Starless And Bible Black
by King Crimson
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King Crimson bestography
Starless And Bible Black is ranked 5th best out of 100 albums by King Crimson on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by King Crimson is In The Court Of The Crimson King which is ranked number 25 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 26,504.
(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 Starless And Bible Black on YouTube
Starless And Bible Black track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Starless And Bible Black 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 | stevengnz | Top 100 Music Albums of 1974 | 79/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 97 Music Albums of 1974 | 61/97 | 2 |
| 2026 | bonnequestion | Top 44 Music Albums of 1974 | 17/44 | 3 |
| 2026 |  slatsheit | Top 68 Music Albums of 1974 | 22/68 | 3 |
| 2026 |  Fischman | Top 100 Music Albums of 1974 | 15/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  nitomano | Top 35 Music Albums of 1974 | 10/35 | 4 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 1974 | 73/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | emptysquares | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 65/100 | 36 |
| 2026 |  Jameth | Top 40 Music Albums of 1974 | 2/40 | 5 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 83 Music Albums of 1974 | 71/83 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 195 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 809 | |||
Starless And Bible Black collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 144 members
Starless And Bible Black 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 345 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/02/2026 13:51 |  LedZep | 5,123 | 79/100 |
| ! | 08/02/2026 05:01 |  AAL2014 | 4,255 | 75/100 |
| ! | 07/19/2026 20:09 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 77.9/100, a mean average of 77.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.8.
Starless And Bible Black favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 43 members
Forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/31/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5421): By Simon_bramhall BestEverAlbums 08/14/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5404): By pctrooperStarless And Bible Black 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)
Jboy56 05/31/2023 15:43 | #297323
Very accessible KC, the musical competence is top mark and the songs ring originality,
A mixed album but the highlights are very high.
This album has a harder edge than earlier works, more aligned to Red in parts. The Mincer and Fracture are personal favourites. Bass work on album is stunning, recording quality superb and plenty of Tron to be absorbed in. Not a lot of vocals on this album, which I actually prefer.
King Crimson didn't create bad albums. That said, I think this is the most mediocre album of their 2nd period. It's a letdown after Larks and also inferior to what followed, Red.
Still a very solid album with a lot of interesting improv. If you're liking this kind of thing, you may like this album more than I do.
In later years, when DGM started putting out so much of the old live stuff, this album almost became obsolete. You can hear the full recordings that some of these tracks are extracted from, and you can hear so many versions of The Night Watch and Fracture, you might find you prefer some of those live versions to the ones here.
But this is the classic album as many of us grew up with it, and I think it still stands up really well. Every track is great, no clunkers, each side has a coherent arc to it, great playing by great players. An all-time classic album. This night wounds time.
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