A Thousand Leaves
by Sonic Youth
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Sonic Youth bestography
A Thousand Leaves is ranked 12th best out of 43 albums by Sonic Youth on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Sonic Youth is Daydream Nation which is ranked number 75 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 14,738.
(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 Thousand Leaves on YouTube
A Thousand Leaves track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
A Thousand Leaves rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 95 Music Albums of 1998 | 32/95 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Wasinski | Top 90 Music Albums of 1998 | 33/90 | 3 |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 91 Music Albums of 1998 | 13/91 | 4 |
| 2026 | brent13 | Top 18 Music Albums of 1998 | 18/18 | 0 |
| 2026 |  SomethingSpecial | Sonic Youth Ranked | 7/17 | - |
| 2026 |  Repo | Top 72 Music Albums of 1998 | 23/72 | 3 |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 71 Music Albums of 1998 | 45/71 | 2 |
| 2026 |  MadhattanJack | Top 74 Music Albums of 1998 | 22/74 | 4 |
| 2026 | Cheboygan74 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 57/100 | 9 |
| 2026 |  covecove | Top 100 Music Albums of 1998 | 77/100 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 113 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 390 | |||
A Thousand Leaves collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 74 members
A Thousand Leaves 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 171 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/16/2026 15:56 | SomethingSpecial | 1,817 | 82/100 |
| ! | 05/30/2026 03:04 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,681 | 70/100 |
| ! | 12/11/2025 06:00 |  Kingturtle | 7,579 | 73/100 |
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 11% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.6/100, a mean average of 74.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.1.
A Thousand Leaves favourites
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A Thousand Leaves forum mentions
dihansse 02/28/2025 11:38 in My discoveries per yearA Thousand Leaves comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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I haven't listened to it in a while, but from memory I seem to remember female mechanic on duty being wild af. And that the whole album is really good if a tad long and overdone in parts
teague TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/29/2020 23:59 | #256433 | TOP COMMENT
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Hmm. This one's a bit weak, isn't it? A lot of contrived and formulaic moments on A Thousand Leaves. It does have amazing guitar interplay, like every Sonic Youth album does, but that's really it. The song Sunday is supposedly the best song on here, I found it to be a little generic. Still, it's not horrible, it's not doing anything that I would say is crossing the line into awful, it just feels a little under par.
Another Incredibly underrated album, Sonic Youth decided to relax, stretch their legs a bit and just quietly play some guitar. and on songs that don't do that, they'll have one of the following things that also goes extremely well for them: they'll have a kickass hard rock edge, a relaxed psychedelic melody, or a really cool jammy instrumental. In all aspects, this album rocks, but it is occasionally forgettable.
Favorite Tracks: Sunday, Wildflower Soul, Hoarfrost, Hits of Sunshine, The Ineffable Me
While a few of these tracks go for way too long, there is enough melodic and hypnotizing tracks to keep you enjoying it.
Favorite tracks: Contre le sexisme, Sunday, Female Mechanic Now on Duty, Hoarfrost, Hits of Sunshine, Karen Koltrane
A-
7.5
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