Cosmic Thing
by The B-52's
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The B-52's bestography
Cosmic Thing is ranked 2nd best out of 15 albums by The B-52's on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The B-52's is The B-52's which is ranked number 859 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,021.
(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 Cosmic Thing on YouTube
Cosmic Thing track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Cosmic Thing 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 |  Patman360 | Top 86 Music Albums of 1989 | 17/86 | 4 |
| 2026 | Juneof44 | Top 50 Music Albums of 1989 | 28/50 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Romanelli | My Overall Chart: 901-1000 | 92/100 | - |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 87 Music Albums of 1989 | 51/87 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Rhyner | Top 16 Music Albums of 1989 | 6/16 | 3 |
| 2026 | culwin | Top 44 Music Albums of 1989 | 9/44 | 4 |
| 2026 | Moondance | Top 100 Music Albums of 1989 | 67/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | TroutMaskGreg | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 88/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | lanadeleswift | Top 39 Music Albums of 1989 | 15/39 | 3 |
| 2026 | blueandthemoon | Top 33 Music Albums of 1989 | 9/33 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 190 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 812 | |||
Cosmic Thing collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 126 members
Cosmic Thing 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 209 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 04/11/2026 03:01 |  imacgill | 2,856 | 79/100 |
| ! | 04/03/2026 22:21 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,693 | 70/100 |
| ! | 12/31/2025 17:03 |  EyeKanFly | 8,985 | 65/100 |
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 15% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.2/100, a mean average of 73.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.3.
Cosmic Thing favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 26 members
Cosmic Thing forum mentions
Cosmic Thing comments
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Right as everyone wrote them off as dead after Ricky Wilson's death and the subsequent failure of the underrated "Bouncing Off The Satellites", they came back bigger than ever. I am partial to the earlier records and admit that "Love Shack" isn't one of my fave B-52's songs but as a whole a very solid album that deserves to be known for more than that one overplayed hit.
Romanelli TOP 100 COMMENTER 06/15/2011 23:54 | #23141 | TOP COMMENT
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Not anywhere near as much fun as the early albums. When the people throwing the party start sounding old, it's time to find a new and better one.
Love Shack is one of my least favourite B52's tracks, Roam one of their best, and that sums this album up for me. A few too many tracks that are shown up a litte too much by the best of the others - Roam, Dry Country - still a decent listen though.
I prefer their earlier albums but this is a great album. What makes it a slight miss is that the songs that aren't good are not worth playing. Roam is the best of the 5 songs I listen to
Squonk007 04/26/2021 07:34 | #268989 | TOP COMMENT
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There isn't alot on here for me. I can take away Love Shack and Roam but the rest is poor.
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