New Traditionalists
by Devo

New Traditionalists by Devo
Year: 1981
Overall rank: 6,488th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
73/100 (from 71 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1981 (112th)
Award Top albums of the 1980s (928th)
Award Best albums of all time (6,488th)

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Devo bestography

New Traditionalists is ranked 4th best out of 37 albums by Devo on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Devo is Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! which is ranked number 844 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,065.

Devo album bestography « Higher ranked (4,958th)
Duty Now For The Future
This album (6,488th)
New Traditionalists
Lower ranked (7,818th) »
Oh, No! It's Devo

(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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New Traditionalists track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

New Traditionalists rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 6,488th | 1980s rank: 928th | 1981 rank: 112th
Filter Filter
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YearSourceChartRankRank Score
2026 paladisiactop 65r albums (66), #0001-0100*57/78 -
2026mikepenTop 100 Music Albums of 19813/1005
2026 PurplepashTop 40 Music Albums of 198129/402
2026TroutMaskGregTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s14/10017
2026 RepoTop 100 Music Albums of 198161/1002
2026 imacgillTop 100 Music Albums of 198193/1000
2026microjudeTop 100 Greatest Music Albums87/10014
2026 HeliosTop 80 Music Albums of 198113/804
2026BorderFreeAndrewTop 100 Music Albums of 198159/1002
2025martinthoTop 54 Music Albums of 198138/542
2025 paladisiacTop 100 Music Albums of 198140/1003
2025juanr1096Top 54 Music Albums of 198138/542
2025 sszwalbenestTop 21 Music Albums of 19813/215
2025Marswolf68Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s69/1006
2025 paladisiac1980s 65rating (66), #001-100*13/57 -
2025mostlymor1981 Listening Project (Part Two)22/100 -
2025 sszwalbenestTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s52/10010
2024innes1903Top 40 Greatest Music Albums16/4048
2024 HeliosTop 100 Music Albums of the 1980s79/1004
2024sonicdiscourseTo-Do List 198184/90 -
Total Charts: Help The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. 50
Total Rank Score: Help The total rank score. 204
You can include this album in your own chart from the My Charts page!

New Traditionalists collection

New Traditionalists ratings

Average Rating: 
73/100 (from 71 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 71 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 
04/21/2026 20:10 davidleewrong  Ratings distribution  2,35781/100
 
80/100
 
03/10/2026 16:27 BorderFreeAndrew  Ratings distribution  15,41174/100
 
70/100
 
01/20/2026 09:27 VeVt  Ratings distribution  10361/100
 
20/100
 
12/21/2025 04:40 Olli  Ratings distribution  7,27962/100
 
80/100
 
08/25/2025 04:37 matterhornrider  Ratings distribution  5,07481/100

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 has a Bayesian average rating of 72.9/100, a mean average of 71.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.6.

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New Traditionalists favourites

Showing all 9 members who have added this album as a favourite

New Traditionalists comments

Showing all 4 comments |
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Rating:  
85/100
From 05/16/2022 11:02 | #285400
Fantastic album, my favourite by Devo. Got to see them on the tour for this album, they opened with Going Under. Highly recommend as a first listen.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 01/16/2019 08:52 | #229752
This album rocks, and that's what there is to say about that. There are two or three dud tracks: Pity You and Love Without Anger in particular don't have the same energy as the rest of the album, but they've still got a little something to them. Race of Doom comes on a little hard to start side 2, maybe, but hard is good. The rest is brilliant. Great songwriting throughout, a record made to dance to--we played it at parties back in the day and danced like art-school teenagers which is what we were. Just great power pop, which is what Devo was.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
10/100
From 06/30/2017 05:02 | #193457
Devo devolved.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
From 11/13/2016 05:44 | #178352
My all time favorite Devo album. Working in the Coalmine is the big hits, but there are so many songs on this album that I find superior such as Through Being Cool, Race of Doom and Beautiful World
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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Best Albums of 1981
1. Moving Pictures by Rush
2. Computerwelt by Kraftwerk
3. Discipline by King Crimson
4. Juju by Siouxsie And The Banshees
5. My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Brian Eno & David Byrne
6. Time by Electric Light Orchestra
7. Faith by The Cure
8. Damaged by Black Flag
9. Dare by The Human League
10. Deceit by This Heat