Only Skin (track)
by Joanna Newsom
Only Skin appears on the following album(s) by Joanna Newsom:
- Ys (track #4) (this album) (2006)
Upcoming concerts
Listen to Only Skin on YouTube
Only Skin 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.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Track ratings | Avg. track rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 01/04/2026 02:58 |  AAL2014 | 35,372 | 76/100 |
| ! | 12/27/2025 17:20 | Siromynian | 16,010 | 71/100 |
| ! | 12/10/2025 18:57 | Exist-en-ciel | 77,721 | 70/100 |
| ! | 10/23/2025 02:07 |  imacgill | 30,641 | 81/100 |
| ! | 08/17/2025 02:45 | mttr-in-plc | 1,997 | 88/100 |
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 tracks can have several thousand ratings)
This track is rated in the top 1% of all tracks on BestEverAlbums.com. This track has a Bayesian average rating of 88.2/100, a mean average of 86.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 88.8/100. The standard deviation for this track is 17.9.
Only Skin favourites
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Only Skin comments
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An achingly beautiful song. Joanna Newsom is the only songwriter and performer who could pull this off.
Onater 03/18/2017 06:16 | #187605
What can someone even say about this? I legitimately sometimes find it hard to believe that a track this incredible can even exist. 17 minutes and it doesn't get boring for a second, rhythms and harmonies that are just complex enough to be technically interesting while staying beautiful and never getting pretentious or awkward, vivid, gorgeous imagery in the lyrics, and a story that I still haven't deciphered after countless listens. I might be overreacting here, but this has to be one of the most extraordinary songs ever written.
eclab 06/02/2012 01:07 | #43493
"Only Skin" is nearly seventeen minutes long, and can be very trying for the first few listens. But it's one of the best songs of all time. It's nearly a whole album about life, love, grief, pain, sorrow, and joy in and of itself.
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