The Only Fun In Town
by Josef K
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Josef K bestography
The Only Fun In Town is ranked as the best album by Josef K.
(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 Only Fun In Town on YouTube
The Only Fun In Town track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Only Fun In Town rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 41 minutes ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  videoheadcleaner | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 78/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 82/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Greatest Music Albums: 401-500 | 36/100 | - |
| 2026 |  ssteve | Top 34 Music Albums of 1981 | 16/34 | 3 |
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 80 Music Albums of 1981 | 71/80 | 1 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 91 Music Albums of 1981 | 9/91 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Norman Bates | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 17/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | ssteve | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 100/100 | 0 |
| 2026 |  Hayden | Top 90 Music Albums of 1981 | 13/90 | 4 |
| 2026 | OFarrio | Top 25 Music Albums of 1981 | 5/25 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 53 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 162 | |||
The Only Fun In Town collection
Showing all 14 members who have this album in their collection
The Only Fun In Town 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 52 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/30/2026 21:15 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,700 | 70/100 |
| ! | 08/14/2025 03:39 |  MadhattanJack | 6,020 | 66/100 |
| ! | 08/08/2024 10:54 | JamesMowbray | 5,702 | 69/100 |
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 72.0/100, a mean average of 72.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 72.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.2.
The Only Fun In Town favourites
Showing all 4 members who have added this album as a favourite
The Only Fun In Town forum mentions
neilgee 10/21/2020 16:20 in What album are you listening to right now?
Jimmy Dread 03/24/2017 18:26 in Albums You Added To Your Collection TodayThe Only Fun In Town comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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lancashirearab TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/04/2012 05:57 | #41474 | TOP COMMENT
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I love the cover artwork. I love the jangly guitars. I love Postcard Records.
drstuey 03/29/2021 10:34 | #267911 | TOP COMMENT
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They certainly had a unique and highly influential guitar sound, (the Wedding Present for example owe them a huge debt), but it's not exactly jangly, its a bit more angular and post-punk like Gang of Four. And on a few songs at a time, this is utterly thrilling, but over the course of an entire album it gets a bit tiresome. Paul Haig's vocals are excellent and it would be good if they had been a bit higher in the mix on this album. (They are on the slightly more poppy alternate production version, which wasn't released until years later). But neither version of the album really captures the energy of the singles. While 'Sorry for Laughing' and 'It's Kinda Funny' are their classic songs, check out the single versions on the compilation 'Young and Stupid' instead of these versions.
I just got into Josef K and I love the energy on this album! It's a ton of fun. Also, as with so many post punk bands of this era, there's some really cool bass work on this thing.
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