Skeleton Tree
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds bestography
The best album by Nick Cave is Skeleton Tree which is ranked number 372 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 4,478.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Upcoming concerts
Listen to Skeleton Tree on YouTube
Skeleton Tree track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 86 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Skeleton Tree rankings
DommeDamian
Hayden
kadupheming
Repo
ForegroundNoise
Taka
swed
covecove
Purplepash
dihansse
Norman Bates
ExTeaSea
HoldenMSkeleton Tree collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 181 members
Skeleton Tree 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 706 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 41 hours ago | Shnopy | 25 | 100/100 |
| ! | 4 days ago | Robert_fripp | 95 | 86/100 |
| ! | 01/22/2026 21:11 | Duff79 | 17 | 88/100 |
| ! | 01/14/2026 23:54 | This_is_handsome | 769 | 79/100 |
| ! | 01/02/2026 02:13 | brent13 | 1,778 | 70/100 |
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 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 82.5/100, a mean average of 81.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 82.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.0.
Skeleton Tree favourites
Showing latest 20 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 103 members
Skeleton Tree comments
Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 47 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First |
Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
trademark Nick Cave dark provocative lyrics but gentler than some of his other material. perfect entry point before moving on to his other great albums like Murder Ballads and Let Love In.
An album full of some phenomenal lyricism that is amongst the greatest Nick Cave has ever written. It is dark and interesting with there being a lot for the listener to be able to explore. The words explore themes of loss, death and grief with some of the songs being so open and emotional. His lyrics are pure poetry on this album and you really find yourself connecting to and becoming attached to Nick Cave on here. The music matches this tone with it being tense in atmosphere and full of suspenseful moments. The last three songs are pure perfection as well and are such a powerful way to close the record. Overall, a few slower songs in the middle keep this album from its true potential but its lyrical quality is outstanding and it is such an emotional listen.
Album Rating: 90.13
(721/8)
1.Jesus Alone. 89
2.Rings Of Saturn. 90
3.Girl In Amber. 99
4.Magneto. 95
5.Anthrocene. 87
6.I Need You. 99
7.Distant Sky (Feat. Else Torp). 87
8.Skeleton Tree. 77
Great fan of Nick Cave. Love his story telling style lyrics on top of great music. With this however, I find an album of dark poetry with a background of slow melodic gothy jazz. It's alright but not as immense when compared to his other work. I'm surprised at how highly ranked this stands amid his catalog of mind blowing albums. Each to their own I guess.
VictorVale 06/25/2022 22:43 | #286666
Linda obra e grande acerto do mestre!
Timestarter 06/06/2021 15:56 | #270429
Highlights:
- Girl In Amber
- I Need You
- Skeleton Tree
Took me a while to liken to this album so much. I still think Ghosteen is the best of the trilogy but this finally clicked. I Need You and Distant Sky are amazing
Cave's best album. by some good margin. I've been a fan for some time, I never thought he'd release something this good so late in his career. The arrangements and songwriting for the album are haunting and beautiful......best album of the 2010's???
Montpejo 04/04/2020 17:32 | #249526
Highlights:
I Need You
Skeleton Tree
Rings Of Saturn
Girl In Amber
A heart rending and soul stirring masterpiece. One of Nick's crowning achievements
Your feedback for Skeleton Tree
A lot of hard work happens in the background to keep BEA running, and it's especially difficult to do this when we can't pay our hosting fees :(
We work very hard to ensure our site is as fast (and FREE!) as possible, and we respect your privacy.
