Congratulations to Tony and EclecticMusicLover, who both scored 12/12 in last week’s quiz.
This week it’s all about commercial juggernauts – albums with at least four top ten hits. It ranges from the 1970s to the 2010s and is pop-centric. You need to be a little careful between multiple albums from the same artist (including a Wham album and a George Michael solo album).
I scored 25/25, although I needed some educated guessing between Fergie and Drake at the end. I had 1:36 remaining.
Are there any fans of R. Stevie Moore out there? I’d never heard of him until recently, but he’s the son of renowned session bassist Bob Moore and has released 400 self-released albums in a prolific career.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
17 Comments
23/25 for me, as I didn’t notice two Janet Jackson albums. Otherwise I might have been able to get a perfect score. I enjoyed this one a lot.
The two Janet Jackson albums are among my favourites on this list actually.
12/25. Didn’t recognize quite a few of them. No surprise. I stopped listening to popular music 20 years ago.
I counted and I only 5 of those albums in my Itunes library – and 3 of them are by Jackson siblings.
This was easy for me. 25/25 with 3:28 to spare. The hardest part was having to scroll up and down to see all the albums.
Yup, it’s up your street for sure. On PC I zoom out sometimes so I can get all the albums on one screen.
16 of 25 – pop music of the last few decades is definitely not in my wheel house.
Yup, it was a pretty genre specific quiz this week.
Stunk the place up with 18/25, I don’t think I would recognise a Fergie song if it stole my wife and raped my cattle
I just knew the title London Bridge.
15/25 and ran out of time. Not at all familiar with most of the music (can you tell?)
There’s a few where I haven’t heard a note but just know some song names.
SCORE
20/25
TIMER
00:00 Cool sound by R. Stevie Moore…no I can’t say I ever heard of him but it doesn’t sound bad.
Goof work – pretty wide spread of scores this week.
I did not bad! I got 18/25 with 1:45 left! Thanks for the quiz!
Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person.
Graham Fyfe is probably the only music blogger to appreciate both Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande. Based in Fleet Street (New Zealand), he's been writing this blog since around 2000. Aphoristic Album Reviews features reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
Review Pages
Read about the discographies of musical acts from the 1960s to the present day. Browse this site's review archives or enjoy these random selections:
Not to be confused with the Sun Records boss of the same name, Sam Phillips started her career in 1980s Christian pop. She used her birth name, Leslie Phillips, in the 1980s and was marketed as the Christian Cyndi Lauper. Based on Phillips’ raspy voice and appearance, I’m surprised they […]
Born in Texas, a year before fellow country star Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves has followed a markedly different musical path. Swift is the golden girl, whose albums go to number one, even after she’s transitioned to pop, while Musgraves is more the outsider, whose grandmother cried when she pierced her […]
Miranda Lambert was born in Longview, Texas. Her parents were private detectives and then ran a shelter for abused women – both of these experiences feed into Lambert’s songwriting. Lambert’s father played in a country-rock band and taught Lambert how to play the guitar so that she could write her […]
Ed McWilliams and Geoff Maddock met in art class at high school in Auckland, New Zealand, and formed the trio Breast Secreting Cake with drummer Joel Wilton. The group were forced to change the name of their band, and chose Bressa Creeting Cake. Each member took a part of the […]
As a casual music listener it’s easy to hear The Beach Boys’ sun-drenched hits, and conclude that the group were all beaches, girls and cars, and no substance. But the group was led by Brian Wilson, one of the most talented musicians of his era, with an ear for sophisticated […]
While his former Velvet Underground bandmate Lou Reed enjoyed a larger public profile, John Cale has always been like an invisible hand guiding the alternative music scene. Cale started his career in the early 1960s in the contemporary classical scene. He studied the viola, and worked alongside contemporary composers like […]
Blog Posts
I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:
Birmingham band The Moody Blues have one of the most misleading names in popular music. It fit to start with – their early repertoire was based on American blues, and their cover of Bessie Banks’ ‘Go Now’ topped the UK charts in early 1965. They played on the Ed Sullivan […]
Formed in 1981, London’s Talk Talk enjoyed an unusual career trajectory. They started their record career as a passable synth-pop band, often compared to Duran Duran. Early hits like 1984’s ‘Such A Shame’ and ‘It’s My Life’ allowed them access to larger recording budgets. Their music became more experimental and […]
New York rock band Talking Heads started their career as the Artistics, with drummer Chris Frantz and vocalist/guitarist David Byrne. As the group were unable to find a bassist, Frantz’s girlfriend Tina Weymouth joined – she learned to play bass by listening to Suzi Quatro records. The trio played at […]
Stewart Copeland, Sting, and Andy Summers were all veteran musicians when they formed The Police in London in 1977. Copeland had drummed for progressive rock band Curved Air, Sting had played in the jazz fusion band Last Exit, while Summers’ career as a guitarist dated back to the 1960s when […]
Don McGlashan had already made an impact on the New Zealand music scene before he formed The Mutton Birds. He was the drummer for the punk-influenced band Blam Blam Blam, remembered for fabulously titled songs ‘There Is No Depression in New Zealand’ and ‘Don’t Fight It Marsha, It’s Bigger Than […]
Judee Sill was a 1970s singer-songwriter from California. Her gentle songs were at odds with her tumultuous lifestyle. She spent time in prison for armed robbery and learnt music while serving as a Church organist at a reform school. She also worked as a hooker and struggled with heroin addiction […]
23/25 for me, as I didn’t notice two Janet Jackson albums. Otherwise I might have been able to get a perfect score. I enjoyed this one a lot.
The two Janet Jackson albums are among my favourites on this list actually.
12/25. Didn’t recognize quite a few of them. No surprise. I stopped listening to popular music 20 years ago.
I counted and I only 5 of those albums in my Itunes library – and 3 of them are by Jackson siblings.
This was easy for me. 25/25 with 3:28 to spare. The hardest part was having to scroll up and down to see all the albums.
Yup, it’s up your street for sure. On PC I zoom out sometimes so I can get all the albums on one screen.
16 of 25 – pop music of the last few decades is definitely not in my wheel house.
Yup, it was a pretty genre specific quiz this week.
Stunk the place up with 18/25, I don’t think I would recognise a Fergie song if it stole my wife and raped my cattle
I just knew the title London Bridge.
15/25 and ran out of time. Not at all familiar with most of the music (can you tell?)
There’s a few where I haven’t heard a note but just know some song names.
SCORE
20/25
TIMER
00:00 Cool sound by R. Stevie Moore…no I can’t say I ever heard of him but it doesn’t sound bad.
Goof work – pretty wide spread of scores this week.
I did not bad! I got 18/25 with 1:45 left! Thanks for the quiz!
Yup, that’s a very good score.
And I’m very proud of it!