The Photo Album
by Death Cab For Cutie
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Death Cab For Cutie bestography
The Photo Album is ranked 5th best out of 17 albums by Death Cab For Cutie on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Death Cab For Cutie is Transatlanticism which is ranked number 450 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,740.
(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 Photo Album on YouTube
The Photo Album track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Photo Album rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | bonnequestion | Best albums from '95 to '04 | 19/100 | - |
| 2026 | cicadelic | CMJ New Music Report Best Albums 2001 | 9/30 | - |
| 2026 |  HoldenM | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 19/100 | 82 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Top 57 Music Albums of 2001 | 14/57 | 4 |
| 2026 | Juneof44 | Top 50 Music Albums of 2001 | 43/50 | 1 |
| 2026 | sunnydhamm | Top 38 Music Albums of 2001 | 24/38 | 2 |
| 2026 |  videoheadcleaner | Top 90 Music Albums of 2001 | 31/90 | 3 |
| 2026 |  paladisiac | all-time fav arteests (pts) #001-100 | 59/100 | - |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Greatest Music Albums: 301-400 | 34/100 | - |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 77 Music Albums of 2001 | 40/77 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 112 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 497 | |||
The Photo Album collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 69 members
The Photo Album 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 150 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/10/2026 10:06 |  Tamthebam | 23,289 | 69/100 |
| ! | 06/23/2026 16:18 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,591 | 70/100 |
| ! | 05/22/2026 11:47 |  Perring | 351 | 79/100 |
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 6% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.7/100, a mean average of 75.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.8.
The Photo Album favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 19 members
Forum mentions
Repo 10/25/2025 14:36 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)The Photo Album comments
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
I love this album! Lyrically, this is probably my favorite DCFC album. I don't know why, but songs like "Styrofoam Plates", "Why You'd Want To Live Here" and "Information Travels Faster" really resonate to me, even though I can't relate to them in a personal way. I think I just like the poetry of Gibbard and how he tells his stories. This is what I like the most about this album, the stories, the images, the colors. I don't think it's their best mixed album though (why the drums so loud on "We Laugh Indoors"???). But if you can go past the so-so mix and focus on the lyrics, the musical ideas and the emotions, you're in for a treat!
Generic soft emo with above average lyrics. Death Cab still hasn't put it together yet but glimpses like Move Script Ending and We Laugh Indoors are songs that stand up with their best to come.
The rest is average and a fine mood listen. It's 2nd tier Death Cab with the new Kintsugi and Codes and Keys. It's worth having in your music library if you like Death Cab but it isn't the album that is going to gain the band new fans
flyingcitrus 06/21/2015 20:45 | #144332 | TOP COMMENT
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Overall a very solid album; while no tracks really seem to especially stand out the consistency of quality is quite impressive.
HoldenM 11/15/2014 07:54 | #127023
A great, loose concept album with beautifully written songs. There's something for everyone here. Probably Death Cab's most "pop" album, but a fine one at that.
A very calm album. Was expecting it to be more like Jimmy Eats World or Fall Out Boy. Pleasant music all round.
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