Don't Be Scared
by Daniel Johnston
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Daniel Johnston bestography
Don't Be Scared is ranked 5th 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 Don't Be Scared on YouTube
Don't Be Scared track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Don't Be Scared 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 |  Purplepash | Top 42 Music Albums of 1982 | 39/42 | 0 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 1982 | 80/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 14 Music Albums of 1982 | 9/14 | 2 |
| 2026 | martintho | Top 55 Music Albums of 1982 | 23/55 | 3 |
| 2026 | daCritic | Top 25 Music Albums of 1982 | 25/25 | 0 |
| 2026 |  cestuneblague | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 25/100 | 15 |
| 2025 | FlapJackJoey | Top 63 Music Albums of 1982 | 36/63 | 2 |
| 2025 | MaxStorm98 | Top 64 Music Albums of 1982 | 45/64 | 2 |
| 2024 |  meccalecca | Top 45 Music Albums of 1982 | 5/45 | 5 |
| 2024 | meccalecca | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 41/100 | 12 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 36 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 161 | |||
Don't Be Scared collection
Showing all 8 members who have this album in their collection
Don't Be Scared 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 57 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 03/16/2026 23:28 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,887 | 70/100 |
| ! | 10/04/2025 04:54 | MaxStorm98 | 3,798 | 89/100 |
| ! | 04/02/2025 22:21 | thepardunk | 2,587 | 69/100 |
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 72.8/100, a mean average of 71.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 72.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 20.8.
Don't Be Scared favourites
Showing all 5 members who have added this album as a favourite
Don't Be Scared forum mentions
Purplepash 10/28/2018 02:17 in What album are you listening to right now? cestuneblague 06/02/2016 00:42 in Four Girls Fingerpaint >: Contrarian Musings and Dirty Mi
benpaco 08/11/2015 21:29 in Could anyone recommend any artists of the Lo-Fi genre?Don't Be Scared comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Mattdup279 05/12/2016 13:59 | #165800 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
As a big Daniel fan, I find this album a nice middle ground between his lighter, piano driven early work (Songs of Pain) and the dark, scattered sound to come (Hi How Are You, Yip/Jump). My Yoke is Heavy and The Story of an Artist are some of my favorites, too.
timtooky 04/03/2014 19:53 | #108415 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
a catastrophically bad sound quality on this record. and furthermore the "band" tries to make everything - but music. (Edited)
SuedeSwede TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/11/2014 13:47 | #116441
a) It's not a band
b) It's music (Edited)
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