An Awesome Wave
by alt-J
Listen & Collect
Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.
alt-J bestography
An Awesome Wave is ranked as the best album by alt-J.
(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 An Awesome Wave on YouTube
An Awesome Wave track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
An Awesome Wave 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 | bonnequestion | Top 23 Music Albums of 2012 | 18/23 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Ya joking? Should've been higher! 2010s edition | 56/100 | - |
| 2026 | JeffN999 | Top 20 Music Albums of 2012 | 2/20 | 5 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Filter México Los mejores discos del 2012 | 2/29 | - |
| 2026 | joathome | Top 80 Music Albums of 2012 | 4/80 | 5 |
| 2026 | rubens | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 20/100 | 76 |
| 2026 |  rambleon80 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s | 12/100 | 18 |
| 2026 | lanadeleswift | Top 93 Music Albums of 2012 | 4/93 | 5 |
| 2026 | Steppenwolf666 | Top 100 Music Albums of 2012 | 72/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | wizardalien | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums (One Album per Artist) | 35/100 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 732 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 5,960 | |||
An Awesome Wave collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 329 members
An Awesome Wave 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 1,014 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/14/2026 20:20 | Foxforce5 | 485 | 75/100 |
| ! | 08/06/2026 09:34 | robertoveltri | 908 | 79/100 |
| ! | 07/12/2026 16:08 | liquidbottle | 775 | 82/100 |
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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.1/100, a mean average of 76.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.3.
An Awesome Wave favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 194 members
An Awesome Wave forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 4 days ago in Chart of the day (#5446): By RasmV BestEverAlbums 5 days ago in Chart of the day (#5445): By MW19704U BestEverAlbums 09/20/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5441): By UnliveableWiltsAn Awesome Wave comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
SquishypuffDave TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/04/2013 04:44 | #63899 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Alt-J sounds like The XX with Marcus Mumford singing. I'll let you decide what you think of that prospect.
craola 08/14/2014 20:17 | #119518 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Re-listened to this album post-hype. Initially, I thought it was pretty mediocre, but listening to it again years later, I really enjoy it. It's a bit shallow, and I get the "pretentious" rub people take away from it, but I think they're just trying to have fun. I'm convinced music this beautiful can't spring out of pretentious hearts.
Such a unique album. Should be in the top ten for the decade in my mind
FlorianJones 09/13/2015 06:08 | #149649 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This album sweeps over you like a wave. I would tell you what kind of wave, but I'm pretty sure you already know.
soundguardian 05/31/2013 19:30 | #77793 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
One of the most innovative - or at least interesting (some may say eccentric) - musical statements of the last couple of years, ∆'s An Awesome Wave was a refreshing experience. The structure of alternating longer and densely-textured songs with smaller, simpler interludes allows for fluid proceedings. It may take a couple of listens to "get it".
There are clear highlights on this album - the deep, booming saw-tooth sound in "Fitzpleasure" and the spectacular arrangement in "Tessellate" struck me, in particular - but the overall consistency on the album holds it together. For most albums, there is a stronger half (the front nine, usually), but the great songs are strewn throughout on An Awesome Wave (like "Bloodflow" and "Taro", the last one, being the fantastic closer that it is, and all!).
With just one album Alt-J has successfully establish their own original sound, and I for one look forward to what is to come forth from these guys in the near future!
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
