The master of melancholy, Lana Del Rey, is back with “Lust for Life,” her fifth studio album. Since Del Rey exploded onto the music scene in 2011 with her viral music video for “Video Games,” she has captivated our imaginations – an enigma wrapped in the American flag, old Hollywood glamour, and clinical depression. With “Lust for Life,” Del Rey continues her legacy, filled with the cinematic stylization and vintage pop culture allusions her fans have grown to love (and expect) from her music. The album is beautifully composed, lending her luscious, romantic vocals to hip hop beats, protest songs, and youthful anthems alike. Opener and lead single, “Love,” is as dreamy as it is empowering; while “In My Feelings,” is as cool as Del Rey herself. Joining her on the album’s title track is The Weeknd, while on “Beautiful People Beautiful Problems” Del Rey looks at the world from above with Stevie Nicks. Overall, “Lust for Life” is as heartbreaking of an album as it is hopeful – a statement piece for an artist so intricately associated with images of Americana during our current national crisis of identity.
On this day in 1983, award winning British singer and songwriter, Amy Winehouse, was born in Southgate, London. Winehouse was best known for for mixing soul, jazz, and rhythm and blues styles in her music, as well as her unique, raspy vocals and her “delinquent” persona accompanied by a retro, beehive hairdo. She began pursuing music at an early age, thanks to her musically inclined extended family, and attended various performing arts schools in London throughout her adolescence. Winehouse’s debut album, Frank (2003), was a success in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her sophomore album, Back to Black (2006), resulted in five Grammy Awards in 2008, as well as the Brit Award for Best Female Artist. Winehouse tragically died of alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011, at the age of 27, but her music, image, and influence remain strong to this day.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Coldplay has released a companion EP to their 2015 album, “A Head Full of Dreams.” On the five-track EP dubbed, “Kaleidoscope,” Chris Martin and crew deliver new songs, as well as a live version of their popular Chainsmokers EDM collaboration, “Something Just Like This,” recorded during the Tokyo leg of their massive world tour. Opener “All I Can Think About Is You” is an excellent track for any true Coldplay fan to enjoy, starting off somber and mellow, then, after a piano riff-turn, bursts open with guitar and orchestral accompaniment, as many classic Coldplay hits do. “Miracles (Someone Special) ft. Big Sean” is also another great jam for Coldplay fans with a sweet message. In “ALIENS,” Martin tackles the European migrant crisis; while closer “Hypnotised – EP Mix” reminds us, once again, why a recent study found that Coldplay is the “most sleep-inducing band.”
On this day in 1968, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham made their live debut as Led Zeppelin at a Teen Club in Gladsaxe, Denmark. However, at the time, they were billed as the New Yardbirds because Jimmy Page’s old group, Yardbirds, who were supposed to embark on a Scandinavian tour together, broke up. Wanting to fulfill his commitments, Page assembled a new version of the band to play at the already-booked gigs. Upon completing the tour, the newly-formed band began recording their first album and changed their name to Led Zeppelin (thanks to a cease and desist letter by a former Yardbirds member.) The rest is history!
Europe’s largest consumer electronics show, IFA, is currently taking place in Berlin. Before the show even began, companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Sony were already making a splash with big announcements. So what are the new and continuing tech trends of the second half of 2017, as we slowly make our way into the holiday season? And what can we expect from our CE devices in the near future? Here are our main takeaways from IFA 2017!
The War for Cloud AI Control Heats Up
In what we see as a very Game of Thrones maneuver, Amazon and Microsoft have formed an alliance. Before the show began, it was announced that Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana voice interfaces will soon be able to interact with each other which potentially opens up a powerful combination of Microsoft’s business app integration with Amazon’s rapidly growing Smart Home device integration. This sort of cooperation between competing technologies is huge news, especially in a market that is known for closed ecosystems. This alliance will serve as a blow to Google and Apple, whose Google Assistant and Siri, are still struggling to integrate 3rd party devices.
Speaking of Google, back in May, they opened up their AI software development kit (SDK) in the hopes of getting Google Assistant integrated into a plethora of third party smart devices for the home, a move directly in response to the “The Amazon Home Takeover” at CES in January. At IFA, it was announced that Google Assistant will be integrated into new smart speakers, like Sony’s biggest unveil at the show, the Apple HomePod look-alike, LF-S50G (rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) and various LG home appliances. Although this is all great news for Google, it’s not hard to notice that Amazon is still way ahead in the race for smart home ownership – which is ironic, since Google paid $3.2B in 2014 to buy IoT pioneer Nest Labs. Is this an indication of Google’s growing disfunction as a company?
Wireless Woes
Ever since the iPhone 7 ditched the headphone jack last year, other smartphone manufacturers have begun to follow suit. At IFA this year, wireless headphones were in an abundance. Beyerdynamic has unveiled Aventho Wireless headphones, a beautifully designed wearable, using their super high-end Tesla drivers. The only problem? These ultra lux Hi-Fi quality headphones use APTX HD Bluetooth, a lossy-compression algorithm that is only supported in about 5 Android phones, meaning most of the time you’d be listening to the gurgling mess that is regular Bluetooth SBC. If ever a product deserved lossless HD streaming over WiFi…this just seems like a complete missed opportunity. Sad! And then there are the new Marshall Headphones Bluetooth speakers, which are adding WiFi for multi-room capabilities. (Even Bluetooth speakers are ditching Bluetooth.)
Conclusions
IFA 2017 has shown us that the smart home is getting smarter, and cell phones are expanding their wireless capabilities. And thanks to new low-cost, low-powered chipsets, it’s WiFi all the way as far as connectivity. Now all we need is a protocol that runs on standard WiFi, connects multiple brands, is agnostic to the voice AI wars and has the performance to handle streamed media. Hmmm….
