American Water
by Silver Jews

American Water by Silver Jews
Year: 1998
Release date: 1998-10-20
Overall rank: 1,616th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 195 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1998 (32nd)
Award Top albums of the 1990s (290th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,616th)

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Silver Jews - American Water (VINYL) - ALT/INDIE *SEALED*
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Silver Jews American Water (CD) (UK IMPORT)
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Silver Jews - American Water (Vinyl LP - 1998 - US - Original) EX
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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 (1,616th)
American Water
Lower ranked (5,630th) »
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 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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

American Water rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,616th | 1990s rank: 290th | 1998 rank: 32nd

American Water collection

American Water ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 195 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 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 195 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 
03/01/2026 11:56 Map  Ratings distribution  50181/100
 
65/100
 
01/03/2026 23:26 Herdandhokies  Ratings distribution  35555/100
 
50/100
 
12/29/2025 18:20 mutant  Ratings distribution  1,67156/100
 
85/100
 
12/18/2025 12:11 sebfox  Ratings distribution  2,64479/100
 
85/100
 
12/11/2025 05:36 Kingturtle  Ratings distribution  7,57973/100

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 77.8/100, a mean average of 77.6/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.3.

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American Water comments

Showing all 5 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
80/100
From 03/18/2024 19:43 | #302588
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
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 07/10/2020 06:15 | #255355
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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 05/24/2018 22:17 | #215544
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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 03/12/2016 18:09 | #161790
This has to be the strangest Pavement record
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 01/13/2014 20:03 | #100563
People is absolutely amazing. One of the best I've heard.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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