NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

This is certainly a gimmick to publish more content, but I was listening to 2022+ on Spotify on Friday and on a lark, I thought that I really wanted the AppleMusic version. Also, it's been half a year since I talked about the playlist directly, and it's undergone quite a bit of alteration since then. I tried to arrange the songs into a cohesive playlist, but when I'm working with different genres, it's a little hard. Also, I made a few deliberate choices to change the songs to offer more variety to the playlist. So instead of " Sine from Above ," I included " Babylon " by Lady Gaga. I hope AppleMusic listeners enjoy this list. Maybe a YouTube list is next instead of a repost from last year. 1. " Bad Love " by Key is today's song. It's an infectious dance song that I wrote about last year. It's worth a repeat.  2. " Shivers " by Ed Sheeran  3. "Babylon" by Lady Gaga 4. "Sometimes" by MUNA 5. "

Three and a half years after releasing Waking Up , OneRepublic returned with their third album, Native . The opening track, today's song, " Counting Stars " picks up where Waking Up left off--rhythmic pop-rock--but adds more elements of gospel otherwise absent on the first two OneRepublic records. The album quickly veers into electronic and anthemic '10s pop, but continues to make some interesting twists and turns along its course to the end, on a bonus track even recording with Aaron Sprinkle . Native may not be the most interesting album of 2013, and may sound like the equivalent of white toast in the morning, but there's a reason why we sometimes like to have white toast, and dare I say, Iced Americano. TAKE THAT MONEY, WATCH IT BURN. It's interesting to watch Ryan Tedder and OneRepublic navigate the world of pop music for several reasons. The band is talented, mixing genres, albeit in a very subtle/commercially viable way. Tedder is a go-to songwriting a

Artists often show off their influences when they play a cover. In 2004, Copeland released an EP of covers of songs by singer-songwriters from the '70s and '80s. While the band has moved into more experimental territory in recent years, know nothing stays the same shows the musical education, the melodies, the song structure from which Copeland came. Today's song was written by Billy Joel and released in 1977, and Billy Joel's version appears on the Spotify and AppleMusic version of the April 2022 Mixtape  because know nothing stays the same is a rare Copeland release. Copeland's covers EP is worth checking out, though. Hearing the band's unique take on the soft rock classics gave me a new appreciation for the band when I heard this EP, and I only wish it was more widely available. THE WORST SHE CAN DO IS THROW SHADOWS AT YOU. Now we come to Under the Covers,   Volume 3 (see below), naturally another YouTube Edition to the playlist because the main song on wh

When I made my Under the Covers, Vol. 1 playlist last week, I knew that I would be making Volume 2 soon after. However, I didn't think it would be exactly one week later. Because of my rule of one song per artist, I couldn't simply add today's cover of The Weeknd 's " Blinding Lights " to Volume 1. However, if I followed the same rules for last week's playlist, covers only featured on my blog, I'd only have two songs in the playlist. So, I opened it up to covers of songs featured in the playlist. I made this playlist with YouTube because some of the songs aren't available on streaming services. I'm sure that I missed some. I had to add a few to last week's playlist I had overlooked. Here's volume 2: 1. " Blinding Lights " (The Weeknd cover) by Kurt Hugo Schneider & Sam Tsui 2. " True Faith " ( New Order cover ) by Anberlin 3. "Love Me Like You Do" (Ellie Goulding cover) by Boyce Avenue 4. "Eas

On a cold winter's day, in the middle of the stress of house-hunting, I thought I'd make a playlist for those bad days that aren't quite depressing and not quite angry. Today's featured song is " Beth/Rest " by Bon Iver. I resisted putting this song on my Pseudo '80s Playlist  because, despite the soft-rock keys and saxophone, the vocal distortion sounds more of a product of its time than a retro track. Some of the songs on today's list will be a little sad, but something about them gives me strength rather than pushes me further into a despair. As always, I'll put the links for each song. I'm going to stick to tracks I've written about and add to this list as I feel the song is appropriate. First, I'll share my Spotify playlist: 1. "Beth/Rest" by Bon Iver is the representative song of the day.  2. "Tell Me How" by Paramore is a sad song, but the resolve at the end leaves the power in Haley Williams' hands. 3.

As the music world has moved on to Adele 's next single, " Oh My God ," I wanted to revisit her first single from 30 today, simply because it's so damn catchy. The inspiration for this comes from watching Rick Beato 's reaction to the song (see the video section below). I wanted to revisit this great song since my initial post back in October . "Easy on Me" is easily  one of the best songs of last year and it has made my 2021+ and 2022+ playlists. When so many Adele haters say that all of her songs sound the same, I can't help but scream, "Are you listening to that piano?" Finally delving a little bit more into 30, the feeling is so different from her previous work. It's literary in the sense that nobody writes an album about trying to convince their young child that divorce was the right decision. GO EASY ON ME, BABY.  Rick Beato started a YouTube channel in 2016 and has had a career in music, producing and recording with bands suc

If you believe in the Illuminati, Max Martin would certainly be a candidate of prestigious behind the scenes powers or principalities degenerating the minds of youth through pop music. I've talked about Martin's consistency on the pop charts when I talked about Coldplay's " Higher Power " last year. Since then I've learned a lot more about the Swedish force in the American pop charts. Martin, along with his "disciples" Shellback, Dr. Luke, and Savan Kotecha have been the go-to producers to get a pop act on the radio and charting highly. But if you want a track to go to number one, get it produced by Max Martin. Today, we're looking at one of Martin's first success stories. TELL ME WHY. Listening to "I Want It That Way" always triggers a particular funk. It's 1999 in the back of an old church van. It's middle school, and we're listening to pop radio because the conservative wave of "no music with a beat" leaders

Opening Nick Jonas ' latest album, Spaceman , is the etherial ballad "D on't Give Up on Us ." Though produced by Greg Kurstin , a hit maker whose accolades include Sia 's " Chandelier " and Adele's " Easy on Me " and " Hello ," Nick Jonas's 2021 album only spun two singles, " Spaceman " and " This Is Heaven ." Were listeners and critics too harsh on Spaceman?  Slow pop songs with electronic atmospheres and falsetto R&B vocals and lyrics a committed, marital relationship may have left listeners who cynical from their post-lockdown breakup annoyed. It may have bored other listeners. While it may not be a masterpiece, it's certainly worth a revisit. The moody opener of Spaceman isn't lyrically deep, but its atmosphere opens an album that really should work. I HEAR YOU CALLING WHEN I'M HERE ALL BY MYSELF. Maybe it's the original cover of the album, but I can't help but think about kids