The Island Years
by John Cale
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The Island Years track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Island Years rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 7 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 2001-2100 | 97/100 | - |
| 2026 | Romanelli | Top 83 Music Albums of 1996 | 52/83 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 2 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 2 | |||
The Island Years collection
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The Island Years 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 10 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 05/05/2025 23:47 | ForARide | 35 | 88/100 |
| ! | 03/27/2023 17:55 | LosWochos | 47,545 | 75/100 |
| ! | 11/10/2022 04:35 |  Arthurknight | 9,584 | 72/100 |
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 76.8/100, a mean average of 81.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 81.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.0.
The Island Years favourites
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The Island Years forum mentions
Romanelli 10/01/2026 17:51 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) Romanelli 12/28/2021 03:07 in What album are you listening to right now? Romanelli 05/05/2017 12:13 in The Romanelli Music Diary: Mexican MoonThe Island Years comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Crumpet 03/10/2018 17:07 | #210586
A brilliant set of 3 albums that, while ranging in quality, are all worth owning.
The first album 'Fear' is also the best, and is made up of tracks 1-8 on disk 1, featuring the best tracks on the whole set, namely "Buffalo Ballet", "Fear is a Man's Best Friend" and, my favourite, "Emily".
The second album is the entertaining but flawed "Slow Dazzel", which consists of 13-17 on disk 1 and tracks 1-5 on disk 2. Slow Dazzel has some great songs on it, the opener and the closer ("Mr. Wilson" and "The Jeweller") being examples, as well as his brilliantly dark reinterpretation of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel". The only change made to any of these albums was made to any of these albums for this collection was that "The Jeweller" is slightly shorter than it was on the origional release of Skow Dazzel, but it doesn't really make that much of a difference.
The final album is the worst of the lot, but it is still very entertaining. "Helen of Troy" consists of tracks 6-16 on disk 2 and the tracks worth pointing out are "I Keep a Close Watch", "Engine" and the final track "Sudden Death".
The set also contains 6 extra tracks, tracks 10-12 on disk 1 and tracks 17-19 on disk 2. These songs are all really good and make the collection worth buying even if you already have most of the content. I particularly like "Coral Moon" and the lovely "Sylvia Said", which should really have been on Fear.
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