NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In August, Anberlin announced that they had “slowly entered the Vega era,” in the song “ Seven ,” one of the two new tracks on the band’s eighth studio album. Vega functioned more as a compilation of two EPs released in the two prior years. On October 18, though, a celebration for Anberlin’s new album seemed to be finished as the band released the post-album single “ High Stakes .” Like “ Walk Alone ” and “Seven,” “High Stakes” featured vocals from Matty Mullins rather than Stephen Christian . Mullins took to social media , explaining the background to Anberlin’s latest single, saying that he was listening to old files for songs that were never recorded. Mullins explains that he came to the band as a fan more than a professional singer and colleague, despite his band Memphis May Fire’s success outside of Anberlin’s clear pop-punk influence. With the three Mullins tracks in Anberlin’s canon, it’s time to start to prepare ourselves for the possibility that Stephen Christian may not r...

Last month was the first month that I didn’t include an Anberlin song since I started my blog. It also happens to be the month the band released their eighth album, Vega . These facts are related, though my exclusion of Anberlin last month was more of a symptom of the underlying problem than a deliberate exclusion. Anberlin is still my favorite, and skipping one month of them still makes them my most blogged-about artist. I’ve talked about the choices they’ve made over the years from the break-up to the reunion to the lockdown livestreams to the new music to the indefinite hiatus of frontman Stephen Christian and the joining of Memphis May Fire ’s frontman Matty Mullins . Now the band has entered their Vega era--a chaotic time that guitarist Christian McAlhaney has said in multiple interviews that the band is “making it up as they go.”  I WANT TO BE THE QUIET IN STORMS I SILVERLINE. On the Church Jams Now! Podcast in 2022, the hosts mostly “flopped” Silverline , the EP that spe...

In August, Anberlin will release their eighth studio album, Vega . This is probably the least I’ve been excited about an Anberlin release, mainly because most fans have heard most of it already. Vega is a compilation album of the band’s last two years work, the two EPs Silverline and Convinced plus two additional songs, the first of which, “ Walk Alone ,” was released as a single last month. This leaves just one more song, “ Seven ,” for fans to yet to hear, but this is only partially true because the band has played the show at their “Farewell to lead singer Stephen Christian ” show last year, and fans can easily find the live version on YouTube.  IF YOU EVER FEEL YOU’VE GONE TOO FAR. Two years ago, Stephen Christian talked with Shane Told on the Lead Singer Syndrome Podcast that he felt unsure about the current music industry, so the band decided to release their album in two parts. He expressed how he felt that he felt that music listeners wanted singles and shorter forms ...

Anberlin has been accused of being a band that listeners can identify by every song. I never thought that this criticism was fair because the band has a range of songs of different tempos and tones.  The band did, however, seem to follow an album formula, particularly in their earlier work. But in  2022, the band decided to release an EP rather than a full album. The five songs on Silverline were a little more experimental for the band than their previous work. The electronic and post-hardcore elements the band developed after their breakup were best exemplified in the singles “ Two Graves ” and “ Circles .” Even with the shock of the new Anberlin sound, I was confused when I heard the lead single from Convinced , the 2023 follow-up to Silverline. Rather than a zippy guitar riff from Joseph Milligan and Stephen Christian ’s clear vocals, “ Lacerate ” starts a little slower than many Anberlin album openers with an ambient synth. SLOW FADE, SLOW FEIGN. The first voice we hea...

  I'm taking a break from writing this week and just delivering playlists. I don't have any parasocial commentary on  NewJeans . I don't know much about this group of teenagers and feel too old to relate to it. Th eir massive 2023 hit " Super Shy " gained critical acclaim around the world and was shortlisted by many critics as a favorite song of the year. I nstead, today, we're looking at the big songs from the last two years and songs that might be big this year.  NewJeans has not yet released a song in 2024. Their output in 2023 was impressive. But I thought I would go back to where it all started in posting my  Spotify edition of  2024+, with their song " Attention . "   The 2022 song fits my requirements for songs released within the past two years.  The Apple Music edition will come later.  I will also reveal my favorite song from last year at the post's end! 1. “ Nothing More ” by Anberlin . I was iffy on the latest Anberlin EP, Convinc...

This Is All I Know is the final album by Number One Gun . The band from Chico, California, became one member-- Jeff Schneeweis —in 2007 on the band’s The North Pole Project . The other members went on to form the band Surrogate and work with other bands such as Emery .  There was a lot of controversy surrounding Number One Gun's last album, related to the late fulfillment of crowd-funding. Some backers for the 2014 album claimed as of 2021 they hadn’t received what they had been promised. After releasing This Is All I Know, Schneeweis declared that Number One Gun finished and started releasing music under the moniker Lael . This Is All I Know is the end of the Christian Rock era. HEAVY IS UPON US. Just as Anberlin had announced their farewell in 2014, several other bands called it quits. In 2017 the band Yellowcard , along with Anberlin drummer Nathan Young, recorded their final album and gave their farewell tour. After Anberlin ended, Stephen Christian was busy first in Nash...