Six years ago, I decided to take a deep dive into Prince’s discography. Here are the original articles.
Posts tagged "Blerd’s Notes"
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of George Michael (Part Three)
In Part One , we reviewed three Wham! albums, released between the years 1982 and 1986. Part Two looked at the beginning of George Michael’s solo career, three albums (and an EP) released between the years 1987-1996. Since then (15 years ago, for those keeping score), George has released two studio albums (one of which is a covers album) and two double-disc hits packages. What the hell, man? This is a Dr. Dre-esque release schedule, which makes you consider if you should ever expect […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of George Michael (Part One)
It was a Saturday night (actually a Sunday morning) in the summer of 1983, and I was watching “New York Hot Tracks”, one of several local shows that devoted itself to the then novel concept of playing music videos. Being a music geek at even this tender age (and being allowed to stay up WAY past my bedtime), things like this brought me way more pleasure than you’d expect from a 7 year old. One night, they played a video […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Comprehensive Guide to the Music of Duran Duran (Part 3)
1993’s self-titled opus marked the first phoenix-like rise from the ashes for Duran Duran. However, 1995’s Thank You firmly brought them back down to Earth. Despite it not being as bad as most people remember it being (at least in my opinion), it completely torpedoed Duran’s career. The fact that the band’s cast (which seemed to be firmly locked in for a time) was in flux once again also contributed to Duran’s freefall during the late Nineties and the early […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Comprehensive Guide to the Music of Duran Duran (Part Two)
In our first installment, we (me, Carlos Halston and Jesse) covered the beginning of Duran Duran’s career, when the Fab Five took over MTV and the world with their catchy (albeit maddeningly indecipherable) songs, their exotic good looks and their cinematic video clips. Thought Nick, Andy, John, Roger and Simon would stay together forever? Wrong! The band temporarily split in 1985, with Simon, Nick and Roger releasing an album as Arcadia while Andy and John recorded and toured as The […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Comprehensive Guide to the Music of Duran Duran (Part One)
With the recent release of “All You Need is Now”, Duran Duran has entered their fourth decade of recording. The Birmingham, England-based band was at the forefront of the music video revolution, combining a flair for the visual with art-rock and disco influences and becoming one of the Eighties’ most iconic bands. Despite a series of personnel switches over the years, Duran has maintained a level of popularity over the years that’s only rivaled by the biggest names of the […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince: The Side Projects
Besides being an overall bad-ass, another thing Prince is well-known for is his stable of side projects.The desire to be known as a developer of talent in addition to being known as a talent himself ran strong in the little guy, and Prince started spitting out proteges almost as soon as he became a hit artist. Some of the artists went on to create great music (if not have lengthy careers), while other artists came and went in the blink […]
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince (Part 6)
The 6th installment of the Popblerd Guide to Prince looks at his most recent five studio albums, a time period when Prince made some of his most inspired music in years, and dropped the plot again.
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince (Part V)
Prince spent most of the late nineties and early oughts making uninspired music and bouncing from label to label. Part 5 of Prince’s “Blerd’s Notes” takes a look at some of the more disappointing entries in his catalog.
Blerd’s Notes: A Guide to the Music of Prince (Part IV)
Originally published November 17th, 2010. I’ve updated to include new photos, correct a few grammatical errors, and some text has been revised slightly. The last Prince album we covered in “Blerd’s Notes”‘ Part 3 was 1992’s Love Symbol album with the New Power Generation. Following that album, Prince’s label, Warner Brothers, gifted him with a lucrative (and ludicrous) contract that offered him a VP stake in the company. Shortly thereafter, Prince bailed-at least mentally. He changed his name to the […]
