The Disintegration Loops I
by William Basinski
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William Basinski bestography
The Disintegration Loops I is ranked as the best album by William Basinski.
(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
The Disintegration Loops I track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Disintegration Loops I rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 14/100 | 17 |
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 72 Music Albums of 2002 | 72/72 | 0 |
| 2026 |  Graeme2 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 85/100 | 16 |
| 2026 |  Helios | Top 100 Music Albums of 2002 | 40/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | Adyman | Top 50 Greatest Music Albums | 47/50 | 7 |
| 2026 | Cheboygan74 | Top 24 Music Albums of 2002 | 24/24 | 0 |
| 2026 | pjerske | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 46/100 | 11 |
| 2026 | Lavender | Top 64 Greatest Music Albums | 22/64 | 65 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 2002 | 14/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Antonio-Pedro | Top 99 Music Albums of the 2000s | 5/99 | 19 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 141 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,060 | |||
The Disintegration Loops I collection
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The Disintegration Loops I 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 168 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/12/2026 18:11 | Exist-en-ciel | 16,241 | 70/100 |
| ! | 07/01/2026 01:35 | Helios | 6,265 | 69/100 |
| ! | 02/10/2026 18:54 | DommeDamian | 7,838 | 48/100 |
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 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.
The Disintegration Loops I favourites
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The Disintegration Loops I forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/24/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5414): By Graeme2View latest topic →
MadhattanJack 12/01/2025 00:39 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
NoisyBeast 06/17/2023 13:40 in What album are you listening to right now?View all forum mentions
The Disintegration Loops I comments
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SingingPeasant96 TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/18/2014 14:37 | #119740 | TOP COMMENT
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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 (Edited)
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
Graeme2 TOP 100 COMMENTER 09/29/2015 11:41 | #150682 | TOP COMMENT
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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.
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. (Edited)
Simply stunning, cant recommend highly enough!! Get this in your life now!
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