Songs Of Pain
by Daniel Johnston
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Daniel Johnston bestography
Songs Of Pain is ranked 4th best out of 29 albums by Daniel Johnston on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Daniel Johnston is Hi, How Are You: The Unfinished Album which is ranked number 2114 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 787.
(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 Songs Of Pain on YouTube
Songs Of Pain track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Songs Of Pain 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 |  Repo | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 43/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 83/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  BozoTyrannus | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 74/100 | 26 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 45/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 14 Music Albums of 1981 | 9/14 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 90 Music Albums of 1981 | 39/90 | 3 |
| 2026 | martintho | Top 57 Music Albums of 1981 | 35/57 | 2 |
| 2026 |  arthurbittencourt | Top 99 Music Albums of the 1980s | 29/99 | 14 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Top 72 Music Albums of 1981 | 14/72 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 10/100 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 56 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 338 | |||
Songs Of Pain collection
Showing all 13 members who have this album in their collection
Songs Of Pain 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 62 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/08/2026 12:48 | cicadelic | 14,063 | 73/100 |
| ! | 01/19/2026 18:46 | DommeDamian | 7,794 | 48/100 |
| ! | 12/28/2025 03:24 | AAL2014 | 4,310 | 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 4% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.7/100, a mean average of 74.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 21.8.
Songs Of Pain favourites
Showing all 7 members who have added this album as a favourite
Songs Of Pain forum mentions
meccalecca 01/10/2015 14:52 in Weak years (for you)Songs Of Pain comments
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Listmeister 02/23/2015 21:01 | #135523 | TOP COMMENT
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I don't know what to make of this guy. Is he insane? Is he a bad songwriter? Or had just not learned yet how to edit his own material? (He had a longish career, maybe he got better.) This is a stream of consciousness recorded on a bad tape recorder, just singing whatever thoughts pop into his head with no regard for rhyme or narrative structure or rhyme. I cannot disagree with the title. (Edited)
BozoTyrannus 06/09/2020 14:54 | #253185 | TOP COMMENT
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One of my favorite debuts. A wonderful introduction to outsider music. (Edited)
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