A Rainbow In Curved Air
by Terry Riley
Listen & Collect
Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.
Terry Riley bestography
A Rainbow In Curved Air is ranked as the best album by Terry Riley.
(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 A Rainbow In Curved Air on YouTube
A Rainbow In Curved Air track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
A Rainbow In Curved Air rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1960s | 99/100 | 0 |
| 2026 |  JoaoMoreira | Top 18 Music Albums of 1969 | 6/18 | 4 |
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 42 Music Albums of 1969 | 36/42 | 1 |
| 2026 | Hyggevinyl | Top 51 Music Albums of 1969 | 12/51 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1969 | 92/100 | 0 |
| 2026 | jdizzle123456 | Greatest Electronic Albums of All Time | 19/50 | - |
| 2026 |  Glitterboiii | Top 50 Music Albums of 1969 | 30/50 | 2 |
| 2026 | Weepingguitarman | Top 48 Music Albums of 1969 | 17/48 | 3 |
| 2026 | davidhuret | Top 36 Music Albums of 1969 | 36/36 | 0 |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 39 Music Albums of 1969 | 23/39 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 143 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 820 | |||
A Rainbow In Curved Air collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 45 members
A Rainbow In Curved Air 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 175 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/01/2026 11:35 | DommeDamian | 7,819 | 48/100 |
| ! | 09/26/2026 04:20 |  CaptainPain | 3,418 | 61/100 |
| ! | 09/14/2026 18:43 | Glitterboiii | 4,952 | 88/100 |
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 78.1/100, a mean average of 77.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.0.
A Rainbow In Curved Air favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 25 members
A Rainbow In Curved Air forum mentions
neilgee 03/31/2023 15:42 in What album are you listening to right now?
Skinny 08/23/2014 10:50 in worst album on BEAA Rainbow In Curved Air comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Wow! Almost 50 years old, and this is magical. As of now it's in my top 3 of 1969. And sure I haven't got that much of that year as well as the decade under my belt, this album is pretty mind-blowing and I am able to pick out the influences from this piece. (Edited)
Baba O´Riley/The Who...big influence. (Edited)
This avantegarde masterpiece brought Riley to the attention of rock audiences. His improvised use of electronic keyboards, minimilist raga and repetitive rhythms and melodies was highly influential. The electronic psychedelic sounds Riley creates are colourful and uplifting. (Edited)
Still as amazing as when I first heard it at school in 1969. Thank god for CD - I had wron out 2 vinyl copies by then!
An INCREDIBLY important and influential piece of music.... (Edited)
JulianR TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/21/2017 01:18 | #201731 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
What an amazing fusion of minimalism, classical, jazz, electronic music, and wild experimentation (Edited)
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
