Universal Themes
by Sun Kil Moon
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Sun Kil Moon bestography
Universal Themes is ranked 4th best out of 29 albums by Mark Kozelek on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Mark Kozelek is Benji which is ranked number 375 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 4,399.
(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 Universal Themes on YouTube
Universal Themes track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Universal Themes 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 | jdizzle123456 | Top 100 Music Albums of 2015 | 69/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  zdwyatt | Top 61 Music Albums of 2015 | 51/61 | 1 |
| 2026 |  SomethingSpecial | Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s | 84/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | bertdepoortere | Top 18 Music Albums of 2015 | 10/18 | 3 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 100 Music Albums of 2015 | 34/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  HoldenM | Top 73 Music Albums of 2015 | 13/73 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 95 Music Albums of 2015 | 79/95 | 1 |
| 2026 |  imacgill | Top 100 Music Albums of 2015 | 91/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  goeie-oko | Top 19 Music Albums of 2015 | 7/19 | 3 |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 92 Music Albums of 2015 | 45/92 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 92 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 231 | |||
Universal Themes collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 28 members
Universal Themes 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 127 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 07/12/2026 23:32 | Exist-en-ciel | 15,619 | 70/100 |
| ! | 04/13/2026 22:57 | SomethingSpecial | 1,810 | 82/100 |
| ! | 01/27/2026 13:57 | TonySayers61 | 25,532 | 64/100 |
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 71.3/100, a mean average of 70.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 71.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.5.
Universal Themes favourites
Showing all 6 members who have added this album as a favourite
Forum mentions
Hayden 11/08/2015 20:44 in Albums You Added To Your Collection TodayUniversal Themes comments
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luigybetis 11/20/2015 12:19 | #153211
@Juneof44
I totally agree with you
Pretty tough to get into an album where the guy is not even singing and just rambling on and on about randomness. I don't get the appeal for Sun Kil Moon (Edited)
bonafini 10/19/2015 03:47 | #151675
There is a very fine line between valuing life through the power of its simple and casual crudeness and randomly inferring grandiose meanings in banality. The whole lyrical and musical concept is really the same as before, the difference is in well-doing. “Benji” was a masterpiece because it accomplished it; “Universal Themes” stops short of it, which makes it pretentious bullshit.
(And, about the title polemics, my opinion is that, although every story is super-specific, they all (intend to) represent these grandiose themes that all of us are always wondering about, like mortality, etc.)
Nylon guitars and spoken word. I'm sick of it, i miss the first records until "April".
jhuik 06/14/2015 01:22 | #143789 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
It's just great to watch and listen to such an interesting artist stretch himself in so many different directions from one album to the next. I have my doubts this works, though.
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