NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Today, we're listening to Tension by Anchor & Braille . Years ago, I wanted to hear Stephen Christian as a pop singer. I heard his vocal potential in the middle of Anberlin 's hardest rock. There were glimpses even on songs like " The Feel Good Drag ," showing that Christian wasn't just a baritone grunge singer. When Christian first released music under Anchor & Braille, the music was more acoustic indie on Felt , but started to gravitate to pop music. Anberlin, too, also released poppier music on albums like Vital . But 2016 saw Anchor & Braille releasing an electronic pop record in the vein of M83 and Washed Out  on Songs for the Late Night Drive Home .  1. " No Ordinary ."  Anchor & Braille's fourth record, Tension, continues Stephen Christian in the pop vein. The album's opener is a beautiful '80s/'90s-styled love song about not being able to sleep so enamored by the person that you love. 2. " Black Sea "

With fans’ hearts freshly broken from the whirlwind year of 2014– when  Anberlin  announced their disbandment,  final album , and last world tour—lead singer  Stephen Christian  certainly wasn't walking away from music. First settling down in Nashville, he began exclusively writing songs for other artists. But in mid-2015 he released two  Anchor & Braille  tracks, " Detroit Stab " and " Fatal Flaw ." In February of 2016, Anchor & Braille released  Songs for the Late Night Drive Home , the third full-length project with the lead single, " Watch You Burn " and a lyric video proceeding the album's release. I WANNA WATCH YOU CATCH FIRE.  In interviews Stephen Christian has stated that Anchor & Braille projects usually reflect the style of music he's currently listening to. For the third installment, Christian talks about listening to  Washed Out  and  M83 , which can be heard in the chill, "late-night" synth sounds of the albu

In early 2012 when  Anberlin  announced that they would be returning with an album produced by  Aaron Sprinkle , longtime fans knew that they were in for a good record. While their prior major label releases had stretched the band and had proven how versatile their sound was, the band had not produced an album that matched the lyrical and musical depth of their fan- favorite,   Cities . 2012's   Vital   took Anberlin to both familiar territory and reinvented their sound.   I CAN FINALLY FORGET A PAST YOU SAY YOU NEVER KNEW.  Vital  is a heavier album than their previous two. But, up to that point, the band did very little with electronic music.   Vital,  however, opened to the electro-heavy " Self-Starter ," complete with an autotune chorus, somewhat reminiscent of   Avenged Sevenfold 's " Lost ." In fact, many of the the tracks incorporated electronic elements. The band admits to consuming a lot of   M83   at that time.  Critics and fans both loved  Vital .

  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 listening to the 2011 M83 record Hurry Up We're Dreaming several times the last few days, I started to think about how each of the songs on the record seem to illustrate scary images in a way that makes the listener feel in control of those scary things. Take for example today's song, " Midnight City. " The central image of the song is a car the speaker is waiting for in the middle of the night. The feeling of a dream can make this mysterious car a positive thing. But we all know that a dream can change in an instant, and that car could belong to a serial killer. Fortunately, M83 keeps the entire album on the positive side of mysterious. So, I wanted to curate a playlist about dreams, mostly positive and mysterious dreams. Enjoy!

With fans’ hearts freshly broken from the whirlwind year of 2014– when Anberlin announced their disbandment,  final album , and last world tour—lead singer Stephen Christian certainly wasn't walking away from music. First settling down in Nashville, he began exclusively writing songs for other artists. But in mid-2015 he released two Anchor & Braille tracks, " Detroit Stab " and " Fatal Flaw ." In February of 2016, Anchor & Braille released Songs for the Late Night Drive Home , the third full-length project with the lead single, " Watch You Burn " and a lyric video proceeding the album's release. I WANNA WATCH YOU CATCH FIRE. In interviews Stephen Christian has stated that Anchor & Braille projects usually reflect the style of music he's currently listening to. For the third installment, Christian talks about listening to Washed Out and M83 , which can be heard in the chill, "late-night" synth sounds of the album. Work

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming contain's M83 's biggest hit, " Midnight City ." Everything on Hurry Up, is calculated to give listeners, including M83's sole member Anthony Gonzalez, the maximum amount of nostalgia. After a song-length, mood-setting intro, "Midnight City" builds on a riff for three minutes before climaxing in a saxophone solo, unheard in most music since 1988.* Track three, "Reunion," builds on layers of guitars and harmonies by one singer. This guitar-based M83 is a bit rare in their catalogue, as most of M83 is programing in synthesizers with touches of guitar here and there. But a guitar-based track is no-less nostalgic. It's that '80s chord progression heard in New Wave rockers and glam hair metal that sounded so cool to a young Gonzalez, listening to music in his bedroom growing up that bleeds into this song. The lyrics beg for a reunion with a loved one who has gone away.  A NEVER-ENDING DANCE. For today's post

Earlier this year, I talked about Carly Rae Jepsen 's E-MO-TION   as an album I could listen to without skipping a track, which is quite a feat for a 12-track regular edition, 15-track deluxe edition. However, when I first started listening to the album, I couldn't stand one track. A lot of listeners really, really, really couldn't stand the lead single, " I Really Like You " but I found the track enduring and quite in-line with the singer's debut single, " Call Me Maybe ." Tracks in the middle of Jepsen's third record changed things up with maximalist '80s nostalgia: funky bass-lines, larger-than-life drums, and synths to fill in the atmosphere surrounding Jepsen's crisp vocals. SO TIRED OF HEARIN' ALL YOUR BOY PROBLEMS . Enlisting a slew of Swedish songwriters and producers; listening to Robyn , Cyndi Lauper , Prince , and Kylie Minogue for inspiration; and collaborating with the HAIM sisters, Sia , her band, and long-term collabo

Born in Oregon in 1907, Claudia Louise Lewis was a school teacher and children's author. However, if you try to find information about her online, you'll be flooded with information about M83's 2011 song from Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, an album I talked about a few months ago when I picked their masterpiece, " Midnight City ." Anthony Gonzalez, M83's only official member, says he came across a couple of Lewis's space poems, which he said were "pretty bad" but "super moving." He guessed that she was "super young[,] like 12 or 14." Gonzalez is off by about 90 years, as I was preparing a class about Lewis' poem "Blue," I thought about what it must have been like to experience the rapid technological breakthroughs of the twentieth century first-hand. If M83 is all about nostalgia, let's go all the way back and imagine seeing the world through Claudia Lewis' eyes. ALONE 20 MILLION YEARS FROM MY PLACE. Claud

" Midnight City " is perhaps the only song that most listeners know of French musician Anthony Gonzalez 's project, M83. Originally a duo with Nicolas Fromageau , producing shoegazer electronica, Gonzalez took over the group and Fromageau went on to form the band Team Ghost after M83 's sophomore record, Dead Cities, Red Cities & Lost Ghosts . M83's best known record is Hurry Up, We're Dreaming for it's roots in '80s nostalgia, hitting 2011 right when older and middle-aged millennials were missing their childhoods. Over the course of Gonzalez's tenure, M83 albums hit and miss. Hurry Up was definitely a hit. I also hope to devote some time this year to Saturdays= Youth , which is arguably the act's best record. But today's song comes from an album made with the synth from Thriller and the drum machine from "I Wanna Dance with Somebody." WAITING IN THE CAR. Los Angelos is the " Midnight City " Gonzalez is referring to