The Inner Mounting Flame
by The Mahavishnu Orchestra With John McLaughlin
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The Mahavishnu Orchestra With John McLaughlin bestography
The best album by Mahavishnu Orchestra is The Inner Mounting Flame which is ranked number 1560 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 1,100.
(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 The Inner Mounting Flame on YouTube
The Inner Mounting Flame track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Inner Mounting Flame rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  AAL2014 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1971 | 15/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  RockyRaccoon | Top 100 Music Albums of 1971 | 24/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | PurpleHazel | Top 68 Music Albums of 1971 | 14/68 | 4 |
| 2026 |  kinglyostrich | Top 99 Greatest Music Albums | 17/99 | 82 |
| 2026 | RockyRaccoon | Progressive Rock | 55/100 | - |
| 2026 |  Fischman | Top 100 Music Albums of 1971 | 7/100 | 5 |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 65 Music Albums of 1971 | 44/65 | 2 |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 73 Music Albums of 1971 | 52/73 | 2 |
| 2026 | pinkfreud1981 | Top 16 Music Albums of 1971 | 13/16 | 1 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 1971 | 34/100 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 258 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,100 | |||
The Inner Mounting Flame collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 126 members
The Inner Mounting Flame 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 291 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/15/2026 17:11 |  DommeDamian | 7,839 | 48/100 |
| ! | 05/02/2026 16:45 | traistboar | 1,801 | 79/100 |
| ! | 04/30/2026 18:21 | evo | 285 | 70/100 |
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 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.4/100, a mean average of 78.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.7.
The Inner Mounting Flame favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 38 members
The Inner Mounting Flame forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 08/20/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5410): By DeckillerView latest topic →
BestEverAlbums 03/10/2024 20:00 in Album of the day (#4830): The Inner Mounting FlameView latest topic →
View all forum mentions
The Inner Mounting Flame comments
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JoaoMoreira 04/18/2017 02:24 | #189452 | TOP COMMENT
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In this record The Mahavishnu Orchestra flutuates between nice melodic phrases and virtuoso showoff. For a musician, you can spot all of their musical tricks after a few listens and that's a boring cause there's not much more left than that.
Unlike Zappa, McLaughlin and Goodman are way to excited to tell stories within the solos even though they have good melodic moments together. They spent most of the time just shredding scales without any purpose.
Overall, you can hear their egos battling for the lead part.
Perennial jazz/rock fusion album alongside bitches brew and the weather report's "heavy weather". Inner Mounting Flame more engaging than most and arguably more prog rock than jazz. Quietly amazed this is the first comment!
Fischman TOP 100 COMMENTER 12/02/2018 19:43 | #226052 | TOP COMMENT
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Progressive, virtuoso album full of passion, fire, and grace. This album is a genuine fusion benchmark. (Edited)
An orgasm for the ears. This instrumental beauty is relentless. A true sonic marvel. John McLaughlin is from another planet a truly magnificent guitar wizard. Jazz Fusion masterpiece. The keys and guitar mesh seamlessly to create such a lush soundscape rooted by some excellent drumming.
Insanely frenetic. I sometimes prefer their less bombastic, orchestral albums but if you want to piss off your neighbors, open your windows & blare this.
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