The Bells
by Lou Reed
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Lou Reed bestography
The Bells is ranked 22nd best out of 38 albums by Lou Reed on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Lou Reed is Transformer which is ranked number 146 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 9,227.
(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 Bells on YouTube
The Bells track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 77 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Bells 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 | lanadeleswift | Top 44 Music Albums of 1979 | 10/44 | 4 |
| 2026 | Juneof44 | Top 50 Music Albums of 1979 | 22/50 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Sandrof1969 | Top 35 Music Albums of 1979 | 23/35 | 2 |
| 2026 |  dihansse | Top 68 Music Albums of 1979 | 68/68 | 0 |
| 2026 |  Repo | Top 88 Music Albums of 1979 | 64/88 | 1 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 99 Music Albums of 1979 | 28/99 | 4 |
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 34 Music Albums of 1979 | 21/34 | 2 |
| 2026 |  videoheadcleaner | Top 100 Music Albums of 1979 | 59/100 | 2 |
| 2025 | cronadigallina | Top 94 Music Albums of 1979 | 38/94 | 3 |
| 2025 | mostlymor | Top 100 Music Albums of 1979 | 68/100 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 29 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 53 | |||
The Bells collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 30 members
The Bells 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 63 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 04/20/2026 13:28 | cicadelic | 14,166 | 73/100 |
| ! | 01/25/2026 12:08 | Pluto11 | 12,291 | 72/100 |
| ! | 01/20/2026 19:22 | Exist-en-ciel | 16,241 | 70/100 |
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 72.2/100, a mean average of 71.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 72.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.2.
The Bells favourites
Showing all 2 members who have added this album as a favourite
The Bells forum mentions
dihansse 08/08/2024 18:44 in My discoveries per year Repo 01/23/2023 05:29 in What album are you listening to right now?The Bells comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Just for Lou Reed-superfans.
A listless record, with few ideas, and a weird sax played by Don Cherry.
Brandon8 TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/07/2017 04:34 | #200885
This is definitely an off the wall release with disco and jazz thrown in but does not fail to have some fascinating moments especially tracks 6 through 9 which really save this from being a total shit show.
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