EVOL (studio album) by Sonic Youth
Top 20 albums of 1986 (
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Sonic Youth bestography
EVOL is ranked 4th best out of 39 albums by Sonic Youth on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Sonic Youth is Daydream Nation which is ranked number 71 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 17,101.
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EVOL track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
1
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
EVOL rankings
Latest 20 charts that this album appears in:
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EVOL collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 184 members
EVOL ratings
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 506 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
50/100  | 5 days ago | traistboar | | 81/100 |
70/100 | 09/10/2024 12:08 |  Dingerbell | | 62/100 |
85/100 | 06/28/2024 05:32 | brent13 | | 78/100 |
70/100 | 06/01/2024 04:03 | OrionHCCA | | 70/100 |
60/100 | 05/03/2024 14:14 | javicho07 | | 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 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.8/100, a mean average of 76.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.9.
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EVOL favourites
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EVOL comments
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It feels like they haven't found their sound yet on this record which leads to quite a bit of experimentation which works effectively in places but is also quite poor in other places. The first 3 songs are fantastic and are proof of where the experimenting has gone right. All the instrumentation on those tracks are simply brilliant with the drum work being a personal highlight especially on Tom Violence. After these songs I do think there is a drop off in quality with there only being a few highlights that appear later on the record. Overall, an inconsistent album but you can see the potential for the future fantastic albums they made so it is worth experiencing to see their earlier work.
This is a solid album where they're experimenting with the sound leaning towards noise rock and post punk. They are making tracks similar to Joy Division, but in entirely new fashion creating something interesting. The album is a little inconsistent, there are great tracks here like Starpower (which is my favorite one), but there are also ones that sound like not fully realized (Green Light).
Evol is transitional for them and they started to focus on songcraft. This set them up for what I think is their best album, Sister.
teague 07/10/2020 23:34
EVOL has its roots in post-punk, leaving me to believe they had not yet fully found their identity. I've yet to hear a Sonic Youth album I didn't love, though, and this is quite fantastic. Noisy as always, but a bit more reserved than some of their other records.
Maybe not as good as their bests, but this is still an amazing record and a great experience.
8.5/10
Graeme2 03/12/2020 20:06
If I'd bought and heard this around the time I was listening to Slanted and Enchanted, Psychocandy, VU, Joy Division, Ride...as a teenager in '92 then I'd think this was cool as owt and love it as much as the others. Music wasn't meant to be enjoyed through tiny phone speakers though but still sounds pretty cool.
Solid album, nice and dark. Expressway To Yr Skull is the best song on the album.
Kingturtle 06/17/2019 22:57
best LP of all from 1986.
RoundTheBend 03/12/2019 03:39
This has a warmth to it more than any other Sonic Youth album I've listened to.
Jbalbinolr 11/22/2017 21:16
Dark and atmospheric, my second favorite of Sonic Youth.
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