Absent Friends (studio album)
by The Divine Comedy

Absent Friends by The Divine Comedy
Year: 2004
Release date: 2004-03-29
Overall rank: 3,968th   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 73 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2004 (66th)
Award Top albums of the 2000s (682nd)
Award Best albums of all time (3,968th)

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The Divine Comedy bestography

Absent Friends is ranked 2nd best out of 16 albums by The Divine Comedy on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by The Divine Comedy is Casanova which is ranked number 2909 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 525.

The Divine Comedy album bestography « Higher ranked (2,909th)
Casanova
This album (3,968th)
Absent Friends
Lower ranked (6,286th) »
A Short Album About Love

(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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Absent Friends track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track
Rating/Comments
1.
Rating: 83 (11 votes)Comments: View 0
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2.
Rating: 80 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
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3.
Rating: 78 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
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7.
Rating: 83 (13 votes)Comments: View 0
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8.
Rating: 79 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
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9.
Rating: 80 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
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10.
Rating: 78 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
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11.
Rating: 80 (8 votes)Comments: View 0
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Absent Friends rankings

Absent Friends collection

Absent Friends ratings

Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 73 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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 73 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 Report rating
08/27/2025 14:17 Joehhh  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,67278/100
 
80/100
 Report rating
08/14/2025 03:04 Banner  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4,88280/100
 
70/100
 Report rating
09/17/2024 05:49 RemainInLight  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 3,09536/100
 
85/100
 Report rating
05/13/2024 09:33 cicadelic  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 10,99173/100
 
75/100
 Report rating
02/22/2024 03:35 M4thSoad3r  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 31285/100

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 18% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.0/100, a mean average of 74.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 12.6.

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Absent Friends favourites

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Absent Friends comments

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Rating:  
70/100
From 02/14/2021 17:30
Lovely orchestral pop, but it's one step behind Casanova.
#266314 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 07/02/2013 18:07
Great sounding album and amazing lyrics. Refined Pop at its best.
#80259 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 05/25/2013 23:11
I recently became acquainted with the Neil Hannon project "The Duckworth Lewis Method" and was very impressed by the album. British music tradition in the vein of great songwriters like Ray Davies and Pete Townsend.

I subsequently wanted to listen more closely to some of the recent The Divine Comedy, and the choice fell on the album "Absent Friends" from 2004. Perhaps it was not quite what I had hoped for although there without question are many beautiful songs on the album.

Some of the tracks are a little too heavily arranged for my taste - a little too grandiose. However, there are fine exceptions, where a simpler band-sound is predominant.

Tracks like "Come Home Billy Bird", "The Happy Goth" and the title track are melodic Brit-pop at its best.

Moreover, one must admit that songs like "Sticks and Stones," "Our Mutual Friend" and "Charmed Life" is very fine compositions.

Lyrically Hannon is a great storyteller. Good examples are "Our Mutual Friend" and "Come Home Billy Bird".
#77245 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 06/16/2010 14:23
the whole album is a delight and was my first DC purchase... it prompted me to try more of DC's stuff.
#12937 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 06/16/2010 04:29
Come Home Billy Bird is one of the greatest songs this guy has created.
#12926 | Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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