Things Fall Apart
by The Roots
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The Roots bestography
Things Fall Apart is ranked as the best album by The Roots.
(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 Things Fall Apart on YouTube
Things Fall Apart track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Things Fall Apart rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | daCritic | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 32/100 | 14 |
| 2026 |  Graeme2 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 54/100 | 9 |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 52/100 | 10 |
| 2026 | Liks_on_music | Top 86 Greatest Music Albums | 13/86 | 84 |
| 2026 |  jhuik | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 97/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 99 Music Albums of 1999 | 7/99 | 5 |
| 2026 | daCritic | Top 36 Music Albums of 1999 | 2/36 | 5 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 99/100 | 0 |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 89 Music Albums of 1999 | 48/89 | 2 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 70/100 | 6 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 334 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,917 | |||
Things Fall Apart collection
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Things Fall Apart 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 360 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/07/2026 20:32 | JeffN999 | 1,506 | 80/100 |
| ! | 07/12/2026 20:07 | liquidbottle | 775 | 82/100 |
| ! | 05/22/2026 04:33 | brent13 | 2,143 | 67/100 |
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 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.4/100, a mean average of 79.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.4.
Things Fall Apart favourites
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Forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 3 days ago in Monthly overall chart movements BestEverAlbums 08/01/2026 16:00 in Monthly overall chart movements BestEverAlbums 07/22/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5381): By jhuikThings Fall Apart comments
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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You can't go wrong with The Roots (Edited)
The album has 13 tracks of total fire. The other 5 are very good, but push the album a little past its welcome and are the album's only weakness.
"The Return to Innocence Lost" is an unexpected tribute to groups like The Last Poets and the Watts Prophets.
Perfect production and a great showcase of talent. Fusing Jazz and Progressive Rap, this is a classic hip-hop album. 9.5/10! (Edited)
C_Krug2009 02/11/2023 16:43 | #293934
This album is great. The keyboards are chime-y and its laidback grooves are great but somehow they are upbeat at that same time. I've never heard an album quite like this. Love the lyricism and instrumentals. Not something to miss for hip hop heads
A fantastic album that progressively gets better as you go through the record. This is due to the storyline that you are guided by the brilliant delivery of the lyrics which are packed full of passion and emotion. This is then backed by some great beats and amazing instrumental performances which are very well layered allowing us to have a lot to explore on later listens. The features are picked perfectly and only add to the quality on display with outstanding performances from Common, Mos Def and Erykah Badu to name a few. The music also fits together so well and with each song neatly leading into the next making the record feel complete which is due to the genius production. Having said that, I do have a few issues with this record and one of them is the length which is a bloated 68 minutes. There is definitely moments on tracks that could be trimmed down drastically that would make the album a lot more digestible. Another issue I have is that in places it does sound a bit dated and a few songs feel a little cringey. Overall, a must listen album with a fantastic concept that deserves more appreciation.
The Root's magnum opus! It has everything. It might be the best produced hip hop album of all time. The features are incredible, and Back Thought is as good as always. 10/10 classic.
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