Painful
by Yo La Tengo
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Yo La Tengo bestography
Painful is ranked 3rd best out of 31 albums by Yo La Tengo on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Yo La Tengo is I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One which is ranked number 477 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,561.
(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 Painful on YouTube
Painful track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Painful rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 7 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 78 Music Albums of 1993 | 18/78 | 4 |
| 2026 | saltysurprise | Top 52 Music Albums of 1993 | 11/52 | 4 |
| 2026 |  cestuneblague | Top 99 Music Albums of 1993 | 12/99 | 4 |
| 2026 |  LedZep | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 61/100 | 8 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1993 | 70/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  DommeDamian | June 26: 101-200 | 86/100 | - |
| 2026 | lanadeleswift | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 43/100 | 12 |
| 2026 | Rm12398 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 68/100 | 7 |
| 2026 |  Kalos | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1990s | 55/100 | 9 |
| 2026 |  dihansse | Top 72 Music Albums of 1993 | 16/72 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 267 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,237 | |||
Painful collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 105 members
Painful 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 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 287 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/01/2026 23:54 | Liks_on_music | 656 | 81/100 |
| ! | 05/23/2026 15:15 | libbyshuss | 99 | 79/100 |
| ! | 02/10/2026 18:59 | DommeDamian | 7,714 | 48/100 |
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 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.2/100, a mean average of 79.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.5/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.4.
Painful favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 36 members
Forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 09/25/2023 20:00 in Album of the day (#4663): Painful by Yo La Tengo BestEverAlbums 12/01/2022 17:02 in Monthly overall chart movementsPainful 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)
A must listen at night. (Edited)
Great shoegaze/slowcore album, really atmospheric and beautiful.
my favorite yo la tengo album. a masterpiece! (Edited)
JulianR 05/27/2019 20:22 | #236799
One of those strange albums that, though I didn't feel any particular song except maybe the second version of Big Day Coming really caught my attention, I quite enjoyed listening to it
75/100 (Above Average)
RaineyWins 12/21/2017 08:22 | #203661
Nowhere near is beautiful (Edited)
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