NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Back in 2010, we learned that yes, a pickle can get more likes than  Nickelback , a band that had become the most hated  "butt rock"  band in the mid-'00s. In fact, the conclusions of the social media study found that a pickle had more likes than Oprah Winfrey or other beloved figures. It turns out that internet users' hate outweighs Internet love, or the terrible outweighs the good. In 2014, the most hated rock band would become  U2  after their release of  Songs of Innocence   was forced into every  iTunes user's library. People tried everything to scrub the songs from their shuffle. Today, people have mostly forgotten about Nickelback, and Apple Music no longer comes standard with that U2 album, so people have other musical axes to grind. Justin Bieber has grown up and is no longer blaring in our cultural continuousness. So who is the most hated band these days? After the 2019 Super Bowl,   Maroon 5 , for taking to the stage when the NFL was in the middle of ra

Today, I'm going to present an evolving list. Last year, I chose an album of the year. In 2021, it was difficult because so much music was re-releases and nothing seemed dynamic enough to be album of the year. I finally settled on Scaled and Icy by twenty one pilots, but I actually didn't listen to it much in 2021. It seemed that 2021 was a year for good music outside of my immediate band preferences. Like many music listeners, my tastes are evolving, and I'm continuing to discover or just listen to older albums, which may change today's list. However, I'm going to try to present a list of the best albums from every year that I have been alive. I get this rank based on how much I've listened to the album, rather than by critical reception. Enjoy! 1987 The Joshua Tree by U2 . This was arguably when U2 became a cultural phenomenon. The first four tracks are the biggest hits from the record. The band always tackled issues of faith and doubt, but The Joshua Tree

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. And as I enter the fifth year of my playlists and the third year of the blog, there are certain perennial favorites that show up maybe too often for some. I chose “ Run Away with Me ” at the beginning of the year for four of those years because of the fresh renewal this song gives me as my winter vacation begins. 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 &

An understated track on Carly Rae Jepsen 's seminal record E-MO-TION , " Let's Get Lost " comes to life in Jepsen's concerts. While most solo artists work with a revolving set of musicians, Jepsen's core band has stayed fairly consistent, with guitarist and fellow songwriter Tavish Crowe , drummer Nik Pesut , and keyboardist Jarod Manierka remaining in her band since 2010 and bassist Adam Siska staying in the band for ten years until 2020.  I WAS NEVER ONE TO PUT MY TRUST IN SOMEONE ELSE COMPLETELY. In June when I was writing about Carly Rae Jepsen as the foundation of my Pride playlist , I listened to the B-Side Chicks podcast that described one of her concerts. Before going to the concert, he wondered who would be attending a Carly Rae Jepsen concert. Would it be tweens? The mostly clean bubblegum lyrics of the " Call Me Maybe " singer could warrant a younger audience. Instead, the podcaster discovers a venue filled with incredibly "hot d

In 2019, Carly Rae Jepsen released her fourth studio record, Dedicated . But the fifteen songs that made it onto the standard edition of the album were nowhere near the amount of songs the surprisingly prolific songwriter wrote for the album. Jepsen revealed that she wrote over 200 songs during the two album cycles of E-M0-TION   and Dedicated. In an interview with Vox , Jepsen said that she turns to her friends and family with whom she has listening parties where she "feeds them and gives them copious amounts of wine so that they have opinions about the music." While many of these songs will never be released, in the tradition Jepsen set with E-MO-TION, she released a B-sides record for Dedicated, titled Dedicated Side B.   HE WAS BORN IN VEGAS. Years ago, I was impressed when I heard that a band wrote 70, 100, 200, etc. songs for a record. Years later, through listening to more and more interviews, I found out that the myth was debunked. Several bands have said that they h

  After her major breakthrough hit, " Lights " in 2010, Ellie Goulding became an international star. The UK singer has had a slew of hits following "Lights." In her two singles with Calvin Harris , " I Need Your Love " and " Outside ," Goulding shows her radiance, singing bright EDM. While "Lights" remains her biggest Hot 100 hit, Goulding's second biggest song was released prior to her third record Delirium . While that song appears as track 9 on the eclectic record, it was the film Fifty Shades of Grey that " Love Me Like You Do " is associated with, not Delirium.  WAIT, I COULD HAVE REALLY LIKED YOU.  In 2015, I thought Delirium was a great record, on par with Carly Rae Jepsen 's Emotion . But   in the years since its release, I certainly haven't revisited Delirium as much as Emotion. Both records are long, but Emotion seems more cohesive and in retrospect. Delirium feels long listening to it in 2022. From th

  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