NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Last year, I ranked The Weeknd ’s Dawn FM as my fourth-best album of the year, right behind Underoath ’s Voyeurist . While I’d probably re-rank the list and add a few albums I missed like Lizzy McAlpine ’s five seconds flat , I still admire my fifth and fourth-placed records. Although I ranked The Weeknd and Underoath highly last year, I didn’t listen to either artist’s album very much for similar reasons. Voyeurist was a dark album dealing with drug addiction, suicide, and hopelessness. Unlike Underoath’s Christian albums, the darkness had the reprieve of light somewhere within a song or the album. However, the post-Christian Underoath offered an album so dark that I couldn’t listen to it, especially with some of the stuff that I was going through last year. Similarly, The Weeknd's Dawn FM was a beautifully crafted album, but it was too dark for me to enjoy for my mental state last year. I REMEMBER WHEN I HELD YOU. On paper, Dawn FM should have been my album of the year last ye

In 2021  The War on Drugs  returned after four years with their critically-acclaimed album,  I Don't Live Here Anymore .  The title track and lead single features indie pop group  Lucius  as backing vocals on the chorus.  Like their previous works, such as  A Deeper Understanding    (2017) and    Lost in the Dream   (2014),  The War on Drugs is able to play two chords back to back for six minutes and create a song that you never want to end. Those two chords create a warm cadence that's like a bonfire on a cold fall night. And that's reason enough to curl up with a blanket and enjoy The War on Drugs all day long. A CREATURE VOID OF FORM. In addition to producing their own music, The War on Drugs has also produced two seasons of a podcast titled Super High Quality Podcast . The second season is a four-part documentary about how the band wrote and recorded their fifth record. In addition to the band "talking shop" and sharing their demos and jam sessions, listeners

For the third year, The Weeknd 's " Blinding Lights " makes my playlist, although last year the song was represented by Sam Tsui with production by Kurt Hugo Schneider . I find the cultural discussions around the song fascinating: how a song from 2019 predicted the loneliness and isolation of the world, the greater concept in the record After Hours  complete with thematic story-telling music videos and conceptual live performances leading up to and during the release of the record. "Blinding Lights" was the omni-present hit in 2020 that worked whether you were a drug or sex addict, a celebrity dealing with the dark side of the industry, or none of those things. A lot has been said about this synth pop track a lot better than I can prepare in an evening, so I'll leave you with a podcast that talks about it pretty well. And for the rest of the post today, I'm going to leave you with a Spotify Edition of my Pseudo '80s Hits from last year. Kids make

Linkin Park 's fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns underperformed compared to the band's massive first three albums. The album produced two singles, " The Catalyst " and today's song, " Waiting for the End ," but ultimately listeners didn't like the album as most of the songs were not catchy. I always want to dig deeper into this album and its themes, but today, I wanted to introduce my AAPI Heritage Playlist, so I chose the most pop-oriented song on A Thousand Suns. If you want more information on the music theory behind this album, I'll link to The Discographers ,  an excellent podcast that explores the discography of Linkin Park in one of their seasons.  MY MOUTH KEPT MOVING AND MY MIND WENT DEAD.   May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, and I wanted to make a playlist that recognized some of the amazing talent by AAPI musicians. As with my other lists, I realize that making lists like this can be pr