Wrecking Ball
by Emmylou Harris
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Emmylou Harris bestography
Wrecking Ball is ranked as the best album by Emmylou Harris.
(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 Wrecking Ball on YouTube
Wrecking Ball track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Wrecking Ball rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | BorderFreeAndrew | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 73/100 | 27 |
| 2026 | skrapoel | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 25/100 | 71 |
| 2026 |  EyeKanFly | Top 99 Music Albums of 1995 | 40/99 | 3 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 1995 | 35/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Top 53 Music Albums of 1995 | 17/53 | 3 |
| 2026 | Rivera | 801-900 | 88/100 | - |
| 2026 | Rm12398 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 66/100 | 7 |
| 2026 | amirmishali | Top 49 Music Albums of 1995 | 23/49 | 3 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Q magazine Recordings Of The Year 1995 | 23/50 | - |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | Top 78 Music Albums of 1995 | 19/78 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 185 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,090 | |||
Wrecking Ball collection
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Wrecking Ball 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 173 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/17/2026 12:06 | Vinyl | 532 | 80/100 |
| ! | 07/04/2026 01:48 | replacementlevel | 7,779 | 70/100 |
| ! | 04/16/2026 20:14 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,615 | 70/100 |
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 77.5/100, a mean average of 77.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.7.
Wrecking Ball favourites
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Forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/16/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5406): By skrapoel
pedro1976 12/18/2024 15:15 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)Wrecking Ball comments
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Like Johnny cash, Emmylou is an exemplary interpreter of other people’s songs. This is a Stella example of her doing this at its best. Great vocals, great artist (Edited)
IMO she's not just the greatest female country singer of all time, she is the greatest country singer of all time, and this is her best album. Most surprising track - a cover of Hendrix's May This Be Love that absolutely sizzles.
Sounds amazing. Great songs. Extraordinary vocals.
Dark and heavy. Trying to connect with my father I gave him this. He liked stomping joyus country. He listened to this record once. He said it was to sad. Well, it is. I love mirroring when those phases enter my life
buzzdainer 08/08/2016 13:51 | #172495 | TOP COMMENT
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Wrecking Ball is both the title of this album and an apt description of the approach Daniel Lanois brings with him into the recording studio and producer's booth, a style that makes every artist he works with sound vaguely like U2. Heavy-handed though Lanois may be, on this album he successfully transforms Emmylou from an aging Nashville star into an ethereal, haunting cry in the night. “Deeper Well," co-penned by Lanois and Harris, works so well because it doesn’t try to paint over Harris’s aging voice with fuzzy pastels but instead draws the listener right to the heart of the song's dirgy meaning with spooky echo reverb and gritty vocals.
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