Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by jbfarmer

Growing up in a small town in Idaho, I’m surprised that my music taste ever became what it is. My dad was a music major for a few years in college, so I guess that combined with my obsession with the piano from a young age kinda just evolved over the years. There was a point where I was the only person I knew that liked my music outside of my family. I collected records and checked out this website all by myself. Eventually I had friends that I could relate to with this stuff. Feel free to check out their charts, too! keatownrodriguez and pjohnsongolf

A lot of these albums mean a lot to me and have been the soundtracks to important phases of my twenty years of life. There’s always more work to be done on this chart, but I can feel pretty good about it for now. After making this chart, I feel more like I just wrote an autobiography so I hope you can enjoy my story.

• Chart updated: 08/27/2022 18:45
• (Created: 07/13/2018 07:02).
• Chart size: 100 albums.

There are 2 comments for this chart from BestEverAlbums.com members and Top 100 Greatest Music Albums has an average rating of 88 out of 100 (from 3 votes). Please log in or register to leave a comment or assign a rating.

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1. (=)

52nd Street 

 Billy Joel

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What could I possibly say to describe what Billy Joel’s music has meant to me throughout my life? Every phase of my life has been set to different songs and albums from him. When I was in elementary school, it was “Piano Man,” “James,” and “New York State of Mind.” In middle school, it was “I Go to Extremes,” “Vienna,” and “Movin’ Out.” By the end of high school, I knew just about everything in his discography, AND had a personal connection to so much of it. “Just the Way You Are” was the love anthem of my relationship with my first girlfriend. “Stiletto” was the tune my brother and I got obsessed with after seeing Billy live in Salt Lake City. “Shades of Grey” would blast out the speakers of my friend’s truck while we drove around the valley. The piano has been my instrument of choice since I started lessons at age 6. Now I am a music major studying piano, and I think a lot of the drive that it took to get here is something I got from listening to Billy. I placed in classical competitions with one of his classical pieces. “New York State of Mind” was the first song my dad showed me to explain jazz music to me. “52nd Street” is a phenomenal album that pulls out every last bit of Billy’s one-of-a-kind talents. I still get excited every time I listen to it. The energy that Billy throws in on vocals, the powerful songwriting, and the all-so-important contributions of his band members (especially drummer Liberty Devito) come together to make my favorite album of all time. On some days, I might like The Stranger a little more, and if I’m being honest, most of Billy’s albums would be in my top 20 if I wasn’t doing one album per artist on this chart. It is obvious to me, though, that Billy Joel deserves to be in my number one slot.

Favorite tracks: Big Shot, Stiletto, Zanzibar, Rosalinda’s Eyes [First added to this chart: 10/23/2018]

Year of Release:

1978

Appears in:

235 charts

Rank Score:

1,300

Rank in 1978:

23

Rank in 1970s:

268

Overall Rank:

1,340

Average Rating:

 78 (312 votes)

Comments:

22

2. (=)

Grace 

 Jeff Buckley

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I started collecting vinyl records the summer after my freshman year in high school. A few months later, I found Jeff Buckley on the internet while looking for new music. I listened to the song “Grace” and really liked it. I read about the popularity and subsequent influence of this album online, but didn’t listen to the rest of the album. Then one day, I saw this album in the record store. There wasn’t anything else I wanted to buy that day, so I bought “Grace” even though I hadn’t heard the whole album yet. It was a shot in the dark, but it was a bullseye! I listened from start to finish when I got home and just laid on my bed and soaked it all in. That was probably my fifth record I ever bought, and it was such a fun experience. Now, I still can’t get enough of this album. Jeff was so talented and so passionate. His death has to be one of the most tragic in music history. I wish so badly we could’ve had more of him. To me, he was the greatest vocalist in popular music history, and this album is all the evidence needed to support that claim.

Favorite Tracks: Grace, Mojo Pin, Last Goodbye, Corpus Christi Carol, Hallelujah [First added to this chart: 10/23/2018]

Year of Release:

1994

Appears in:

1,673 charts

Rank Score:

19,266

Rank in 1994:

1

Rank in 1990s:

10

Overall Rank:

57

Average Rating:

 84 (1,910 votes)

Comments:

169

3. (=)

Origin Of Symmetry 

 Muse

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My introduction to Muse was playing “Knights of Cydonia” on Guitar Hero III as a kid. In high school, I listened to their first three albums all of the time. Matt’s vocals are killer ALL Of THE TIME!!! Origin is probably my favorite because of the spacey synth sounds that they mix with their guitars. Not to mention the passion in the songwriting. This album is FUN, it’s SHOWY, and I love it!

Favorite Tracks: New Born, Bliss, Plug in Baby [First added to this chart: 12/13/2018]

Year of Release:

2001

Appears in:

805 charts

Rank Score:

7,794

Rank in 2001:

7

Rank in 2000s:

37

Overall Rank:

216

Average Rating:

 80 (1,415 votes)

Comments:

93

4. (=)

Igor 

 Tyler, The Creator

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This album was a surprise to me. I had no interest in Tyler before this album came out. My younger brother loved “Flower Boy,” but I really didn’t care for the music much myself. I figured I might as well listen to “Igor,” though. What I experienced was a hard-hitting wall of detailed synth sounds, hip, retro-sounding beats, and a unique take on the typical break-up album that amazes me still to this day. Summer 2019, I just graduated from high school, and Igor reminds me so much of that summer. It was a summer of newfound freedom, and excitement for a new chapter in my life, that was marked by a new kind of music that I hadn’t experienced much of beforehand.

Favorite Tracks: I Think, New Magic Wand, Puppet, Gone, Gone/Thank You [First added to this chart: 02/17/2022]

Year of Release:

2019

Appears in:

607 charts

Rank Score:

6,773

Rank in 2019:

2

Rank in 2010s:

32

Overall Rank:

262

Average Rating:

 84 (778 votes)

Comments:

62

5. (=)

Pinkerton 

 Weezer

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My brother is two years younger than me. We’ve shared a room for most of our lives, but we haven’t always shared the same interests. I wanted to have a good relationship with him, so when he got into video games, I did too. When he got into comics, I did too. I wanted us to have something to talk about and do together. When I started collecting records, he thought it was dumb. A comic cost 2 or 3 bucks, when I was spending 20 on some of my first records. Not to mention that our musical tastes contradicted each other for the most part. He like Nirvana and Eminem, I like Billy Joel and the Beatles, and we didn’t care for each other’s music. We both happened to get into Weezer at about the same time, though. He caught me listening to “Buddy Holly” one day and we started talking about it. We both grew to live the Blue album, and a couple of our friends at our summer job also hopped on the Weezer train. At the end of the summer, the four of us went to a Weezer/Pixies concert and had a blast. We made tons of memories, and by that time my brother and I had finally come to be on similar terms as far as music goes. Weezer was our middle ground, and from there we have found new music together, and come to love each other’s music, too. Now we are music majors in college. We share a massive record collection, and go to concerts together all the time. Having a brother that understands my music has been one of the biggest blessing I have in my life.
Now with that all said, I have to explain why I chose “Pinkerton” as my favorite album by Weezer.
For the longest time, Blue was my obvious favorite. The summer memories, and the overall nostalgic and positive vibes I felt from listening to the album put it at the top for me. That didn’t change until my first semester in college. It was the beginning of my adult life, I didn’t have any inner-circle friends, and a week into the semester, I went through my first breakup. I loved school, and I loved studying music, but my social life was a mess. Pinkerton is a lot more depressing than Blue, but it is the album that got me through that breakup and those other hard things I was going through. I didn’t need an album that would cheer me up. I needed an album that would tell me that it’s okay for me to be sad. “The Good Life” and “No Other One” felt especially relatable to me at the time. In the end, I got a lot better, and I found a lot of people that I could depend on. But I needed that time to recognize how sad I was, and because of that, Pinkerton will always have a special meaning to me.

Favorite Tracks: The Good Life, El Scorcho, No Other One, Why Bother?, Pink Triangle [First added to this chart: 12/13/2018]

Year of Release:

1996

Appears in:

1,077 charts

Rank Score:

11,718

Rank in 1996:

2

Rank in 1990s:

27

Overall Rank:

126

Average Rating:

 83 (1,540 votes)

Comments:

144

6. (=)

Lush 

 Snail Mail

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The first time I listened to “Pristine,” I knew I had found a band that I would love for a long time moving forward. Soon, I found “Speaking Terms,” and listened to this whole album as soon as I realized how much talent there was on these tracks. This album is fresh, and I listened to it almost everyday driving to work in summer 2019. I don’t what I love more. Is it Lindsey’s strong, yet girly vocals? Is it the clean tone of the guitars? Is it the songwriting? I don’t know, but I do know that I can’t get enough of this band, and I’m excited about the trajectory they are on since “Valentine” came out.

Favorite Tracks: Pristine, Speaking Terms, Heat Wave, [First added to this chart: 02/17/2022]

Year of Release:

2018

Appears in:

173 charts

Rank Score:

691

Rank in 2018:

36

Rank in 2010s:

385

Overall Rank:

2,330

Average Rating:

 74 (204 votes)

Comments:

11

7. (=)

Revolver 

 The Beatles

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The Beatles were such a consistent band. They have so many good albums, and I have loved them for a long time. I used to think that the white album was my favorite, followed by “Revolver,” then “Rubber Soul.” Then I realized something. My favorite Beatles song of all time is “Here, There and Everywhere.” Most Beatles albums have a moment like this track, but that is missing from White in my opinion. And because of that, Revolver has risen. It’s always been close between the two, but now I know why I can say I like Revolver more, and it is all because of that beautiful Paul McCartney tune.

Favorite Tracks: Here, There, and Everywhere, Got to Get You into My Life, Eleanore Rigby [First added to this chart: 03/05/2022]

Year of Release:

1966

Appears in:

3,483 charts

Rank Score:

56,791

Rank in 1966:

1

Rank in 1960s:

2

Overall Rank:

4

Average Rating:

 91 (4,483 votes)

Comments:

478

8. (=)

Illinois 

 Sufjan Stevens

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In that glorious summer with my work friends and brother obsessing over Weezer, we also discovered Sufjan Stevens. My friend Peyton and I were listening to new music that we were finding on this website while playing Call of Duty. He turned on “Carrie and Lowell”, and we were interested in listening to more. Then, he put on “Illinois”. From the first track we were shook. We kept pausing the game and looking at each other like “what is going on?!?” We were blindsided by the sounds of his middle-school-sounding band, and the layers of the folky string instruments. The stories were so personal, and we couldn’t wait to tell my brother Keaton when he got home. We’ll always be die-hard Sufjan fans. It took us a long time before we even knew how to pronounce his name, but that day playing video games and hearing this album for the first time is still one of my favorite memories.

Favorite Tracks: Chicago, Come On, Feel the Illionoise!, Casimir-Pulaski day, John Wayne Gacy, JR. [First added to this chart: 10/23/2018]

Year of Release:

2005

Appears in:

1,604 charts

Rank Score:

23,061

Rank in 2005:

1

Rank in 2000s:

5

Overall Rank:

42

Average Rating:

 86 (1,860 votes)

Comments:

167

9. (=)

Chicago Transit Authority 

 Chicago Transit Authority

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Even before I started buying records, I developed a fancy for CDs. My favorite thing about CDs was putting them in the car stereo and listening to them from front to back. Listening to compilation CDs is how I got to know a lot of my favorite songs by a lot of my favorite artists. Since I didn’t live during the time period when they were new, my first exposure to Billy Joel, The Police, and Chicago were all on compilation CDs. That Chicago compilation CD was one that I listened to with my family a lot in the car. My dad and I like a lot of the same music, and he pretty well understands why I like what I like. My mom’s music taste mostly consists of stuff that was popular when she was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. She would always sing songs when I was a kid that I had no idea who wrote them, or where they came from. Chicago was one of those groups that she could randomly remember lyrics to at any time. As we listened more and more to the compliation CD, I found out that my mom knew a lot of the 80’s hits by Chicago. I love their stuff from the 60’s, 70’s and the 80’s. I know a lot of fans hate everything after Chicago X, but I honestly love that stuff, too. Their first two albums are still my favorites, though. During my last two years in high school, I played sax in a band with my dad on trumpet, and a couple of older guys were in the band, too. We mostly played Chicago and Blood, Sweat, and Tears stuff, and playing those horn parts was such a fun time. Most of what we played was from Chicago Transit Authority, which I think is just such a solid album. And Chicago will always be one of my favorite bands because of the connections I make with their music to both of my parents.

Favorite Tracks: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, Beginnings, Questions 67 and 68 [First added to this chart: 10/23/2018]

Year of Release:

1969

Appears in:

252 charts

Rank Score:

1,782

Rank in 1969:

30

Rank in 1960s:

109

Overall Rank:

1,006

Average Rating:

 80 (256 votes)

Comments:

15

10. (=)

In My Room 

 Jacob Collier

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Like a lot of people, I found Jacob Collier on YouTube. Not only did I live his arrangements and original songs, but I had a lot of fun watching him teach music theory concepts and explain why he wrote music the way he did. It was exciting to see someone only a few years older than me succeed in making complex harmonies, soloing in jazz styles, and singing with himself in his bedroom. I admire the ambition behind his large-scale “Djesse” project, I think he is at his best in this intimate bedroom album. I probably watched the transcription video of “You and I” a hundred times when I was 15 because I wanted to know how he took an already-great Stevie Wonder song to the next level. I would sit at my piano and play along with “Hideaway” because I thought it was just so beautiful. I hope when he is done with “Djesse” that he will go back to making the most out of a small set of resources for a while. Needless to say, I’ll always be impressed by his abilities as a musician.

Favorite Tracks: Hideaway, Savior, You and I [First added to this chart: 12/13/2018]

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

8 charts

Rank Score:

110

Rank in 2016:

200

Rank in 2010s:

2,194

Overall Rank:

10,584

Average Rating:

 68 (22 votes)

Comments:

2

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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	2	2%
1960s	7	7%
1970s	19	19%
1980s	14	14%
1990s	9	9%
2000s	20	20%
2010s	23	23%
2020s	6	6%

Artist	Albums	%
King Crimson	1	1%
Def Leppard	1	1%
Brand New	1	1%
The Dear Hunter	1	1%
The Weeknd	1	1%
Snail Mail	1	1%
Sting	1	1%
Show all

Country	Albums	%
	64	64%
	24	24%
	4	4%
	3	3%
	3	3%
	1	1%
	1	1%

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums chart changes

Biggest fallers
Down 1 from 19th to 20th Sheer Heart Attack by Queen
Down 1 from 20th to 21st Eddie And The Cruisers by John Cafferty And The Beaver Brown Band
Down 1 from 21st to 22nd Talking Book by Stevie Wonder

New entries
Never For Ever by Kate Bush

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

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums ratings

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Rating	Date updated	Member	Chart ratings	Avg. chart rating
100/100	12/19/2023 03:28	ChiefyArchie	1	100/100
80/100	09/24/2022 14:21	mutley88	28	79/100
100/100	04/11/2022 16:16	Larcx13	1,092	86/100

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums comments

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Rating:  

100/100

From ChiefyArchie 12/19/2023 03:32

Never in history has more thought and time been put into a greatest albums of all time chart. This man is a legend and the only reason I ever found this website. The pure craziness and drastic differences from one artist to the next should tell you how much he knows music. I don’t have all the same favorite artists or albums, but I have major respect for this chart.

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Rating:  

80/100

From mutley88 09/24/2022 14:49

This is everything a BEA chart should be, though a lot of the albums on here aren't my cup of tea, the personal comments make it great would've rated 100 if every album had a comment. Came to this through a shared love for the Chicago album and would probably have skipped through it if not for the comments. I get how experience shapes the music we come to love, for example "Take Me Home Country Roads" A tune I once regarded with disdain has become a favourite memory now of a drunken karoake night in Thailand. I would like to return here years from now to see how it evolves over a time. If BEA had been around in my 20's it would have been a completely different chart to the one now, probably contain a lot more cheesy 80's synthpop.
Hope that is a typo in the Nirvana comment & that your brother loved & not lived a long time ago, was bit worried there. Never knew Robert Smith did a song with Blink 182.
as a postscript while typing this had that Plini album playing in the background, it's a grower. Nice one

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