Welcome to Aphoristic Album Reviews, where I discuss highlights from the last sixty years of popular music. I write album reviews, highlight my favourite albums, blog regularly, and make lists.
Two female solo artists this week. But they’re drastically different. Kara Jackson is a bluesy singer-songwriter, brutally honest on her debut album. Cleo Sol’s back with her second album in a month, her smooth R&B as warm and comforting as…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 8 End of the Road by BOYZ II MEN Topped the NZ chart: from 18 October 1992 for 7 weeks. Philadelphia vocal harmony quartet Boyz II Men were successful on the New Zealand single charts…
Welcome back to another week of quizzing. Tony just pipped James Kalyn for bragging rights in last week’s 2000s adjectives quiz. This week your challenge is to name the album when given its cover. It features a fun mix of…
Acts from both sides of this pond this week. It’s easy to tell which artist is from which side. Blake Mills evokes Laurel Canyon, with traces of country and psychedelia. Tirzah has a more modern sheen. Tirzah Trip9love…??? 2023, 9/10As…
Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965-1968 and was…
1960s1970sPunk and New Wave1980s1990s2000s2010s2020sNew Zealand
Aphoristical
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.
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:
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 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 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:
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
