Aphoristic Album Reviews

Welcome to Aphoristic Album Reviews, where I discuss highlights from the last sixty years of popular music. I write album reviews, highlight my favourite albumsblog regularly, and make lists.


Blog Posts
Reviews
About
Favourites

Latest Posts

Latest Pages

Kraftwerk Album Reviews

Introduction Düsseldorf band Kraftwerk helped to popularise electronic music in the 1970s. While the use …

Squid Album Reviews

Introduction A whole crop of young, critically acclaimed post-punk bands emerged in the UK around …

James Taylor Album Reviews

Introduction With his warm voice, pretty guitar-picking, and introspective songwriting, James Vernon Taylor was the figurehead …


Blog Archives

Joni Mitchell Hejira
Album Rankings
10 Best Songs By…
NZ #1 Hit Songs
Nuggets Box Set
Music Quizzes
New Music Reviews

Review Archives


More from Aphoristic Album Reviews

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:

Phoebe Bridgers Album Reviews

Indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers was born in Los Angeles and studied vocal jazz at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Bridgers grew up with parents who were involved in the entertainment industry – her mother encouraged her to busk and took her to the farmers market to […]
Kimbra Album Reviews

Kimbra Johnson was earmarked for stardom early. There are videos online of her singing as a pre-teen, while she placed second in New Zealand’s national secondary school rock quest at the age of 14. But after a generic debut single ‘Deep For You’, she took time out and became more […]
Manic Street Preachers

This page was largely written by a guest reviewer – I wrote the introduction and the review of The Holy Bible. Manic Street Preachers formed as a high school band in Blackwood, a town in South Wales. Singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore are cousins, and shared bunks […]
Sting Nothing Like The Sun
Sting Album Reviews

Conventional wisdom suggests that Gordon Sumner surrendered his credibility when he left The Police, letting his pretentiousness overcome him as he dabbled in jazz and saved the rainforests. As a singles artist he couldn’t match the brilliant individual songs like ‘Message In A Bottle’ he wrote for The Police. But […]
Transatlantic Album Reviews

Transatlantic are a progressive rock supergroup, plucking members from other successful neo-prog acts. Bassist Pete Trewavas has been a member of Marillion since 1982, while drummer Mike Portnoy is a former member of Dream Theater. Guitarist Roine Stolt comes from The Flower Kings, while keyboardist and primary vocalist Neal Morse […]
John Martyn Album Reviews

John Martyn was born Iain David McGeachy, the son of two opera singers – a surprising lineage given his characteristic slur. Martyn spent most of his childhood in Glasgow, playing rugby. His early music combined folk and blues, and at the time of his 1967 debut, London Conversation, he didn’t […]

Blog Posts

I add new blog posts to this website every week. Browse the archives or enjoy these random selections:

The Moody Blues Core Seven Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

Between 1967 and 1972, Birmingham’s The Moody Blues released seven studio albums, commonly referred to as the core seven. They stayed in step with the times, transitioning from richly orchestrated psychedelic pop to more stripped-down albums in the 1970s. At the same time. The Moody Blues were twee, moustachioed and […]
10 Best Straitjacket Fits Songs

Of the indie guitar bands proffered by Dunedin’s Flying Nun label in the 1980s, Straitjacket Fits were the most likely to break through to a mass audience. The Fits were based around two vocalists and songwriters who were an unlikely combination but who complemented each other beautifully; Shayne Carter had […]
Townes Van Zandt For The Sake of the Song
10 Best Townes Van Zandt Songs

Singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt came from a prominent Texan family. Prodigiously intelligent, his family groomed him as a lawyer or senator but seeing Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan show led him into music. Struggling with manic depression and addictions, his behaviour was often erratic. He was prone to self-sabotaging […]
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
10 Best Wilco Songs

Jeff Tweedy was the junior partner in alt-country outfit Uncle Tupelo, playing bass and fronting the occasional song. When the group split, Tweedy formed Wilco with other Uncle Tupelo musicians – notably bassist John Stirratt, Wilco’s only other constant member. Their first release, 1995’s A.M. was pleasant, but the group […]
Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy
When Do Bands Peak? (Part 2)

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at when bands peak – I’ve always enjoyed band’s later albums where they are more confident and more diverse. My graphs based on my ratings bore this out – this graph was based on 24 bands, where I’ve covered at least their first 6 […]
Neil Diamond's Five Worst Songs

Adult contemporary superstar and Hebrew Hunk Neil Diamond is a fascinating figure to me. His music is an uncomfortable blend of Brill Building pop, gospel, and confessional writing, like he can’t make up his mind whether he wants to be Elvis Presley or James Taylor. As an adolescent, I was […]