NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Today, I'm going to present an evolving list. Last year, I chose an album of the year. In 2021, it was difficult because so much music was re-releases and nothing seemed dynamic enough to be album of the year. I finally settled on Scaled and Icy by twenty one pilots, but I actually didn't listen to it much in 2021. It seemed that 2021 was a year for good music outside of my immediate band preferences. Like many music listeners, my tastes are evolving, and I'm continuing to discover or just listen to older albums, which may change today's list. However, I'm going to try to present a list of the best albums from every year that I have been alive. I get this rank based on how much I've listened to the album, rather than by critical reception. Enjoy! 1987 The Joshua Tree by U2 . This was arguably when U2 became a cultural phenomenon. The first four tracks are the biggest hits from the record. The band always tackled issues of faith and doubt, but The Joshua Tree

It's very difficult to find the band KIDS on streaming platforms or online. The Ft. Lauderdale-based Indie band released their sophomore record, Lost Cities ,  on Tooth & Nail in 2020 and the label and the band seems not to have generated much hype. And it's a shame. The band has an interesting take on synth pop and organic sounds, often including trumpet and saxophone in their songs. Today's song, the Christmas classic " War Is Over ," offers a saxophone line that I find simultaneously comforting and eerie.  WAR IS OVER, IF YOU WANT IT.   "War Is Over" is the band's cover of  John Lennon  and  Yoko Ono 's 1971 holiday hit, which was written in protest of America's involvement in the Vietnam War.  My inclusion of this song comes with a prejudice that I'm currently reexamining. When I was young and influenced by far-right Christian rhetoric, I believed that this song was dangerous, as was his hit " Imagine ," also released

First appearing in 2001,   Lovedrug   released their   eponymous EP   in 2002 and their   Rocknroll   EP in 2004 before releasing their debut record,   Pretend You're Alive ,  in June of 2004. Selling over 20,000 records soon after the record was released, the band was signed to   Columbia Records   and their song " Spiders " was intended to be marketed as a radio hit. But rock star grandeur was never really in Lovedrug's reach, as the label dropped the band in the middle of restructuring. Lovedrug was a hard-working band, touring with acts such as   The Killers ,   Robert Plant ,   Sam Phillips ,   Switchfoot , and   Copeland . They would enjoy some success with their follow up record,   Everything Starts Where It Ends ,  but would continue making music until 2020, although they are probably best remembered for their first two records.   SEARCHING ON A WIRE FOR A WIRE .  The Militia Group  was a record label founded by former  Tooth & Nail Records  employee  Chad

  It's officially spooky season, so I decided to make a playlist celebrating the spookier songs I've blogged about or artists that had a spooky song. The 31 tracks that I included perhaps won't make you writhe in horror, but they have a loose connection to Halloween. Maybe there's a lyrics or a creepy video, or maybe it was just a song that I listened to a lot in October. I will post the Spotify playlist below and links to the posts and the tracks so that you can read the spooky stories behind the tracks.  1.       " Ghost " by Yellow Ostrich 2. " Closer " by Kings of Leon 3. " Unholy " by Sam Smith ft. Kim Petras 4. " I'm Pretty Sure I'm Out of Luck and Have No Friends " by Underoath 5. " Two Graves " by Anberlin 6. " Moonlit " by Falling Up 7. " Panic Switch " by Silversun Pickups 8. " Killer " by Chvrches   9. " Midnight City " by M83 10 " Edge of Seventeen "

We’re at the end of another month, now solidly into fall in the northern hemisphere. This month’s playlist has been the most repeats of any other month with 17 reposts and 13 new songs. And yet I don’t regret the choices because almost every song fits a certain autumny nostalgia. So today, despite the weather being a record high, I chose one of my favorite fall songs from an album I’ve talked about to death. But repeated listening is not the same as repeated reading. So, if you've read enough about Acceptance, skip today's post and just go listen to  Phantoms   or " In the Cold ." THE WORDS, THEY TAKE THEIR MEANING.  While " In the Cold " is a mid-album track that had very little potential to become a single, I feel that this song best encapsulates the "cooling" of interest Columbia Records had with Acceptance . I've talked about the  anti-piracy CD recall  that took the band's record from the shelves. But there were more problems. Columbi

Someone once compared releasing an album on a major label to giving birth. They say it takes about nine months. There’s the actual making of the album, which in most cases, takes longer than the making of a baby, with preproduction, songwriting, and recording. The process before and in the studio is only half to two-thirds of the process. Then there's the mixing, mastering, and promotion. But a lot of the process is waiting; waiting for the record label to pick the right day to release the record--to make sure Adele isn't going to release a record the same day. And the promotion--making sure that the singles are evenly spaced for maximum effect on radio--something that major labels have failed at in the mid-'00s as we've talked about Mae , Acceptance , Copeland , and others. MEET ME B EHIND THE MALL. Taylor Swift certainly had been bullied by the music industry for much of her career. But with a fanbase of avid music buyers--millions of buyers at that--Taylor's pre

Mae 's sophomore record, The Everglow , is to this day their most beloved record. The band released the album in 2005 and rereleased it the next year as a deluxe edition with bonus tracks and a read-along booklet designed to enhance the listener's Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience in 2006. With the band's releases of demos and two full-length records, Mae fulfilled their contract with Tooth & Nail Records . Later that year, the band signed with Capitol Records and began recording with legendary producer Howard Benson . Singularity was released in the summer of 2007 and was the only Mae record to be released on Capitol. SMOKE-FILLED CASINOS, BUT WHAT DO WE KNOW WE'LL TAKE A CHANCE.   Singularity  is a unique album for Mae as it features a rock and New Wave sound not featured on the prior records. Drummer Jacob Marshall and keyboardist Rob Sweitzer named the album Singularity based on their discussions from a book by physicist Paul Davies. Marshall said of these

" Escalates " is the second single  from Falling Up 's debut record, Crashings . All three of the band's singles from Crashings, " Broken Heart ," "Escalates," " Bittersweet "   topped Christian Rock Radio charts. Falling Up signed to BEC Recordings because of industry hype from the band Kutless , who came from the same suburb of Portland, Oregon as Falling Up. Working with the same producer, Aaron Sprinkle , Falling Up was set to be the next big Christian Rock band. I CAN'T FIND IT, BUT MAYBE I'LL COPE.    I've talked about the sonic production on Crashings and how I think that it is perhaps on of Aaron Sprinkle's best feats of production despite the record never coming up in the podcast conversations I've heard with Sprinkle. I've speculated that there's an interesting, perhaps an uncomfortable, story about Falling Up's tenure in the Tooth & Nail universe. Sprinkle and the band maintain high-tempo s

The Beautiful Letdown was the peak of Switchfoot 's career. When lead singer Jon Foreman was reflecting on his career on The Load Out Music Podcast last year, he said that the band decided to follow up their most successful pop record with one that critiques the American Dream, a somewhat controversial topic with Christian listeners. The opening track, " Lonely Nation ," warns listeners about consumerism and how it just creates social fragmentation and a desire for more. "Lonely Nation" is the representative song for my Independence Day mix called American Dreams: Hope for a Better Future. This playlist is far from perfect. Certainly it needs more diversity in style and artists' voices. But I hope that the songs on this playlist offer an alternative to blind patriotism. After all, patriotism shouldn't be blind nationalism, but rather a peaceful discourse between conflicting ideals. In a world where everything seems to be falling apart, it's so mu