Louder Than Bombs
by The Smiths
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The Smiths bestography
Louder Than Bombs is ranked 6th best out of 16 albums by The Smiths on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Smiths is The Queen Is Dead which is ranked number 16 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 31,158.
(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 Louder Than Bombs on YouTube
Louder Than Bombs track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 85 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Louder Than Bombs rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 2 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | ornot27 | Top 66 Music Albums of the 1980s | 15/66 | 16 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 1987 | 42/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  MadhattanJack | Top 69 Music Albums of 1987 | 39/69 | 2 |
| 2026 | xhitmanx | Top 23 Music Albums of 1987 | 20/23 | 1 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 1987 | 11/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | Fritz | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 15/100 | 17 |
| 2026 |  hoyquarlow | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 15/100 | 86 |
| 2026 |  xo66 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 24/100 | 72 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 74 Music Albums of 1987 | 10/74 | 4 |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 51 Music Albums of 1987 | 2/51 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 311 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 2,285 | |||
Louder Than Bombs collection
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Louder Than Bombs 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 670 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/01/2026 01:11 | Rivera | 2,053 | 82/100 |
| ! | 07/28/2026 02:11 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
| ! | 07/12/2026 19:32 | liquidbottle | 775 | 82/100 |
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 82.9/100, a mean average of 81.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.6.
Louder Than Bombs favourites
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Louder Than Bombs forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5392): By leniad BestEverAlbums 07/27/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5386): By Antonio-Pedro BestEverAlbums 07/01/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5360): By hoyquarlowLouder Than Bombs comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Onater 03/21/2017 22:20 | #187842 | TOP COMMENT
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I typically don't like to consider compilations as proper albums and avoid putting them in my charts, but for this and Hatful of Hollow, I make an exception. Most of these tracks don't show up on any of the Smiths' studio releases, so might as well rate it as any other album. (Edited)
DeusExMackia TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/09/2015 16:47 | #134477 | TOP COMMENT
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Although the second side is weaker, the opening 12 songs could be album in their own right. And a damn good one at that.
Brad1770 TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/31/2018 07:21 | #228366 | TOP COMMENT
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What made The Smiths so great was even their B-Sides were good , not all but most . Case in point this compilation and the following killer B-Sides:
-Is It Really So Strange ?
-Sweet and Tender Hooligan
-Half a Person
-London
-Oscillate Wildly
-Rubber Ring
-Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
-Unlovable
-Asleep
Think about it ? That bunch of tracks were B-Sides ! . Ridiculous
'Louder Than Bombs' was released in America as a cousin to their British compilation 'The World Won't Listen' and consists of all singles and nearly all B-sides that had not at that point been available in the United States, either on single or album, with a few other tracks added.
Brilliant , minus the simply awful "Golden Lights" which is hands down the worst Smiths track ... period
(Edited)
I don't know, this doesn't feel like an album as much as "The Hatful of Hollow" but oh. my. god, there are so many good songs here.
Great compilation, but I prefer Hatful Of Hollow, mostly because of raw, post-punk sound that they had, but it's the matter of personal taste. On this album Sheila Take A Bow, Sweet And Tender Hooligan, Panic and London are probably the biggest bangers, but we have some sad lyrical masterpieces here like Ask, Asleep, Unloveable and Half A Person all of them accompanied with Johnny Marr's excellent guitar work. Of course we have soke great tracks that we had already on on Hatful Of Hollow so I will not write about them here. (Edited)
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