Charmyte's Best Album List (One Per Artist)

What is this?

I have listened to a great number of albums and have a piss-poor memory unrelated. Thus, I find it helpful to keep a grouping of my absolute favorite albums, for both my sake and for making easy recommendations! Every album on this list is one I would whole-heartedly recommend.

What gets on the list?

To make this list, the album needs to stand out in some manner to me. Having a lot of very good songs is one way, of course, but not every album with a really impactful song makes it onto this list. Cohesiveness is awarded, and there are some albums that I recommend more as a whole experience than as a sum of their parts. Emotional attachment is also a factor on if an album makes it onto the list - thus there is some slight bias towards music I simply have listened to a lot. Lastly, I have a few trimming rules for what albums I want to include. Eligible for the list:

Ineligible for the list:

One more note on the list: albums can move pretty fluidly in the rank! Every once in a while I tend to do a big scan of the order, and some albums go way down or up. The list begins more towards albums that are very solid but maybe I don't have a lot to say about. The top twenty are usually pretty rigid and hard to dislodge.

Albums are listed here in reverse-rank (further down means better!). Albums here are limited to one-per-artist! Click the link at the end of the row for more details and thoughts on the album. For a list that includes more than one album per artist, click here.

List Last Updated: 08/01/2023

The List

Rank Art Album Artist Year Genre Favorite Song More
50 American Capitalist Five Finger Death Punch 2011 Groove Metal American Capitalist

[TBA]

49 Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine 1992 Rap Metal Killing in the Name

[TBA]

48 Painkiller Judas Priest 1990 Heavy Metal One Shot at Glory

[TBA]

47 7 Wishes Night Ranger 1985 Hard Rock Faces

[TBA]

46 Pure Heroine Lorde 2013 Electronica Royals

[TBA]

45 A Sailor's Guide to Earth Sturgill Simpson 2016 Country Brace for Impact (Live a Little)

[TBA]

44 Black Celebration Depeche Mode 1986 Synth-Pop Stripped

[TBA]

43 WYSIWYG Chumbawamba 2000 Pop Rock Pass It Along

[TBA]

42 21 Adele 2011 Pop Soul Rolling in the Deep

[TBA]

41 Blackbird Alter Bridge 2007 Alternative Metal Blackbird

[TBA]

40 Throwing Copper Live 1994 Alternative Rock I Alone

[TBA]

39 John Henry They Might Be Giants 1994 Alternative Rock A Self Called Nowhere

[TBA]

38 Pyromania Def Leppard 1983 Glam Metal Foolin'

[TBA]

37 Random Access Memories Daft Punk 2013 Disco Giorgio by Moroder

[TBA]

36 Demon Days Gorillaz 2005 Alternative Rock Dare

[TBA]

35 7800° Fahrenheit Bon Jovi 1985 Hard Rock (I Don't Wanna Fall) To the Fire

[TBA]

34 La Roux La Roux 2009 Synth Pop Tigerlily

[TBA]

33 Beauty Behind the Madness The Weeknd 2014 Alternative R&B The Hills

[TBA]

32 Warrior Kesha 2012 Electropop Dirty Love

[TBA]

31 Visions of Bodies Being Burned Clipping. 2020 Experimental Hip-Hop Enlacing

[TBA]

30 Lungs Florence + The Machine 2009 Baroque Pop Howl

[TBA]

29 Green R.E.M. 1998 Alternative Rock I Remember California

[TBA]

28 Civilisation Kero Kero Bonito 2021 Electropop When the Fires Come

[TBA]

27 Riot! Paramore 2005 Pop Punk Fences

[TBA]

26 Dirty Computer Janelle Monáe 2018 Pop Funk Americans

[TBA]

25 American Idiot Green Day 2004 Pop Punk Wake Me Up When September Ends

[TBA]

24 The Fragile Nine Inch Nails 1999 Industrial The Great Below

[TBA]

23 Meliora Ghost 2015 Heavy Metal Cirice

[TBA]

22 Songs for the Deaf Queens of the Stone Age 2002 Stoner Rock Mosquito Song

[TBA]

21 Black Holes and Revelations Muse 2006 Alternative Rock City of Delusion

[TBA]

20 Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell Meat Loaf 1993 Hard Rock Life Is a Lemon
(And I Want My Money Back)

[TBA]

19 Footloose (soundtrack) Various Artists 1984 Pop Rock Holding Out for a Hero

[TBA]

18 The Wall Pink Floyd 1979 Progressive Rock Another Brick in the Wall Part II

[TBA]

17 Speak for Yourself Imogen Heap 2005 Electropop Hide and Seek

[TBA]

16 2.0 Big Data 2013 Electropop Automatic

[TBA]

15 The Fame Monster Lady Gaga 2009 Electropop Monster

[TBA]

14 Emotion Carly Rae Jepsen 2015 Dance pop Run Away With Me

[TBA]

13 Master of Puppets Metallica 1986 Thrash Metal Master of Puppets

[TBA]

12 Hybrid Theory Linkin Park 2000 Nu Metal Papercut

[TBA]

11 CUTIE MARKS
(AND THE THINGS THAT BIND US)
Vylet Pony 2021 Hyperpop I DON'T NEED TO BE FIXED

[TBA]

10 Death of a Bachelor Panic! at the Disco 2016 Pop Rock LA Devotee

[TBA]

9 Folie à Deux Fall Out Boy 2008 Pop Punk Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

[TBA]

8 Stop Making Sense Talking Heads 1984 New Wave Life During Wartime

[TBA]

7 Stranger Heads Prevail Thank You Scientist 2016 Progressive Rock A Wolf in Cheap Clothing

[TBA]

6 WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Billie Eilish 2019 Electropop bury a friend

[TBA]

5 Octavarium Dream Theater 2005 Progressive Metal Octavarium

[TBA]

4 The Black Parade My Chemical Romance 2006 Pop Punk Sleep

[TBA]

3 Frances the Mute The Mars Volta 2005 Progressive Rock L'via L'Viaquez

[TBA]

2 10,000 Days Tool 2006 Alternative Metal 10,000 Days (Wings Pt. 2)

[TBA]

1 Aquarius Haken 2010 Progressive Metal The Point of No Return Link