music Albums by ForegroundNoise

My old tutor sits opposite me, the wrinkled contours of his face and erratic white wisps of hair blurring the boundaries between him and the old mahogany office surrounding us. Before he speaks, he seems for a moment to be no less a part of the furniture than the armchair he sits in. He starts suddenly, a thought occurring to him.

“Do you remember that first classics society meeting, right when you first got here? Where you had to bring a poem or painting or something and talk to us all about it?” The words break the silence in a flurry, as if he’s afraid someone is about to catch him in the act.

“Yes.” My tone betrays my anticipation.

“Well, I bet no-one ever told you what that whole thing was really all about did they?” He is leaning in now, the smile plastered across his face so infectious it starts to illuminate the dark room.

“You see the problem is, is that everyone is looking the art. There, ha!” he nods to himself; a finger points upwards. “That’s your first mistake.” I raise an eyebrow in response, but he is submerged in thought, eyes cast down to the carpet.

“Some people are worried about the art. They want the right bit of art not the wrong bit; they want to show off how clever they are that they know this bit of art and you don’t. Some aren’t so fussed about it; they just pick whatever they like. Some even take a look at it all and think ‘No not for me, I don’t think so’, and try and take the whole thing apart. Show us a scrap of paper with a scribble on it. ‘I’m not playing your game’ - oh yes you are! See what they don’t know, is that as soon as they were invited to play they were playing it. All of us were. The art was never the important bit, I was never looking at the art, I was looking at YOU.”

With the final word his eyes move back to me. The finger points forward.

“Yes, you, there! Whatever you picked, whatever you did, you can't help but give us a reflection of yourself. That's what I was looking for. Not the art. I wasn’t looking at what you were saying about it. I was looking at what it was saying about you.”

***

I've fallen out of love with this chart in recent times, probably because there's something a little too overwhelming in having to represent my favourites out of every album ever. The problem that arises with these colossal, era-spanning anthologies is that they find it hard to strike a balance between acknowledging the cultural context and subsequent limitations of some of these records, and just eulogising the past.

Lately I've found it much more rewarding to focus on my decade and year charts so this one might be left to gather dust for a while. As of 2021/05/13 I've given up trying to order these from best to bestest, and instead have decided to list out some favourites ordered (roughly) by genre; this is NOT in order of favourite to 64th favourite. More extensive decade lists to follow as soon as I can.

Much love,
FN xx

There are 48 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 64 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 93 out of 100 (from 86 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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progressive rock • art rock

(Island, 41:59)

"Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire"

"BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH BADUPP BAP BAP BAAAAAAAAA" should be a difficult hook to convey in writing but to anyone who's heard "21st Century Schizoid Man" a couple times it's likely to be one that's branded into the far reaches of their skull.

The composition of this record is unapologetically big personality; with just a handful of tracks to play with, there's no room for punchy, atmospheric mood-builders. We're treated to five prog ballads each not wasting a moment to wrench your attention from the hands of its predecessor. In contrast to the joyous big-band cacophony that brings to close the opening track, "I Talk to the Wind"'s lead flute dances and shimmers between its warm, soft notes and tentative hi-hat. In this song, as with all the cuts, Peter Sinfield's pastoral and poetic lyrics cut through the instrumentation with devastating effect, notable highlight being the cryptic and alarming "said the straight man to the late man/where have you been?". However, the frightened yelp of "I fear tomorrow I'll be crying" that brings side one to a close deserves special attention, somehow distilling all the pained dread of the cover art into a single line.

I know that for some the sparseness of "Moonchild" can be turn off, and admittedly it's not a track I'd try to drown out the noise of rush-hour whilst being packt like sardines in a crushd tin train. But when given due attention, even here King Crimson reward their listeners; every passing second of quiet serves to tee up the immense impact of the title track.

King Crimson were by no means the first prog band, but this is unequivocally the first prog masterpiece.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
31,689
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Canterbury scene • art rock

(Virgin, 39:31)

"I pull out the wires of the telephone
I hurt in the head and
I hurt in the acting bone
Now
I smash up the telly with remains of the broken phone"
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[First added to this chart: 08/12/2018]
Year of Release:
1974
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,212
Rank in 1974:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

post-rock

(Smekkleysa, 72:09)

"Tjú"
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1999
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,035
Rank in 1999:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

post-rock

(Verve, 42:44)

"Shake my head
Turn my face to the floor
Dead to respect
To respect to be born
Lest we forget who lay"

For the longest time I've had Slint's Spiderland as my no#1 pick, but after a great deal of reflection I've come to realise that its more melancholic twin deserves the top spot.

Though their shared 6-track, 40-or-so minute format results in Spiderland and Laughing Stock being often lumped together under the umbrella label of 'post-rock', a quick venture into this album's opening 17 seconds of amplifier hiss tells you you're a million miles away from the bustling fairground of "Breadcrumb Trail". Instead we are alone in a quiet room with Mark Hollis as he contemplates his suicide by hanging. Right from the offset, the idea that the two albums are opposite sides of the same coin is clear: where Slint's guitars screech, Talk Talk's lull; where McMahan's voice screams, Hollis' quivers. Spirit of Eden is considered by many to be the culmination of Talk Talk's transformation from the new wave sound they first emerged with, and there's no denying the quality in tracks like "Eden" and "I Believe in You". But for me, their swansong Laughing Stock (1991) captures the manic brilliance of the band right at the moment of their dissolution.

Take opening track "Myrrhman" for example: Hollis' obscure and muted lyrics punctuated by dissonant and shapeless instrumentation might seem baffling, or even over-indulgent at first; I certainly used to think so. But by the end of its delicate and pained string section it becomes clear that the reason Talk Talk disorientated you was just so they could pick you apart all the more easily.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1991
Appears in:
Rank Score:
9,358
Rank in 1991:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

post-rock

(Circa, 51:11)

"You stand apart
With the sinking sunlight
I just came to watch you smile"
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,031
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

post-rock

(Kranky, 63:27)

"I said, 'Kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days'

You grabbed my hand
And we fell into it
Like a daydream
Or a fever"
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[First added to this chart: 02/07/2022]
Year of Release:
1998
Appears in:
Rank Score:
782
Rank in 1998:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

experimental rock • post-rock • experimental

(Young God, 141:37)

"Protect me from violence
Hold me in your cool lips
You'll drug me with kindness
So I can pretend I exist

Now you be the only child
I'll suck on your breast
You'll feed me with gasoline
I'll burn my name in your head"
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[First added to this chart: 05/19/2021]
Year of Release:
1996
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,611
Rank in 1996:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
28. (=)
Germany Can
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____________________________________________________________________________

krautrock • psychedelic rock • experimental rock

(United Artists, 73:15)

"You can make everything
What you want with your head"
____________________________________________________________________________
[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1971
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,295
Rank in 1971:
Rank in 1970s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

experimental rock • psychedelic rock • free improvisation

(International Artists, 41:32)

"Well Mister God, are you sad this week
That we treat each other bad?
You know your silence is part of a fad
You know that you do nothing just makes me mad"

Some might find the free form freak-outs off-putting, but personally I love how they sit between the proto-punk ballads that are at least a decade ahead of their time. I love how well suited the cover art is to the music; listening to this album is like wandering through a carnival, overwhelmed by the flood of sound and colour, and every so often finding yourself at the same stage with the mysterious band that you were sure you were just walking away from...
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[First added to this chart: 01/25/2018]
Year of Release:
1967
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,474
Rank in 1967:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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  • #Sponsored
____________________________________________________________________________

experimental rock

(Straight, 78:51)

"But it's all right, God dug your dance
And would have you young and in his harem
Dress you the way he wants cause he never had a doll
'Cause everybody made him a boy
And God didn't think to ask his preference"

I hope I'm not being too much of a cliché in picking an album so divisively infamous as one of my all time favourites. I'm sure seeing this so high in my list will make a couple of you groan and move you to look away now (please don’t!), ironically a reaction that the band probably anticipated in Trout Mask Replica’s own reception. It’s nothing if not provocative; the grating time signatures are often accompanied by no less grating sounds, many of which come straight from the grizzled, gnarly larynx of Captain Beefheart himself, who spits out such obtuse similes as “cork bobbin’ like a hot red bulb” and “my mind cracked like custard”.

In Trout Mask’s most farcical moments it’s easy to disregard the whole thing as one big joke. How can someone seriously expect enjoyment from listening to frantic phone call warning Frank Zappa about a fattening blimp, or from the band rehearsing their ‘fast and bulbous’ vocal skit right before your very ears. Surely you giving them the time of day means that they should have sorted themselves out before you hit play? In a sense the band are listening to you just as much as you are listening to them; by subverting expectation and so clearly refusing to play by the rules of what a rock album from the late sixties should sound like, it’s hard not to get the feeling that Van Vliet and the Magic Band are performing with big goofy grins strapped permanently across their faces.

But what no amount of avant-garde twinges on this record can help it escape from is that it remains serious in its intentions; Van Vliet used non-notation methods of songwriting to create instrumentals that dance along the line between unlistenable and unforgettable to ensure he made something that at least mattered, even if some people might hate it. Every time the free jazz streaks seems to be leaving all musical reason behind, the band will shock you with interchange of guitar licks that anticipate the hypnotic riffs of post-hardcore nearly a decade before it had a hardcore scene to rail against. After a few listens, what seemed so dauntingly monolithic now feels like a well-worn leather boot; each fold and crease seems familiar and your toes fill the gaps that were once imperfections but now are old friends. On "Moonlight on Vermont" the Magic Band prove that they could be the authors of Hendrix-esque rock riffs if they wanted to be (it’s pretty clear they don’t) but final track "Veteran’s Day Poppy" sees the marriage between the ridiculous and the sublime its most harmonious. Van Vliet bemoans that the poppy in question is no good since “it don’t get me high”, but before we can laugh we're stopped dead in our tracks since neither can it “grow another son like the one who warmed me”. Beneath the contrarianism that defines this record, Don Van Vliet still wanted to make something that people would listen to and keep listening to. If you let Trout Mask Replica in, it will fit like an old boot you never knew you were missing.
____________________________________________________________________________
[First added to this chart: 02/13/2019]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
7,146
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 64. Page 3 of 7

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Top 64 Greatest Music Albums composition

Decade Albums %


1930s 0 0%
1940s 0 0%
1950s 0 0%
1960s 5 8%
1970s 18 28%
1980s 8 13%
1990s 16 25%
2000s 13 20%
2010s 4 6%
2020s 0 0%
Artist Albums %


Built To Spill 1 2%
Portishead 1 2%
Talk Talk 1 2%
Steve Reich 1 2%
Roy Harper 1 2%
Mogwai 1 2%
Miles Davis 1 2%
Show all
Country Albums %


United States 31 48%
United Kingdom 19 30%
Mixed Nationality 4 6%
Germany 3 5%
Canada 2 3%
Iceland 2 3%
Brazil 1 2%
Show all
Compilation? Albums %
No 63 98%
Yes 1 2%

Top 64 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest climbers
Climber Up 4 from 37th to 33rd
You're Living All Over Me
by Dinosaur Jr.
Climber Up 4 from 36th to 32nd
Daydream Nation
by Sonic Youth
Biggest fallers
Faller Down 2 from 32nd to 34th
Loveless
by My Bloody Valentine
Faller Down 2 from 33rd to 35th
Mogwai Young Team
by Mogwai
Faller Down 2 from 34th to 36th
Spiderland
by Slint

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Top 64 Greatest Music Albums ratings

Average Rating: 
93/100 (from 86 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
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 86 ratings for this chart.

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01/06/2023 08:58 Johnnyo  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2,02280/100
  
95/100
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07/09/2022 03:54 leniad  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 68685/100
  
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04/09/2022 08:31 Applerill  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 97675/100
  
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11/09/2021 18:39 seb7  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 10591/100
  
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05/29/2021 02:00 sirps  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 180/100

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 1% of all charts on BestEverAlbums.com. This chart has a Bayesian average rating of 93.4/100, a mean average of 93.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 94.2/100. The standard deviation for this chart is 7.7.

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Top 64 Greatest Music Albums comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 48 comments |
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From 02/17/2023 15:37
Thanks— hoping you find a couple gems in there (a lot suit your chart's taste— I think you'll find at least 4-5 records you'll really enjoy). I've been meaning to update that chart for quite some time. Needs a bit of a new coat of paint— maybe in a month or two. One of the main concepts for that chart was originally 'uniquely/weirdly made albums', but I like what it turned into. Bit of a different world going on with those cuts.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 01/06/2023 08:58
Really good chart
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Rating:  
95/100
From 07/09/2022 03:55
love your chart, some albums i like that never swa so high in others list
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 11/09/2021 18:39
Man, I love this chart.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 05/29/2021 02:00
Very nice, lots of interesting stuff!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 05/02/2021 15:46
Amazing chart, I love the presentation and short descriptions
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 04/26/2020 18:48
I could instantly tell I was going to give this chart 100
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 02/13/2020 10:08
Thanks for the chart comment. Love all the album notes too!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 01/12/2020 22:16


First of all, thank you so much for your comment in my page! I really was touched by your words.
About your chart here, I have to admit that I don't know 80% of this. The ones I do I know the value and know that they are great! Also, I feel like you are a powerhouse of music knowledge and would love to keep trading more information and passion for this! Last but not least, wish you to complete this with 100 albums. cheers!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 10/30/2019 17:30
thanx mate :)
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Best Ever Artists
1. The Beatles
2. Radiohead
3. Pink Floyd
4. David Bowie
5. Bob Dylan
6. Led Zeppelin
7. The Rolling Stones
8. Arcade Fire
9. The Velvet Underground
10. Nirvana
11. Kendrick Lamar
12. Neil Young
13. The Smiths
14. Miles Davis
15. The Beach Boys
16. Kanye West
17. Pixies
18. R.E.M.
19. Jimi Hendrix
20. Bruce Springsteen
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