The Pretender
by Jackson Browne
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Jackson Browne bestography
The Pretender is ranked 3rd best out of 19 albums by Jackson Browne on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Jackson Browne is Running On Empty which is ranked number 2086 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 801.
(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 The Pretender on YouTube
The Pretender track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Pretender 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 |  Taka | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 42/100 | 59 |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 68 Music Albums of 1976 | 43/68 | 2 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Jackson Browne: So Far.. | 4/5 | - |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 100 Music Albums of 1976 | 49/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | List 1976 | 44/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Norman Bates | Top 97 Music Albums of 1976 | 84/97 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | Top 37 Music Albums of 1976 | 34/37 | 1 |
| 2026 | AAL2014 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1976 | 52/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 88 Music Albums of 1976 | 86/88 | 0 |
| 2026 | thenat | Top 29 Music Albums of 1976 | 28/29 | 0 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 126 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 469 | |||
The Pretender collection
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The Pretender 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 144 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/28/2026 12:06 | Taka | 1,096 | 80/100 |
| ! | 04/29/2026 00:18 | AAL2014 | 4,342 | 75/100 |
| ! | 12/27/2025 05:27 | Exist-en-ciel | 16,351 | 70/100 |
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 15% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.1/100, a mean average of 73.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.9.
The Pretender favourites
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The Pretender forum mentions
dihansse 09/17/2025 20:10 in My discoveries per year Romanelli 10/12/2024 23:48 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) Romanelli 01/20/2024 20:34 in What album are you listening to right now?The Pretender comments
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Great album by a great songwriter. Jackson Browne is underrated on this site (In my opinion).
A great record from Jackson Browne during his peak. The Pretender comes at a key point in his career since his wife had killed herself prior to this album's release. His former mother in law gets a writing credit with Browne on the album's highest charting single Here Come Those Tears Again, which is one of the album's strongest tracks. The title track has stood the test of time and is among Browne's best songs and one of the best songs of the era. Linda Paloma is a real outlier on this album and brings it down a bit. I don't completely hate the song but it doesn't really belong on the record. Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate is gold among the deep cuts.
Possibly Jackson Browne's greatest album. Chock-full of great, wistful songwriting and beautiful piano, guitar, and orchestration. Starts and finishes with the two best songs on the record (The Fuse, title track) and has lots of excellent moments in between (Your Bright Baby Blues, Here Come Those Tears Again, The Only Child, etc.). In having listened to Browne's classic period albums, this is the one to resonate with me most on first listen. (Edited)
Absolutely fantastic album. I'm really surprised how unpopular Jackson Browne is on this site. This album is just as good as Late For The Sky. Every song is based around ingenius lyrics. Linda Paloma tends to take some flak compared to the rest of the songs, but it's supposed to have a mexican kind of vibe to it, which relates to the lyrics of the song.
poppmusic TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/24/2017 05:07 | #189745 | TOP COMMENT
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This album could have been as good as "Automatic for the People" (that's the first thing that comes to mind in terms of mood). Alas, it is not. But it has it's moments (the underrated "Your Bright Baby Blues" being the high point). Love many of the songs lyrically but it is just over-produced at key moments. And "Linda Paloma" is just offensively stupid, unfortunately.
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