Lyceum
by The Orchids
The Orchids bestography
Lyceum is ranked as the best album by The Orchids.
(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 Lyceum on YouTube
Lyceum track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 77 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Lyceum rankings
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 88 Music Albums of 1989 | 5/88 | 5 |
| 2025 |  Repo | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 98/100 | 3 |
| 2025 | LittleM1971 | Greatest Music Albums: 101-200 | 46/100 | - |
| 2025 | Repo | Top 100 Music Albums of 1989 | 72/100 | 1 |
| 2025 | LittleM1971 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 40/100 | 12 |
| 2025 |  LadyGodiva | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 94/100 | 1 |
| 2020 |  SingingPeasant96 | A sweet journey to Glasgow | 48/49 | - |
| 2020 | LadyGodiva | Top 75 Music Albums of 1989 | 15/75 | 4 |
| 2020 | Repo | The Mellow Zone | 3/3 | - |
| 2019 | SingingPeasant96 | Kissing Just For Practice : Indie Pop (Twee & Jangle) | 46/99 | - |
| 2019 |  SuedeSwede | The Picnic Chart | 62/97 | - |
| 2018 |  bertrandu | 1980s Indie Pop | 94/100 | - |
| 2015 |  briggs54 | Top 78 Music Albums of 1989 | 63/78 | 1 |
| 2014 |  Secondsoul | Top 50 Music Albums of 1989 | 36/50 | 2 |
| 2014 | Secondsoul | The Top 100 Best Scottish Albums | 89/100 | - |
| 2014 |  philbutrin | Top 68 Music Albums of 1989 | 65/68 | 0 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 16 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 29 | |||
Lyceum collection
Showing all 2 members who have this album in their collection
Lyceum 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 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 10 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04/11/2020 20:38 | LittleM1971 | 5,962 | 81/100 | |
| 06/16/2018 00:15 | TodFitz | 27,379 | 63/100 | |
| 03/11/2018 16:47 | Repo | 2,200 | 85/100 | |
| 02/20/2018 08:38 |  Hayden | 7,805 | 72/100 | |
| 01/17/2017 21:00 | TransientTruth | 22 | 96/100 |
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 6% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.6/100, a mean average of 79.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 10.2.
Lyceum favourites
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Lyceum comments
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Repo 03/11/2018 16:48 | #210640
KISSING YOUR SISTER
Well they chose their name right. I’ll give them that. Sarah Records unleashes it very first LP in 1989 with The Orchids debut and it’s… nice. Precious. Like their namesake, they’re very fragile. Delicate. Needing just the right climate & environment in order to survive. Something that could easily wilt on contact with a stern gaze or a faulty heating lamp. They have the feel of early Belle & Sebastian - too fragile & sensitive for life.
“Indistinguishable…. Inoffensive… Comfortable….” These are the three adjectives Allmusic uses to describe Lyceum. And they hit the nail on the head. This is good, inoffensive Sarah Records jangle pop. If you needed to describe Sarah Records sound, and one of their compilations wasn’t handy, this would do nicely. But it doesn’t really stand out. The Orchids haven’t really developed their own distinctive flair just yet. At this point, they’re just… nice. And in the dating world and in music, that’s pretty much the kiss of death. The aural equivalent of kissing your sister. At least in this case, it’s very cute & endearing sister. Interestingly, they would borrow form the Madchester scene in a good way to cultivate something much far more interesting with their next album - Holy Orchid. At this point, however, they seem to be apologizing for their very existence. At least they’re well behaved.
It does contain one stunner - “Blue Light” - which sounds like the most impassioned heart-on-sleeve song that New Order never wrote. “If You Can’t Wait” is a also a keeper. Again, this is a good album. Just nothing super special yet. It pales in comparison to The Field Mice’s Snowball released in the same year.
Attention Bargain Shoppers: The original release of this album suffers mightily due to Sarah’s head scratching philosophy that singles should NOT be on the album. Say what? Using some “value-for-money” double-speak that was somehow swallowed by their adoring & thus gullible fan base. “Why make you pay twice for the singles that you had already bought?” said Sarah. Hogwash says me. They just wanted you to keep buying their singles AND their albums. Buy everything! Luckily this “philosophy” was later corrected in 2005 when Lyceum was re-released with the singles tacked onto the end. That’s where you’ll get the real bang for your buck. Definitely worth hunting down.
Grade: B-
RIYL: Twee & Jangle Pop
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