Ask The Ages
by Sonny Sharrock

Album
Ask The Ages by Sonny Sharrock
Year: 1991
Release date: 1991-08-06
Overall rank: 4,082nd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 59 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1991 (58th)
Award Top albums of of the 1990s (661st)
Award Best albums of all time (4,082nd)

Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY
eBay
Sorry, no matches on eBay for "Ask The Ages Sonny Sharrock".
See full search results on eBay

  My favourite store:  

Listen & Collect

Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.

  • Listened Upgrade your listening setup on Amazon(headphones, turntables & speakers)
  • Find vinyl editions of this album on eBay
  • Browse Sonny Sharrock merchandise on Amazon (T-shirts & more)
  • Need a birthday or celebration gift? Browse unique music memorabilia on Amazon

Sonny Sharrock bestography

Ask The Ages is ranked 2nd best out of 8 albums by Sonny Sharrock on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Sonny Sharrock is Black Woman which is ranked number 3589 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 417.

Sonny Sharrock album bestography « Higher ranked (3,589th)
Black Woman This album (4,082nd)
Ask The Ages Lower ranked (25,557th) »
Guitar

(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 Ask The Ages on YouTube

Loading content from YouTube...

Ask The Ages track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 77 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by
#
Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Promises Kept
Average Rating: 78 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
2.
Who Does She Hope To Be?
Average Rating: 78 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
3.
Little Rock
Average Rating: 76 (7 votes)Comments: View 0
4.
As We Used To Sing
Average Rating: 76 (7 votes)Comments: View 0
5.
Many Mansions
Average Rating: 79 (9 votes)Comments: View 0
6.
Once Upon A Time
Average Rating: 77 (8 votes)Comments: View 0

Ask The Ages rankings

Ask The Ages rankings summary
Overall rank: 4,082nd | 1990s rank: 661st | 1991 rank: 58th  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)

Ask The Ages collection

Ask The Ages ratings

Average Rating: 
79/100 (from 59 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 59 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !		01/14/2026 16:35 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,62070/100
 
60/100
 !		11/29/2025 05:17 Proto  Ratings distribution  4,29033/100
 
85/100
 !		07/30/2024 17:59 teague  Ratings distribution  4,36478/100

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 78.6/100, a mean average of 79.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.9.


Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to leave a rating

Ask The Ages favourites

Showing all 8 members who have added this album as a favourite

StefanR10
RockyRaccoon
Repo
PurpleHazel
spewventuri
ribeiro85
condemingus
tseliot

Forum mentions

This album has been referenced 15 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From BestEverAlbums 06/30/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5359): By PurpleHazel
“Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by ) 1. by (1963) 2. by (1970) 3. by (1965) 4. (1973) 5. by (2005) 6. (1966) 7. by by (1969) 9. (1974) 10. by (1977) 11. by (1985) 12. by (1983) 13. by (1972) 14. by (1969) 15. by (2013) 16. by (1971) 17. (1968) 18. (1958) 19. by (1967) 20. by…”
View forum post →

From baystateoftheart 11/11/2024 16:27 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
“8)”
View forum post →

From Mercury 11/02/2021 18:17 in You must listen to the album below you: canon edition
“1. First off, generally, this is stunning and gorgeous and I love it! Easiliy going my 90s chart/ One of my favorite recent picks for this game. Specifically the opening epic "Promises Kept" is incredible. The drum solo is awesome and I usually rag on drum solos, but this one had force and power…”
View forum post →

View all forum mentions

Ask The Ages comments

Showing all 2 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)
Rating:  
100/100
From 08/08/2021 09:05 | #272340 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Recently discovered Sonny Sharrock through the Summer of Soul documentary, this is a precious gem of an album, sadly also his last as I understand.
The track 'who does she hope to be' I mean... just fucking marvelous
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Reply
Rating:  
90/100
From 10/21/2017 22:14 | #199891 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
You really just can't got wrong with Pharaoh Sanders blowing his brains out through his sax.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Reply

Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to add a comment

Your feedback for Ask The Ages

Anonymous
What do you think of this album? Leave a comment or rate it below.
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
Log in or create an account to rate this album, leave comments and join the discussion.
Best Albums of  1991
1. Nevermind by Nirvana
2. Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
3. Ten by Pearl Jam
4. Spiderland by Slint
5. Achtung Baby by U2
6. The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest
7. Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
8. Blood Sugar Sex Magik by Red Hot Chili Peppers
9. Metallica by Metallica
10. Screamadelica by Primal Scream