NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Today, we’re going to explore 21st-century singer-songwriters. Beyond the Taylor Swift s, Ed Sheeran s, and Phoebe Bridgers and my favorites like Tyson Motsenbocker and Sasha Alex Sloan , I also include some up-incomers I’ve found more recently but haven’t delved into their music as much. For example, LA-based artist Rosie Darling released her debut full-length album, Lanterns , last year. Her debut EP, 2021’s Coping , and its follow-up 2022’s Golden Age were more indie pop than Lanterns uses more acoustic guitars. I’m not considering either style for my playlist as more worthy of the title of singer-songwriter , though the acoustic guitar does seem to satisfy the stereotype better. I hope you enjoy the playlist and discover some new music.

Berlin 's 1986 light-rock hit " Take My Breath Away " in its somewhat cheesy ascending scaled-note chorus speaks to the common human experience of falling in love with someone. The old aphorism, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," speaks to the times when life surprises us so much that if the shock of the good surprise were to kill us, we would have died happy. In other words, I may feel "so happy that I could die." These moments are breathtaking, like seeing a Van Gogh in person, seeing  a beautiful woman, or experiencing a new life.   Perhaps this is what  The Weeknd  intended for his lead single from  Dawn FM ,  " Take My Breath ," but in typical  Weeknd  fashion, the video and the lyrics hint at a darker side of those breathtaking moments. YOU'RE OFFERING YOURSELF TO ME LIKE SACRIFICE.  Since   Beauty Behind the Madness   brought The Weeknd to the forefront of popular

Formed in 1994 first as Shrug and then as Polarbear but finally changing their name to  Snow Patrol  due to other bands by their former names, the Northern Irish band became very popular in the early '00s. Their first single " Run " was a hit in the UK. But in America, the band would become famous because of their song " Chasing Cars " when it was included in the  season 2 finale of  Grey's Anatomy .  " Chasing Cars" is the song most people know by Snow Patrol, and most wouldn't be able to associate the name with their hit song. The band continues to produce music, most recently releasing 2018's  Wildness .    TRAIN THIS CHAOS, TURN IT INTO LIGHT . If you've had time to get into Taylor's Version of  Red ,  you may have noticed a feature by Snow Patrol's  Gary Lightbody . Once the Indie Rock band became recognized, the band members started working on pop music, and Lightbody writing for  Taylor Swift  and  Ed Sheeran . The Snow P

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

Berlin 's 1986 light-rock hit " Take My Breath Away " in its somewhat cheesy ascending scaled-note chorus speaks to the common human experience of falling in love with someone. The old aphorism, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," speaks to the times when life surprises us so much that if the shock of the good surprise were to kill us, we would have died happy. In other words, I may feel "so happy that I could die." These moments are breathtaking, like seeing a Van Gogh in person, seeing  a beautiful woman, or experiencing a new life.   Perhaps this is what  The Weeknd  intended for his lead single from Dawn FM ,  " Take My Breath ," but in typical  Weeknd  fashion, the video and the lyrics hint at a darker side of those breathtaking moments. YOU'RE OFFERING YOURSELF TO ME LIKE SACRIFICE.  Since   Beauty Behind the Madness   brought The Weeknd to the forefront of popular m

If you make a list of the most iconic singer-songwriters, the list would include all of  Ed Sheeran 's influences. In fact, many would have had no problem putting Ed Sheeran on that list, if it weren't for his huge mainstream pop hit " Shape of You ." If it weren't for the 2017 song, Ed Sheeran would still have been a driving force in the music industry, penning verses for pop artists and singing semi-acoustic ballads and rapping a few bars here and there. Some listeners are still scarred from the repetitive chorus with its contrived masculine rhyme, so much so that they would prefer not to hear the song's follow up. It's unfortunate enough that I couldn't take songs like " Perfect " or " Castle on the Hill " seriously. And when Ed Sheeran announced that he was back in June of last year, I was less than thrilled. But in September, thanks to musical algorithms, AppleMusic played " Shivers " when playing similar songs to  Ja

  I was wrong about twenty one pilots , and the reason I'm willing to admit that is after I spent time with their album released last year, Scaled and Icy , I realized that this duo was much more than who I thought they were.   Mostly gone--but not entirely--are the emo rapping and trap beats that turned me off of the group when they debuted. The lyrics on Scaled and Icy, though, are emotional, and singer Tyler Joseph masterfully weaves clichés, esoteric messages for fans, current lingo, and new turns of phrase all to a funky piano/guitar groove. Scaled and Icy is in the vein of Paramore 's After Laughter , on the surface it's fun and light-hearted, but when you spend a little time with the lyrics, you're bound to discover a surprising depth. THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. I was thinking about albums of the year and how last year I didn't seem to have one. In 2019 I was obsessed with Mike Mains & the Branches ' When We Were in Love . And although I di

  It's officially spooky season, so I decided to make a playlist celebrating the spookier songs I've blogged about or artists that had a spooky song. The 31 tracks that I included perhaps won't make you writhe in horror, but they have a loose connection to Halloween. Maybe there's a lyrics or a creepy video, or maybe it was just a song that I listened to a lot in October. I will post the Spotify playlist below and links to the posts and the tracks so that you can read the spooky stories behind the tracks.  1.       " Ghost " by Yellow Ostrich 2. " Closer " by Kings of Leon 3. " Unholy " by Sam Smith ft. Kim Petras 4. " I'm Pretty Sure I'm Out of Luck and Have No Friends " by Underoath 5. " Two Graves " by Anberlin 6. " Moonlit " by Falling Up 7. " Panic Switch " by Silversun Pickups 8. " Killer " by Chvrches   9. " Midnight City " by M83 10 " Edge of Seventeen "

  After a hugely successful album cycle with X , Ed Sheeran began writing his follow up. On X, many of Sheeran's lyrics focused on the lifestyle a pop star falls into when he comes to fame. Personal songs about life on the road, drugs and alcohol, and relationships and flings with other stars were mostly absent on the singer's story-centric first record + . As far as relationships, X offers us an insight into his long-distance relationship with Nina Nesbitt in " Photograph " and heartbreak with who is rumored to be Ellie Goulding in " Don't ." Then there was the ballad " Thinking Out Loud ," a song about his girlfriend at the time, Athina Andrelos. The song shows a Sheeran thinking about the days after his youthful fame and the person he would share that post-fame world with. WE WERE JUST KIDS WHEN WE FELL IN LOVE. But when Ed Sheeran found love, it wasn't with a movie star or a fellow singer-songwriter. The first track that Sheeran wrot

  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

If you make a list of the most iconic singer-songwriters, the list would include all of  Ed Sheeran 's influences. In fact, many would have had no problem putting Ed Sheeran on that list, if it weren't for his huge mainstream pop hit " Shape of You ." If it weren't for the 2017 song, Ed Sheeran would still have been a driving force in the music industry, penning verses for pop artists and singing semi-acoustic ballads and rapping a few bars here and there. Some listeners are still scarred from the repetitive chorus with its contrived masculine rhyme, so much so that they would prefer not to hear the song's follow up. It's unfortunate enough that I couldn't take songs like " Perfect " or " Castle on the Hill " seriously. And when Ed Sheeran announced that he was back in June of last year, I was less than thrilled. But in September, thanks to musical algorithms, AppleMusic played " Shivers " when playing similar songs to  Ja