NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

A few years ago, YouTuber Nick Canovas, or Mic the Snare , made a video about the characteristics of meme songs and why some songs go viral. Not all meme songs are created equal. Some annoyingly catchy songs get stuck in enough heads to become a hit. These are so bad that they’re almost good. Then there are old songs that become renewed for the TikTok generation. These songs had a solid presence before taking off on social media. Some of these songs are laughable in a modern context—the swanky sax solo from “ Careless Whisper ,” Rick Astley ’s shoulder dance when he sings “ Never Gonna Give You Up .” But some meme songs are what music critics still call legitimately good. A-ha ’s “ Take On Me ,” Simon & Garfunkel ’s “ The Sound of Silence ,” and today’s song can be legitimately enjoyed with an extra dose of irony once it has soundtracked a meme. YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO CUT ME OFF . In the spring and summer of 2012, I did a lot of driving. I had to get my paperwork together to go t

Adam Young was inescapable in 2008 with his dreamy #1 hit " Fireflies ," released under the moniker Owl City . Although Owl City went on to produce more records since 2008, other than being a featured artist on Carly Rae Jepsen 's " Good Time ," Owl City or Adam Young weren't on many listener's radar after "Fireflies." But one year prior to Owl City's breakthrough record, Ocean Eyes , Adam Young teamed up with his friend Austin Tofte to form the side project Swimming with Dolphins , releasing their debut EP Ambient Blue   and a B-side cover of Tracy Chapman 's " Fast Car ." I'M LIVING HERE WITHOUT YOU. In 2011 Swimming with Dolphins released their debut record, Water Colours ,  produced by several producers including Tofte and Aaron Sprinkle , and the album was released on Tooth & Nail Records . The band added backing vocalist Breanne Düren on this record, creating a musical conversation on tracks like today's s

One of my forgotten New Year's resolutions was to listen to more Kacey Musgraves this year, and for the most part I've neglected that other than watching her music videos for star-crossed  back in January. But today when I was watching an old Mic the Snare video in which the host named Golden Hour as his top album of 2018 , I couldn't shake " High Horse " out of my head since. Watching that video reminded me that 1) I am a bad music critic and 2) I'm a basic bitch, but 3) there is a lot of music out there and 4) there's a reason why albums win Grammy's and finally 5) just because something is popular doesn't mean it's not worth digging into it. I THINK WE'VE SEEN ENOUGH. Kacey Musgrave's third record  Golden Hour transitions the singer-songwriter from straight-forward Country music to what Nick Canovas (Mic the Snare) calls Carly Rae Jepsen 's " Emotion with banjos." While I don't fail to see the comparison, Golden

On Valentine's Day, Taeyeon released her third full-length album, INVU .  This album included her single released last summer " Weekend ," a song about feeling great and enjoying life amidst the everyday hectic routine. Sleeping in late, indulging in coffee and/or cheese cake, and generally "doing whatever I want," "Weekend" is a bubbly K-pop single that welcomes the best two days of the week. And out of a lazy afternoon in bed with my boyfriend singing this song, I chose to be extra lazy and post this track as an excuse to convert my Spotify Friday Vibes  playlist into an AppleMusic Weekend Vibes playlist. Hope you enjoy it! Original tracklist (before future updates): 1. "Weekend" by Taeyeon (the song of the day) 2. " Forest " by Number One Gun 3.  " Take it All Back 2.0 " by Judah & the Lion 4. " Typical " by MUTEMATH 5. " Rings & Roses " by Dabin ft. Conor Byrne 6. " Hymn for the Wee

  I listened to an episode of The New York Times' Popcast reviewing the critics' top singles of the year 2015 when looking for new perspectives on Carly Rae Jepsen 's masterclass in pop music E-MO-TION this evening. For that particular episode, the critics tried to pick singles that either were released without an album or the song far outshined the album. However, they came up with the "Carly conundrum." The critics felt that Carly Rae Jepsen's 2015 album contained many good songs, but it wasn't a great album. They compared it to a box of candy, and they said you wouldn't want to eat the whole box in one sitting. 'CAUSE I WANT WHAT I WANT. DO YOU THINK I WANT TOO MUCH?  I think that there's certainly more substance to this album than a pixie stick. I've talked about this album being a calculated, smart indie pop record. Jepsen moves to more mature themes, assuming adult relationships. She's not going to win the Rebecca St. James award

When your first American hit is the second biggest song of the year, how do you follow that up? When your signature song has been called bubblegum and immature, how do you change your image to show that you're an adult with adult relationships, without getting X-rated? These were two questions Carly Rae Jepsen answered in her follow up to Kiss in E-MO-TION . If those two questions were on the interview, Jespsen would have the job on the merits of her 2015 effort.  YOU’RE STUCK IN MY HEAD, STUCK IN MY HEART, STUCK IN MY BODY.  Sure, if your introduction to E-MO-TION was the first single " I Really Like You " turned you off as another " Call Me Maybe " so you never clicked "Add to Library" on the rest of the album, that's an understandable mistake. The meme-able first single arguably is less dynamic in the wake of its massive hit predecessor "Call Me Maybe." But while critics were divided on "I Really Like You,"  E-MO-TION  as a

The second single from the 2006 album Eyes Open  after the album opener and rocker, " You're All I Have ," "Chasing Cars" is the most recognized song by  Snow Patrol . The band's frontman and songwriter Gary Lightbody said that he wrote the song after sobering up after a white wine binge in the garden of producer Jacknife Lee 's cottage. Lightbody told Rolling Stone  that "Chasing Cars" is "the purest love song I've ever written. There's no knife-in-the-back twist." He stated that "all the other songs I've written have a dark edge." While the song and video for "Chasing Cars" don't have a dark side, the connotation the song has with dramas like Grey's Anatomy and One Tree Hill  certainly wields the knife so carefully left out by the songwriter.  LET'S WASTE TIME CHASING CARS. As tempting as it is to make a Bad Romance playlist or Sad Romance playlist, I've decided to make my Spotify al

Amala Ratana Zandile Dlamini was b orn to a Jewish mother and a Zulu father, who, according to him returned to South Africa in hopes of his family following him, but according to Dlamini, a.k.a Doja Cat , he abandoned his family. Doja Cat produced music on Soundcloud at the beginning of her career. In 2019, her single " Say So ," today's representative song topped the Billboard Hot 100 . What the hell is a doja cat? I thought. I certainly was getting too old to keep up with pop music. Turns out, three years later, "Say So," is hella catchy. And with an interesting Wikipedia page full of lived experience, I wonder if there's a little treasure in a discography that, to me, originally just sounded like music for cats in heat. Time will tell. YOU AIN'T COMIN' OUT YOUR SHELL. We're entering another playlist-heavy month, and to kick it off, I'm sharing my AppleMusic playlist I created several years ago about cats. Why cats? It was kind of a gift

Boyce Avenue formed in 2004 after brothers Fabian and Alejandro Manzano were rejoined with their eldest brother Daniel, who had just graduated from Harvard Law School, when Daniel moved back to Sarasota, Florida. In 2007, the band decided to start a YouTube channel , posting original music and covers of well-known songs. Soon the band's popularity grew and they signed to Universal Records and embarked on U.S. and world tours. The cover-band sold out their first show in New York City in 2009, and accumulated fans overseas as well. The band currently has 15.5 million subscribers on their YouTube channel.  LIGHTS WILL GUIDE YOU HOME. Boyce Avenue often joins forces with fellow YouTubers, and today, the boys join another artist who was in the YouTube cover game early as well, Tyler Ward . The band collaborated with Ward in the same session for his channel, covering Fuel 's " Shimmer ." But today's song is Coldplay's song "Fix You." Written on a synthesiz