NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In 1946 George Orwell wrote in an essay titled " Politics and the English Language ": "In our age, there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.” In my lifetime,  there seemed to be a time when we could be ambivalent toward the democratic process. We could sit in our homes on election day in good faith that the majority want the right thing or even stew in our own cynicism that the two candidates were different faces to the same policy. But look at how choice has been effaced.  A BEAUTIFUL WAITRESS WHO JUST COULDN'T MAKE IT. The third record by Irish pop-rock band Kodaline titled  Politics of Living  isn't an overt political statement, but more of a casual jab at 2018 zeitgeist. Cynical reviewers panned the record as Kodaline's attempt to enter the U.S. market. The album's production and song structures do suffer a bit from t

In 1996 Tonic scored a number 11 hit with their song “ If You Could Only See ” from their debut record Lemon Parade . Three years later, the band releases the first single from their follow up record Sugar . “ You Wanted More ” first appeared on the soundtrack to the 1999 teen sex comedy American Pie . Unlike “If You Could Only See,” “ You Wanted More” failed to crack the Hot 100 but peaked at number 3 on the Modern Rock chart. The band’s sophomore record had several underperforming singles. After their third record, 2002's Head on Straight , the band went on a lengthy hiatus. I DON’T KNOW HOW I GOT BITTER.  While many people have probably forgotten about Tonic’s debut single and their less successful follow ups, 1996 is an interesting time for music. Music YouTuber Rick Beato claims that Rock music died in 1996 mainly because Rock started divorcing itself from the blues. He also claims that the rock music of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s popularized "nameless" bands, m

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

It's pretty easy to think of only the frontman or front woman when thinking about bands like Coldplay . Chris Martin is featured prominently in the band's music videos. He is certainly the most charismatic during the band's live performances. He's kept himself in good shape and is arguably the best looking band dude in Coldplay. However, this didn't give the band's fearless leader complete creative reign for their seventh studio album, A Head Full of Dreams . When Martin presented the idea for a late-night club hit "Drinks on Me," influenced by Flo Rida , the rest of the band shot Martin down. LIFE IS A DRINK AND LOVE'S A DRUG. Every February or March, the first full-moon day of spring according to the Hindu lunar calendar, cities and towns in India shutdown for a very colorful celebration that lasts two days. This festival is called Holi, or The Festival of Colors and this year it was celebrated on March 18 and 19. During this festival, everyone,

Not since Michael Jackson has an artist had five number one singles top the Billboard Top 100 chart in as quick succession as " Dynamite ," " Savage Love ," "Life Goes On," " Butter ," and "Permission to Dance" from late August 2020 to July 2021. Of course, the hit parade continued in late 2021, as a featured spot on Coldplay 's " My Universe ." The South Korean phenomenon Bangtan Boys, better known by their acronym BTS , don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. GOT ARMY BEHIND US WHEN WE SAY SO. It's no secret that BTS's fan ARMY is strong. According to Quora, there are estimated to be anywhere between 40-60 million fans worldwide. It's because of this ARMY buying multiple copies of the groups singles that propelled the boy band to number one. Some have called this chart manipulation, mainly because of the strategic planning to buy the song, overtaking any other single that would be pushed up the charts

Born in 1964 to African American actress Roxie Roker and to Jewish-Ukrainian NBC executive Sly Kravitz, Lenny Kravitz built a musical career in the '90s based on Rock 'n' roll nostalgia. As a biracial rocker, Kravitz had a hard time securing a record contract with the labels telling him that he wasn't "black enough" or "white enough" for a specific genre. However, when Kravitz did become a rockstar, he was often criticized for his regressive, old-time rock sound.  I WANT TO GET AWAY. " Fly Away " comes from Kravitz's fifth album 5 . It peaked at #12 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles, and it topped the charts in several countries. The song was used in a commercial for the French-made automobile, the Peugeot 206 supermini car , making the song popular wherever the car was sold. Years later, the song would appear in the American commercial for Nissan's Xterra . And while "Fly Away" hit the airwaves in 1998, about a year be

My musical history started with hymns and classical music playing in the house, and sometimes classic and alternative rock in the garage. After going back to church, my mom stopped listening to secular music, well contemporary secular music,  and tried to convince me that rock music was evil when I started liking the sound of it. Little by little, she started listening to modern music--first CCM, especially Michael W. Smith 's This Is Your Time album because of the bagpipes. Then she started listening to music she grew up with, the soundtrack to her teenage rebellion. This was the smooth pop songs of Hall & Oats and Elton John and some rock bands like Boston and Journey . MY MISSIONARIES IN A FOREIGN FIELD. All of these song’s artists could be heard on local light rock radio stations along with contemporary hits by Kelly Clarkson , Train , and of course Coldplay . When my mom heard " Viva la Vida ," she loved it and bought the album. Soon, on long trips, the CD ro

I'm a music snob. I'll admit it. That snobbery can make it take a long time for me to come around on some bands or artists who I dismiss as phonies. Sometimes I never come around to an artist. Sometimes that group becomes one of my favorites. Then there's Imagine Dragons , a band I have one of the most complicated relationships with. I could write a pros and cons list that would fill a blog post or twenty about this band. But instead of talking about how sickeningly synthetic most of their albums taste, how much I want to exit the conversation when someone says something like "I really like indie bands like Coldplay and Imagine Dragons," or the good points about how the band deals with faith deconstruction or champions LGBTQ+ rights, I'd like to talk about how one mediocre got stuck in my head today. Imagine Dragons' lead singer  Dan Reynolds performing live I WANNA PUT YOU IN THE SPOTLIGHT.   I watched the music video for “ Follow You ” last year shortly

With the release of their sophomore album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory , Oasis were on track to be one of the biggest rock bands in the mid-'90s. With a sound decidedly different from the grunge of the early ‘90s, Oasis looked to fellow British bands from the '60s and '70s, taking the chords of The Beatles  and other acts and combining those elements with a heavy "wall of sound." While it's not fair to credit Oasis with the foundation of Brit-pop, they certainly enjoyed the crest of the wave. The story of Oasis is one of arrogance and the fleeting attention of music listeners. From a band that claimed to be the next Beatles to brothers who couldn't stand to be in the same room as each other and who could be forgotten to their predecessors Radiohead or their successors Coldplay , Oasis encapsulated a short period in the '90s when listeners wanted to hear Top-40 friendly guitar music without the intensity of Kurt Cobain or the gruffness of E

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

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