NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In 2019 Kacey Musgraves won four Grammys, including Album of the Year for her Country/Pop crossover Golden Hour .   But from her major-label debut, Same Trailer, Different Park in 2013, the Golden, Texas native singer-songwriter began racking up accolades both in and out of the Country music genre. American Songwriter , NPR , Rolling Stone , Paste , and Spin all had positive reviews of the folksy album, particularly noting Musgraves' songwriting. Her ability to turn a cliche on its head and subtly subvert the casual stereotypes in Country music, such as sexism, religious sentimentalism, and homophobia, set her apart from the typical Nashville star. Not only was she critically acclaimed, winning the Grammy for best Country Song in 2014 for today's song, but she turned out to be commercially viable, drawing both Country fans and non-Country fans alike. SAY WE WON'T END UP LIKE OUR PARENTS. Kacey Musgraves isn't the first country crossover. Slate Magazine' s Hit Para...

Coming off of the success of the band's breakthrough single, "Misery Business," "crushcrushcrush" takes the band through the familiar territory of Riot 's teenage problems. The peaked at Number 2 on the Alternative Radio Play chart. The stadium rock produced rock-pop song is clearly in the style of 2007 rock, when emo was everything. The video depicts the band playing in the desert, the band with their jet black-dyed hair, Haley with her over-the-top stage makeup. This was a time when young bands on Warped Tour could end up on the Top 40. The band would surprisingly outdo their sophomore success, not on their follow-up, though Brand New Eyes  wasn't a total disappointment, but on their 2013 self-titled record, which would produce the Grammy Winning Rock Song of the Year for "Ain't It Fun." "Crushcrushcrush" shows who the band is on a fundamental level--a female-fronted emo rock band, a band for late millennials burgeoning just as ...

Coming off the heels of Years & Years ' second album, Palo Santo , the group collaborated with British House DJ and producer Jax Jones for his debut album Snacks . The song " Play " was released as a single in November of 2018 and would find a place on deluxe editions of Palo Santo  like " Up in Flames ." The two songs don't fit into the story of the futuristic queer/ religious concept album. Instead, "Play" follows Jones's concept. A colorful music video with  nostalgic goodies, the sweets and toys of a millennial's childhood, along with the single's artwork, clearly inspired by Play-Doh, remind listeners of playtime and all of the goodness of a childhood full of sugary cereal, matchbox cars, and action figures. The disco beat and Olly Alexander 's vocals take that childhood playtime nostalgia to a late-night dance hall. MY PHILOSOPHY DON'T LET NOBODY COME TOO CLOSE . The status quo of the song is defensiveness. The singer...

If you picked up Out of the Badlands , you may have been expecting Aaron Gillespie's third album to be in the vein of his prior solo releases. In 2016, Gillespie had long since left his drumming/singing duties in Underoath and had put his own Southern-influenced pop-punk band, The Almost, on hiatus. His next venture was signing to BEC, the Christian imprint of Tooth & Nail Records, and releasing an original Praise & Worship record followed by another one. But as much as he tried, the rough-n-tumble persona that Gillespie is--with his heavily tattooed body and penchant for an unguarded sailor-mouth--Praise & Worship music didn't pay the bills. What did pay the bills, Gillespie found, was drumming for 4 years of stadium tours with the band Paramore. On the podcast, Where Are All My Friends , Gillespie talks about this period with Paramore as an opportunity to lay his artistic endeavors aside, which ultimately inspired his next projects. These included a reunion with U...

Some music critics have called this the song of the 21st century. If you're sick of this song, I don't blame you. If you're from Canada, you got an extra dose of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," when it charted in October of 2011 and hit number 1 in February, several weeks before it charted in America. It was the song of the summer of 2012, spending 9 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, and it was rated as the second most popular song of the year, behind Gotye and Kimbra's "Somebody That I Used to Know." We have to thank Justin Bieber for tweeting about this song when he heard it while touring in Canada. Personally, I do get sick of songs, but I have never gotten sick of this catchy disco-infused track. It's  maybe my guiltiest of pleasures. Whenever I hear it, it makes my day, and it would have been my song of the day when I heard my students singing the song in class, but another ear-worm, " Careless Whisper " beat it out. The mo...

Taking long breaks between albums in order to self-record in old mansions around Nashville, Paper Route has only produced three full-length albums in their fifteen years active. Whenever they announce a new album, it's met with delays. Their sophomore album, The Peace of Wild Things , is no exception. After the departure of guitarist/co-vocalist Andy Smith , the band didn't have a permanent lead guitarist, and wouldn't until Nick Aranda joined the band before recording Real Emotion .   The Peace of Wild Things is a more pop-friendly album than their etherial debut, Absence . Peace builds the band up lyrically and contains some memorable choruses. But songs like " Sugar ," " Rabbit Holes ," " Tamed ," " Calm My Soul ," and today's song, " Glass Heart Hymn ," the otherwise straight-forward pop album down an artistic journey. MY FEET HAVE LED ME STRAIGHT INTO MY GRAVE. Named after a poem by farmer and environmentalist We...

Prior to signing with Gotee Records  in 2009, Wichita-based band, Abandon Kansas garnered radio play on RadioU as an indie band. The band recorded with Gotee for five years before going independent, partnering with BadChristian Music to release their final project,  Alligator , an album in which lead singer Jeremy Spring talked about with the BadChristian Podcast as an album dealing with his personal struggles in the band/Christian band circuit, dealing with doubt, substance abuse, and depression. To some Christian music fans, Alligator  was too profane compared to their previous works and other Christian Rock bands in the scene. To others, Alligator proved to be a refreshing take on authenticity which the confounds of most Christian record labels censored. After the album was released, the band planned to tour with the album, but ultimately personal issues forced Spring to cancel the tour. The band went on indefinite hiatus, but in 2019 they renamed the band to Glass...

Before their massively successful 1995 studio debut, Jars of Clay released a self-produced demo titled Frail , which included several songs that made it to their eponymous release . Two songs, though, were reworked and found their way onto their less commercially successful sophomore release, Much Afraid . Departing from their acoustic folk-rock sound, Much Afraid  sounds like a 1997 album. It spawned two singles, " Crazy Times ," peaking at #38 on the Modern Rock singles, and " Five Candles " (You Were There), originally written for Jim Carrey 's Liar Liar , but eventually used in Michael Keaton 's Jack Frost.    Much Afraid is a fine Jars of Clay album. It's more fun to listen to than their debut, varying between folk-rock and modern rock. However, it failed to propel Jars of Clay into the 1997 rock scene. Listeners may not remember them amongst their contemporaries, like The Goo Goo Dolls , Third Eye Blind , and Matchbox Twenty . Instead, they are a ...

Before becoming a full-time musician, William Fitzsimmons was a practicing mental health therapist. Music was always a presence in the singer's life when he was growing up. His father built a pipe organ in their family residence. Turning to music, the former therapist writes songs about intellectual conundrums, love and loss. Graduating from the Reformed Presbyterian Geneva College , the artist, throughout his career, has kept a faith in the musical conversation. Throughout the singer-songwriter's discography, music has been therapeutic. His sophomore record,  Goodnight,  helped him process his parents' divorce when he was a teenager. But the story behind Mission Bell  is about a personal mental health crisis in the making.  WASHED HANDS, CHANGED PLANS. In an interview with Two Story Melody , Fitzsimmons revealed that he had recorded with his friend and bandmate, but he found out that his wife had been having an affair with this friend. He threw away the original re...

Mary J. Blige is a living legend of R&B and pop music. She's enjoyed critical and commercial success from her debut album, produced by Sean Combs (a.k.a. Puffy Daddy). Her music sold well into the 2010s, but by 2014, the now middle-aged singer was looking for something new to freshen up her music.  This included relocating to London, working with younger musicians, such as Disclosure, Sam Smith, and Naughty Boy, who wrote her songs, and allowing the creative collaborative process to make the record. Blige hoped to take inspiration from the British sound that had become a significant pulse in the pop music of the 2000s and 2010s with artists such as Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Sam Smith. The result was what Billboard called the album "objectively [Blige's] best [release] since 2005's The Breakthrough."  NO, NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU THE TIME. I first heard Mary J. Blige in 2001 in her song "Family Affair." I didn't care for the song for a few reasons. Fi...

Like with the American pop charts, numerous acts don’t chart well on the Korean pop charts. Maybe the group stays together to produce a few low-ranking groups, break up, and fade to obscurity. Groups like this might be remembered when a radio DJ decides to play it on a whim or maybe a situation or meeting an old friend makes the song come to mind. Other groups may have a low charting single, but by luck garner some attention for some reason. Maybe it’s a slow but steady influx of new fans. Perhaps it’s the work of a new promotional team. But in the case of the Korean group Exceed in Dreaming, better known as EXID , a viral, fan-made performance video of the group’s follow-up song “ Up & Down ,” helped the song become one of the biggest hits of the year and cemented the groups as a top girl group in South Korea. DON'T EASILY SPEAK OF ME TO OTHERS. DON'T EVEN SAY HOW I WAS. Like “ good 4 u ,” “Whoz That Girl” is a break-up song dripping in sarcasm. Even if the listener doesn...

I regret to admit that a few years ago I told my students that BTS probably would never enjoy mainstream success in America. Sure, the signs were all there: the Spotify numbers, the growing fervor for diverse cultures in the pop scene, a growing media interest in Korean culture--movies were featuring more scenes in Seoul, and Asian actors were getting more and more leading roles. "However," I assured my middle school students, "American radio listeners aren't very tolerant of foreign languages." A song like " Despacito " got huge because of its featuring Justin Bieber  on the remix . However, when I made those regrettable comments, I was thinking about the America that I knew. I was thinking about the time in college I was a faithful reader of Billboard's charts, before you had to pay a monthly fee to read them. I was thinking of a time when radio airplay was the majority of an artist's success. And with BTS's Billboard success--two #1 Ho...

Kim Jong-won, singer of the South Korean soft-rock band Nell makes a third entry for the month. The writer of Taeyeon's " Time Lapse " and Kim Sung-Kyu's " Shine ," knows how to write an autumny, nostalgic track. Nell became known for their bleak music in the early 2000s. Their release of 2008's Separation Anxiety is no exception. "Time Spent Walking Through Memories" would become one of Nell's most recognizable songs. However, conscription would force the band on to go on hiatus before making their comeback in 2012, changing their sad tune to the uplifting, anthemic "Ocean of Light." "Time Spent Walking" sees singer Kim Jong-won wax poetic, describing the loss of love, in similar manner to "Time Lapse" and "Shine." "Time Spent Walking," however, has a calmer, lullaby quality to the soft piano and the ending "La La"s.  FROM THE VISION OF A STRANGER PASSING BY. You probably still r...

In high school, Kim Sung-kyu , the future leader of the boy band Infinite, had to hide his vocal practice from his parents. In high school he sang in a rock band with some of his friends. When he graduated he left his hometown of Jeonju in hopes of having a career in music in Seoul. After failing an audition for SM Entertainment, he tried out for label Woolim Entertainment. His hope was to be a rock singer like his future label mates, Nell . On the day of his audition, though, he was suffering from appendicitis. Determined to make it as a singer, he sang through the pain and went to the hospital after the audition finished. Rather than cultivating Kim's rock talents, the record label decided to place him as the leader of the their first boy-band, Infinite. Throughout the group's tenure, they would flirt with rock music; however, it wasn't until Sung-Kyu's debut EP, Another Me , that he would be able to make the kind of music he envisioned.  WHENEVER THIS TIME OF YEAR C...