Open Road
by Donovan
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Donovan bestography
Open Road is ranked 13th best out of 41 albums by Donovan on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Donovan is Sunshine Superman which is ranked number 1472 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,166.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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Open Road track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Open Road rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | stevengnz | Top 84 Music Albums of 1970 | 69/84 | 1 |
| 2026 | davidhuret | Top 43 Music Albums of 1970 | 5/43 | 5 |
| 2026 | lanadeleswift | Top 48 Music Albums of 1970 | 27/48 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Repo | Top 99 Music Albums of 1970 | 38/99 | 3 |
| 2025 |  nitomano | Top 71 Music Albums of 1970 | 51/71 | 1 |
| 2025 | Repo | Rank 'Em: Donovan | 7/14 | - |
| 2024 | cmoshier | Top 100 Music Albums of 1970 | 66/100 | 2 |
| 2023 | davidhuret | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 46/100 | 11 |
| 2022 |  NoisyBeast | 1969/70 ~ Wish List | 98/100 | - |
| 2022 | Steppenwolf666 | Collectable record labels, The Dawn label | 8/50 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 24 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 31 | |||
Open Road collection
Showing all 18 members who have this album in their collection
Open Road 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 42 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/26/2026 21:42 | BorderFreeAndrew | 15,715 | 74/100 |
| ! | 07/10/2025 03:14 | lanadeleswift | 3,769 | 86/100 |
| ! | 08/28/2023 19:50 | TonySayers61 | 25,468 | 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 67.0/100, a mean average of 64.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 65.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 19.1.
Open Road favourites
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Forum mentions
Repo 06/07/2025 16:11 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) Repo 06/03/2025 00:43 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) Repo 06/24/2023 15:12 in What album are you listening to right now?Open Road comments
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A good record, he just kind of lost momentum and drifted away. That's a shame because he was a good song writer and this was a nice change of direction for him.
Open Road is Donovan's eighth studio album. It is also considered the debut album from his shortlived band Open Road. Open Road was released in 1970 on Epic in the USA and on a new label Dawn in Great Britain. For the Open Road sessions Donovan had spilt from producer Mickey Most and decided to produce the album by himself. Donovan's production is less polished than Most's, which were more or less pointed towards the charts.
Donovan assembled the band Open Road with guitarist Mike Thomson, drummer John Carr and keyboardist Mike O'Neil. Shortly after the release of the album, Donovan left Open Road who continued for short period to record and release one more album in 1971 (Windy Daze).
Though the album has only one (minor) hit-single it actually sold quite well, especially in the US. There is a nice relaxed and organic feel to most songs, though only a few of them are likely to stick with you, unless, of course, unless, of course, you consciously wish to remember them. Some songs have a certain kinship with the earlier Donovan songs; for example, "Clare Clairvoyant" which may lead your thoughts towards "Season of the Witch" and the almost Syd Barrett-like "Curry Land" towards "Lalena".
The strongest songs (my favorites) are the catchy and rocking "Changes". The melodic, classic Donovan songs "Season of Farewell" and "Like We Used to", besides the fine finishing number "New Year's Resolution." I recently repurchased the album on CD and it's actually much better than I remembered it.
I will now try to look for the sequel "HMS Donovan" which allegedly may be difficult to find - perhaps because it was exclusively released on the company Dawn
The best ever album of Donovan Philip Leitch...
the best ever album....
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