This Was
by Jethro Tull

This Was by Jethro Tull
Year: 1968
Release date: 1968-10-25
Overall rank: 3,843rd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 160 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1968 (56th)
Award Top albums of of the 1960s (320th)
Award Best albums of all time (3,843rd)

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Jethro Tull bestography

This Was is ranked 8th best out of 48 albums by Jethro Tull on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Jethro Tull is Aqualung which is ranked number 318 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 5,208.

Jethro Tull album bestography « Higher ranked (3,482nd)
Minstrel In The Gallery
This album (3,843rd)
This Was
Lower ranked (4,039th) »
A Passion Play

(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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This Was rankings

This Was rankings summary
Overall rank: 3,843rd | 1960s rank: 320th | 1968 rank: 56th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 6 hours ago).

This Was collection

This Was ratings

Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 160 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 160 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 !
5 days ago platus  Ratings distribution  5,86474/100
 
75/100
 !
05/17/2026 18:41 matterhornrider  Ratings distribution  5,11081/100
 
80/100
 !
05/10/2026 19:25 emnasut  Ratings distribution  15387/100
 
65/100
 !
05/10/2026 11:57 Adhura  Ratings distribution  1,69377/100
 
100/100
 !
04/27/2026 03:22 Marswolf68  Ratings distribution  93378/100

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 is rated in the top 23% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 73.6/100, a mean average of 72.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.6.


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This Was favourites

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This Was comments

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Rating:  
85/100
I like this a lot, bluesy and jazzy, but not without the flute of the madman ;)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 01/06/2022 10:43 | #278714
Gran disco de debut, aunque no marcarían claramente su rumbo hasta el siguiente. Toques de jazz y blues para un álbum magnífico.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 12/24/2019 14:35 | #245917
Just your usual hard rock album of the late sixties... with a very out of place flute. Anyway, they try to make blues heavy and they succeed. Do they succeed exceptionally more so than their contemporaries? With Jimi in their back and Led Zeppelin hovering in the near distance, I can see why they're mostly forgotten.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Good bluesy album. Almost a Mayall vibe here.
The guitar replacement soon will leave Ian leading the band completely. Golden JT era ahead.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
A very strong debut album. Hints at what Tull were to become but stand out. Their 3 earlier albums (Stand Up, This Was & Benefit) are blues rock and stand slightly apart from the rest of their musical corpus. If you are into late 60s-early 70s blues-rock, these early Tull albums are essential.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +6 votes (6 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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