The Disintegration Loops I
by William Basinski

The Disintegration Loops I by William Basinski
Year: 2002
Release date: 2002-08-00
Overall rank: 1,600th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 168 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2002 (26th)
Award Top albums of of the 2000s (257th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,600th)

Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY
Store / Region
Product Details
Availability

eBay
eBay
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops (8xLP)
Condition: New

$169.95


Go to store

eBay
eBay
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops (Arcadia Archive Edition) [Box Set]
Condition: New

$190.99


Go to store

eBay
eBay
WILLIAM BASINSKI THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS [ARCADIA ARCHIVE EDITION] NEW LP
Condition: New

$215.08


Go to store

  My favourite store:  

William Basinski bestography

The Disintegration Loops I is ranked as the best album by William Basinski.

William Basinski album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (1,600th)
The Disintegration Loops I
Lower ranked (2,693rd) »
The Disintegration Loops

(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 Disintegration Loops I on YouTube

Loading content from YouTube...

The Disintegration Loops I track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by
#
Track
Rating/Comments

The Disintegration Loops I rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,600th | 2000s rank: 257th | 2002 rank: 26th

The Disintegration Loops I collection

The Disintegration Loops I ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 168 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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 168 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 !
46 hours ago Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  14,54470/100
 
65/100
 !
07/01/2026 01:35 Helios  Ratings distribution  6,19969/100
 
90/100
 !
02/10/2026 18:54 DommeDamian  Ratings distribution  7,46949/100
 
80/100
 !
01/24/2026 11:39 haz215  Ratings distribution  11473/100
 
75/100
 !
01/07/2026 02:47 AAL2014  Ratings distribution  4,02975/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 77.9/100, a mean average of 76.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 18.7.

Please log in or register if you want to be able to leave a rating

The Disintegration Loops I comments

Showing all 9 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)

Rating:  
80/100
From 06/09/2020 15:01 | #253189
Haunting and unforgettable.

Also fun to mute the score of a silent film and play this over it instead.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 05/28/2020 16:24 | #252412
Very good album to listen while doing something else.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 10/25/2018 17:35 | #223308
This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -9 votes (0 helpful | 9 unhelpful)
From 04/20/2018 22:12 | #213302
Pretty but entirely unengaging ambient music. Also, there's a case to be made about Basinski exploiting and profiting off the 9/11 tragedy through this. Divorced from the "Oh, I sat on a rooftop and watched the twin towers burn whilst finishing the album" context, I doubt this would have gained a tenth of the critical or public acclaim because it's just not that special.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (1 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From Wikipedia:
The Disintegration Loops is a series of four albums by American avant-garde composer William Basinski released in 2002 and 2003. All tracks have the same form of ambient music fragments played in a tape loop that slowly deteriorates as it passes by the tape head, creating all the more noises and cracks in the music as the theme progresses. The recording coincided with the 9/11 attacks and the album covers and accompanying videos feature a still skyline of New York City with smoke and dust rising from the World Trade Center site.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
This album is dying! Slowly and beautifully, for all eternity...
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Simply stunning, cant recommend highly enough!! Get this in your life now!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
Destroying my soul and ego slowly but completely, tears coming out from my half-closed eyes, the whole world fading out from my view, fireworks burning inside of my brain, the future arriving in some obscure places...

It's a beautiful tragedy
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
This and Stars of the Lid are two artists I've started to listen to this year. I think they frustrate my level of activity. Maybe my life needs more Boney M
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a comment

Your feedback for The Disintegration Loops I

Anonymous
Let us know what you think of this album by adding a comment or assigning a rating below.
The top comments are featured on our aggregated charts!
Log in or create a FREE account to assign a rating or leave a comment for this album.