The New Sound
by Les Paul
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Les Paul bestography
The New Sound is ranked as the best album by Les Paul.
(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 New Sound on YouTube
The New Sound track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The New Sound 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 | Olli | Top 62 Music Albums of 1950 | 7/62 | 5 |
| 2026 |  junodog4 | Top 85 Music Albums of the 1950s | 44/85 | 10 |
| 2026 | Olli | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1950s | 71/100 | 6 |
| 2026 | thekrauter | Top 34 Music Albums of the 1950s | 24/34 | 6 |
| 2026 |  MadhattanJack | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1950s | 64/100 | 7 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 50 Music Albums of 1950 | 17/50 | 3 |
| 2026 | Steppenwolf666 | Top 22 Music Albums of 1950 | 6/22 | 4 |
| 2026 | arnellarsen | Top 38 Music Albums of 1950 | 12/38 | 4 |
| 2026 | junodog4 | Top 5 Music Albums of 1950 | 3/5 | 3 |
| 2025 | TodFitz | Top 18 Music Albums of 1950 | 7/18 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 56 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 235 | |||
The New Sound collection
Showing all 8 members who have this album in their collection
The New Sound 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 43 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/14/2026 17:51 | Olli | 7,932 | 62/100 |
| ! | 12/24/2025 07:47 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,688 | 70/100 |
| ! | 11/14/2025 07:56 |  TescoHomeCooking | 361 | 77/100 |
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 69.7/100, a mean average of 69.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 69.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.5.
The New Sound favourites
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The New Sound forum mentions
Jboy56 05/16/2022 15:18 in What album are you listening to right now?
RoundTheBend 11/15/2018 05:11 in Exploring the year, 1950.
bobbyb5 11/08/2017 21:16 in Guitar Nerd Albums - post 'emThe New Sound comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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This was probably quite revolutionary at the time and to a certain degree still enjoyable today, but sounds pretty much like 1950s cartoon. (Edited)
Jboy56 05/16/2022 15:42 | #285412 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
I bet these sounds amazed many in 1950. Most of the tricks are repeated so often that they lose their punch. But surely nobody could fail with these songs. Mr Paul is the first guitar genius, probably.
RoundTheBend TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/23/2016 19:29 | #157445 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Really impressed with the playing. Not my favorite album, but I'd listen to it again.
Just not my thing. Talented though.
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