Rolling Stone's 500 "Greatest Albums" Part 12 Quiz

Answer: Rosa

Pixies, or The Pixies, were in the vanguard of the grunge movement; indeed they might be termed "pre-Grunge". Concert-goers did not know what to expect on the set list: sometimes the band would play songs in alphabetical order, other times they would start with the encore and work backwards.

Hailing out of Boston, Massachusetts, the alternative rockers got together in 1986. In 1988 "Surfer Rosa" was their debut album. Despite a lack of appearances on the main charts, "raw and vital" was just one analysis of how they played in concert. If you did not like one song, another would soon come along: most were under two minutes in length. "Unruly" was just one description of "Surfer Rosa".

The band split in the mid 1990s, but were to reform. Several changed line-ups ensued.

Answer: Mimi

The 'Mimi' in the title of "The Emancipation of Mimi" was Mariah Carey. It was a name she used to get a little distance from her own image. The album, her ninth, came as a relief to fans after two that just did not make the grade.

The album reached the top of the Billboard 200 and was a number two in Canada, number six in Australia, and number seven in the UK.

Answer: Young

"Young, Gifted and Black" won Aretha Franklin a Grammy in 1972. The title track was a song co-written and earlier sung by Nina Simone. Franklin's album reached number 11 on the Billboard Top LPs charts.

It was said that Aretha Franklin - "The Queen of Soul" - defined the golden age of soul music in the 1960s. Her musical journey of over 50 years began with the Gospel sounds of the Baptist church her father was a pastor in. By the age of 18 she was making new sounds in New York City, although she initially struggled to find a place among an audience that had been turned on by the magic of Motown. That changed from 1967 when she had a million-selling record with "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)". That was a position cemented when she recorded the Otis Redding song "Respect".

During her recording career, Franklin won 18 Grammys and was nominated on 26 further occasions.

Answer: Rainbows

In 2007, Radiohead took the audacious decision of releasing "In Rainbows" as a download that listeners could pay what they thought fair for. A physical album followed and made its way to number one on the UK album charts. It also topped the Billboard 200.

Writing in "The Times", Pete Paphides said: "The trick, I guess, is to give your fans what they didn't know they wanted. Radiohead, old hands at this, have been doing it for over a decade now. With 'In Rainbows', they appear to have done it again."

Answer: Donuts

"Donuts" was released in February 2007 just three days before the untimely death of the rapper and record producer born James Dewitt Yancey. He was a noted innovator, developing a new style of beat making and drum programming. It was a style that was to influence many others in the genres of hip hop and rap.

Answer: Russia

"Rocket to Russia", was the third studio album from The Ramones and was to be critically acclaimed, mixing as it did a nod back to old time rock and roll with a punk beat. Despite all this, the sales did not match hype, it reached just number 49 on the Billboard 200.

The Ramones got together in New York City in 1974 and, "Encyclopaedia Britannica" noted: "...cultivated a simple three-chord sound that became the foundation of punk rock". It was a sound that was to inspire not just bands n the USA but in the UK, where they toured in 1976. Indeed, the band had greater commercial success in the UK than in their homeland.

Answer: Preservation

"The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" was the sixth and final album of the original entity of The Kinks. It was released in 1968 to massive indifference, failing even to reach the album charts. It took 40 years to reach 100,000 sales. Ray Davis, Kinks songwriter and frontman, was later to admit this was very much a farewell album. Fifty years later he told "Rolling Stone" that listening to the album again was "a bit of misery."

But as the years passed, so did the status of the record and critics and fans alike came to it anew. A new box set including the original mono and stereo tracks with outtakes and BBC performances was released. In 2018, the "Guardian" noted the album was: "First a flop, now a classic".

Answer: Mezzanine

"Mezzanine", by Massive Attack was a 1998 number one in several counties for Massive attack, including the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and...Iceland. (Go figure). In the USA it topped out at number 60 on the Billboard 200. The band got together in Bristol in 1988 and majored in electronic music.

"When 'Mezzanine' appeared, its songs hovered in their own cavernous voids: at once dynamic and methodical, implacable and precarious, urgent yet stubbornly unhurried", wrote Jon Pareles in the "New York Times".

Even if you have never listened to Massive Attack, you may recognise their track "Teardrop" as the theme music for the hit TV show "House".

Answer: Currents

Described as a "psychedelic music project", Tame Impala was the brainchild of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker. In 2015 the third LP, "Currents", became a worldwide hit. It topped the Australian charts, hit number three in the UK, and number four on the Billboard 200.

"Currents" was the breakthrough album by Tame Impala and made Parker a 'go to' man as a producer. Reviewing a concert in which Tame Impala headlined a California stage with Ariana Grande and Childish Gambino, Andrew McMillen wrote in "The Australian": "What began as a one-man psychedelic rock ­project conceived in a Perth share house has ­ballooned to become one of the most popular and successful Australian acts in the world".

Answer: Pronounced

Despite the lack of vowels in their name, Lynyrd Skynyrd were not Welsh. The name actually came from the sports teacher Leonard Skinner, who tried to cut their hair. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of success and tragedy.

In 1973 their debut album "(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)" brought them widespread attention. It reached number 27 on the Billboard 200 charts.

In October 1977, the band hired a plane to set out on a tour that was designed to secure their national reputation. On a flight from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the plane crashed in a heavily wooded area in southeastern Mississippi. Band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines were killed, as was their assistant road manager and the pilot and co-pilot. Twenty others survived the crash. Ironically, Aerosmith had looked to hire that plane someplace earlier, but had been advised to give it a miss.