The Source
by Ayreon
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Ayreon bestography
The Source is ranked 4th best out of 17 albums by Ayreon on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Ayreon is Into The Electric Castle (A Space Opera) which is ranked number 6584 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 201.
(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 The Source on YouTube
The Source track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 77 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Source rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | steve397 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 41/100 | 60 |
| 2026 | steve397 | Top 7 Music Albums of 2017 | 1/7 | 5 |
| 2026 |  JoSt | Top 99 Music Albums of 2017 | 41/99 | 3 |
| 2026 | stevengnz | Top 69 Music Albums of 2017 | 14/69 | 4 |
| 2026 | steve397 | Top 62 Music Albums of the 2010s | 10/62 | 17 |
| 2024 | svk4ever | Top 20 Music Albums of 2017 | 9/20 | 3 |
| 2023 |  AlexSVK | Top 10 Music Albums of 2017 | 4/10 | 4 |
| 2023 |  MW19704U | Top 80 Music Albums of 2017 | 31/80 | 3 |
| 2023 | LosWochos | Die besten Alben des Jahres 2017 by ROCKS | 6/99 | - |
| 2019 |  Robert Anton Wilson | Top 8 Music Albums of 2017 | 8/8 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 14 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 110 | |||
The Source collection
Showing all 8 members who have this album in their collection
The Source 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 14 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/01/2026 12:01 | steve397 | 512 | 75/100 |
| ! | 04/25/2026 23:08 | Robert Anton Wil | 1,149 | 84/100 |
| ! | 03/10/2026 12:08 | TonySayers61 | 25,496 | 64/100 |
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 has a Bayesian average rating of 69.9/100, a mean average of 68.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 68.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.0.
The Source favourites
Showing all 3 members who have added this album as a favourite
The Source comments
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I am ashamed to say that I bought the deluxe version purely for the 5.1 version. It just demonstrates that I am desperate to purchase 5.1 knowing how boring and uninspiring the album will be. I loved the Ayreon albums from The Final Experiment to The Universal Migrator (inclusive). But since then, Arjen Lucassen's recordings have been more of the same and frankly not as good.
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