NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Closing 2019's heart-wrenching  When We Were in Love ,  " Swamp " perhaps sums up   Mike Mains & the Branches ' third album in a single song: love, depression, and religion. Like the songs " Breathing Underwater " and " Around the Corner ,"    Mike Mains   gave an intimate insight into his writing process on   Labeled . Mains talked about earlier   Tooth & Nail   releases from   mewithoutYou   and   As Cities Burn ,     which helped to inspire him to write darker Christian songs and push the genre of Christian Rock lyrically to open an honest conversation about mental health, depression, and questioning one's faith. YOU HAD ME AT MERLOT.  "Swamp" is the conclusion and the title-bearer of the album.  Mike Mains  asks his wife, bandmate  Shannon Briggs Bolanowski -Mains, "Do you remember when we were in love?" On the  Labeled  podcast interview, Mains talks about "Swamp" being about a fear that his wife were

In December 2022, I opened up my Instagram one morning as I often did after my 5 a.m. alarm. There was a post from mikemainsmusic, who hadn’t been very active on social media. Mike Mains and the Branches hadn’t released an album since 2019 and had only released a few singles between 2020 and 2021. In the post, Mike Mains wrote about his suicide attempt in 2021. He wrote: “1 year ago today I attempted to take my life. I am here because of my wife Shannon.” He went on to say that we wrote the post “to encourage those who’ve danced with this dark devil.” After his suicide attempt, he wrote that he “bought a one way ticket to the desert to get help.” DARLING, MY HEART IS FULL OF REGRET. After talking about his suicide attempt, Mike Mains told fans that he and the Branches would return with new music in 2023 and tour dates. Mains also talked about how his sobriety contributed to his mental healing after his suicide attempt with the Bringin’ It Backwards Podcast In June, Mains released

In 1996, Welsh singer-songwriter  Donna Lewis  released her debut single " I Love You Always Forever ." The understated, delicate pop song became an international hit. In the United State, it hit number 2 on the  Billboard Hot 100 , unable to take the top spot because of multiple versions of that counted as Los Del Rio 's version of  " Macarena ," the dance track that plagued '96. Lewis never matched the success of her debut single. SECRET MOMENTS SHUT IN THE HEAT OF THE AFTERNOON. Donna Lewis wrote the song "I Love You Always Forever" basing it on a 1953 novel, Love for Lydia by Herbert Ernest Bates. The lines from the chorus "I love you always forever, near and far closer together" appear in the novel, and Lewis' original title for the song was "Lydia." While Lewis had a few other minor hits, such as "At the Beginning," a duet with Richard Marx on the 1997 song for the Anastasia original soundtrack, "I Lov

  Closing 2019's heart-wrenching  When We Were in Love ,  " Swamp " perhaps sums up   Mike Mains & the Branches ' third album in a single song: love, depression, and religion. Like the songs " Breathing Underwater " and " Around the Corner ,"    Mike Mains   gave an intimate insight into his writing process on   Labeled . Mains talked about earlier   Tooth & Nail   releases from   mewithoutYou   and   As Cities Burn ,     which helped to inspire him to write darker Christian songs and push the genre of Christian Rock lyrically to open an honest conversation about mental health, depression, and questioning one's faith. YOU HAD ME AT MERLOT.  "Swamp" is the conclusion and the title-bearer of the album. Mike Mains asks his wife, bandmate Shannon Briggs Bolanowski -Mains, "Do you remember when we were in love?" On the  Labeled  podcast interview, Mains talks about "Swamp" being about a fear that his wife were

  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

In 1996, Welsh singer-songwriter Donna Lewis released her debut single " I Love You Always Forever ." The understated, delicate pop song became an international hit. In the United State, it hit number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 , unable to take the top spot because of multiple versions of that counted as Los Del Rio 's version of  " Macarena ," the dance track that plagued '96. Lewis never matched the success of her debut single. SECRET MOMENTS SHUT IN THE HEAT OF THE AFTERNOON. Today’s version of “ I Love You Always Forever ” is performed by Australian pop star Betty Who , but I also recommend Mike Mains & the Branches version as well. Mike Mains & the Branches released their cover last year and is their most recent single. After an emotionally taxing record, When We Were in Love in 2019, "I Love You Always Forever" is a nice check in with the couple whose marriage was tested by events mentioned in the record. Betty Who's version w

Closing 2019's heart-wrenching  When We Were in Love , " Swamp " perhaps sums up Mike Mains & the Branches ' third album in a single song: love, depression, and religion. Like the songs " Breathing Underwater " and " Around the Corner ," Mike Mains gave an intimate insight into his writing process on Labeled . Mains talked about earlier Tooth & Nail releases from mewithoutYou and As Cities Burn which helped to inspirer him to write darker Christian songs and push the genre of Christian Rock lyrically in order to open an honest conversation about mental health, depression, and questioning one's faith. YOU HAD ME AT MERLOT. "Swamp" is the conclusion and the title-bearer of the album. Mike asks his wife, bandmate Shannon Briggs Bolanowski-Mains, "Do you remember when we were in love?" On the Labeled podcast interview, Mains talks about "Swamp" being about a fear that his wife were to leave him. Mains wrote

When We Were in Love covers a wide range of topics. Most of the songs are love songs in which Mike Mains reminisces about falling in love with his wife and bandmate Shannon Mains. A few of the songs mention God and religion, but mostly in the way that a country song would. However, the most notable tracks on the album deal with Mike Mains' battles with depression and his marital problems. The songs most explicitly dealing with those topics are " Breathing Underwater " and " Swamp ." Today's song, "Around the Corner"thematically matches with "Breathing Underwater" and "Swamp," though it doesn't seem to be an "in the moment account" of a depressive episode. Instead, Mains is reflecting on his experience, and hoping to give hope to his listeners.  WITH HEAVEN’S MANSION OUT OF REACH.  There are two sides to this song. Though I believe that ultimate message is one of hope, Mains doesn't belittle the depressed exper

In 2020, Stephen Christian released his fourth Anchor & Braille album, Tension .  When he released his third A&B project, Songs for the Late Night Drive Home in 2016, many of his fans were still mourning the disbandment of Anberlin . But starting in 2018, Anberlin had started to play one-off shows and even started touring the next year. In 2020, the band was supposed to announce a tour with Memphis May Fire and perform at several festivals. But in lieu of the pandemic, the band started a livestream concert series. While Anberlin was active, Christian released Tension, an album of the most straight-forward pop songs Christian has released to date.  TRY TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF TO A STONE WALL. Last year, I wrote about 13 love songs leading up to Valentine's Day. This year, I'm not sticking to that format, but as Valentine's Day approaches, I thought I'd make a few playlists compiling the love songs I've written about.  1. " Madness " by Anchor &a

On a cold winter's day, in the middle of the stress of house-hunting, I thought I'd make a playlist for those bad days that aren't quite depressing and not quite angry. Today's featured song is " Beth/Rest " by Bon Iver. I resisted putting this song on my Pseudo '80s Playlist  because, despite the soft-rock keys and saxophone, the vocal distortion sounds more of a product of its time than a retro track. Some of the songs on today's list will be a little sad, but something about them gives me strength rather than pushes me further into a despair. As always, I'll put the links for each song. I'm going to stick to tracks I've written about and add to this list as I feel the song is appropriate. First, I'll share my Spotify playlist: 1. "Beth/Rest" by Bon Iver is the representative song of the day.  2. "Tell Me How" by Paramore is a sad song, but the resolve at the end leaves the power in Haley Williams' hands. 3.