NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Lana Del Rey 's magnum opus,  Norman Fucking Rockwell!   was released in September of 2018 and earned the singer-songwriters the acclaim she had been laying the foundation for since 2012's  Born to Die.   A year after her lackluster album/ collection of good songs  Lust for Life ,  she released the first single from  NFR,  " The Mariner's Apartment Complex " and quickly followed it with another single, the 9:38 song " Venice Bitch ." She began building hype for the record, a cohesive record using the Americana formula Del Rey uses best, a year before its release. The singer awkwardly promoted the album in October of 2018, 11 months before its release, at an  Apple Keynote event . The singer wasn't allowed to say the name of her upcoming album or its single, which she played censored, "Venice Bitch," as  Jack Antonoff   played the piano. Norman Rockwell's  Saturday Evening Post Cover,  Public Domain YOU DON'T EVER HAVE TO GO FASTER T

Rather than reposting U2 ’s “ New Year’s Day ” for the fourth year, I started the year with my Top 23 Songs 2023. I stuck to one song per artist, and the order is in flux. I’ve blogged about some of these songs, and some of them not yet. I’ll briefly describe the song and link to the original post if I wrote about it before. This isn't a list like Paste or Billboard; it's purely subjective. These songs I found myself listening to a lot this year. 23. “ DJ Play a Christmas Song ”  by Cher . I'm not sure if this is going to be a novelty song or a perennial classic, but one thing is sure--it's going to sound dated. Maybe it was the anthem we needed after several socially-distanced holidays. 22. “ Over ”  by Chvrches . Last year, I started listening to the Scottish synth-pop band. Their 2021 album Screen Violence was an excellent concept album. "Over" feels like an extension to the already extended album . 21. “ Take Me Home, Country Roads ” by Lana Del Rey . In r

  Lana Del Rey returned this earlier year with the latest installment of her " Carol King Era" of songwriting in Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?    This new era of the Del Rey persona created by Lizzy Grant feels like a slow progression away from pop hooks, and maybe where this started was with Del Rey’s second album, Ultraviolence . But Del Rey’s real critical acclaim arrived with Norman Fucking Rockwell !, the album that both ended pop Lana and started the ‘70s-styled singer-songwriter that she followed up with Chemtrails over the Country Club , Blue Banisters , and Did you know .   GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. Lana Del Rey’s fan base is strong, quick to interpret ever line that the singer writes in the blogosphere. Not only do fans read into her released songs, they also track down her unreleased demos and leak them online. Usually Del Rey pays no attention when one of her unreleased songs is leaked; however, when a sped-up version of “ Say Yes to Heave