The Nylon Curtain
by Billy Joel
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Billy Joel bestography
The Nylon Curtain is ranked 7th best out of 27 albums by Billy Joel on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Billy Joel is The Stranger which is ranked number 237 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 6,573.
(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 Nylon Curtain on YouTube
The Nylon Curtain 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.
The Nylon Curtain rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 82 Music Albums of 1982 | 16/82 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Helios | Top 90 Music Albums of 1982 | 70/90 | 1 |
| 2026 | Rivera | 701-800 | 77/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 99 Music Albums of 1982 | 34/99 | 3 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | Platinum decade 1980s Pt 3 | 14/100 | - |
| 2026 |  paladisiac | 1980s, #301-400 | 3/100 | - |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 1982 | 86/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | beatlematt | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 56/100 | 44 |
| 2026 | Kettwig | Top 20 Music Albums of 1982 | 14/20 | 2 |
| 2026 | jlsfourth | Top 10 Music Albums of 1982 | 6/10 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 112 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 364 | |||
The Nylon Curtain collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 86 members
The Nylon Curtain 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 151 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/18/2026 11:51 |  Liedzeit | 2,562 | 74/100 |
| ! | 06/24/2026 21:55 |  Tamthebam | 23,334 | 69/100 |
| ! | 04/15/2026 17:08 | gmessian | 385 | 60/100 |
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 11% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.6/100, a mean average of 73.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.3.
The Nylon Curtain favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 13 members
The Nylon Curtain forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 10/20/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5471): By beatlemattView latest topic →
Liedzeit 07/18/2026 11:50 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
Romanelli 02/20/2023 18:02 in Albums You Added To Your Collection TodayView all forum mentions
The Nylon Curtain comments
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This is a really good album, almost sounds like a Beatles' tribute/pastiche at times especially on the wonderful Laura, a kind of John Lennon psychedelic ballad, and the drony, Scandinavian skies. The middle eight of surprises sounds just like George Harrison too. The first half of the album is perfect with Joel classics such as the protest song, Allentown, the excellent, pressure and the Vietnam anthem, goodnight Saigon. Second side/half is not as great but room of our own is excellent. There's certainly nothing bad on here, but it does tend to run out of steam before the end. Where's the orchestra, ends the album. It's definitely an interesting album if you're a Beatles fan. A fine Billy Joel album.
Way underrated piece of work, Goodnight Saigon is a great song about Vietnam. Allentown is a great song about American decline. The B Side is a great tribute to the Beatles. All in all I think this album should be considered Joel's second best and reach the top 500 of any list.
Pressure, Allentown, and Goodnight Saigon are all you really need off this one. (Edited)
Not the hit factory Joel's albums usually are. Nevertheless, this is one of the most poignant records he ever did. All of the tracks are strong here, and I don't there are any songs here that gratuitously "fill" out the set. Allentown could've been written today.
Crumpet 01/17/2018 14:54 | #205884 | TOP COMMENT
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By far Joel's best album, Nylon Curtain is an inspired and eclectic work that takes influence from the Vietnam war, the Beatles and (Of course) drugs.
The best tracks on here are 'Where's the Orchestra', 'Allentown', 'Scandinavian Skies' and 'Laura'
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