The Crane Wife
by The Decemberists
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The Decemberists bestography
The Crane Wife is ranked as the best album by The Decemberists.
(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 Crane Wife on YouTube
The Crane Wife track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The Crane Wife rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | adbrack1988 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 76/100 | 5 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top Greatest Music Albums 101-200 | 19/100 | - |
| 2026 |  junodog4 | Top 20 Music Albums of 2006 | 2/20 | 5 |
| 2026 | Foxforce5 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2000s | 44/100 | 11 |
| 2026 |  covecove | Top 100 Music Albums of 2006 | 18/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  dihansse | Top 69 Music Albums of 2006 | 20/69 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 53 Music Albums of 2006 | 22/53 | 3 |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | Top 24 Music Albums of 2006 | 14/24 | 2 |
| 2026 |  paladisiac | #1 albums per year since 1960 | 47/66 | - |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 81 Music Albums of 2006 | 3/81 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 432 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 2,216 | |||
The Crane Wife collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 215 members
The Crane Wife 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 452 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/08/2026 21:02 | RemainInLight | 3,827 | 36/100 |
| ! | 08/22/2026 22:27 | martintho | 4,742 | 75/100 |
| ! | 07/16/2026 11:58 | glebrus | 469 | 81/100 |
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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.2/100, a mean average of 77.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.8.
The Crane Wife favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 83 members
The Crane Wife forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 02/28/2026 21:00 in Album of the day (#5550): The Crane Wife by The DecemberistsView latest topic →
Rhyner 02/14/2026 18:45 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
Romanelli 11/14/2024 16:18 in The Romanelli Music Diary: Mexican MoonView all forum mentions
The Crane Wife comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
junodog4 TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/06/2012 01:04 | #46013 | TOP COMMENT
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Top notch storytelling, catchy melodies, and tracks that roll from one to another will ease. A 21st century masterpiece.
An incredibly strong album. Crane Wife 3 is one of the most perfect pop songs. The medley that follows beautifully recreates prog circa 1970. Bliss!
I'll have to disagree with this being the definitive album of The Decemberists as I find Picaresque and The King Is Dead to be far far far superior in both quality and consistency. My 2nd least favorite Decemberists album only because I hate Hazards of Love so much.
zdwyatt TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/18/2013 19:13 | #88777 | TOP COMMENT
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This one has hints of the full-on prog-rock insanity that was to follow, but still focused on catchy, standalone tracks.
jhuik TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/02/2012 16:44 | #34201 | TOP COMMENT
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Excellent, tuneful outing, although this might well remain the band's best CD ever. Great songwriting, but I personally find the lead singer's voice too nasally. My favorite song here is Yankee Bayonette where that is offset by the lovely female vocals. Whatever else I say, I have to admit this is very solid songwriting.
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