1400+ 5-star-rated Albums at AllMusic.com...& still going [WIP]

Thanks for the comment.

I wondered that for a while as well, but set sail on the current course. I decided that rather than have slippery definitional boundaries, I’d include every entry I found in Allmusic.com which was given 5 stars.

Incidentally, one area in which I may have missed quite a bit is the ‘singles and eps’ categories. Some artist like Belle and Sebastian and New Order released EPs rather than full albums and it’s possible that some of these were awarded 5 stars.

I considered ignoring greatest hits albums but then hit on several which seemed like a shame to exclude, especially since the artist had nothing other than a compilation being awarded 5 stars.

Including every 5-star entry doesn’t make this a good checklist. After all, obviously, one doesn’t need to hear so much repetition. Where I think this list excels is in never deviating from this hard definition of what to include. I’ve reasoned that others could make a copy of this list and strip off what they don’t want, and be left with a very long, very good checklist to work from.

As for GYBR, Allmusic awards it 4.5 stars and gives a glimpse of their rationale, “Though its diversity is impressive, the album doesn’t hold together very well. Even so, its individual moments are spectacular and the glitzy, crowd-pleasing showmanship that fuels the album pretty much defines what made Elton John a superstar in the early ’70s.”