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

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post-punk • art punk

(Kamera, 60:01)

"The rabbit killer left his home for the clough
And said goodbye to his infertile spouse"

Even if it is made within the context of an ironic joke, the racial slur in the opening track still makes me wince with every listen. Aside from that particularly dated moment, this post-punk album keeps as fresh as a daisy. Utterly enthralling.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1982
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,451
Rank in 1982:
Rank in 1980s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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new wave • post-punk

(Sire, 39:48)

"Never get to say much
Never get to talk
Tell us a little bit
But not too much"

There are some albums that are considered classics because of their ahead-of-time quality, some through the sheer talent of their song-writing, and some by subverting a music trope to create their own twist on a genre. Remain in Light is none of these records.

This is the last of Talking Heads’ albums to be produced by Eno and his idiosyncratic style reaches its peak here. Weymouth’s funky basslines are complemented by frantic chirps and wails that manage to inhabit a space halfway between percussion and melody. For me, this is the record’s greatest strength; on the one hand it’s so obviously avant-garde in style and yet manages to tap into a primal rhythm of dance that is so universal. Its ability to somehow create hooks that are in essence near-tuneless sets it apart from everything else on this list. Remain in Light does not subscribe to anyone else’s notions of what constitutes a great record. It is instead distinctly Remain in Light.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1980
Appears in:
Rank Score:
30,573
Rank in 1980:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
43. (=)
Buy album United States
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art rock • experimental rock • electronic

(Parlophone, 49:56)

"Stop sending letters
Letters always get burned
It's not like the movies
They fed us on little white lies"

OK Computer might do conventional 'songwriting' better (beautiful verse - beautiful chorus - beautiful verse - beautiful chorus) but Kid A is my favourite Radiohead album because instead of trying to beat its predecessor at its own game like so many bands that would follow (Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head or Travis' The Man Who for example) it chose to rip up the rule book entirely and write a new one. The shades of genre influence on this thing is astonishing; IDM, Jazz, & Folk all twist and writhe through a record that hardly seems to fit 'rock' at all. Not until Kendrick Lamar has anyone come close to marrying so many disparate styles of music and making it sound monumental.

You'd think the constant nods to different styles would obscure the emotional impact of this album, but it's in this skill that Radiohead cement their place as the greatest art rock band of all time. "The National Anthem"'s infectious bassline and clattering drums holds together a track that disintegrates towards chaos with every passing second and demands your own throbbing response, whilst the title track's first refrain of "standing in the shadows at the end of my bed" lets slip a moment of forlorn human pain in an otherwise icy robotic landscape. And not to mention the fact that "Motion Picture Soundtrack" is quite possibly one of the saddest pieces of music ever written. This record is always talked about in the context of 'best of the 2000s' or 'best of the 21st century'; I think really we should be holding up the classics to this.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
2000
Appears in:
Rank Score:
50,980
Rank in 2000:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
44. (=)
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alternative rock

(Geffen, 55:03)

"Titanic, fare thee well, my eyes are turning pink
Don't call us when the new age gets old enough to drink"

It can certainly be said that this album's playful and elusive nature makes it stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the more earnest records here. Beck doesn’t spill the contents of his soul writ large in tortured balladry; it’s easy to forget that before his great Sea Change into acoustic guitar strumming, Beck was a slacker idol who suffocated any flashes of emotional intimacy with a thick blanket of eclectic production and sardonic lyrics.

Except in the times when he didn’t. The sincerity of longing for a new lover to gather the lazy bones left by the last one, might just be kept at bay by "Jack-Ass"’s comic song title, but in album finale "Ramshackle" Beck makes us witness to his fear of becoming his addressee whose bones no lover has saved from being old and alone. The delicate strokes of the closing track echo the snarling riffs of "Lord Only Knows" as Beck reminds us that his devil-may-care persona isn’t performed for its own sake, but proof that he can just as easily balance the sincere alongside the apathetic.

Forget what you might think of Beck before going into this record, Odelay is solid gold.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1996
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,856
Rank in 1996:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
45. (=)
Buy album United States
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trip hop

(Go! Beat, 45:23)

"Did you realize, no one can see inside your view?"
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1994
Appears in:
Rank Score:
17,286
Rank in 1994:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

trip hop

(Circa, 63:29)

"Toy-like people make me boy-like"
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
1998
Appears in:
Rank Score:
10,227
Rank in 1998:
Rank in 1990s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

abstract hip hop • experimental hip hop • conscious hip hop

(Definitive Jux, 73:48)

"My mother said, 'You sucked my pussy when you came out
Don't ever talk back
I handed you life and I'll snatch it back'"
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[First added to this chart: 12/29/2017]
Year of Release:
2001
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,422
Rank in 2001:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

conscious rap • jazz rap

(Top Dawg, 78:51)

"I'm African-American, I'm African
I'm black as the heart of a fucking Aryan"

"You ain't no king!" rings the affront hangs in the air, as if begging for a response, before the oozing base and panting drum beat of "King Kunta" cuts through the silence, bringing to life a track that simultaneously references the mutilation of Kunta Kinte in Alex Haley's novel Roots, the use of yams as a symbol of African heritage and authenticity in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart whilst undercutting Kendrick's rap industry rivals and securing his credentials as the "greatest rapper in the world", a title which 66 minutes into the runtime he feels he has earned the right to be called.

And by this point in the record it's difficult to disagree; Kendrick continues the unusual song structures that characterised good kid, m.A.A.d city but turns his sights from the senselessness of self-destructive gang violence to the institutional racial oppression that's responsible for it, interweaving his politically conscious lyrics with samples that celebrate the diverse legacy of African American music. This is an album to challenge the misconceptions surrounding hip hop's potential as an art form; this is an album to challenge the reluctance of elitist white journalism to accept hip hop into the top tier musical canon. If what they say is true and rock n' roll is dead let's hope for more albums like this one.
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
2015
Appears in:
Rank Score:
36,894
Rank in 2015:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

abstract hip hop

(Stones Throw, 46:08)

"What's the difference? All you get is lost children
While the bosses sit up behind the desks, it cost billions
To blast humans in half, into calves and arms
Only one side is allowed to have bombs"
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[First added to this chart: 10/01/2017]
Year of Release:
2004
Appears in:
Rank Score:
16,133
Rank in 2004:
Rank in 2000s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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____________________________________________________________________________

abstract hip hop • experimental hip hop

(Tan Cressida, 24:39)

"Flashing through the pain, depression this is not a phase
Picking out his grave, couldn't help but feel out of place"

No doubt much of the aversion to Earl on this site lies with a cadre of pearl-clutching rockists, unable to distinguish his sluggish cadence on a track like ‘Peanut’ from the non-lyric ramblings of a Gunna or a Lil Mosey (something old-head hip hop fans can be just as guilty of: https://www.instagram.com/p/B35nPCSAMFx/?utm_source=ig_emb). Make that mistake however, and midway through the song you’d miss the bitter melancholy of the lyrics: "Flashing through the pain, depression this is not a phase/Picking out his grave, couldn't help but feel out of place".

The grave in question belonged to Earl’s late father, whose voice on ‘Playing Possum’ flits between a juddering hypnagogic pop sample and an acceptance speech read aloud by Earl’s mother. MF DOOM is often cited as Earl’s key influence, but listening to this track and ‘Azucar’ reminds me of the urgent vitality in J Dilla’s final album. Like Dilla, by embracing forward-thinking production styles, Earl has perfected a sound that dares to be hopeful for its future whilst acknowledging the enormity of its past; a description fittingly apt for the man himself.
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[First added to this chart: 05/19/2021]
Year of Release:
2018
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,073
Rank in 2018:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 64. Page 5 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

Top 64 Greatest Music Albums similarity to your chart(s)


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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:
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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).
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01/06/2023 08:58 Johnnyo  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2,02280/100
  
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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).
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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
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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
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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 Albums of 1965
1. Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan
2. Rubber Soul by The Beatles
3. A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
4. Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan
5. Help! by The Beatles
6. Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul by Otis Redding
7. Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
8. My Generation by The Who
9. The Beach Boys Today! by The Beach Boys
10. A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi
11. Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds
12. Here Are The Sonics!!! by The Sonics
13. Out Of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones
14. Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock
15. Spiritual Unity by Albert Ayler Trio
16. Jackson C. Frank by Jackson C. Frank
17. Live At The Regal by B.B. King
18. I Put A Spell On You by Nina Simone
19. Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds
20. Bert Jansch by Bert Jansch
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