The World Won't Listen
by The Smiths
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The Smiths bestography
The World Won't Listen is ranked 7th best out of 16 albums by The Smiths on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Smiths is The Queen Is Dead which is ranked number 16 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 31,235.
(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 World Won't Listen on YouTube
The World Won't Listen track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 84 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
The World Won't Listen rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 7 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 33/100 | 14 |
| 2026 | ornot27 | Top 66 Music Albums of the 1980s | 26/66 | 12 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 100 Music Albums of 1987 | 6/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | Tamthebam | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 46/100 | 11 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Greatest Music Albums: 101-200 | 4/100 | - |
| 2026 |  neilgee | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 32/100 | 14 |
| 2026 | neilgee | Top 100 Music Albums of 1987 | 4/100 | 5 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 74 Music Albums of 1987 | 15/74 | 4 |
| 2026 |  NowhereMan | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 30/100 | 14 |
| 2026 | spewventuri | Top 91 Music Albums of the 1980s | 49/91 | 9 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 62 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 275 | |||
The World Won't Listen collection
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The World Won't Listen 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 190 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/20/2026 23:33 | Exist-en-ciel | 16,554 | 70/100 |
| ! | 07/16/2026 08:09 | JamesMowbray | 5,734 | 69/100 |
| ! | 01/30/2026 15:44 | MartinFransson | 56 | 56/100 |
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 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.0/100, a mean average of 78.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 17.2.
The World Won't Listen favourites
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The World Won't Listen forum mentions
neilgee 12/14/2025 08:22 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) neilgee 06/19/2022 06:44 in What album are you listening to right now?The World Won't Listen comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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the comments are so misleading. if you have louder than bombs + their studio albums, you have every track on here except for 1, "Money Changes Everything." and that track isn't even on the vinyl version of this record. and it's an instrumental. and stays too samey to justify its runtime.
in other words, this album is 100% unnecessary fluff. hatful of hollow and louder than bombs aren't even really compilation albums, the smiths don't have any records with those songs on them. well, a few songs overlap but they're alternate versions anyway. this album just sucks. "there is a light that never goes out" doesn't fit in between "shakespeare's sister" and "shoplifters of the world unite." among many, many other gripes that aren't worth my time explaining. (Edited)
The album is basically the UK release of Louder Than Bombs and actually predates LTB by a couple of months. Both were collections of singles that didn't appear on any Smiths studio albums. The comp was released between studio releases to tide fans over in the meantime. The only difference between this and LTB is the inclusion of the instrumental Money Changes Everything, which ended up being used as the music for the Bryan Ferry single The Right Stuff.
Tamthebam TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/12/2015 12:10 | #141346 | TOP COMMENT
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One of the best compilations of all time. This and Hatful of Hollow are a must for all Smiths fans along with their 4 studio albums. These 6 albums are all you need you don't need to bother with all the other comps. out there.
Of course this is superior to Louder Than Bombs...it doesn’t contain that truly awful cover version of ‘Golden Lights’ for starters. More importantly it actually gels like an album where as LTB feels very much as a collection of bits and bobs. (Edited)
'How Soon Is Now' is one of the greatest songs ever, and to think it started as a B side!! (Edited)
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