2020s Album Reviews

Less than two years into the new decade, it’s already been eventful. A global pandemic and #blacklivesmatter protests have already created ten years’ worth of chaos. Because the decade’s only just started, it will take a while to populate this page.

Arooj Aftab Album Reviews

Arooj Aftab Album Reviews
Arooj Aftab was born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents. She taught herself guitar and became a viral sensation in Pakistan, an early adopter of the internet with hits ‘Hallelujah’...

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Black Midi Album Reviews

Black Midi Album Reviews
The members of Black Midi met at the BRIT School in London, a performing art college whose other alumni include Amy Winehouse, Adele, FKA Twigs, and Imogen Heap. With access...

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Boygenius Album Reviews

Boygenius Album Reviews
Female solo artists Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers had never all been in the same room together when they decided to form a band. The three had collaborated...

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Phoebe Bridgers Album Reviews

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...

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Erika de Casier Album Reviews

Erika de Casier Album Reviews
Smooth R&B artist Erika de Casier was born in Portugal with a Belgian mother and Cape Verdean father. She's now based in Copenhagen, Denmark, starting her career working in a...

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Billie Eilish Album Reviews

Billie Eilish Album Reviews
Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was the first musician born in the 21st century to score a number one single in the United States. Eilish had already been building a...

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Natalie Hemby Album Reviews

Natalie Hemby Album Reviews
Natalie Hemby was born in Illinois, the daughter of a Nashville studio guitarist. She almost signed a record deal with Sony in her early 20s but it fell through. Instead,...

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Dua Lipa Album Reviews

Dua Lipa Album Reviews
Pop music has become a much more respected art form in the past decade. Records like Taylor Swift’s 1989, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion, and Robyn’s Honey have attained the acclaim usually reserved for more...

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Magdalena Bay Album Reviews

Magdalena Bay Album Reviews
Miami synth-pop duo Magdalena Bay consists of songwriter/vocalist Mica Tenenbaum and musician/producer Matthew Lewin. The pair met as high school students, first playing together at Live! Modern School of Music....

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Kelly Lee Owens Album Reviews

Kelly Lee Owens Album Reviews
Producer and musician Kelly Lee Owens grew up in a small Welsh village. She sang in her school choir and played bass and drums in indie bands. She became an...

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Caroline Polachek Album Reviews

Caroline Polachek Album Reviews
Caroline Polachek grew up in Connecticut and was formerly the vocalist for the indie-pop duo Chairlift. Chairlift enjoyed a surprise hit in 2008 with ‘Bruises’, which featured in an Apple...

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Olivia Rodrigo Album Reviews

Olivia Rodrigo Album Reviews
IntroductionOlivia Rodrigo Album ReviewsSourGuts10 Best Olivia Rodrigo Songs Introduction Olivia Isabel Rodrigo came to prominence as an actor, appearing in Bizaardvark and High School Musical. She signed a recording contract in 2020, and...

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Maggie Rogers Album Reviews

Maggie Rogers Album Reviews
Margaret Debay Rogers grew up in Maryland, the daughter of a Ford salesman and a nurse. She began learning the harp at the age of 7, and writing songs by...

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Sault Album Reviews

Sault Album Reviews
British collective Sault have eschewed all the usual rules of music-making in their brief and eventful career. They’ve veiled their identities, never played a live gig, never released a music...

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Snail Mail Album Reviews

Snail Mail Album Reviews
Lindsey Jordan grew up in Baltimore also home to Beach House and Wye Oak, while at one point her guitar teacher was Helium's Mary Timony. Seeing Paramore at the age...

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Soccer Mommy Album Reviews

Soccer Mommy Album Reviews
Sophie Allison was born in Switzerland and grew up in Nashville. She self-released guitar-pop as a teenager on Bandcamp, before releasing her official debut, Clean, in 2018. While she records...

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Cleo Sol Album Reviews

Cleo Sol Album Reviews
IntroductionCleo Sol Album ReviewsRose in the DarkMotherHeavenGold10 Best Cleo Sol Songs Introduction Born in London, Cleopatra Nikolic's parents met in a jazz band - her Jamaican dad plays bass and...

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Squid Album Reviews

Squid Album Reviews
IntroductionSquid Album ReviewsBright Green FieldO Monolith Introduction A whole crop of young, critically acclaimed post-punk bands emerged in the UK around 2020. It's tough to keep up - I can...

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Nilüfer Yanya Album Reviews

Nilüfer Yanya Album Reviews
Indie artist Nilüfer Yanya was born in Chelsea, West London. She's the daughter of two visual artists, with Turkish, Irish and Barbadian heritage. Yanya grew up listening to her father’s...

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2020s Miscellany

2020s Miscellany
This page collects album reviews for 2020s artists of whom I’ve only reviewed one or two albums. This page became a little long to edit easily so there's a part...

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2020s Miscellany Part 2

2020s Miscellany Part 2
The consequence of reviewing new releases each week is that I already have too many records for one page. Here's part two, continuing from part one. 2020s Album ReviewsManchester OrchestraThe...

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About

Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.

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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.

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:

Blog Posts

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