The Riddle
by Nik Kershaw
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Nik Kershaw bestography
The Riddle is ranked as the best album by Nik Kershaw.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to The Riddle on YouTube
The Riddle track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 75 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The Riddle rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | joathome | Top 42 Music Albums of 1984 | 35/42 | 1 |
| 2026 | przemool112008 | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 7/100 | 91 |
| 2026 | LittleM1971 | Top 91 Music Albums of 1984 | 91/91 | 0 |
| 2025 |  paladisiac | top 60r albums (60), #0401-0500* | 3/79 | - |
| 2025 | paladisiac | Top 100 Music Albums of 1984 | 87/100 | 1 |
| 2024 | byuzak | Top 96 Music Albums of 1984 | 69/96 | 1 |
| 2024 |  PAPPITUFO | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 44/100 | 11 |
| 2024 | PAPPITUFO | Top 100 Music Albums of 1984 | 2/100 | 5 |
| 2024 | Junomoogmello | 100 Best Music of the Eighties | 19/100 | - |
| 2024 | Gallowtree | Top 66 Music Albums of 1984 | 20/66 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 29 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 217 | |||
The Riddle collection
Showing all 8 members who have this album in their collection
The Riddle ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 28 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 06/19/2026 17:21 | przemool112008 | 87 | 91/100 |
| ! | 09/01/2025 06:49 | LammyTS1 | 1,112 | 59/100 |
| ! | 02/26/2024 07:04 | PAPPITUFO | 205 | 76/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 70.4/100, a mean average of 69.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 69.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.5.
The Riddle forum mentions
paladisiac 04/09/2018 17:13 in What album are you listening to right now?The Riddle comments
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A great eighties album which still sounds fresh to me today. Good flow from start to finish. 'The Riddle' and 'You Might' shine through as favourites for me. I remember seeeing Nik Kershaw at the Cornwall Coliseum in the eighties and was so impressed when he moved from keyboards to guitar to drums with ease. I put The Riddle slightly behind Human Racing.
His follow up to the debut album, just 9 months later on in 1984, features another three top 10 hits, "The Riddle"(3), "Wide Boy"(9) and "Don Quixote"(10).
Although the hits are the pinnacle, especially Don Quixote and The Riddle, the rest of the songs smooth effertlessly through from start to finish. No filler tracks here. (Edited)
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