Ghosteen
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Year: 2019
Release date: 2019-10-04
Overall rank: 880th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 351 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 2019 (7th)
Award Top albums of of the 2010s (125th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (880th)

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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds bestography

Ghosteen is ranked 8th best out of 30 albums by Nick Cave on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Nick Cave is Skeleton Tree which is ranked number 382 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 4,334.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album bestography « Higher ranked (861st)
The Good Son
This album (880th)
Ghosteen
Lower ranked (945th) »
No More Shall We Part

(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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Ghosteen track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Ghosteen rankings

Ghosteen rankings summary
Overall rank: 880th | 2010s rank: 125th | 2019 rank: 7th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 1 hour ago).
Filter Filter
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026 AAL2014Top 46 Music Albums of 20191/465
2026 PurplepashRanked listening log 2019 101-20047/100 -
2026blueandthemoonTop 34 Music Albums of 20198/344
2026 Graeme2Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s15/10017
2026Cheboygan74Top 22 Music Albums of 201910/223
2026Steppenwolf666Top 99 Music Albums of 201999/990
2026Rm12398Top 26 Music Albums of 20197/264
2026matterhornriderTop 27 Music Albums of 20199/274
2026JohnnyoQ magazine 2019 (2 B deleted)5/49 -
2026 DriftingOrpheusTop 2 Music Albums of 20192/23
2026JohnnyoTop 91 Music Albums of 201929/913
2026 DriftingOrpheusTop 39 Greatest Music Albums11/3974
2026 imacgillTop 100 Music Albums of the 2010s57/1009
2026 covecoveTop 100 Music Albums of 201920/1004
2026 HaydenTop 100 Music Albums of 20197/1005
2026 flamingyesdeptTop 100 Music Albums of the 2010s49/10010
2026 AAL2014Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s6/10019
2026 TakaTop 100 Music Albums of the 2010s71/1006
2026fabm0Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s80/1004
2026Exist-en-cielTop 100 Music Albums of 201915/1004
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 388
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 1,968
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

Ghosteen collection

Ghosteen ratings

Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 351 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help 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 351 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
18 hours ago AledJames  Ratings distribution  1,62869/100
 
80/100
 !
07/16/2026 11:40 glebrus  Ratings distribution  46981/100
 
80/100
 !
07/10/2026 22:31 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,21170/100
 
100/100
 !
06/06/2026 02:53 Bizzocchi  Ratings distribution  1779/100
 
100/100
 !
06/01/2026 02:24 covecove  Ratings distribution  6,66474/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 79.0/100, a mean average of 78.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.0.


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Ghosteen comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 21 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)

From 06/23/2023 22:27 | #297747
This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -3 votes (0 helpful | 3 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 04/28/2022 23:21 | #284776
Belíssimo! Uma calma enorme e pequenos sons colossais no conjunto.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 12/29/2021 03:15 | #278151
And out of nowhere, Nick Cave returns with another banger!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 10/01/2021 08:02 | #274524
For some reason I kind of lost track of Nick Cave after Push The Sky Away, an album which I liked by the way, but then I went to see him only last week and it was wonderful and I am now firmly back onside. The tracks performed the other night were mainly from Carnage and indeed Ghosteen and they were as good as anything he has done before I think, this album has great vocals and is littered with dark lyrical wonders, I think Cave is more or less at the height of his powers right now.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 07/05/2021 11:34 | #271366
Highlights:

- Bright Horses
- Waiting For You
- Ghosteen
- Fireflies
- Hollywood
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 09/04/2020 19:33 | #257762
I always seem to rate nick cave albums highly but even though I consider myself a fan, I don't listen to him often, I have to really be in the mood. Therefore when I first had a listen to part of this when it was released, I really wasn't fussed at all. Right now it sounds fantastic for all the reasons others have said.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 05/17/2020 11:16 | #251613
Beautiful album! Very emotional from start to end.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
A little too slow for me. There isn’t much variety between the songs. I’m not the biggest fan of the vocals but I appreciate the passion. You can feel the anguish throughout the album. The lyrics are the best part of the album, in my opinion, but there isn’t enough else happening for me.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (4 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
It pains me to rate this album so low. Not only is it a heartbreaking, deep look at loss and mourning, but it's also really beautiful. The shimmering synths sound just like the cover looks - alive and crisp. But there's just too much here, and there's not enough variety. The first couple songs are great, especially "Bright Horses." I had to stop listening after that one when I was at work for fear of breaking out in tears in the middle of the work day. The opener finds Cave in a mode that he's often in on this album, spinning abstract stories out of really specific, familiar components. Nowhere does he do this better than on the closer, "Hollywood," which is one of the 5-10 best songs he's ever written. It would be in that club even just with the first half, but the second half, and it's heartrending story where you can tell Cave is nearly in tears during his falsetto as he's both assuring us it gets better while also begging that things will get better, absolutely pushes it over the top.

So yeah, it's a shame that for the most part the rest of this album is so samey. I probably like every song here, but listening to it all in a row is, frankly, a chore. There are tremendous moments that catch you off guard, like "Mama Bear holds the remote, Papa Bear just floats, and Baby Bear is gone to the moon in a boat." These moments pull you back in as you're drifting off, but the great moments like this are too spread out in minimal repetitive passages. This album is a landmark and a career highlight. But unfortunately I have no desire to hear it again.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +7 votes (7 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 12/31/2019 20:18 | #246274
Probably the most heartbreakingly beautiful album I have ever heard. Nick Cave displays all the pain and anguish of losing a child in these intimate and extremely personal songs. They sound nothing like Cave has ever done before and yet the record feels like the final part of a musical trilogy that started with "Push the sky away" (with "Skeleton tree" in the middle) although because of the lyrical issues at stake here I doubt that that was ever Cave's intention. Yes, it's hard listening, but it will become a classic and another great Nick Cave album although it's the one he didn't want but had to make.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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