NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

An album set in a fictional universe, the EXO -planet boys came back with their fifth studio album in 2018, Don't Mess Up My Tempo .   The 2018 was the Korean/Chinese boy band's most successful record in the United States, reaching number 23 on Billboard's Hot 200 album sales chart.  Closing the album is the R&B track " Oasis ." The music was composed by a young American-Lebanese songwriter named Andrew Bazzi , or just Bazzi . The groove of the 808 bass loops, staccato instruments, and the EXO boys' smooth vocals make "Oasis" an infectious track. I'M ON THE ROAD.   The young songwriter Bazzi has written for Nelly, Camila Cabello, and Lil' Wayne. So far, his biggest hit, 2017's "Mine" became famous as a SnapChat filter. Before this hit, though, he promoted his music through Vine. Besides "Oasis," Bazzi wrote "Oh La La La," which also appears on Don't Mess Up My Tempo as well as a track on the band'...

Entertainment Weekly called  Jimmy Eat World 's seventh album, Chase This Light , "Extroverted guitar pop." Recently on an episode of Slate 's Hit Parade , host Chris Molanphy told a compelling story tracing the evolution of punk to emo to its eventual influence on pop and hip hop. Between Green Day making an album about crap and My Chemical Romance sending out invitations to the black parade (and long before Machine Gun Kelly sold tickets to his downfall) came a pop one-hit wonder who from Mesa, Arizona, who is often cited early in a list of influences for pop punk, punk, emo and screamo bands. But Alternative Rock radio listeners knew that Jimmy Eat World was no one hit wonder. DON'T ACCEPT CRITIQUE OR CREDIT. When we think of emo, we picture neo-gothic-looking kids dressed in skinny jeans and over the-the-top haircuts. The Wikipedia image to the left best sums up the stereotype. Molanphy points out that a phenomenon that I remember quite well, everyone ass...

On   December 4, 2015,  Troye Sivan  released his wildly successful first LP,  Blue Neighbourhood .  Building a large Internet fanbase,  Blue Neighbourhood   peaked at #7  on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The standard edition of  Blue  Neighbourhood  contained  3 of the 10 songs from the previously released  Wild  EP . The LP, though, gave Sivan his first US Top 40 single, " Youth ." Four of the ten songs on  Blue   were singles, starting with "Wild," a remix of which was rereleased with guest vocals by Alessi a   Cara as Sivan's fourth single from the album, which was a major hit in South Korea.          TRUTH RUNS WILD. The final single, " Heaven ," was released on October 17, 2016. The Jack Antonoff -produced single features a second verse from fellow Australian pop star, Betty Who . After Sivan came out in a YouTube video in August of 2013, he became an LGBTQ+ icon, as ...

Following up their critically acclaimed breakthrough record, For Emma, Forever Ago ,   Bon Iver recorded their sophomore eponymous album in a converted veterinarian clinic in Fall Creek, Wisconsin. While the band's first album earned two points higher of a score on Meta Critic (88%) than the self-titled record's 86%, the self-titled record won the 2012 Grammy for Best Alternative Album. The self-titled record was named by both Paste and Pitchfork as the album of the year for 2011. The heavily-filtered vocals of Justin Vernon's baritone-to-falsetto range along with the variety of heavily-produced instrumentals make this album both pleasant to listen to and helped to redefine what the genre of Alternative actually meant. AND THE RAIN LET IN. Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon majored in Religious Studies and minored in Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire before becoming the indie rock god to college kids coming of age with Bon Iver's esoteric lyric...

Ian Mahan grew up in Illinois taking piano lessons and taekwondo. Of the two, he preferred taekwondo, practicing to become a Junior Olympian and a regional champion. However, at the age of 16, Mahan injured his knee, and his doctor told him he had "degenerative arthritis." In his latter years of high school, Ian turned to music and writing songs. Learning guitar at the age of 18 helped the singer discover "his true instrumental passion," according to his Spotify biography. The singer moved to Colorado where he plays music in the local scene. YOU HATE WHEN I WRITE LOVE SONGS. Mahan played in several bands in college. According to an interview with Voyage Denver , in high school the singer was dating an athlete who didn't believe in his music career. In college, the singer says that girlfriend "shattered his heart into a million pieces." In 2008, Mahan recorded his first solo work, though it is not available on streaming services. Today's song comes...

In an interview with New Noise , Copeland 's guitarist Bryan Laurenson talks about the circumstances why the band broke up in 2010. The band feared the fanbase was drying up. They were sick of touring, but after some time away, working with other projects, Copeland came back together to record 2014's Ixora . The four years away gave Copeland fans one of the best records the band has released. Building on the layered, compositional ballads from You Are My Sunshine , Copeland masterfully combines lush arrangements of guitars, pianos, odd drum beats, synths, strings, and horns with some of the most concrete love songs the band has ever released.   THE WHITEST DRESS I KNOW. Named after a subtropical flowering plant common in the band's home state of Florida (pictured to the left), Ixora opens calmly with the cold track " Have I Always Loved You ," and the band builds a momentum that easily draws listeners along until the album's early emotional climax, " Eras...

No, that riff is not " Don't You " (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds in some alternate, extended drumming version. Today, we're listening to a San Diego-based Worship band's rendition of the classic Christmas hymn, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Formed with former members of indie/Christian Rock bands Reeve Oliver, Something Like Silas, and Future of Forestry  and named after a pub near Oxford University where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met to discuss their writing and their ideas, The Eagle and Child have released several albums and EPs on Tooth & Nail's worship music imprint, Gospel Songs. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" comes from their first Christmas EP, O Christmas. BORN TO GIVE THEM SECOND BIRTH. Christmas covers have to be excellent in order to take my attention from a traditional arrangement. While I listened to several Christmas songs today, the moody saxophone and the drums on this version stuck out, even after listening ...

" Wonderful Christmastime " was rated as the worst Christmas song by Ultimate Classic Rock . Recorded when 37-year-old rock legend Paul McCartney was recording his polarizing second solo record, just before the disbanding of his second band, Wings , McCartney II  was a synth-pop, new wave record in a time when former Beatles fans were yelling, "stick to the classics." Recently, critics have come to understand and even praise McCartney II for its pioneering in electronic music. The intentionally simple lyrics help to draw attention to the synths and the overall Christmasy atmosphere of the song. THE CHILDREN'S CHOIR SINGS A SONG. "Wonderful Christmastime" has been covered by many artists, including Diana Ross, Demi Lovato, Hillary Duff, Jump5, Chicago and Dolly Parton, Pentatonix, Family Force 5 , Jars of Clay , Eleventyseven, and so many other artists. In 2000, the Christian Rock band Earthsuit recorded the track for Tooth & Nail Record's hol...

After releasing his first solo EP, Love Is Love   in 2017   Trey Pearson has released several singles, including a song called "Oh, Boy" and a "last minute Christmas song" called "Under the Mistletoe" in 2019. The Christmas song that the former Everyday Sunday singer wrote and recorded celebrates a spirit of liberation that the gay singer-songwriter sang about on his debut EP. The secular, festive synth-pop track explores a side of Christmas that the CCM community shies away from: holiday romance. Even more taboo: LGBTQ+ romance in a post-evangelical context.  STAND A LITTLE NEARER / LET'S LET OUR TOES TOUCH. Shortly after coming out, many media outlets picked up Pearson's story, including The View. In his June 2016 interview , Pearson stated that he was 'not dating" but rather "taking at least year to get to know myself as a gay person. . . before I start getting to know who someone else is." Since then, Pearson has talked to ...

Shapes & Colors formed in 2011 after members from a group called Aria Aesthetic combined with the vocalist Travis Bobier from Search the City  as well as musicians from other bands. The Troy, Michigan- based group disbanded in 2018 after releasing several singles, three EPs, and an LP, which is not available on streaming services. Following the band's break up, members of Shapes & Colors went on to form the band CXMPASS , though the group only has one song available, " The Focus ," released in September of last year. Today's song is the third track on the band's final, self-titled EP. I KNOW I PROMISED YOU THE MOON. In their short discography, cynical listeners could point out how the upbeat throwback to late '00s emo seems derivative of the band's influences. Their 2015 EP, produced by Aaron Sprinkle , and their last work, produced by Kenneth Mount and Zach Odom writers for Mayday Parade and All Time Low , may seem like a shadow of the more s...

In 2006, Pitchfork announced that Sufjan Stevens and Rosie Thomas were having a baby together. This announcement was later retracted and clarified as an April Fool's prank. While Stevens and Thomas may not have human children, the two musicians worked together throughout their careers and even shared a Brooklyn apartment with fellow musician Denison Witmer . Stevens and Thomas recorded Rosie's 2006 record These Friends of Mine over two years in that apartment. The album contained ten tracks, three of them covers, roommate Denison Witmer's "Paper Doll," Fleetwood Mac 's "Song Bird" and R.E.M. 's "The One I Love." The songs reflect the singer on a journey to make it in the big city. The vibe this short album gives is the romantic notion of not having much money but living in one of the greatest cities on earth and creating art. HOW I WISH I COULD GO BACK IN TIME. Rosie Thomas comes from Michigan but attended Calvary Chapel Bible College f...

Earlier this year, I talked about Carly Rae Jepsen 's E-MO-TION   as an album I could listen to without skipping a track, which is quite a feat for a 12-track regular edition, 15-track deluxe edition. However, when I first started listening to the album, I couldn't stand one track. A lot of listeners really, really, really couldn't stand the lead single, " I Really Like You " but I found the track enduring and quite in-line with the singer's debut single, " Call Me Maybe ." Tracks in the middle of Jepsen's third record changed things up with maximalist '80s nostalgia: funky bass-lines, larger-than-life drums, and synths to fill in the atmosphere surrounding Jepsen's crisp vocals. SO TIRED OF HEARIN' ALL YOUR BOY PROBLEMS . Enlisting a slew of Swedish songwriters and producers; listening to Robyn , Cyndi Lauper , Prince , and Kylie Minogue for inspiration; and collaborating with the HAIM sisters, Sia , her band, and long-term collabo...

Just 21 miles south of the Canadian border is Bellingham, Washington, where Ben Gibbard formed the band Death Cab for Cutie. The band became an indie rock legend as their success grew. Bellingham being north of Seattle, Gibbard contributed to a vibrant indie scene. For a short time, he played bass in Pedro the Lion, and musicians in Seattle often name-drop the Death Cab founder when talking about the development of the Seattle sound. The platinum-selling Plans put Death Cab for Cutie on the map, with the single "I'll Follow You Into the Dark" being their most recognizable song in the band's career.   WITH YOUR ARMS STRETCHED OUT TRYING TO TAKE FLIGHT. Listening to Plans is great all year, and it may be a year for your existential crisis. The love songs on the album are often tinged with something else: death, getting older, or in this case, a loss of passion, maybe apathy. When Jonah Bayer called the album “cinematic” in his Alternative Press review, he was probably r...

The fourth track on Kye Kye 's sophomore record, Fantasize , " Glass " continues to build the atmosphere on this Chad Howat -produced record. Back in 2014, there was still hope that Kye Kye could be the next big Christian band. Their 2011 debut, Young Love  landed them a feature interview in Relevant Magazine  and their follow up was well-reviewed in several Christian publications, including CCM Magazine . The band's story was fascinating for the Christian market. Siblings Tim and Olga  Yagolnikov grew up in a conservative Russian churches in Estonia before moving to the United States. In the Relevant article, Tim explains that the siblings' religious upbringing wasn't "really grace-centered, it’s really kind of more legalistic." Tim explains that their religious culture was "not for salvation, it’s for blessing or right-standing with God." TO HOLD ONTO AN IMAGE OF SHADOWS YOU REMEMBER. According to my Apple Music's "Replay '21...