NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Fleurie   is just shy of 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter's majority of listeners, though, come from outside the United States from India, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany to be precise. Two years ago I talked about her cover of   Sufjan Steven 's   " To Be Alone with You ," which appears in the   Looking for Alaska   mini-series. While Fleurie has released many covers including a haunting version   Linkin Park 's " In the End " and   Gary Jules ' arrangement of   Tears for Fears ' " Mad World ," the singer also writes original songs and released her fourth LP earlier this year titled   Supertropicali .  CALIFORNIA GIRLS DON'T LOOK LIKE ME.  How to describe Fleurie's latest album,  Supertropicali?  Fleurie describes it on her Spotify page as "a world, an era, a story unfolding, all stitched together in '90s nostalgia, romance, youthful hope, and belonging." Taking inspirati

Last year, it seemed that Billboard’s Hot 100 was gridlocked by legacy acts. Besides K-pop groups, two artists were able to break through last year: David Kushner and Noah Kahan , folksy singer-songwriters known for their hits “ Stick Season ” and “ Daylight .” Pop critics were divided on the singer-songwriter trends. The New York Times Popcast critics complained about the monotony of “Daylight,” especially considering the Indie Pop and Alternative acts on the fringes of the Hot 100. YouTuber Rick Beato , however, praised the “Stick Season,” saying something to the effect that these songs were making music “sound like music again” when he counted them down on one of his countdowns of the most popular song countdowns. A few months later, rock guitars seem to be making a comeback on the pop charts.  BUT I THANK GOD EVERY DAY FOR THE GIRL HE SENT MY WAY. Noah Kahan’s music out-charted David Kushner’s on the Hot 100. Their breakthrough success certainly wasn’t out of nowhere with the ma

  Listening to  Paper Route  makes me wonder, what if  Coldplay , after recording  X & Y   had continued making electronic music and honed in on their lyrics.  Paper Route has a solid pop-rock band, on par with any of their contemporaries (i.e.  OneRepublic , Coldplay), but their somewhat eccentric fidelity to their craft, recording their albums themselves in old Tennessee mansions to let the natural acoustics reverberate on the record, had cemented them as an indie rock band. " Balconies " was kind of Paper Route's first and last hit. The band's music had been featured in movies and television shows, but "Balconies" got them a late-night performance slot on  Seth Meyers . As one of the most obvious hits from their third album,  Real Emotion ,  the song was released to radio but didn't do too well on the charts. After touring to support the album, the band went on "an indefinite hiatus." However, as the band has had long gaps between albums

Earlier this month Pvris released their anticipated fourth record, Evergreen . Starting with their 2019 release of the EP  Hallucinations , Pvris began a departure from hard rock into Alternative dark pop. This departure was partly due to producer JT Daly encouraging the band to experiment with pop hooks. The band's 2020 release Use Me was an even greater realization of the vision set forth on  Hallucinations ; none of the songs were straight rock songs with perhaps the exception of " Dead Weight ."   PRAY FOR BETTER TIMES. Between Evergreen and Use Me, Pvris shifted from being a band to a one-woman moniker, or as cleverly stated in the song  " GODDESS , " not a woman or a man but a "motherfucking brand," with only Lynn Gunn remaining on the band's roster. Over the years, band members dropped off, with guitarist Alex Babinsky forced out after allegations of sexual misconduct just prior to the release of Use Me. As of earlier this year, bassist

I have many fond memories of my first Cornerstone in 2007, seeing a lot of the bands that I loved for the first and only time. There was a lot of effort to see as much as possible--looking at the pamphlets mailed when you purchased your tickets, trying to synchronize them with friends, and inevitably being unable to see everyone you wanted to see because of scheduling conflicts. But there was one stage that took the least effort--The Gallery.  SCATTERED IN AMERICAN CROWDS.  In the back of The Gallery stage was the coffee shop, or I should say the coffee canteen. Depending on the year, it was hot and dusty or wet and buggy, but cheap refills if you bought that year's mug early in the festival before it sold out and the music in the mornings just quiet enough to have a conversation made the stage my favorite. The evenings got a little crowded with some of the mellower hippy crowd or sometimes a CCM band that wasn't quite big enough for the main stage. But in the morning, crowds w

Fleurie is just shy of 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter's majority of listeners, though, come from outside the United States from India, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany to be precise. Last year I talked about about her cover of Sufjan Steven 's   " To Be Alone with You ," which appears in the Looking for Alaska mini-series. While Fleurie has released many covers including a haunting version Linkin Park 's " In the End " and Gary Jules ' arrangement of Tears for Fears ' " Mad World ," the singer also writes original songs and released her fourth LP earlier this year titled Supertropicali .  CALIFORNIA GIRLS DON'T LOOK LIKE ME. How to describe Fleurie's latest album, Supertropicali? Fleurie describes it on her Spotify page as "a world, an era, a story unfolding, all stitched together in '90s nostalgia, romance, youthful hope, and belonging." Taking inspiration from Mary Popp

  This fall was when I got into folklore . Is this winter the one that I get into evermore ? Today, I made the jump into the record again after more cursory listens in 2020. I have a few thoughts from this afternoon's listen, but remember that I am by no means a Taylor Swift export the president of a local chapter of her fan club. I am merely offering my opinions on some damn good music. I'm hoping to have some deeper insights next year when I will probably dig deeper into this record.  THE WARMEST BED I'VE EVER KNOWN. A initial thought from when I listened to evermore,   I found that the record was even less cohesive than folklore. In my time with folklore, I began to realize that there was a cohesion to it, and I think the same is true with evermore. The next thing I noticed is that many of the tracks felt like b-sides to folklore, although the record was written and produced quickly after releasing folklore.   I first listened to evermore with my AirPods Pro when they w

  J.T. Daly , lead singer of  Paper Route , has stayed busy in the music business during Paper Route and after the band ended. In addition to releasing solo records and several side projects, he has composed for an ESPN film, produced several alternative musicians including K.Flay and Pvris , remixed Anberlin , Judah the Lion , MuteMath ,  and Switchfoot , and worked in visual arts, making band merchandise, phone cases, and even directing music videos for other bands. Of course, Daly isn’t the only creative force in Paper Route. Along with Chad Howat and for their third and on their final record,  Real Emotion , with Nick Aranda , Paper Route is a seriously creative band. YOU PROMISED ME THAT EVERYTHING IS FAIR IF IT'S LOVE AND WAR.    Like yesterday’s song, the imagery in “ Chariots ” brings my mind to old movies like  Spartacus   or  Ben-Hur .  On other songs on  Real Emotion  there seems to be a classic film theme, notably in the song “ Zhivago ” and its intro “ Lara .” “Chari

Listening to  Paper Route  makes me wonder, what if  Coldplay , after recording  X & Y   had continued making electronic music and honed in on their lyrics.  Paper Route has a solid pop-rock band, on par with any of their contemporaries (i.e.  OneRepublic , Coldplay), but their somewhat eccentric fidelity to their craft, recording their albums themselves in old Tennessee mansions to let the natural acoustics reverberate on the record, had cemented them as an indie rock band. " Balconies " was kind of Paper Route's first and last hit. The band's music had been featured in movies and television shows, but "Balconies" got them a late-night performance slot on  Seth Meyers . As one of the most obvious hits from their third album,  Real Emotion ,  the song was released to radio but didn't do too well on the charts. After touring to support the album, the band went on "an indefinite hiatus." However, as the band has had long gaps between albums,

There's always a certain level of trust an artist has to have in a producer. Pvris had worked with one producer, Blake Harnage , on their first two albums and EPs. But after recording with Paper Route 's JT Daly , the band decided to finish their third album, Use Me , with him. The result was a hookier, poppier, vibier version of the group. This met with some backlash with some of the fans of the band's older material; however, lead singer Lynn Gunn told Alternative Press , "We've always been kind of a pop act." The first single from the Hallucinations EP " Death of Me " helped to bridge the old sound to their second single "Hallucinations," which sees the band flirting with EDM production, yet in the haze and psychedelia, it's still clearly rock. MY MIND IS RUNNING WILD.  Gunn had had a songwriting session with Marshmello and Amy Allen, but she didn't think anything from that session fit her band. JT Daly told Gunn, "Serio

Paper Route signed to Universal Motown before releasing their debut LP, Absence , following their Are We All Forgotten EP. Only the title track of the EP appeared on Absence, as the band stepped further away from their Americana roots and more into the realm of retro-synth pop. Bassist/keyboardist  Chad Howat recorded the album. The band played multiple instruments, recorded in an old mansion near Nashville. I remember reading something about how the album was intend to be rerecorded but the band and the label preferred the originals, but I can't find an article about that. Absence was the debut of Paper Route as a band, complete with a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and a ton of synthesizers. Paper Route, though, would become a revolving door of drummers and guitarists. Only singer and multi-instrumentalist JT Daly and bassist/keyboardist Chad Howat would stay for the entire duration of the band's career. I WISH YOU WOULD LISTEN, TO GET THROUGH IT . Paper Route's early wo