Sextant
by Herbie Hancock

Album
Sextant by Herbie Hancock
Year: 1973
Release date: 1973-03-30
Overall rank: 2,992nd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 120 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1973 (57th)
Award Top albums of of the 1970s (519th)
Award Best albums of all time (2,992nd)

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Herbie Hancock bestography

Sextant is ranked 4th best out of 42 albums by Herbie Hancock on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Herbie Hancock is Head Hunters which is ranked number 531 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,250.

Herbie Hancock album bestography « Higher ranked (2,337th)
Empyrean Isles This album (2,992nd)
Sextant Lower ranked (4,616th) »
Takin' Off

(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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Sextant track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by
#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Rain Dance
Average Rating: 83 (35 votes)Comments: View 1
2.
Hidden Shadows
Average Rating: 83 (31 votes)Comments: View 0
3.
Hornets
Average Rating: 80 (30 votes)Comments: View 0

Sextant rankings

Sextant rankings summary
Overall rank: 2,992nd | 1970s rank: 519th | 1973 rank: 57th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)

Sextant collection

Sextant ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 120 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 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 120 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 !		05/27/2026 23:31 Hayden  Ratings distribution  7,91372/100
 
100/100
 !		03/09/2026 10:37 Leginlists  Ratings distribution  3,84083/100
 
85/100
 !		01/04/2026 20:01 LukasAntoine00s  Ratings distribution  38480/100

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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.5/100, a mean average of 79.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.4.


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Sextant favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 17 members

Mykhai1o
LosWochos
teague
sageamagoo
Jboy56
MaxStorm98
drstuey
Raddi27
StefanR10
jdenny2018

Forum mentions

This album has been referenced 27 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 08/05/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5395): By areminder
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by ) 1. by (1999) 2. (1986) 3. by by (1965) 5. by (1969) 6. by (1988) 7. by by (1999) 9. by (1959) 10. (1977) 11. by (1970) 12. by (1966) 14. (2009) 15. (1977) 16. (1969) 17. by (1969) 20. by (1968) 21. by (1971) 22. by (1968) 23. by (1965) 24.…”
View forum post →

From Romanelli 12/15/2024 22:23 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“Amazing record! At the middle of an untouchable run of albums, and might be his best. Absolutely agree. I've always loved this one. I don't play it often, but when it comes up, it's always a treat.”
View forum post →

From baystateoftheart 12/15/2024 21:25 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“Amazing record! At the middle of an untouchable run of albums, and might be his best.”
View forum post →

View all forum mentions

Sextant comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 6 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)
Rating:  
80/100
From 01/07/2019 18:45 | #229244 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This is another one of Herbie's middle period challenging (long composition) records, but ohhhh, so worth it. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Reply
Rating:  
90/100
From 11/10/2017 00:24 | #201092 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This blew me away first listen. No way it was released in '73 (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Reply
Rating:  
90/100
From 07/20/2017 16:51 | #194671 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Interesting album from Herbie Hancock. Loose and forward thinking and sounding extremely fresh today. Great chill out stuff. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Reply
Rating:  
75/100
From 12/01/2015 21:10 | #153765
Best track: Rain Dance
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Reply
Rating:  
95/100
From 11/18/2015 22:33 | #153115 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Incredible jazz fusion sounds like it was made yesterday, not 45 years ago. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Best Albums of  1973
1. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd
2. Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
3. Houses Of The Holy by Led Zeppelin
4. Selling England By The Pound by Genesis
5. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
6. Quadrophenia by The Who
7. Band On The Run by Paul McCartney & Wings
8. Aladdin Sane by David Bowie
9. Raw Power by Iggy And The Stooges
10. Future Days by Can