Starfish
by The Church
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The Church bestography
Starfish is ranked as the best album by The Church.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Starfish on YouTube
Starfish track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Starfish rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 50 Music Albums of 1988 | 27/50 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 701-800 | 29/100 | - |
| 2026 |  dihansse | Top 52 Music Albums of 1988 | 26/52 | 3 |
| 2026 |  JMGL95 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 93/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  NoisyBeast | Top 99 Music Albums of 1988 | 31/99 | 3 |
| 2026 |  slatsheit | My top 101-201 (not a misprint) | 98/100 | - |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 83 Music Albums of 1988 | 5/83 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 84 Music Albums of 1988 | 28/84 | 3 |
| 2026 | stangetzaway | Best Australian Albums | 52/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 100 Music Albums of 1988 | 49/100 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 240 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,417 | |||
Starfish collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 89 members
Starfish ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
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).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 233 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/27/2026 13:33 |  Taka | 1,096 | 80/100 |
| ! | 07/16/2026 22:04 |  serpico | 914 | 85/100 |
| ! | 06/02/2026 08:56 |  Purplepash | 5,020 | 75/100 |
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).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.5/100, a mean average of 77.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.1.
Starfish favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 34 members
Starfish forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/20/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5410): By DeckillerView latest topic →
Purplepash 06/02/2026 09:13 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)View all forum mentions
Starfish comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
This a criminally underrated album, and an underrated band in general. As a big fan of new wave, this is one of my favorite albums in the genre.
Best tracks: Under the Milky Way, Reptile, Destination, Spark (Edited)
This is a pretty cool album by The Church. Some great tracks like Reptile, Destination, A New Season and the classic Under the Milky Way. Would definitely recommend people to give this one a spin or two. It provides a dreamy sound to it with the tone of the instrumentation, very atmospheric. (Edited)
I don't throw statements like this out often: IMO, this is the most underrated album of all time. You would be just as hard pressed to find The Church fans here in the U.S. as you would be to find a bad song on this album. It is catchy, different, and has a spacey feel that I haven't heard in anything else. A masterpiece for sure. (Edited)
Great laid back style and delivery. Milky Way still sounds great after all these years, and Reptile ain't bad either.
nocturnaldelight 09/03/2018 20:48 | #220525 | TOP COMMENT
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Brilliant atmospheric album from one of the most underrated bands in history. "Under the Milky Way" was the right choice for the single release but the whole album has incredible and very different songs with great guitar sound. 9/10 perfect tracks made to listen during dark winter nights. The only one i don't like is "Spark".
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