The third studio album by singer/songwriter Solange Knowles is by far her most impressive to date. Receiving wide critical acclaim and landing Knowles her first number-one album on Billboard 100 (US), A Seat at the Table is a powerful statement on black womanhood. Knowles’ vocals soar, never distracting from the Album’s core meaning, only signifying its force. Among the R&B, Funk, and psychedelic-soul tracks that make up the album, Knowles peppers in spoken word Interludes, recordings of her parents, her family, and herself, discussing black culture and their experiences with systemic racism in America.
Lady Gaga is back with her latest, most autobiographical album, Joanne, named for her late aunt, released on October 21st. The 14-track album features more stripped down vocals and a folksy resonance not seen in much of Gaga’s previous work. With contributions by Florence Welch (“Hey Girl”), Mark Ronson, BloodPop, and Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, Joanne is a mixture of dance-pop ballads and down-home melodies. With this fifth studio album, Gaga continues to resist pigeonholing herself in an industry and career she is constantly working to redefine. https://www.ladygaga.com/
This day in 1974, Swedish pop group, ABBA, began its first tour of Europe, marking the group’s debut circuit outside their homeland. One of the most commercially successful pop groups in history, ABBA skyrocketed to fame by winning the Eurovision Song Contest of that same year, introducing to the world their now infamous hit “Waterloo.” The beginning of their European tour, which brought them to Denmark, West Germany and Austria, was anything but a success – even forcing the group to cancel a handful of appearances. However, by January of 1975, disco fever swept through Europe and the States, and ABBA was playing to sold out audiences everywhere they went. Mamma Mia!
Bluetooth. Developed in 1994 by telecommunications vendor, Ericsson, Bluetooth has a transmission range of about 30 feet, so it’s best used with systems in close proximity. Therefore, wireless audio and entertainment systems that use Bluetooth won’t be able to cover more than one room at a time, let alone your entire home.
Bluetooth does not connect to any network, but rather, connects directly to your laptop, smartphone, or tablet (basically any music playing device). This isn’t too closed off a system, because most devices have Bluetooth capability. However, if you are using your smartphone as a source for your music, it must remain within 30 feet of your Bluetooth speakers. Additionally, if you happen to receive a call or text while your phone is connected to your Bluetooth speakers, your music will be interrupted and the speakers will amplify the text alert or ringing.
Bluetooth uses something called “lossy data compression,” which means that it encodes its data in inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent its content. This can create poor sound quality and makes Bluetooth audio devices more vulnerable to dropouts.
On the plus side, Bluetooth is very easy to use: just turn on the Bluetooth receiver in your Bluetooth enabled devices (such as a speaker and your smartphone) and they should discover each other almost instantaneously.
Wi-Fi. Although researched and developed throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, Wi-Fi was officially released in 1997 and has been universally adopted into homes, offices, coffee shops, trains – basically everywhere you go. Wi-Fi has a much longer range than Bluetooth, roughly 100 feet inside, and up to 300 feet outside, so you can use one system throughout the entire home, extending into your backyard if you place your router in a central location. Not only can Wi-Fi connect to multiple speakers (which Bluetooth can not), it can also support multiple channels. This means that within your wireless home entertainment system, you can actually create a system of speakers, such as “left,” “right,” “center,” and “stereo.” You can also choose to play one speaker, multiple speakers, or all of your speakers at any given time, without reconfiguration.
The initial configuration of Wi-Fi enabled home entertainment systems are much more complex than Bluetooth, but unlike Bluetooth, your Wi-Fi systems will always remember your devices (if you are logged into the same Wi-Fi network.) Therefore, with Wi-Fi, you’ll never have to worry about pairing your devices before each use.
Audiophiles tend to prefer Wi-Fi systems due to its superior sound quality; Wi-Fi systems have a wider bandwidth than Bluetooth and uses a lossless codec, which Bluetooth does not. With this in play, Wi-Fi can support high resolution, lossless audio without significant lag.
While Bluetooth speakers are great in compact, portable form, Wi-Fi produces better sound quality, longer range, and has multi speaker/channel capability.
Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) has come out of hibernation to release his long anticipated third studio album, 22, A Million. It’s late September release marked a departure for the singer/songwriter from the soft, chilling, melodic tones of For Emma, Forever Ago (2007) and Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011) that solidified his place as the top folk artist of the last decade. When looking at the trajectory of Vernon’s art as a whole, this departure into the fragmented, overlapping, experimental 22, A Million, isn’t all that random, perhaps even sonically foreshadowed in some of Vernon’s earlier work. Despite its postmodern pitch and pastiche song titles (“715 – CRΣΣKS”), Vernon’s renowned falsetto breathes life into familiar themes of uncertainty and decay. https://boniver.org/
