Alas, I Cannot Swim
by Laura Marling

Alas, I Cannot Swim by Laura Marling
Year: 2008
Release date: 2008-02-11
Overall rank: 4,450th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 95 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2008 (63rd)
Award Top albums of of the 2000s (759th)
Award Best albums of all time (4,450th)

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Laura Marling bestography

Alas, I Cannot Swim is ranked 6th best out of 9 albums by Laura Marling on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Laura Marling is Song For Our Daughter which is ranked number 1624 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,060.

Laura Marling album bestography « Higher ranked (4,072nd)
Patterns In Repeat
This album (4,450th)
Alas, I Cannot Swim
Lower ranked (5,181st) »
Short Movie

(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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Alas, I Cannot Swim rankings

Alas, I Cannot Swim rankings summary
Overall rank: 4,450th | 2000s rank: 759th | 2008 rank: 63rd  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 4 hours ago).

Alas, I Cannot Swim collection

Alas, I Cannot Swim ratings

Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 95 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
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 95 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
06/09/2026 19:55 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,32470/100
 
85/100
 !
06/09/2026 14:25 cicadelic  Ratings distribution  13,49373/100
 
80/100
 !
02/28/2026 00:00 DaveH68  Ratings distribution  1,36376/100
 
100/100
 !
01/26/2026 11:59 Leginlists  Ratings distribution  3,75383/100
 
75/100
 !
04/22/2024 10:27 cautionarytale  Ratings distribution  26276/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 76.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 11.8.


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Alas, I Cannot Swim favourites

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Alas, I Cannot Swim comments

Showing all 4 comments |
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Rating:  
80/100
Excellent debut album. It sets the stage for her songwriting ability. Very good album and a gem of an artist.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
I am able to listen to this album straight through at any time and place. Her first masterpiece.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
For me this is by far her best album. Diminshing returns with each one she does to the point I havnt got the last. This is when she sounded least contrived and wasn't sounding like people expect eg. Joni mitchell. Music press will tell you each one she does is better that the last.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Laura Marling's weakest album. Of course, that still makes it one of the greatest of all time.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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