NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Last month , I started listing my top albums of 2023. Today, I’m going to reveal my top two albums of last year. #2 is Miley Cyrus ’s Endless Summer Vacation . I never thought that there would be a day when Hannah Montana would claim the number two best album of the year in my taste. But Endless Summer Vacation was an incredible album. The album departs from her trip into rock music from 2020’s Plastic Hearts into country-flavored pop. I’ve talked about how the single “ Flowers ” overshadowed the album. The song serves as a thesis statement to the breakup album, but the other songs emphasize the process of breaking up and the happy memories of a relationship. The songwriting is excellent, and the instrumentation on the album is superb. Cyrus’s old-soul lullaby-like post-album addition “ Use to Be Young ” pair nicely with her smoky mezzo-soprano vocals. But the album’s charm is mostly in the songs that got minimal attention, from the summer-by-the-pool guitar track two “ Jaded ” to th

January wasn't too early to start thinking about an  Endless Summer Vacation ,  at least for  Miley Cyrus . The singer's eighth studio album came out last March, and the first single, " Flowers " was dropped in January. The single builds on the theme of her last LP,  Plastic Hearts ,  and its lead single " Midnight Sky ," in which Cyrus declares "I don't belong to anyone / I don't need to be loved by you." In "Flowers," Cyrus realizes that she can buy her own damn flowers rather than accept a half-hearted gift from a lackadaisical lover. The singer's target, of course, is ex-husband  Liam Hemsworth .  WE WERE GOOD, WE WERE GOLD.  Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth met on the set of the 2010  Nicholas Sparks   film adaptation  of  The Last Song   in 2009. The two dated on and off until getting engaged in 2012. They broke off their engagement in 2013 on good terms, dating other people until 2016 when they announced that they again w

  Back to our somewhat weekly countdown of the top songs of last year ranked completely unscientifically by me. Now that we’re in the top ten, these songs either have some critical acclaim or I think that they are critically underrated. These are songs that resonated with me at a time when I wasn’t particularly in the mood to digest a boygenius record--no shade to the extremely talented musicians. So sorry Phoebe Bridgers , Julien Baker , and Lucy Dacus --I hope to get into the record soon. Also, sorry for the exclusion of Sufjan Stevens and Taylor Swift . I was too sad to listen to Javelin and I just dropped Taylor’s “ I Can See Yo u” in favor of a song that was actually new in 2023. 10. “ Chasing That Feeling ” by Tomorrow X Together . I just added this song because it’s been one of my recent favorites. While K-pop girl groups FIFTY FIFTY and NewJeans and BTS soloist Jung Kook had a big year in international acclaim, I feel like TxT was a little lower-key than a few years ago

This year, Endless Summer Vacation has been the most featured album because of today's song, " You ." Maybe "Flowers" is the stand out track, but almost every other song is so much better than that song. I'll probably do a track-by-track sometime on this record, but today, as the summer is winding down, I wanted to share the Spotify version of my Road Trip Mix titled Along for the Ride: Songs for the Road. This is one of my personal playlists for long rides and drives. I updated it today to better fit with songs that have to do with driving. There may be more appropriate tracks, but I wanted to prioritize listenability. Enjoy!

  This is the third track I’ve talked about from Miley Cyrus ’ latest album, Endless Summer Vacation .   Although the album doesn’t have a title track, the album’s title comes from the album’s third track, “ Rose Colored Lenses .” Musically, the track is proof of the influence of Cyrus’ last album, Plastic Hearts . While Endless Summer Vacation is thoroughly a pop album and a kind of return to form of the “ Wrecking Ball ” singer, the heavy bass guitar in the ballad “Rose Colored Lenses” feels like it comes from the rock-heavy previous album. SOMEHOW THE BEDSHEETS ARE DIRTY. Lyrically both Endless Summer Vacation and Plastic Hearts are similar. Both albums deal with the singer’s divorce with Liam Hemsworth . Both albums deal with the singer’s independent, untamable spirit. And both albums have a little regret in them. Today’s song “Rose Colored Lenses” is a recollection about how good the sex was. The metaphor of the song likens sex to putting on “rose-colored lenses,” initially blindi

  Last week fans were upset when Miley Cyrus announced that she wouldn’t go on tour for her latest record, Endless Summer Vacation . The singer hasn’t headlined an arena tour since 2014’s supporting tour for Bangerz . Cyrus told British Vogue that “singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love. . . There’s no connection.  There’s no safety. It’s also not natural. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.” So, as the music industry is trying to return to normal in 2023, just how many major players will throw a Miley Cyrus wrench into the Ticketmaster machine? I’M HOLDING ON LIKE A ROLLING STONE. Miley Cyrus’ eighth studio record Endless Summer Vacation has brought Miley Cyrus back to the spotlight nearly ten years after she swung into the number 1 spot on Billboard ’s Hot 100 , nude on a “ Wrecking Ball .” In fact, this year’s “ Flowers ” beat “Wrecking Ball”’s 3-week reign atop the Hot 100 chart by 5 weeks, 8 w

" My my, hey hey / Rock 'n' Roll is here to stay" declares  Neil Young  in his 1978 song.  Rock music has had lasting presence in pop culture since the age of  Chuck Berry  and   Little Richard . Some points in the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s the genre took the primary spots on radio charts outside of the genre. However, around the end of the '00s, Hip Hop decimated the genre. The rock bands left standing, mostly traded their axes for acoustic guitar, keyboards, EDM beats, or Trap rhythms. Much of the rock music was indistinguishable from other genres, and that trend continues into the 2020s. However, just as rock bands cross over to the pop charts, the late 2010s to 2021 is seeing pop singers experiment with rock music. From  Miley Cyrus   performing   with  Metallica  to rappers like  Post Malone  and  Machine Gun Kelly  flirting with emo, some may argue that Rock is seeing a mainstream resurgence. Enter  Olivia Rodrigo 's " goo