How many times have you bought an album based on a couple of cracking tracks you heard on the radio, only to find the rest of the album is pants? This is NOT a quiz about those albums. This is a quiz about those albums where every track is a joy. Those of you who listen to the Liz Kershaw show on Saturday afternoon will know what I mean – we’re talking about albums that are All Killer, No Filler.
The first section of the quiz features records that listeners recommended for the slot. The second section of the quiz features 15 albums that this author thinks would merit a place in that slot on Liz’s show.
Answers: here
1 Whose 1988 second album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back is regarded as the record that put hip hop on the map, both artistically and commercially? Which label, founded by Rick Rubin, released it?
2 Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are the founders of which Canadian musical collective? What was their second, breakthrough album (2002)?
3 Who shares production credits with Mick Ronson on Lou Reed’s 1972 album Transformer? Which song from the album was a huge selling charity single in 1997?
4 Which Glasgow band won the Mercury Prize with their eponymous debut album in 2004? From whom do they take their name?
5 Behind the Music (2002) was the third album for which band, breaking them commercially and earning a Grammy nomination? Where are they from?
6 What was The Cure’s brilliant debut album? Under what name was it released in the US and re-released in the UK a year later with a slightly different track listing?
7 Which year was Fleetwood Mac’s classic album Rumours released? And which song, later used as a sporting intro, opened side two of the record and was the only track credited as written by the entire band?
8 Daydream Nation was a 1988 album from which US cult band? What was the uncharacteristically catchy track that opened the album?
9 What was the exciting 1983 debut album from the Chameleons? Who was the band’s lead singer and bass player, who still plays the band’s material in live shows?
10 Whose Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) gave them their first UK Top 10 album? Who was their ethereal, distinctive female singer?
11 What was Goldfrapp’s debut album? Who is in the band with singer Alison Goldfrapp?
12 Stuart Staples is the front man and main event in which critically loved indie band? Why was the title of their second album (1995) a tad confusing?
13 The addition of Budgie and John McGeoch to which band changed their sound markedly for their critically acclaimed third album, Kaleidoscope? What was the lead single and opening track?
14 Besides ‘Tainted Love’, which other two singles were taken from Soft Cell’s 1981 debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret?
15 What was the Clash’s second album? ‘Guns on the Roof’, the opening track on side two of the original vinyl release, unashamedly pinched a riff from which single by the Who?
Three tracks and a year: name the classic album.
16 ‘See No Evil’; ‘Friction’; ‘Prove It’ (1977)
17 ‘As I Sat Sadly by Her Side’; ‘Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow’; ‘God is in the House’ (2001)
18 ‘Drink Before the War’; ‘Mandinka’; ‘Troy’ (1987)
19 ‘Angel from the Coast’; ‘Cowboy Song’; ‘The Boys are Back in Town’ (1976)
20 ‘Ku Ku Kurama’; ‘Love of the Common People’; ‘Come Back and Stay’ (1983)
21 ‘Bend in the Road’; ‘Man Made Lake’; ‘Two Silver Trees’ (2008)
22 ‘A Change is Gonna Come’; ‘Satisfaction’; ‘Respect’ (1965)
23 ‘Bargain’; ‘Baba O’Riley’; ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ (1971)
24 ‘Bombin’ the L’; ‘King of New York’; ‘Scooby Snacks’ (1996)
25 ‘1984’; ‘Better Be Good To Me’; ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ (1984)
26 ‘Jack of All Trades’; ‘Rocky Ground’; ‘We Take Care of Our Own’ (2012)
27 ‘Protect Me’, ‘Mother’, ‘Born of Frustration’ (1993)
28 ‘Girl with a Red Balloon’; ‘My Father’s Father’; ‘I’ve Got This Friend’ (2011)
29 ‘Thick as Thieves’; ‘Smithers-Jones’, ‘The Eton Rifles’ (1979)
30 ‘So Much Things To Say’, ‘Three Little Birds’; ‘Jamming’ (1977)