Force Majeure
by Tangerine Dream

Force Majeure by Tangerine Dream
Year: 1979
Release date: 1979-02-02
Overall rank: 3,952nd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 107 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1979 (65th)
Award Top albums of of the 1970s (660th)
Award Best albums of all time (3,952nd)

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Tangerine Dream bestography

Force Majeure is ranked 4th best out of 123 albums by Tangerine Dream on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Tangerine Dream is Phaedra which is ranked number 1241 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,407.

Tangerine Dream album bestography « Higher ranked (2,841st)
Rubycon
This album (3,952nd)
Force Majeure
Lower ranked (4,754th) »
Ricochet

(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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Force Majeure track list

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

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Track pick (860 - 45 votes)
Average Rating: 86 (45 votes)Comments: View 0

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Force Majeure rankings

Force Majeure rankings summary
Overall rank: 3,952nd | 1970s rank: 660th | 1979 rank: 65th  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: 7 hours ago)

Force Majeure collection

Force Majeure ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 107 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 107 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
08/03/2026 10:34 MetalMan67  Ratings distribution  6,21671/100
 
80/100
 !
07/14/2026 21:12 duelek  Ratings distribution  2,13575/100
 
85/100
 !
05/11/2026 04:24 emnasut  Ratings distribution  15387/100

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 77.9/100, a mean average of 77.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.6.


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Force Majeure favourites

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Forum mentions

This album has been referenced 10 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From Brigand99 05/01/2024 06:33 in What album are you listening to right now?
What album are you listening to right now?
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From stangetzaway 04/27/2022 09:30 in What album are you listening to right now?
What album are you listening to right now?
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From Jboy56 01/05/2022 14:36 in What album are you listening to right now?
What album are you listening to right now?
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Force Majeure comments

Showing all 5 comments |
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Rating:  
95/100
This was the sound of Tangerine Dream closing the 70s and entering the 80s (just about). Less synth washes, more conventional structures and beats, and a hint at shorter form tracks. If the 80s synthesizer sound doesn't excite you, there's unlikely to be anything of interest here but if analogue warmth is your thing, dive right in. TD have quite probably released over 100 albums of original material but in my opinion, nothing (not even their first few albums) has the appeal of this one. A great late night listen. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
Very good album. The 3 songs are pretty solid, but I have a soft spot for "Thru Metamorphic rocks", with the wolves howling at the end ; magical. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
I feel that Tangerine Dream peaked with this release. Of course I love their early stuff (Rubycon, in particular), but the mix of their soundscapes with more song-like structures (even if the songs were put together as one long track), is done brilliantly here. Whether jumping from melody to atmosphere and back again on the title track, or expanding on the martial rhythms of the final section the record, this is an outstanding album. There's even an opportunity for our heroes to show off their guitar-playing chops on Cloudburst Flight. Definitely one to check out. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
After the disappointing Cyclone album (in comparison to previous work) Tangerine Dream pulled out all the stops with this album, thankfully losing the vocals. I have a near mint copy on vinyl and it sounds superb on a decent audio system. I hear things on the vinyl I don't hear on my CD version. At this point in time Tangerine Dream are moving away from sound collages into more melodic territory, a typical example being 'Cloudburst Flight', I saw Eric Froese play the guitar intro to this at the Royal Albert Hall and was mesmerised by the Mini Moog sample which led the piece of music, skilfully delivered by Thornsten Quaeschning, a bass sequence underpinning the track, originally on a Moog Modular no doubt. Nice to hear real time drums played, most notably on 'Thru Metamorphic Rocks'. Overall a superb album. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
Cloudburst Flight is brilliant, it's a pity the rest of the album is nowhere near as good.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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