The Riddle
by Nik Kershaw

The Riddle by Nik Kershaw
Year: 1984
Release date: 1984-11-19
Overall rank: 6,081st   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
70/100 (from 28 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1984 (92nd)
Award Top albums of of the 1980s (870th)
Award Best albums of all time (6,081st)

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Nik Kershaw bestography

The Riddle is ranked as the best album by Nik Kershaw.

Nik Kershaw album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (6,081st)
The Riddle
Lower ranked (7,857th) »
Human Racing

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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The Riddle track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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The Riddle rankings

The Riddle rankings summary
Overall rank: 6,081st | 1980s rank: 870th | 1984 rank: 92nd  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 5 hours ago).

The Riddle collection

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The Riddle ratings

Average Rating: 
70/100 (from 28 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 28 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
100/100
 !
06/19/2026 17:21 przemool112008  Ratings distribution  8791/100
 
85/100
 !
09/01/2025 06:49 LammyTS1  Ratings distribution  1,07159/100
 
75/100
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02/26/2024 07:04 PAPPITUFO  Ratings distribution  20576/100
 
65/100
 !
10/19/2023 18:02 LittleM1971  Ratings distribution  5,97381/100
 
40/100
 !
07/22/2023 23:08 sssvnnn  Ratings distribution  8,42867/100

Rating metrics: Help 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.


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The Riddle favourites

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The Riddle comments

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Rating:  
85/100
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.
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Rating:  
70/100
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.
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