Knife Play
by Xiu Xiu

Knife Play by Xiu Xiu
Year: 2002
Overall rank: 8,966th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 48 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2002 (171st)
Award Top albums of the 2000s (1,555th)
Award Best albums of all time (8,966th)

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Xiu Xiu bestography

Knife Play is ranked 8th best out of 24 albums by Xiu Xiu on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Xiu Xiu is A Promise which is ranked number 3102 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 486.

Xiu Xiu album bestography « Higher ranked (7,585th)
Angel Guts: Red Classroom
This album (8,966th)
Knife Play
Lower ranked (16,272nd) »
The Air Force

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Upcoming concerts

May
04
Mon
Black Marble
recordBar, Kansas City, United States. United States
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Apr
10
Fri
Grupo Bryndis, Industria Del Amor, Guardianes Del Amor-Romanticos Tour
YouTube Theater, Inglewood, United States. United States
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Apr
17
Fri
Helloween: 40th Anniversary North American Tour 2026
Palladium Times Square , New York City, United States. United States
Tickets from Ticketmaster Get tickets
 

Listen to Knife Play on YouTube

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Knife Play rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 8,966th | 2000s rank: 1,555th | 2002 rank: 171st

Knife Play collection

Showing all 10 members who have this album in their collection

Knife Play ratings

Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 48 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 48 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 
02/22/2026 07:06 thepardunk  Ratings distribution  2,57269/100
 
60/100
 
08/07/2025 14:51 TonySayers61  Ratings distribution  23,82764/100
 
80/100
 
04/29/2025 02:15 juanr1096  Ratings distribution  6,11378/100
 
85/100
 
10/13/2024 18:54 Anti  Ratings distribution  4,62678/100
 
70/100
 
10/03/2024 04:38 bcc  Ratings distribution  1,13268/100

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 5% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.1/100, a mean average of 75.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.9/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.8.

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Knife Play favourites

Showing all 7 members who have added this album as a favourite

Knife Play comments

Showing all 4 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:  
80/100
From 11/09/2022 05:49 | #291160
some really good tracks but I really like when the moments when the melodies or instrumentation shine through. A lot of the noisier stuff doesn't do it for me
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 02/16/2019 22:45 | #232065
Visceral. I mean holy fuck this just punches you in the gut and then runs over you with a truck when you're still lying on the floor trying to make sense and recover from what just happened
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 07/27/2017 04:36 | #194965
Great for listening at night.

Favorite tracks: Don Diasco, I Broke Up, Hives Hives, Over Over, Suha, Poe Poe, Homunculus

A-
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
From 07/13/2015 23:04 | #145696
Certainly his most honest and exposed, if not his most violent. This is not any Xiu Xiu I'm familiar with, taken to a much higher level than any of his other work I've heard.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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