The Payback (studio album) by James Brown

The Payback by James Brown
Year: 1973
Overall rank: 3,215th   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 132 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1973 (63rd)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (574th)
Award Best albums of all time (3,215th)
Product Details
Availability

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James Brown The Payback (Vinyl)
Condition: New


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James Brown - Payback [New Vinyl LP]
Condition: New


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Funk Soundtrack 45 James Brown - The Payback / The Payback -Part 2 on Polydor
Condition: Used


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James Brown bestography

The Payback is ranked 3rd best out of 93 albums by James Brown on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by James Brown is James Brown Live At The Apollo which is ranked number 624 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,777.

James Brown album bestography « Higher ranked (3,100th) This album (3,215th) Lower ranked (3,524th) »
In The Jungle GrooveThe PaybackSex Machine

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The Payback track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track pick
Rating: 87 (42 votes)Comments: 1
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4.
Rating: 80 (18 votes)Comments: 0
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Rating: 82 (20 votes)Comments: 1
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Track pick Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

The Payback rankings

The Payback collection

The Payback ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 132 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 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 132 ratings for this album.

Sort ratings
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 Report rating
09/08/2025 12:01 cicadelic  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 10,58273/100
 
10/100
 Report rating
05/17/2025 05:27 Proto  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 3,42734/100
 
80/100
 Report rating
05/05/2025 16:27 Jhereko  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 26680/100
 
75/100
 Report rating
04/04/2025 07:53 Siromynian  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,55479/100
 
80/100
 Report rating
02/04/2025 22:00 matterhornrider  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4,66981/100

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 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.7/100, a mean average of 77.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.3.

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The Payback favourites

Showing all 12 members who have added this album as a favourite

The Payback comments

Showing all 5 comments |
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Rating:  
85/100
From 05/18/2023 17:13
Very stylish, unaggressive, subtle funkyfunk, cool..D
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 02/21/2023 16:14
Hell yeah, and hallelujah for the funk.

That is all.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 08/09/2019 19:38
100/100

Sadly how this genre is "hated" by most of the BEA community
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 06/15/2019 22:40
How this got rejected as a soundtrack for not being funky enough is beyond me
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From 10/18/2014 12:29
Funky as hell...I challenge anyone not to fucking like this
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of 1973
1. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd
2. Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
3. Houses Of The Holy by Led Zeppelin
4. Selling England By The Pound by Genesis
5. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
6. Quadrophenia by The Who
7. Band On The Run by Paul McCartney & Wings
8. Raw Power by Iggy And The Stooges
9. Aladdin Sane by David Bowie
10. Future Days by Can
11. (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd) by Lynyrd Skynyrd
12. For Your Pleasure by Roxy Music
13. Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock
14. Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
15. Closing Time by Tom Waits
16. Berlin by Lou Reed
17. The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen
18. Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
19. Larks' Tongues In Aspic by King Crimson
20. Paris 1919 by John Cale
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