Earthling
by David Bowie

Album
Earthling by David Bowie
Year: 1997
Release date: 1997-02-03
Overall rank: 3,716th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
72/100 (from 316 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1997 (57th)
Award Top albums of of the 1990s (605th)
Award Best albums of all time (3,716th)

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David Bowie bestography

Earthling is ranked 19th best out of 96 albums by David Bowie on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by David Bowie is The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars which is ranked number 6 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 40,968.

David Bowie album bestography « Higher ranked (3,104th)
Reality This album (3,716th)
Earthling Lower ranked (5,491st) »
Hours...

(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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Earthling rankings

Earthling rankings summary
Overall rank: 3,716th | 1990s rank: 605th | 1997 rank: 57th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 12 minutes ago).

Earthling collection

Earthling ratings

Average Rating: 
72/100 (from 316 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 316 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
65/100
 !		5 days ago xhitmanx  Ratings distribution  1,52476/100
 
80/100
 !		06/20/2026 01:15 ExTeaSea  Ratings distribution  5,23083/100
 
70/100
 !		05/28/2026 19:09 serpico  Ratings distribution  87586/100
 
70/100
 !		05/28/2026 14:58 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,35470/100
 
90/100
 !		03/28/2026 14:44 evo  Ratings distribution  27071/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 71.6/100, a mean average of 70.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 71.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.3.


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Earthling comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 22 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
75/100
From 10/03/2025 14:41 | #311184
Best tracks: I'm Afraid of Americans, Little Wonder, Dead Man Walking.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 01/16/2025 16:54 | #307052 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Be it because I'm afraid of Americans too, it is a grat album, one of my favourites. I particularly like the sound: I feel it synthetic with shades of metal. I miss this artist, he was full of surprises
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 09/29/2022 02:29 | #290036
This is AT LEAST a 9.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 09/17/2022 05:34 | #289723
This Album ahs his highs and downs but very interesting piece of art and industrial rock from the GOAT
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
From 01/10/2021 08:00 | #264132
I too am afraid of Americans. Solid record, basically it's if David Bowie sung over NIN instrumentals.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 01/08/2021 14:55 | #264035
Not my favorite Bowie' album, but definitely a very interesting one with highlights such as "Little Wwonder" and "Dea Man Walking". The combination of electronic elements with hard rocking guitars makes this an innovative album
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 05/11/2020 10:13 | #251284 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This to me is proof of the man's genius. Its by no means a great album, but for a 50 year old man to not only record a drum'n'bass album, but actually do a decent job shows how remarkable he was.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 12/31/2019 19:02 | #246257
Interesting experiment.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 06/01/2018 11:06 | #215869
A 50 year old David introduces some drum & bass elements, prompting a predictable ageist & crass negative response from many "open-minded" music followers and critics.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 03/11/2018 01:01 | #210618 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This is actualy a kinda interesting album, it should definitely be I little higher in his discog
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of  1997
1. OK Computer by Radiohead
2. Homogenic by Björk
3. Either/Or by Elliott Smith
4. The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse
5. F♯ A♯ ∞ [F-Sharp, A-Sharp, Infinity] by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
6. Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space by Spiritualized
7. Perfect From Now On by Built To Spill
8. Urban Hymns by The Verve
9. The Colour And The Shape by Foo Fighters
10. The Boatman's Call by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds