Buy
by James Chance & The Contortions

Buy by James Chance & The Contortions
Year: 1979
Release date: 1979-11-00
Overall rank: 3,948th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 98 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1979 (66th)
Award Top albums of of the 1970s (662nd)
Award Best albums of all time (3,948th)

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James Chance & The Contortions bestography

Buy is ranked as the best album by James Chance & The Contortions.

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Buy rankings

Buy rankings summary
Overall rank: 3,948th | 1970s rank: 662nd | 1979 rank: 66th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 5 hours ago).

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Buy ratings

Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 98 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help 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 98 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !
04/08/2026 08:17 ssteve  Ratings distribution  2,56476/100
 
75/100
 !
01/19/2026 20:51 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,27770/100
 
15/100
 !
08/17/2025 15:36 Proto  Ratings distribution  4,20233/100
 
60/100
 !
07/09/2025 14:55 Dingerbell  Ratings distribution  4,11962/100
 
65/100
 !
06/21/2025 13:56 Elauqsapid  Ratings distribution  2,72164/100

Rating metrics: Help 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 5% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.8/100, a mean average of 75.1/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.7.


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Buy comments

Showing all 2 comments |
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Very frenetic punk with a discordant sax wailing in free form
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
Combining the cocophonous syncopations of Beefheart, the free-form spastic rhythms of Albert Ayler and the funky dance beats of James Brown, Chance creates a new form of destructured dissonant music for the new wave generation every bit as daring and innovative as the Pop Group and Rip Rig And Panic.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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