NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In another life, we would have a light, optimistic Anberlin . This version of the band would have followed up their bright-eyed debut Blueprints for the Black Market with an upbeat pop-rock album about the gender divide, high school crushes, and traveling the world. But the band chose to go in a hard rock sound for their sophomore album, Never Take Friendship Personal , in part because of some of the conflicts the band had with guitarist Joey Bruce , whom they kicked out before the record. The hard rock album with grittier lyrics didn’t completely kill Anberlin’s pop-punk sentiments with songs like “ A Lay Late ” and “ Time and Confusion ” becoming fan favorites.   OH, THEY LOVE THESE AMERICAN BOYS. Anberlin’s third album, Cities , took an even darker tone than their sophomore record. The intense album had the pop-rock moments of “ Adelaide ” and “ Dismantle.Repair. ” But the serious tone of the album as a whole left no room for the carefree moments on the previous albums. Lead singer

Every band tackled the Covid-19 pandemic in different ways. Many bands are selling live-stream tickets. Some have decided to give free concerts on social networking. Cleared from the time-consuming task of driving across the country, setting up equipment, and tearing down only to drive to the next city, musicians have been able to produce music in new ways. It doesn't hurt that all of their equipment and professional microphones are in their basements. Two years ago,  Emery  produced a show on their   Twitch channel , in which they played their songs. They often had guest vocalists from other bands, such as  Hawthorne Heights ,  Silverstein , and  Dave Elkins   of  Mae . Emery reimagined some of their songs and the guest vocalist's band's songs too. The collaboration of " Embers and Envelopes " was a beautifully updated take on Mae's first single.  TO WRITE THIS DOWN AS MEANS TO RECONCILE . The word "reconcile" is an awkward term to put in a song. Bu

  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

" You Are My Sunshine " is a popular folk song copyrighted and recorded by American singer-songwriter Jimmie Davis in 1939, though its authorship is disputed. Davis later became the governor of Louisiana, and "You Are My Sunshine" became the state's official song. Davis's recorded versions are not the definitive version of the song, though. M any artists have covered the song, such as Johnny Cash , Christina Perri , and  Zach Bryan . Each time the song is covered, the artist brings an emotional layer to the beautiful song. Cash anthologizes the song in the American songbook and Perri emphasizes the lullaby-like qualities of the song.  THE OTHER NIGHT DEAR, AS I LAY SLEEPING. “You Are My Sunshine” is a   cradle song many mothers sing to their children. It’s a bright love song with a twinge of melancholy that grows upon examination. It’s a song full of longing and desire with the full knowledge that the sun may be covered by the clouds. The speaker hopes that

As an assiduous student in music, Aaron Marsh of Copeland , attended Harrison School of the Arts , studying trombone and music theory. By the end of the mid-‘00s, Marsh had used Copeland as a vehicle of multi-instrumental compositions, even going so far to work with an orchestra reinterpreting some of their most beloved songs on 2022’s Revolving Doors . The band gave a one-night-only concert  with the orchestra at The Caverns , a concert hall in a cave with opening act Jenny Dee . Between Dee’s and Copeland’s set, the house music played ‘90s rock— Counting Crows and Gin Blossoms , as I recall—as Copeland and the orchestra set up. Marsh has talked about Gin Blossoms influencing his music, especially when Copeland was a more straightforward rock band, but to hear the connection on the night of Copeland’s full transformation into an art rock band reminded about how important early musical influences are on a band’s career.    YOU CAN TRUST ME NOT TO THINK. Being a few years younger than

It was a rainy summer break during my Freshman year of college. I was still driving my '91 Toyota Corolla, and that was the summer that I binged the first three  Copeland  albums. It started with 2003's  Beneath Medicine Tree ,  the indie/rock concept album about love and loss. About a month later I bought, 2005's  In Motion ,  which was a little more musically diverse. The next year's  Eat, Sleep, Repeat ,  was closer to musical theater than rock. Each Copeland album had its own unique mood. Today's song, " Coffee ," comes from  Beneath Medicine Tree,  which is the most immature of the Copeland albums. Lyricist and singer  Aaron Marsh  was fine-tuning his craft at writing sappy love songs, and this album's lyrics tended to be a little too over the top. The song " Coffee " appears as track 9, with a story as cliche as they get--two small-town kids falling in love while talking all night at the diner. The brief brush drum solo toward the end s