American Water
by Silver Jews

Album
American Water by Silver Jews
Year: 1998
Release date: 1998-10-20
Overall rank: 1,696th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 197 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1998 (33rd)
Award Top albums of of the 1990s (301st)
Award Best albums of all time (1,696th)

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Silver Jews bestography

American Water is ranked as the best album by Silver Jews.

Silver Jews album bestography « Higher ranked
- This album (1,696th)
American Water Lower ranked (5,705th) »
The Natural Bridge

(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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American Water track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 83 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Track pick (870 - 55 votes)
Random Rules
Average Rating: 87 (55 votes)Comments: View 0
2.
Track pick (850 - 52 votes)
Smith & Jones Forever
Average Rating: 85 (52 votes)Comments: View 0
3.
Night Society
Average Rating: 81 (41 votes)Comments: View 0
4.
Federal Dust
Average Rating: 81 (41 votes)Comments: View 0
5.
People
Average Rating: 84 (48 votes)Comments: View 0
6.
Blue Arrangements
Average Rating: 81 (36 votes)Comments: View 0
7.
We Are Real
Average Rating: 80 (36 votes)Comments: View 0
8.
Send In The Clouds
Average Rating: 82 (37 votes)Comments: View 0
9.
Like Like The The The Death
Average Rating: 81 (36 votes)Comments: View 0
10.
Buckingham Rabbit
Average Rating: 82 (40 votes)Comments: View 0
11.
Honk If You're Lonely
Average Rating: 82 (37 votes)Comments: View 0
12.
The Wild Kindness
Average Rating: 83 (36 votes)Comments: View 0

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

American Water rankings

American Water rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,696th | 1990s rank: 301st | 1998 rank: 33rd  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: 6 hours ago)

American Water collection

American Water ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 197 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 197 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
100/100
 !		4 days ago infinitejester  Ratings distribution  17188/100
 
85/100
 !		08/09/2026 20:25 JamesMowbray  Ratings distribution  5,73069/100
 
75/100
 !		05/29/2026 01:37 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  16,30870/100

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 78.0/100, a mean average of 77.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.4.


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American Water favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 34 members

epiph030
mash
Johnnyo
soulplastic9
matterhornrider
jwalsh97
badboylikesit
markc19
djnizzi
JoeyBones1986

American Water forum mentions

This album has been referenced 27 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From neilgee 10/25/2025 15:48 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“What album are you listening to? (cont.)”
View post →

From Johnnyo 04/22/2024 18:56 in What album are you listening to right now?
“What album are you listening to right now?”
View topic (18 mentions) →

From Johnnyo 02/29/2024 20:17 in Albums You Added To Your Collection Today
“Albums You Added To Your Collection Today”
View topic (2 mentions) →

View all forum mentions

American Water comments

Showing all 5 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
95/100
From 03/12/2016 18:09 | #161790 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This has to be the strangest Pavement record (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 4
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Rating:  
90/100
From 05/24/2018 22:17 | #215544 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
I just discovered this album. It's one of those you can't believe has existed all this time without you knowing about it. Absolutely love it. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 2
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Rating:  
60/100
From 07/10/2020 06:15 | #255355 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Nothing particularly interesting, but it seems like they're not really trying to write the most mind blowing material in the world. The quality of songs dips pretty hard after the first two or three tracks. (Edited)
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Rating:  
80/100
From 03/18/2024 19:43 | #302588 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
A decent enough album but….. it doesn’t really grab me. Not half as good as it’s predecessor, the natural bridge which is an absolute classic. Not too disappointed with this but not sure how many times I will be playing it (Edited)
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Rating:  
70/100
From 01/13/2014 20:03 | #100563 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
People is absolutely amazing. One of the best I've heard.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 0
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