Living Years
by Mike & The Mechanics
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Mike & The Mechanics bestography
Living Years is ranked as the best album by Mike & The Mechanics.
(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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Living Years track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Living Years rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 2 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Squonk007 | Top 28 Music Albums of 1988 | 1/28 | 5 |
| 2026 | Squonk007 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 10/100 | 18 |
| 2026 | Squonk007 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 34/100 | 64 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 100 Music Albums of 1988 | 71/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | Moondance | Top 100 Music Albums of 1988 | 55/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  videoheadcleaner | videoheadcleaner's 401-500 | 5/100 | - |
| 2026 | videoheadcleaner | Top 100 Music Albums of 1988 | 9/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | videoheadcleaner | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 95/100 | 1 |
| 2025 |  paladisiac | top albums, #0201-0300* | 72/75 | - |
| 2025 | Jaymantheman | Top 35 Music Albums of 1988 | 20/35 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 36 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 154 | |||
Living Years collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 21 members
Living Years 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 39 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/18/2026 13:06 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,594 | 70/100 |
| ! | 12/26/2025 10:13 | zsolti | 702 | 81/100 |
| ! | 10/23/2025 02:44 | dhbarrett | 8,709 | 65/100 |
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 67.9/100, a mean average of 65.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 66.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.9.
Forum mentions
paladisiac 06/06/2014 14:44 in What album are you listening to right now?Living Years comments
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Squonk007 06/26/2020 08:11 | #254532 | TOP COMMENT
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The title track quite rightly stole the headlines for this release but there are some good songs under the radar here, Nobody's Perfect, Nobody Knows (my favourite from the album), Don't and Black And Blue. A solid album, the 2 lead vocalists make this a nice mix.
junodog4 07/28/2013 20:09 | #82637
Earnest is a good word for this album. He's trying harder than Phil Collins for sure. (Edited)
paladisiac 01/16/2012 17:54 | #35322 | TOP COMMENT
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A more earnest album than their debut, this one's punctuated by the title track ode-to-deceased-father. "nobody's perfect", "seeing is believing" and fine ballads "blame" and "don't" also ground the album in solemn song-craft, while the meandering last 2 tracks deflate what could've been a stronger album.
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