Saint Paul by Shane
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Saint Paul by Shane Topped the NZ chart for 6 weeks from 26 September 1969. Shane Shane landed a gig hosting the NZ pop show C’mon. This led to a record contract with HMV.…
Aphoristical
Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.
A True Star—the 10 Best Albums of 1973
1973 featured the OPEC oil crisis, the Yom Kippur War, and the death of Salvador Allende. But it was also a great year for albums – I had no room for personal favourites like Tom Waits’ Closing Time, Paul Simon’s…
Music Quiz: Artists on Billboard Year-End Hot 25 singles of 1990
Last week we looked at 1980. This week, can you name all the year-end hot 25 singles of 1990? I certainly couldn’t – just like last week, I scored 17 Congratulations to EclecticMusicLover, who’s continuing to rack up consecutive…
Wilco: Five Best Albums
When Uncle Tupelo split up after 1993’s Anodyne, guitarist and primary song-writer Jay Farrar seemed the best bet for a successful career with his new act Son Volt. But Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with the remnants of Uncle Tupelo – bassist…
Nuggets II: Rosalyn by The Pretty Things
The success of Rhino’s 1998 Nuggets boxset justified a follow-up. The sequel covers the rest of the world since the first volume only chronicled the USA. Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 emerged in 2001.…
No matter how jangled—10 Best Albums of 2025
As a one-person music website, I’m unable to cover everything. I’ve reviewed about 75 albums from 2025, slightly inflated by covering the seven albums of Springsteen’s Tracks II box set. Here are my favourites from the year. It seemed like…
Music Quiz: Artists on Billboard Year-End Hot 25 singles of 1980
Can you name all the year-end hot 25 singles of 1980? I certainly couldn’t – I struggled with the bottom third of the list, and ended up with 17 In my defense, I was only 1 at the time.…
10 Best Jessie Ware Songs
The United Kingdom’s most likeable pop star, Jessie Ware is charming while other mainstream acts leave me cold. She has a gorgeous voice, but she’s closer to the sophisticated poise of Sade than the vocal histrionics of Celine Dion. Ware’s…
New Music Reviews: Flock of Dimes, Nourished by Time, and Candelabra
Flock of Dimes and Nourished By Time are both solo projects from Baltimore artists, with monikers that sound like band names. And they’re both excellent. Meanwhile in Chile, Candelabra are making epic Christian-themed rock. Flock of Dimes The Life You…
The Sign by Ace of Base
Every New Zealand #1 single… 2 The Sign by Ace of Base Topped the NZ chart for 5 (non-consecutive) weeks from 24 April 1994. Ace of Base Jonas, Linn, and Jenny Berggren grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden. Jonas played in…
