Chronic Town
by R.E.M.
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R.E.M. bestography
Chronic Town is ranked 12th best out of 36 albums by R.E.M. on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by R.E.M. is Automatic For The People which is ranked number 45 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 18,578.
(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 Chronic Town on YouTube
Chronic Town track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Chronic Town 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 | matterhornrider | Top 70 Music Albums of 1982 | 43/70 | 2 |
| 2026 |  NowhereMan | Top 14 Music Albums of 1982 | 11/14 | 1 |
| 2026 |  MadhattanJack | Top 100 Music Albums of 1982 | 10/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | cronadigallina | Top 99 Music Albums of 1982 | 6/99 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 99 Music Albums of 1982 | 42/99 | 3 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 86 Music Albums of 1982 | 17/86 | 4 |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 56 Music Albums of 1982 | 14/56 | 4 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 1982 | 40/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | Cheboygan74 | Top 20 Music Albums of 1982 | 6/20 | 4 |
| 2026 | NowhereMan | R.E.M - RANKED | 11/12 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 124 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 667 | |||
Chronic Town collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 101 members
Chronic Town 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 240 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/20/2026 23:20 | NowhereMan | 1,486 | 77/100 |
| ! | 06/23/2026 18:11 |  JR | 1,122 | 81/100 |
| ! | 05/12/2026 03:27 |  AAL2014 | 4,275 | 75/100 |
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 77.8/100, a mean average of 77.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.0.
Chronic Town favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 24 members
Forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/28/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5418): By baystateoftheart
NoisyBeast 07/11/2025 19:38 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
pedro1976 02/14/2023 18:09 in What album are you listening to right now?Chronic Town 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)
Brad1770 10/08/2017 08:42 | #199260
‘Chronic Town’ sparkles with “Wolves Lower” , “Gardening At Night” and “1,000,000” but peaks with the amazing “Carnival Of Sorts” setting the scene for one of the great bands of our times
Cool EP. Murmur does sound a lot like this.
10/10
nitomano 12/26/2016 05:07 | #181002
Highlights: Gardering At Night, Wolves Lower
R.E.M.'s best release. The only weak cut is "Stumble". The rest is basically perfect. The songs are energized (even on the sections where things seem to be quiet) to the point where it all sounds psychotic. Stipe's hooks are wonderful and always unpredictable, and Peter Buck's riffs are so good they defined what Jangle Pop would sound like for the next 5+ years. "Carnival of Sorts" might be the band's best song now that I think about it. (Edited)
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