Friends
by The Beach Boys
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The Beach Boys bestography
Friends is ranked 7th best out of 76 albums by The Beach Boys on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Beach Boys is Pet Sounds which is ranked number 12 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 36,830.
(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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Friends track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Friends rankings
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 3 hours ago).
CA Dreamin
baystateoftheart
neilgee
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Norman BatesFriends collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 107 members
Friends 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 320 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 05/08/2026 15:17 | michelefarina | 66 | 86/100 |
| ! | 04/18/2026 22:08 | davidleewrong | 2,357 | 81/100 |
| ! | 04/17/2026 21:01 | Gedi | 338 | 83/100 |
| ! | 04/13/2026 20:28 | Hyggevinyl | 4,437 | 72/100 |
| ! | 03/01/2026 21:14 |  Bunzer | 169 | 76/100 |
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 75.7/100, a mean average of 74.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.3.
Friends favourites
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Friends comments
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Jboy56 08/14/2022 12:23 | #288476
Pretty nice, psyche era BB. Unconventional for them..
The album is just too short. There is so much potential in almost every single song that it makes the album a frustrating listen at times. You can see exactly what the songs could have become if given the time and were allowed to flourish properly. There is still a lot of beautiful lyrics and music on display that make the album both worth a listen and an essential listen.
teague 07/24/2020 23:35 | #256169
Pleasant yet brief. Friends definitely doesn't overstay its welcome, and the songwriting isn't anything to scoff at either.
So tender and soft...
Fav tracks: Busy Doin' Nothin', Little Bird, Meant for You and When a Man Needs a Woman.
Friends captures a gentleness that evidently originated from Brian, making it one of the last Beach Boys albums dominated by his vision. There are two different schools of thought about this album – either it’s one of the most coherent and unified albums in The Beach Boys catalogue, full of charm and melody, or it’s relatively lightweight and insubstantial. I’m part of the second camp; while Beach Boys’ strengths like warm vocals and strong melodies are present here, so are weaknesses like ridiculous lyrics (‘Anna Lee, The Healer’), and no single song individually measures up among the groups’ best.
One of the best Beach Boys album. It's great!
This is the first Beach Boys album that made me realize they're more than just Pet Sounds. But I do agree with comments below; every song feels too short like it is cut off prematurely. Little Bird is my favorite non-Brian Wilson Beach Boys song by a landslide
This really is a lovely album, short and sweet. That certainly is the charm of the album, but it's also frustrating because of it. Opener, meant for you, is beautiful, but it fades out before it even reaches the 40 second mark, it's just a waste of a lovely melody. Other tracks aren't quite so short, but I wish they could have extended them a bit. Having said that, the album is fine. Dennis' two contributions, little bird, and especially, be still, are excellent. The title track is nice, as is wake the world. As I said, it's lovely, just wish it went on a bit longer.
A very charming, short LP. Brian's called it his favorite, and that makes sense. It's a very solid album.
eclab 05/06/2014 02:35 | #110940
In one word: pleasant.
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