NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Charlie , the third record from Charlie Puth , tells pretty much the same story as the previous two Charlie Puth records: the tales of being unlucky in love. The twelve tracks on the album come from a place of heartbreak, being used, and nostalgia for a good time in love. Musically, most of the songs are saccharine pop with Puth’s somewhat funk-inspired falsetto. Every record Puth has released has steadily raised in critical reception. Charlie holds an 81% on Metacritic ; his debut, Nine Track Mind , holds a 37%. Today we’ll look at the tracks that make up Charlie.  I am surprised at the difference in critical reception between the albums. Personally, I think that while his first albums lack maturity, the albums have more variety than the third record as we’ll see in more detail. “ That’s Hilarious ” kicks off the album with a heartbreak. Similar to Third Eye Blind ’s break-up hit “ Losing a Whole Year ,” Puth laments “You took away a year / Of my fuckin’ life.” The song is ironic in

  Every song on Charlie Puth ’s third record, Charlie , deals with heartbreak and rejection. “ Smells Like Me ” is no exception. The idea of the song, Puth revealed on Twitter, that the song is “about when you think of the person you were with for so long having sex with someone new but with they’re wearing clothes that smell like you still while they….” It’s a song about passive aggressive revenge, a hope that even though the romance is over, the two are still biologically linked for a time. The speaker of the song hopes that the scent he left on his former lover distracts her, though she’s moved on. Rather than pontificate on this theme more, I’d like to introduce my Heartbreak Mix to Apple Music. These break up songs might hit just right during one of those wrong times. Cheer up!

Charlie Puth ’s third record, self-titled Charlie contains perhaps a higher percentage of mopey songs about being a “ Loser ” in love.  From “ That’s Hilarious ” in which the speaker laments losing a year of his life to a relationship that ended in heartbreak to the fast-paced “ Light Switch ” about a 11:30 booty call. Today’s song, “ Tears on My Piano ” takes direct inspiration from one of Taylor Swift ’s breakthrough hits, “ Teardrops on My Guitar .” The weepy song born out of heartbreak and mellow drama. Rather than analyzing this song, I thought it would be a good point to invoke the pathetic fallacy for this rainy weather and make my Apple Music edition of Rain. Enjoy it with a nice hearty soup!  

People that complain that there is no talent in music today are overlooking quite a few artists. My blog is full of talent young musicians from Betty Who to Charlie Puth who may not be the most popular musicians, but they have used classical and technical training to write and produce their own songs. Of course there are tons of other examples, but I mention both Who and Puth because, like  Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, Icelandic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, these artists are all alumnus of Berklee College of Music , a prestigious school that has just as many famous graduates as famous dropouts. ME AND YOU AND AWKWARD SILENCE.  Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir, better know by her first name Laufey, was born to a Chinese mother and an Icelandic father. Laufey was raised on classical and jazz music. Her mother is a classical violinist, and her grandfather, Lin Yaoji was famous a violin instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music in China from which he graduated and also studied at

Like Rick Beato explains in his provocatively titled video "What's Wrong with Charlie Puth 's Single" (see below), I was shocked that such an earworm didn't chart very well. Beato's commentary in the video is a dig at other musical trends--trap beats, explicit lyrics, and multiple songwriters--which contribute to a pop song's success. I don't completely agree with Beato's assessment of " Light Switch " and pop music in general, but the question remains why such an instant sing-along melody didn't chart higher than number 27 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Of course, there's just so much music out there vying for our attention. ALL THE SUDDEN I'M HYPNOTIZED. Beato's liking for Charlie Puth is even puzzling for some of the YouTuber's viewers. There are many other music YouTubers and Podcasters who call out Beato's biased views. Maybe it's pop music filtered through his kids' tastes that he got turned on t

  “ Attention ” was the lead single from Charlie Puth ’s sophomore album, Voicenotes . It’s a mid-tempo track that features Puth’s auto-tuned vocals punctuated by a smooth electric guitar. Compared to Puth’s debut record, Nine Track Mind , Voicenotes received much more critical praise. While “Attention” peaked at number 5 on Billboard ’s Hot 100 chart , Puth has yet to replicate the magic of his 12-non-consecutive-week hit of “ See You Again ” as a featured artist on Wiz Khalifa ’s track commissioned for Furious 7 as a tribute to the late Paul Walker .  YOU’VE BEEN GOIN’ ROUND EVERY PARTY IN LA. I thought it was about time to start a working playlist for songs about Los Angeles. It’s the first in my Cities playlist series. The playlist will feature songs and artists connected with the city. It’s not an exhaustive playlist, yet. Note that songs about Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and surrounding areas are also fair game. So, let’s take a long weekend trip into the City of Angels! Check out

  Around 2018, before I started paying attention to new music, I asked my middle school students who they were listening to these days, and it made me feel very old. There were a few singers I knew-- Charlie Puth , Troye Sivan --but the two top artists I had no idea who they were. The first was Anne-Marie , who, admittedly hadn't made it really big in America. I actually thought that the students liked the easy-listening singer Anne Murray , so I had to play her music for them! WAS I STUPID TO LOVE YOU?   The other artist was Billie Eilish , who hadn't yet released her eventually Grammy-winning album  When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go ?   In the early days, though, I was turned off by the singer's aesthetic: the gothic and neon, the adolescent morbidity. And the styles of her song titles bothered me. I felt that I had entered a new musical world where nothing made sense, that I was looking at the world through the eyes of Generation Z, and I felt not like a Millennial