It's Hard
by The Who
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The Who bestography
It's Hard is ranked 14th best out of 51 albums by The Who on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Who is Who's Next which is ranked number 40 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 20,332.
(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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It's Hard track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 75 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
It's Hard rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | fabm0 | List 1982 Pt 2 | 14/17 | - |
| 2026 | blueandthemoon | Top 28 Music Albums of 1982 | 9/28 | 4 |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 56 Music Albums of 1982 | 55/56 | 0 |
| 2026 |  Repo | Top 100 Music Albums of 1982 | 98/100 | 0 |
| 2026 | cronadigallina | Top 99 Music Albums of 1982 | 67/99 | 2 |
| 2026 | jlsfourth | Top 80 Music Albums of the 1980s | 76/80 | 1 |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 82 Music Albums of 1982 | 11/82 | 4 |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 85 Music Albums of 1982 | 74/85 | 1 |
| 2026 | Garyf1972 | The Who Albums Rated | 9/10 | - |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 86 Music Albums of 1982 | 84/86 | 0 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 61 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 128 | |||
It's Hard collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 74 members
It's Hard 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 141 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/26/2026 18:43 | Jakor | 5,535 | 70/100 |
| ! | 04/07/2026 03:14 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,612 | 70/100 |
| ! | 04/01/2026 14:21 | Garyf1972 | 756 | 68/100 |
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 63.0/100, a mean average of 62.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 62.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.2.
It's Hard favourites
Showing all 3 members who have added this album as a favourite
Forum mentions
pedro1976 10/05/2022 07:58 in What album are you listening to right now?
UofTBlues 07/10/2021 22:25 in What album are you listening to right now?
neilgee 06/20/2021 20:02 in What album are you listening to right now?It's Hard comments
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Worst Who album up to this point. Totally lifeless and uninspired. The Who should have quit after Keith Moon's death. Keith being the driving force behind Townsend's writing. Everything after "It's Hard" was even worse. (Edited)
Better than I remember, though obviously far from the best the Who could do. Eminence Front is an all-time classic. Cry If You Want and Athena are good. The rest ranges from solid to so-so. Nothing is atrocious. Unfortunately a lot of the songs suffer from being forgettable, hence why I started this review with "better than I remember."
llibnanoon 07/13/2020 17:49 | #255523
Times a changing for the Who on this one. Eminence Front is still a classic! Rating (75.83)
Fischman 01/12/2017 00:44 | #182328 | TOP COMMENT
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I was hugely disappointed in this album when it first came out, but it has really grown on me over the years. In addition to the two big hits (Athena and Eminence Front) there are some good deep cuts like One At A Time and Why Did I Fall For That. I suspect it's only so despised because it's a pale shadow of what the Who were capable of, but if an average band had put this out, it'd probably get a lot more love.
I enjoyed it a lot, but really, it's nothing special.
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