On The Beach
by Neil Young
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Neil Young bestography
On The Beach is ranked 4th best out of 98 albums by Neil Young on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Neil Young is After The Gold Rush which is ranked number 84 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 14,086.
(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 On The Beach on YouTube
On The Beach track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 85 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
On The Beach 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 | Skerns | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 5/100 | 19 |
| 2026 | Moondance | Top 100 Music Albums of 1974 | 15/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | brent13 | Top 17 Music Albums of 1974 | 5/17 | 4 |
| 2026 |  hoyquarlow | Top 50 Music Albums of the 1970s | 38/50 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Robert Anton Wilson | Top 34 Music Albums of 1974 | 33/34 | 0 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Neil Young (and related)- Albums ranked | 12/79 | - |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 54 Music Albums of 1974 | 2/54 | 5 |
| 2026 | tim0505 | Top 34 Music Albums of 1974 | 1/34 | 5 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | January 2022 (2 B deleted) | 16/93 | - |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 45/100 | 11 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 834 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 7,117 | |||
On The Beach collection
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On The Beach 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 999 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/30/2026 14:19 | xhitmanx | 1,598 | 76/100 |
| ! | 08/27/2026 21:23 | Gedi | 367 | 83/100 |
| ! | 08/17/2026 20:22 |  Milhaud | 2,153 | 71/100 |
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 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 83.7/100, a mean average of 82.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 83.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.2.
On The Beach favourites
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Forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 09/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements BestEverAlbums 08/15/2026 20:00 in Album of the day (#7379): On The Beach by Neil Young BestEverAlbums 08/10/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5400): By BLOOn The Beach comments
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In my top four Neil Young albums and love that sleeve design. An album of two halves, both excellent for different reasons. (Edited)
This one is hard.. but.. my Neil Young's favorite Album (Edited)
When Neil Young was in that melancholic stage of his career we really got some of his best work ever record as evidenced by this project and Tonight's The Night. I do prefer Tonight's The Night but there is so much musical quality to get stuck into on here that it doesn't fall far behind. We get an exceptional slower side for side 2 which works so well with Young's vocal accompanied by some emotional guitar strumming and some brilliant harmonica work as well. The record truly peaks with the two longer songs of On The Beach and Ambulance Blues which captivate the style and feel of this album perfectly. Young also writes some fantastic lyrics on here full of personal troubles and despairs and he makes his words so easy to relate to. Overall, a darker and more troubled record from Young that demonstrates both his writing and musical talents very well making it one of his strongest releases.
Great record
Neil Young's best record in my opinion. Part of his acclaimed, informally-coined 'Ditch Trilogy' (along with 1973's live album 'Time Fades Away' and 1975's 'Tonight's the Night'), this album finds Neil Young colored by pessimism and melancholy, which, as often does in art, makes for more compelling songwriting. Ranging from ambivalent ('Walk On', 'On The Beach', 'Ambulance Blues') to defiant ('Vampire Blues', Revolution Blues'), Young sings and strums his way through what's essentially a stoned blues rock album (with folky overtones here and there for good measure).
In my opinion, one of the greatest albums of all time. This record has gone from being an overlooked gem from its release to now being held in high esteem as one of his (if not the) best.
Essential picks: On The Beach, Ambulance Blues, Walk On, Revolution Blues
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