The Hard Way
by Steve Earle & The Dukes
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Steve Earle & The Dukes bestography
The Hard Way is ranked 15th best out of 29 albums by Steve Earle on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Steve Earle is Guitar Town which is ranked number 3203 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 476.
(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 Hard Way on YouTube
The Hard Way track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 77 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Hard Way rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  covecove | Favorite Albums 200-101 | 44/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 1901-2000 | 22/100 | - |
| 2026 | Romanelli | Top 90 Music Albums of 1990 | 68/90 | - |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1990 | 61/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | covecove | Top 100 Music Albums of 1990 | 9/100 | 5 |
| 2025 | DJStuart79 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1990 | 60/100 | 2 |
| 2025 | Johnnyo | Top 100 Music Albums of 1990 | 41/100 | 3 |
| 2025 | mostlymor | Top 100 Music Albums of 1990 | 62/100 | 2 |
| 2024 | Johnnyo | Virginia | 11/37 | - |
| 2024 |  pedro1976 | Top 20 Music Albums of 1990 | 19/20 | 1 |
| 2024 |  buzzdainer | Top 42 Music Albums of 1990 | 30/42 | 2 |
| 2024 | dhbarrett | Top 30 Music Albums of 1990 | 13/30 | 3 |
| 2023 | henrygreen0203 | Top 33 Music Albums of 1990 | 19/33 | 2 |
| 2015 | ewhittenburg | Top 35 Music Albums of 1990 | 13/35 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 14 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 25 | |||
The Hard Way collection
Showing all 13 members who have this album in their collection
The Hard Way 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 17 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 04/15/2026 15:20 | covecove | 6,686 | 74/100 |
| ! | 11/30/2025 05:03 |  Kingturtle | 7,579 | 73/100 |
| ! | 07/06/2025 05:42 | zags7000 | 20,568 | 64/100 |
| ! | 10/25/2024 10:17 | TonySayers61 | 25,414 | 64/100 |
| ! | 03/09/2024 22:24 | Pluto11 | 12,259 | 72/100 |
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 72.1/100, a mean average of 72.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 72.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.2.
The Hard Way favourites
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The Hard Way comments
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