38 Greatest Albums of All Time

Albums are rated by how well they sound when listened to from beginning to the end without interruptions. That's the reason why there is no Nevermind by Nirvana or Rain Dogs by Tom Waits on the list, since they contain a few songs that ruin the flow of the record. There are also no live albums or compilations.

Click on the cover to listen to the record on Youtube!!!

#1 | "Rage Against the Machine" — Rage Against the Machine

No samples, keyboards or synthesizers were used in the making of this record

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#2 | "L.A. Woman" — The Doors

Recorded live at their rehearsal space in six days with Elvis's bass player

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#3 | "Blue Valentine" — Tom Waits

Waits at the start of his transformation

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#4 | "Sound of Silver" — LCD Soundsystem

Dance-rock for failed hipsters

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#5 | "Morrison Hotel" — The Doors

Rothchild's best record

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#6 | "The Velvet Underground & Nico" — The Velvet Underground

Banana was peelable on early copies

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#7 | "Odelay" — Beck

Vinyl crackling noises were added intentionally

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#8 | "Ramones" — Ramones

Divine intervention

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#9 | "To Pimp a Butterfly" — Kendrick Lamar

Masterpiece

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#10 | "Razdor" — Majke

Dark and hopeful at the same time

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#11 | "The Low End Theory" — A Tribe Called Quest

They sound fresh even when rapping about pagers

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#12 | "!!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!" — New Bomb Turks

High octane punk 'n' roll

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#13 | "Unknown Pleasures" — Joy Division

Always better than you remember

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#14 | "In Utero" — Nirvana

Drum room mics were delayed for 20 milliseconds

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#15 | "Death and the Bible" — The Tiger Lillies

Weimar, Brecht, Weill, the whole shtick

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#16 | "Check Your Head" — Beastie Boys

Better than the sum of its parts

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#17 | "Funhouse" — Stooges

Stooges at their raw, sweaty, howling peak

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#18 | "Swordfishtrombones" — Tom Waits

Start of the Big Time era

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#19 | "Safe as Milk" — Captain Beefheart

Beefheart for the masses

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#20 | "Brown Album" — Primus

Kalamazoo is a real place in Michigan

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#21 | "Tourist" — St Germain

A synthesis of electronics with jazz soloing

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#22 | "Midnite Vultures" — Beck

Hitting the L.A.'s main nerve

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#23 | "I Whistle - You Dance" — Dicky B. Hardy

Having no bass player can make your music more exciting

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#24 | "Smash" — The Offspring

Best-selling independent album of all time

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#25 | "Run the Jewels 2" — Run the Jewels

Hardcore hip hop that is not based on trap

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#26 | "Cansei de Ser Sexy" — CSS

Fun and relatable

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#27 | "The Velvet Underground" — The Velvet Underground

Ultimate night record

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#28 | "Spiderland" — Slint

More a song than an album

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#29 | "Franks Wild Years" — Tom Waits

High on life

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#30 | "Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!" — Devo

Too much of Brian Eno's ideas were rejected

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#31 | "Surfer Rosa" — Pixies

Drum room mics were delayed for 20 milliseconds

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#32 | "One" — NoMeansNo

Their least annoying record

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#33 | "Stereopathetic Soulmanure" — Beck

Proper lo-fi/trash Americana

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#34 | "Clandestino" — Manu Chao

Electronic beats got lost during production

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#35 | "Illmatic" — Nas

This

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#36 | "Amphibios" — Matter

A fish called Wanda

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#37 | "Nemesis Divina" — Satyricon

Great fusion of garage and studio production

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#38 | "Repeater" — Fugazi

Ultimate day record

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