NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

It was Superbowl Sunday of 2005 when I bought Anberlin ’s Never Take Friendship Personal .  It was the perfect album for high school. The band’s style took a turn on their sophomore album from a classic or '90s rock sound to a more emotional, mid-2000s sound. The band would redefine themselves with this album, becoming a lesser-known emo staple. Stephen Christian ’s vocals meeting Joseph Milligan ’s riffs, Deon Rexroat ’s heavy bass, and Nathan Young ’s reliance on the cymbals make this one of the band’s heaviest records. The band released two recordings of this song on two different albums and many fans debate which one is better. THIS WAS OVER BEFORE IT EVER BEGAN.   The original version of "The Feel Good Drag" feels grungier and Stephen’s scream on the bridge was perfectly aligned with the musical trends of the day. The New Surrender version , renamed "Feel Good Drag," beefs up t he guitar intro, and the solo has a quite satisfying bend.   However, having

Sticking with my theme this year of breaking Anberlin ’s discography into seasonal listening, I should have started last month with “ Breaking ,” the song that, for me, announced that fall is here. Yes, I first heard the song at Cornerstone when the band performed it, and I got a demo version of it on the New Surrender USB bracelet preorder, but when the album was released in September I had left for college, and I associated the new energy of the fall with that album.  The band played a recorded version of “ Two Graves ” during their August 2021 livestream Under a Dying Sun in which they performed Lowborn in its entirety. The single was released in late September that year, and the heavy rock sound gave me Halloween vibes. I decided to design the fall Anberlin playlist with the contrasting beautiful autumn days, spooky nights, and becoming more and more bleak as we approach winter. Happy listening! Listen on Spotify.

Last summer, Anberlin released their hiatus-breaking EP, Silverline . The five-song EP was written during the band's time off due to the pandemic when they had planned to return to touring. But like many touring bands out of work, Anberlin decided to take to the Internet and started a livestream session, eventually deciding to perform every one of their albums live. With all the nostalgia of revisiting the classic seven albums, many listeners thought that their first release back would be influenced by their older work; perhaps an album track that the band never performed much. I'LL STILL LOVE YOU TILL MY VERY COFFIN DROPS. Last month , I made a case that Silverline was the least Anberlin-sounding spot in the band's discography, but I would like to counter that argument today by looking at the latter-part of the band's career that makes Silverline make sense. Because if we don't do that, the band's most recent release, last Friday's EP Convinced , of which

Anchor & Braille has been Anberlin 's lead singer Stephen Christian 's side project for a while. Some of Anberlin's songs started out as Anchor & Braille songs. In 2009, Christian collaborated with Aaron Marsh and a few other hometown musicians including Louis DeFabrizio of Gasoline Heart , and released A&B's debut record Felt , an album that feels as if Christian were the lead singer of Copeland somewhere between their In Motion and Eat, Sleep, Repeat releases. Anchor and Braille's sound would vary greatly over their occasional four albums as well and the makeup of the 'band' would just become Stephen Christian collaborating in the studio with other musicians. You can tell that it's the same singer of Cities and Never Take Friendship Personal struggling relationships. SHE MAKES THREATS I HOPE THAT SHE SEES THROUGH .  Felt  was an album that appeared in my Junior year of college (one of them :) around a month or so before  New Surre

The fourth track on Blueprints for the Black Market , " Cold War Transmissions ,"  Anberlin   starts to establish themselves as a potentially heavy band. The production on the track sounds reminiscent of the early-'00 sounds of Trapt or Trust Company , when having a hard rock song was the key to Alternative Rock success. Until Cities , Anberlin was on the path to becoming a harder and hard rock band, but with New Surrender and Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place   started to embrace a more ambient sound, with some notable exceptions. However, with the band's planned final album Lowborn and on their upcoming release Silverline on July 29th, Anberlin is back and heavier than ever! SIDE BY SIDE WE FACE EACH OTHER. Stephen Christian has talked about how feedback from Anberlin's fans helped him to become a better lyricist. There is a significant improvement on the band's next record, Never Take Friendship Personal as some of the lyrics on Blueprints for the Bla

  Anchor & Braille has been Anberlin 's lead singer Stephen Christian 's side project for a while. Some of Anberlin's songs started out as Anchor & Braille songs. In 2009, Christian collaborated with Aaron Marsh and a few other hometown musicians including Louis DeFabrizio of Gasoline Heart and released A&B's debut record Felt , an album that feels like if Christian were the lead singer of Copeland somewhere between their In Motion and Eat, Sleep,   Repeat releases. Anchor and Braille's sound would very greatly over their occasional four albums as well as the make up of the 'band' would just become Stephen Christian collaborating in the studio with other musicians. I have yet to listen to 2020's Tension  from start to finish, but of the three albums, Felt feels the best. You can tell that it's the same singer of Cities and Never Take Friendship Personal struggling relationships.  SHE MAKES THREATS I HOPE THAT SHE SEES THROUGH. Felt