White Chalk
by PJ Harvey
Listen & Collect
Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.
PJ Harvey bestography
White Chalk is ranked 6th best out of 22 albums by PJ Harvey on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by PJ Harvey is Let England Shake which is ranked number 270 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 5,990.
(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 White Chalk on YouTube
White Chalk track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
White Chalk rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 6 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 53 Music Albums of 2007 | 37/53 | 2 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Record Collector Best New Albums 2007 | 5/10 | - |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 71/100 | 28 |
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Top 52 Music Albums of 2007 | 28/52 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 88 Music Albums of 2007 | 25/88 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Bach | Top 14 Music Albums of 2007 | 4/14 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Vaggelis | Top 99 Music Albums of 2007 | 47/99 | 3 |
| 2026 |  ssteve | Top 69 Music Albums of 2007 | 39/69 | 2 |
| 2026 | Juneof44 | Top 50 Music Albums of 2007 | 44/50 | 1 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 86 Music Albums of 2007 | 7/86 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 231 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,005 | |||
White Chalk collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 112 members
White Chalk 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 258 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/27/2026 11:29 | exwhorelted1 | 11 | 87/100 |
| ! | 08/27/2026 02:42 |  imacgill | 2,869 | 79/100 |
| ! | 08/09/2026 20:09 | VeVt | 98 | 39/100 |
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 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.1/100, a mean average of 76.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.6.
White Chalk favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 28 members
White Chalk forum mentions
dihansse 04/25/2019 19:08 in My discoveries per yearWhite Chalk comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Always liked PJ, but this album completely won we over for her. It is radical departure from the explosive debut albums, but the aggression or passion is still very much there, although much more hidden. She uses her voice in a different way, very much at the limit of her reach. Daring and haunting album; an absolute favorite.
Another brilliant PJ Harvey album. White chalk, is a haunting record full of piano based songs that sound like they were recorded in a church. It's a superb album, full of great songs, no weak tracks here. This is one of my favourite of her records. Brilliant.
meccalecca TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/07/2014 21:00 | #102498 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Following a career filled with gritty rock, White Chalk was seen as a departure for PJ Harvey. Sparse arrangements focused around piano and harp, it's her most haunting record. The desperation, fragility and loneliness speaks more to me than anything else she's done.
A departure, but not necessarily a bad one. This is brooding, haunting, heartbreaking.
I'm a great fan of PJ Harvey but on this album she took a huge directional change. I understand artists mix it up a bit but this done nothing for me. An entire album of plink plonk piano and haunting vocals. I tried to like it, I really did. Multiple listens but it didn't take. To far removed from her previous work for my liking. If you've just started checking her music out, I recommend starting with her other albums. (Edited)
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
