For music junkies, the original studio recording is the holy grail. Most don’t even own studio masters, let alone have unlimited high-res streaming access to an entire catalog. Add those together and that’s what MQA and TIDAL now offer on BluOS with direct access to TIDAL’s new Masters catalog, full of 400+ master quality authenticated albums, all in high-resolution audio. All TIDAL HiFi subscribers have to do is open the BluOS app, select TIDAL, select their favorite MQA track from the Masters catalog, and voilà — it’s as if you are in the studio listening to the artist from the control panel.
MQA music, an audio codec and company of the same name that can deliver high-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz inside a lossless container such as FLAC or WAV, is new to TIDAL, and Bluesound is the first wireless multi-room system to support TIDAL Masters in their own app. To celebrate, we decided to get you started with some recommendations because we know everyone once in a while wants to hear what others are listening to.
Here are our top 10 albums streaming on TIDAL Masters right now.
Artist: Coldplay
Album: A Head Full of Dreams
Favorite Tracks: Up & Up, Hymn for the Weekend, Everglow
The seventh studio album for British alt rock band Coldplay, A Head Full of Dreams was produced by Rik Simpson and Norwegian hit makers, Stargate, with guest appearances from Beyoncé, Merry Clayton, Noel Gallagher, Tove Lo, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Annabelle Wallis. With that amount of musical geniuses on one album, A Head Full of Dreams was destined to please.
Artist: Blur
Album: Parklife
Favorite Tracks: Girls & Boys, London Loves, To The End
A true cornerstone of the nineties Britpop era, Blur’s 1994 Parklife is a four-time platinum award-winning album that cemented the band as a British rock icon and defined the culture of music inside Britain. Produced by Stephen Smith, who also worked with the Cranberries and the Smiths, Parklife is a standard for most alt rock playlists.
Artist: Dan Auerbach
Album: Keep it Hid
Favorite Tracks: Heartbroken in Despair, The Prowl, Goin’ Home
Keep it Hid is Black Keys singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach’s first solo album, which he self-produced and recorded with friends & family inside his studio, Akron Analog. With a mix of soft loosened vocals, guitar-driven riffs, and low-down blues, Auerbach takes a simple approach to deliver the raw grittiness of his musical talents.
Artist: alt-J
Album: This is All Yours
Favorite Tracks: Every Other Freckle, Left Hand Free, Hunger of the Pine
Nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Music Album, This is All Yours from English indie rock band alt-J was one of the most anticipated indie releases of 2015. After climbing the charts with their first studio release, An Awesome Wave, and its hit singles “Breezeblocks” and “Tessellate,” alt-J returned with an equally impressive sophomore album with This is All Yours. Are they the new Radiohead? Listen and judge for yourself.
Artist: The Black Keys
Album: Brothers
Favorite Tracks: She’s Long Gone, Too Afraid to Love You, Ten Cent Pistol
Together, as a small two-man band, drummer Patrick Carney and guitarist/ vocalist Dan Auerbach clearly have a much bigger-sized mind when it comes to the Black Key’s music. Recorded in the old Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, the 2010 release of Brothers resulted in a colorful blend of the band’s musical influences, and a reflection of their growth as one of the most popular garage rock artists.
Artist: Dawes
Album: We’re All Gonna Die
Favorite Tracks: One of Us, When the Tequila Runs Out, Roll With The Punches
With their fifth studio album We’re All Gonna Die, California folk rock band Dawes veers away from the sound for which they are best known, to a side of synthesized indie rock that leaves the vocals of singer and guitarist Taylor Goldsmith to stitch it together. Built on strings, vintage synths, and swift harmonies with help from Band of Horses’ Jim James and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, We’re All Gonna Die is Dawes’ most ambitious album to date.
Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
Album: Codes and Keys
Favorite Tracks: You Are A Tourist, Some Boys, Underneath The Sycamore
If you’re a Death Cab fan you’ll quickly notice that Codes and Keys sounds a little different from the rest of the band’s catalog. On their seventh studio album in 15 years, Death Cab experiments with more of an electronic bedroom-pop sound that exposes the band’s life outside the studio and leaves the music drenched in emotion.
Artist: The Shins
Album: Chutes Too Narrow
Favorite Tracks: Young Pilgrim, Saint Simon, Pink Bullets
The Shins’ sophmore album, Chutes Too Narrow, followed up the Portland, Oregon-based band’s debut in 2001 and was exactly what fans were looking for. On every tune, indie rock trailblazer and lead singer James Mercer offers a seamless flow of bubbly pop, intellectualized folk, and a trippy dose of psychedelics. Natalie Portman’s earlier endorsement of Oh, Inverted World in the movie Garden State didn’t hurt The Shins either; “You gotta hear this one song. It’ll change your life, I swear.”
Artist: Anderson East
Album: Delilah
Favorite Tracks: Gone for Good, So Says I
For Anderson East’s first major label release, Delilah delivers it all — the 10 track album is pure quality. East pairs bluesy vocals with a slightly swampy groove that includes flecks of funk guitar, gospel organ, and Motown brass, to produce an edgy classic soulful sound. Whatever the style, this southern-sounding album will have you thinking of jukebox jams and smoke-filled Nashville bars.
Artist: Wilco
Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Favorite Tracks: War on War, Heavy Metal Drummer, Jesus
Chicago-based band Wilco’s fourth album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot stretches their creativity, diffusing their sound with a new inventive rhythm and texture for an album that was nearly never released. Jeff Tweedy’s close-miked vocals add a strong edge to the tracks, while the riffs and choruses gleam with playful pop guitars and breeze floating beats. Imagine if the label never released this album? Oh wait — they almost didn’t.
If you’ve got TIDAL Masters recommendations, tell us in the comment sections below or on Twitter with @bluesoundhifi and #LivingHiFi.