NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

As the music industry changes, many vestiges from when pop music was based on radio mono-culture don’t make sense anymore. Still, every pop critic feels the need to discuss “The Song of the Summer,” a made-up title given to often a high-energy pop song that usually peaks in popularity during the summer months. Billboard started tracking the song of the summer from 2010, naming Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg ’s “ California Gurls ” for that year and retroactively dubbing a hit from each proceeding year until 1985. Later, they went back to 1975 and even listed the top tens from every summer since the chart's inception in 1958 . YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW MY NAME. “California Gurls” made sense as a song of summer. It was about sex on the beach, girls in bikinis, and all things summer. “ Call Me Maybe ,” “ Despecito ,” and “ Old Town Road ” were all listed as songs of the summer for the year they peaked in popularity. Psy ’s “ Gangnam Style ” wasn’t a contender because it didn’t chart because B

It’s a clear night after a typhoon dumped a lot of water on us a few days ago. It’s been a rainy summer, and the city lights rarely allow for a peak into oblivion. Today, I give you my playlist for those occasions, when the clouds open up and we can look into another world. Most of these songs are not scientific, but rather impressions and mediations on an otherworldly experience. Enjoy!  

There are not many songs that get the promotional treatment that Harry Styles ' " Adore You " received when Columbia Records released the second single from Fine Line   in 2019. Before the single was released, a Twitter page title "@visitedora" appeared.  Then a website for the fictional tourist island appeared, though it wasn't advertised as a fictional location. There was no place to book a ticket and Google Maps wasn't able to find the location.  WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT? Harry Styles released a trailer for "Adore You" on December 2, 2019 and then dropped the single and music video on December 6. In the music video, Styles treats viewers to a storytelling video about a boy (played by Styles) who is rejected by the residents of the small island, Edora. The boy befriends a magical fish, saving the fish from a fish market. Along the way, the "Adore You" music video introduces viewers to a number of colorful characters who live on the g

Last year, Harry Styles released his third album, Harry's House . Last month, I talked about the former One Direction 's second album, his musical dark horse Fine Line . I've listened to this album a lot--or at least started listening to it a lot--in hopes that it will make me fall in love with it similar to how I fell in love with Fine Line. While I have started to pick up on the musical nuance in this record, I still think that Fine Line is superior. But here's a house for the tracks that I talk about on this record. I’ll furnish the house with more information as it is later!   1. " Music for a Sushi Restaurant " kicks the album off in the best way possible. I've heard so many music snobs slam this song as a soundtrack to shopping at Target , and that's partially true. It's "music for whatever you want." The somewhat shallow lyrics about the speaker's oral fixations set a tone for the album's lyrical depth. Things don't g

Pop is having an incredible year. Starting out with Sam Smith 's genre- (and gender) blending Gloria to this month's yacht-rock inspired The Album by Jonas Brothers , what I once would consider guilty pleasures I would argue now rival the musical staples of my hipster past. The year isn't even half over, and I still haven't digested many of the albums that have come out. But if the two singles, " Heaven " and " Meltdown ," Niall Horan  released before his rumored June release of The Show  have any bearing on the upcoming album, I'll be adding this to my list of albums that completely blindsided me with awesomeness.  WHEN IT ALL MELTS DOWN, I'LL BE THERE. These days, I've been listening to Spotify's curated playlists at work. "Meltdown" is a song that has been added to several of the new hits playlists, so I started hearing it quite often. I thought the song was catchy, but it initially got lost with the other tons of songs

  Somewhere between cleaning up at the  2015 Grammy Awards  for  In the Lonely Hour   and 2020's  Love Goes ,  Sam Smith 's music lost momentum with listeners. Of course, a lot has happened to the singer since then. In 2015, Smith was an openly gay Grammy-winning artist. In 2019, the singer came out as non-binary, telling the  BBC , "I do think like a woman sometimes, in my head. Sometimes I've questioned, 'Do I want a sex change?'" Since coming out as non-binary, the singer has embraced both the masculine and the feminine in their videos, concerts, and album promotions. But not only did the singer's sexuality evolve, but also their musical versatility, from a gospel-inspired second record ( The Thrill of It All ), a Bond theme (" Writing's on the Wall "), featured in a  Calvin Harris  track (" Promises "), a dance-pop record in 2020--nothing seemed beyond the scope of the singer, though never they quite matching the success of 

The last week I've been sick. The doctor says it's just allergies and put me on a ton of meds that have me really sleepy. It feels like a cold, but I've been powering through my hell schedule. So today, I decided to make a playlist of songs that I want to listen to when I'm sick. It's an on-going playlist and it also eats up a post as I'm adjusting my algorithm (a Google Sheets document I use for determining the song of the day). Please enjoy!

  Harry's House ,  the third full length record from   Harry Styles , was one of the most anticipated records of the year, and it dropped late last month. In an   interview   with   Zane Lowe , Styles talked about how the writing process for his third record was a continuation from his writing process for   Fine Line.   Styles' former record had been a surprising take on psychedelic pop akin to the '60s and '70s, and listeners and critics wondered what he would offer on his third record. It turns out that, so far,   Harry's House  holds a high  Meta-critic rating   than either his   self-titled debut   or   Fine Line   with a score of 83%. LEAVE AMERICA, TWO KIDS FOLLOW HER.  The similarity between  Fine Line  and  Harry's House ,  though, can't be pointed out from the lead single, " As It Was ," alone, though. Many critics have pointed out the similarity between "As It Was" and  A-Ha 's " Take On Me "; often with the argume

Melissa Viviane Jefferson, better known by her stage name, Lizzo , released her disco-infused fourth LP this year titled Special . The album was a smash hit, debuting at number two on Billboard 's top 200, and the album's lead single, " About Damn Time ," topping the single's charts for two weeks. Lizzo began her career performing and recording Hip-Hop independently in the Minneapolis scene. In 2016, she released a major-label debut EP, titled Coconut Oil and a 2019 LP Cuz I Love You . But it was her 2016 hit, " Truth Hurts " that took the singer to the top of the charts for the first time.  I BEEN SO DOWN AND UNDER PRESSURE. With the Apple Music version of Special, Lizzo recorded a message for her fans, a voice track titled " A Very Special Message from Lizzo ." In this 99-second track, Lizzo explains why she hasn't released an album since 2019. The singer certainly wasn't  cutting corners, as she wrote hundreds of songs over the span

I've written a lot about Harry Styles since I discovered his talent on " Sunflower, Vol. 6 " last August. Whereas Fine Line was kind of a sleeper hit record for me I was expecting a lot from Harry's House . In some ways, the record met my expectations, creating an old-time vibe that borrows from obscure Japanese jazz records and seventies singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell who even wrote a song titled " Harry's House / Centerpiece " on her 1975 record The Hissing of Summer Lawns .  In other ways, the record feels a bit haphazard, blending the '80s sound of " As It Was " with '70s folk and disco. There's certainly a mood of the record, but it's not always the mood I'm in. THERE'S A HAZE ON THE HORIZON, BABE. . Take for example the second track and second single " Late Night Talking ." On the album, " Music for a Sushi Restaurant " sets up a tangy, tasty concoction of sounds. Lyrically, it's &

  Harry Styles ' third record Harry's House  grabs listeners with a funky '70s-Jazz-influenced track, " Music for a Sushi Restaurant ." The avant-garde production, scatting, horns, and minimal (though somewhat complexly layered in meaning) lyrics are simultaneously the most and least pop way to start a record. Harry's House is a record that jumps all over the place stylistically track to track, yet "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" is a bombastic-themed track--horns, '70s-inspired tracks--to an otherwise laidback singer. But the imagery of a girl so hot you could fry an egg on her? What a bizarre way to open an album, and possibly a little unappetizing, but I have been suffering from diarrhea for two days and everything I eat quickly leaves my body.  MUSIC FOR A SUSHI RESTAURANT, MUSIC FOR WHATEVER YOU WANT. Last month, musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding talked about the horn themes on Harry's House on their podcast Switche