NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Before his record-setting 333 (and counting) Billboard Hot 100 entries and his record-tying number 13 #1 hits--tied with Michael Jackson --, Drake released his 2016 album Views . First, he scored a number 2 hit in 2015 with “ Hotline Bling ” before the album was released, and then he reached the top position on the chart with the single “ One Dance .” Drake released his first mixtape in 2006, but his 2009 single “ Best I Ever Had ” from his third mixtape was the breakout event for the Canadian rapper. Perceptions about Drake may have changed over the years, particularly earlier this year when he and Kendrick Lamar were involved in a nasty highly-publicized feud. “Hotline Bling” harkens back to a time when the perception of the Canadian rapper was mostly positive, even if the lyrics to the song have been criticized as sexist. EVER SINCE I LEFT THE CITY… The summer vacation sounds of “Hotline Bling” partly come from the song’s sample of Timmy Thomas ’s " Why Can't We Live T

Sufjan Stevens ' 2015 album  Carrie & Lowell   is a heartbreaking album in which the singer-songwriter deals with the death of his mother. The opening track, " Death with Dignity ," is the beginning of an album that chronicles Stevens' grieving process and the real and imaginary conversations between Stevens and his estranged mother.  Carrie & Lowell  was a rare peak into the personal life of the elusive singer, and unfortunately, grief was necessary to make a personal project.  WHAT IS THAT SONG YOU SING FOR THE DEAD ? Earlier this month, Sufjan Stevens revealed an album borne out of another tragedy. And while I have yet to dig into  Javelin   and grieve anew with Sufjan, this time for  his late partner  who died last April, I feel that "Death with Dignity" would get me ready to digest this incredibly sad album. The song with its wispy plucked guitar in five chorus-less verses introduces folklore and Biblical imagery to memorialize his mother. While

Sufjan Stevens ' 2015 album Carrie & Lowell is a heartbreaking album in which the singer-songwriter deals with the death of his mother. The opening track, " Death with Dignity ," is the beginning of an album that chronicles Stevens' grieving process and the real and imaginary conversations between Stevens and his estranged mother. Carrie & Lowell was a rare peak into the personal life of the elusive singer, and unfortunately, grief was necessary to make a personal project.  WHAT IS THAT SONG YOU SING FOR THE DEAD ? Earlier this month, Sufjan Stevens revealed an album borne out of another tragedy. And while I have yet to dig into Javelin and grieve anew with Sufjan, this time for his late partner who died in April of this year, I feel that "Death with Dignity" would get me ready to digest this incredibly sad album. The song with its wispy plucked guitar in five chorus-less verses introduces folklore and Biblical imagery to memorialize his mother. W

In 2015,  Sufjan Stevens released his saddest album. The songs on  Carrie & Lowell   give listeners insight into the folk singer's upbringing and his process of dealing with the grief of losing an abusive parent. Stevens' mother Carrie had passed away in 2012 from cancer, and " Death with Dignity ," the album opener, finds the lyricist struggling for the words to tell the story. He says "I don't know where begin," showing how something deeply personal is hardest to talk about. The song structure is unique in that there is no chorus, but rather five verses--this is a fact I never noticed in all the times I listened to the song before I wrote about it last year. "Death with Dignity" is best in the context of the entire album, but if you don't have the time to dive into the depths of sorrow like a mourner's kaddish, the song is a sweet twinge of sadness to throw into an otherwise happy playlist.  AMETHYST AND FLOWERS ON THE TABLE. I w

In March of 2015,  Sufjan Stevens   released  Carrie & Lowell ,  and the album was  praised   by indie music journals and NPR. In May of that year,  a study concluded that most of the number one hits from 2005-2014 were written on the reading level of a fifth grader.   Maybe that's the reason I don't spend too much time wrestling with finding the meaning of the text in most song lyrics. However, whenever I choose a Sufjan Stevens song, I spend quite a bit of time reading the Genius annotations, discovering hidden metaphors and symbolism that don't appear until quite a few listens. " Should Have Known Better " is the second track on the album, following his invocation of the muse in " Death with Dignity. " Stevens recalls more specific, particularly the jarring details about whe n   his mother "left [him and his brother] at that video store" when he was three or four.  WHEN I WAS THREE, THREE, MAYBE FOUR.   As Stevens gets more specific on 

I've talked about how Carrie & Lowell , Sufjan Steven 's 2015 masterpiece, is a quintessential portrait of dealing with grief and forgiveness when I wrote about the first two tracks, " Death with Dignity ," and " Should Have Known Better ." By the third track on the record, " All of Me Wants All of You ," explores grief in a different way from the previous two tracks. As with most songs on the album, "All of Me" appears to be deeply personal to the artist. But being personal doesn't stop this track's language from being the most obscured with allusions to geography and possibly an allegory from a little-known Spanish play. ALL OF ME THINKS LESS OF YOU.  There's a debate   on Lyrics Genius about the meaning of this song, especially surrounding the identity of the only other character mentioned by name in this song, Manelich. Is he the one the song is about? Stevens has written vaguely about homosexual attraction throughout

  In March of 2015, Sufjan Stevens  released Carrie & Lowell ,  and the album was praised by indie music journals and NPR. In May of that year, a study concluded that most of the number one hits from 2005-2014 were written on the reading level of a fifth grader.   Maybe that's the reason I don't spend too much time wrestling with finding the meaning of the text in most song lyrics. However, whenever I choose a Sufjan Stevens song, I spend quite a bit of time reading the Genius annotations, discovering hidden metaphors and symbolism that don't appear until quite a few listens. " Should Have Known Better " is the second track on the album, following his invocation of the muse in " Death with Dignity. " Stevens recalls more specific, particularly the jarring details about whe n his mother "left [him and his brother] at that video store" when he was three or four.  THE PAST IS STILL THE PAST, THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE. As Stevens gets more speci