Surprise
by Syd Straw
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Syd Straw bestography
Surprise is ranked as the best album by Syd Straw.
(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 Surprise on YouTube
Surprise track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 77 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Surprise rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Johnnyo | most listened to (2 B deleted) | 90/96 | - |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Top 100 Music Albums of 1989 | 33/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  MadhattanJack | Top 74 Music Albums of 1989 | 57/74 | 1 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Jul - Sept 2022 (2 B deleted) | 40/97 | - |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 86 Music Albums of 1989 | 14/86 | 4 |
| 2025 | Johnnyo | Top albums of the ‘80’s (201 - 300) | 32/68 | - |
| 2024 | Johnnyo | Top albums of all time by female artists (100 - 200) | 44/100 | - |
| 2022 | Johnnyo | Women | 87/100 | - |
| 2018 |  NoisyBeast | Top Albums of 1989... #401-500 | 99/100 | - |
| 2015 |  philbutrin | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 54/100 | - |
| 2014 | philbutrin | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 8/100 | 19 |
| 2014 | philbutrin | Top 68 Music Albums of 1989 | 3/68 | 5 |
| 1989 | WOXY.com | The 97 Best Of 1989 | 61/92 | 2 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 13 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 34 | |||
Surprise collection
Showing all 10 members who have this album in their collection
Surprise 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 15 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/09/2023 12:37 | cicadelic | 13,561 | 73/100 |
| ! | 04/18/2023 20:32 | MadhattanJack | 5,990 | 66/100 |
| ! | 09/24/2022 09:52 | platus | 5,871 | 74/100 |
| ! | 08/24/2022 09:36 | Johnnyo | 9,897 | 77/100 |
| ! | 03/09/2022 06:34 | Taosjohn | 850 | 69/100 |
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 has a Bayesian average rating of 69.5/100, a mean average of 67.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 67.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.2.
Surprise comments
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Consistently good album. No outstanding tracks, although chasing Vapor trails, future 40’s and think too hard are very good songs, but it’s just a thoroughly good album. Great listen
The four best tracks on this are about as good as anything and i wish she had had a bigger career. The Stephen Foster is a real achievement, emphasizing his writing skills, rather than the evils of his time and place.
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