The Black Rider
by Tom Waits
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Tom Waits bestography
The Black Rider is ranked 17th best out of 27 albums by Tom Waits on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Tom Waits is Rain Dogs which is ranked number 113 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 11,149.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
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The Black Rider track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Black Rider rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 2/100 | 20 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1993 | 45/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 1993 | 57/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 50 Music Albums of 1993 | 38/50 | 1 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Top 62 Music Albums of 1993 | 41/62 | 2 |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 90 Music Albums of 1993 | 59/90 | 2 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 1993 | 82/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 43/100 | 57 |
| 2026 |  Helios | Top 100 Music Albums of 1993 | 26/100 | 4 |
| 2025 |  Nightprowler | Top 4 Music Albums of 1993 | 1/4 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 60 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 316 | |||
The Black Rider collection
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The Black Rider 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 105 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 04/27/2026 13:38 | cicadelic | 14,056 | 73/100 |
| ! | 03/04/2026 23:09 | Proto | 4,311 | 33/100 |
| ! | 01/03/2026 11:27 | liquidbottle | 775 | 82/100 |
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 70.3/100, a mean average of 70.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 70.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.6.
The Black Rider favourites
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The Black Rider forum mentions
The Black Rider comments
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The black rider, is Tom Waits collaboration with William Burroughs and Robert Wilson, and is based on a German folk tale, it's one of Waits' most challenging albums. Still, as all Waits records, there are some fantastic tracks here. Just the right bullets, November, i'll shoot the moon, and the excellent title track, are up there with anything Waits has done. Mentions must also go to, the briar and the rose, and, T'ain't no sin(which features Burroughs on vocals). There are couple of strange instrumentals, and it closes strongly with, the last rose of summer/carnival. The black rider, tends to be overlooked, as it comes just after the 'island' trilogy and the, bone machine, record, and before the, mule variations, album, which wouldn't be out until 1999. I think it's just as stunning as those other albums(although maybe not quite the same focus) and deserves more attention. Another strong Tom Waits album.
junodog4 TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/29/2016 03:11 | #158033 | TOP COMMENT
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Cool concept, but not quite the same execution as the epic 80s trilogy.
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