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:

Television Marquee Moon
Television Album Reviews

There were a plethora of musical acts that originated from the CBGBs club in New York in the mid-1970s; The Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, and Blondie all went on to achieve acclaim, while all occupying different niches in the punk and new wave spectrum. Television are the least well-known […]
Paramore Album Reviews

Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams moved from Mississippi to Tennessee at the age of 13. She met Josh and Zac Farro in a program for home-schooled students. Drummer Zac Farro was in his early teens when they formed Paramore in 2004 with bassist Jeremy Davis. Williams had already signed a […]
Home, Land and Sea Trinity Roots
Trinity Roots Album Reviews

Prominent popular music from New Zealand in the late 20th century was often Caucasian in origin, with the most internationally recognised musicians coming either from the Flying Nun stable of twisted guitar pop or the mainstream pop of the Finn Brothers. The early 21st century saw a proliferation of reggae-influenced […]
King Crimson Album Reviews

Originating from an unsuccessful 1968 album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp, guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles enlisted vocalist and bassist Greg Lake, multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, as well as lyricist Peter Sinfield to form King Crimson. The group were immediately successful with their debut In The […]
Peter Gabriel 3 Melt
Peter Gabriel Album Reviews

Leaving Genesis after six albums, at the age of 25, Peter Gabriel’s solo career initially felt like an attempt to distance himself from his former band. It took him a couple of albums to find his feet, but his third self-titled album, known as Melt, established him as an innovative solo artist […]
Elton John Album Reviews

Sir Elton Hercules John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, in London. He learned the piano as a child and started his career in the R&B band Bluesology as a teenager. In 1967 he began a songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin. At first, the pair wrote songs for other artists, […]

Blog Posts

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

Roxy Music Siren
Roxy Music Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

English art-rock band Roxy Music was formed by vocalist Bryan Ferry and bassist Graham Simpson in 1970. They recruited saxophone and oboe player Andy Mackay and synth player Brian Eno (who “treated” the other players’ instruments through his synth). Drummer Paul Thompson joined in 1971, and his muscular playing helped […]
10 Excellent Tom Petty Deep Cuts

The late Tom Petty was a great singles artist – tracks like ‘The Waiting’, ‘Refugee’, and ‘Free Fallin” sound terrific blasting from cars and on classic rock radio. Petty had so many enjoyable hits through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s that my list of favourite Tom Petty songs is largely […]
The Police: Albums Ranked from Worst to Best

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 […]
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 […]
The Decemberists Picaresque
The Decemberists Albums: Ranked from Worst to Best

The Decemberists rode the wave of early 21st century Indie to success, attracting attention with their predilection for historic epics and olde English folk music. They hail from Portland, Oregon, but the band was named for the Decembrist Revolution in 19th century Imperial Russia. The band’s invented back story describes […]
15 Best New Songs Recorded For Greatest Hits Albums

As a young music fan, I was heavily reliant on Greatest Hits for my collection. I earned $3 for mowing the lawn and new albums cost $20, so compilations were a sure-fire way of getting bang for my buck. Compilations often include new tracks alongside time-tested classics. This practice dates […]