Friday, September 16 2011
Counterbalance No. 50: Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’
“Wendy?” “Yes, Lisa.” “Are you ready to listen to Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn talk about Prince's Purple Rain?” “Yes, Lisa, it’s the 50th most acclaimed album of all time.” “Shall we begin?” “Yes, Lisa.” Ow!
Friday, September 9 2011
Counterbalance: Year One
In this special one-year anniversary edition of Counterbalance, Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn discuss their first year combing through the pop music canon (as determined by Acclaimed Music's calculations of every best-of list available), share a few favorites, and justify a couple items on their expense account.
Thursday, June 16 2011
Prince’s Parade: It’s Really All About the Music
A large part of what I love about Prince is his ability to take his influences and synthesize them into a whole that suits his fancy. So it's not so much that he brings a new dish to the table. It's more that he explores new ways to enjoy what's already there.
Friday, May 27 2011
Prince: Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution
Prince imbued his art with his idiosyncratic view of life, turning out music from the mind of a sex-obsessed deviant, a bomb-fearing party-animal, and a God-fearing man searching for a ways to reconcile the spiritual with the sexual… and so much more.
Thursday, May 5 2011
Nicole Atkins: Mondo Amore
When a shoe hits your eye like a feisty woman's blunt reply, that's "Amore".
Friday, March 25 2011
Counterbalance No. 26: Prince’s ‘Sign o’ the Times’
Prince’s 1987 Sign o' the Times was His Royal Badness’ second double LP, and it’s Number 26 on the Acclaimed Music list. Jason Mendelsohn and Eric Klinger discuss this critics’ darling over starfish and coffee.
Wednesday, March 9 2011
The 2011 Great Guitar Solo Spotlight
While a lot can be said over the technique’s indulgent, sometimes stodgy nature, I honestly believe that a lot of the grumbling about solos is due to the fact that not everyone can pull them off well.
Monday, February 21 2011
Celebrating 68 years of George Harrison
Dubbed “the quiet one”, George Harrison contributed some of the Beatles best work and continued on to an impressive solo career. He died far too soon, but the world still has a lifetime of his work to admire and enjoy.
Friday, November 12 2010
Jimi Hendrix, the Patron Saint of Alt-Blackness
Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix looms larger - and deeper - than ever within the black cultural pantheon. Even though he wasn't really 'black'.
