NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

As promised, here is my Top 10 list for albums of the year. It’s a bit late and I’m sure that in time, the importance of this list will change and that albums I hadn’t listened to would chart. I decided to give preference to the albums I blogged about most but I also slipped in a few that I thought would be culturally significant. There were a few cuts that I thought hurt a little, Olivia Rodrigo ’s GUTS , the Barbie: The Album soundtrack, and boygenius ’s The Record .   I wanted to include some albums that didn’t make the critics’ picks lists to give light to some underrated artists. I hope you enjoy these albums as much as I did—and am doing now. 10. The Show by Niall Horan . It’s funny how the other One Direction members have been totally eclipsed by Harry Styles . While Styles is certainly talented, and his production team has incorporated some of the most interesting elements into mainstream pop, former bandmate Niall Horan has been sadly overlooked. The Show is an album by an

I've had more insomnia at the beginning of the week than at the end of the week. I hope that tonight's not one of those nights. Insomnia at the beginning of the week sets me up for a hard week and a short temper with my students. With today's song, Sam Smith , " How Do You Sleep? " I wanted to bring my songs of insomnia to my Apple Music playlist--the playlist I'm actually more likely to load while I'm lying in bed. Hopefully these songs will cradle you back to sleep.

Pop is having an incredible year. Starting out with Sam Smith 's genre- (and gender) blending Gloria to this month's yacht-rock inspired The Album by Jonas Brothers , what I once would consider guilty pleasures I would argue now rival the musical staples of my hipster past. The year isn't even half over, and I still haven't digested many of the albums that have come out. But if the two singles, " Heaven " and " Meltdown ," Niall Horan  released before his rumored June release of The Show  have any bearing on the upcoming album, I'll be adding this to my list of albums that completely blindsided me with awesomeness.  WHEN IT ALL MELTS DOWN, I'LL BE THERE. These days, I've been listening to Spotify's curated playlists at work. "Meltdown" is a song that has been added to several of the new hits playlists, so I started hearing it quite often. I thought the song was catchy, but it initially got lost with the other tons of songs

Composed by  Kenzie , the professional name for  SM Entertainment 's songwriter Kim Yeon-jeong, the debut single " Into the New World " by what would become one of the biggest K-pop groups,  Girls' Generation , set the tone for a ten-year career of fun, bubble-gummy, uplifting songs. Composed of nine young women all born between 1989 and 1991,   Girls' Generation   has been been called "the Nation's Girl Group," in South Korea due to their popularity between 2007-2017. Beginning with a sample of   Don Henley 's 1984 classic " The Boys of Summer, " (covered last August by   The Ataris ), "Into the New World" builds on the nostalgic piano and synth sample. Rather than calling back with longing for the past, this song propels listeners forward into the future. I LEAVE BEHIND THIS WORLD'S UNENDING SADNESS.  I've been pretty critical of K-pop in the past for being a-political. I used to think that music in America was too p

  Warning: the following post could be deemed filthy, vile, disgusting, perhaps even Unholy . If you are reading this in the states of Florida, Texas, Montana, the Evangelical parts of Colorado, you may be shocked, outraged, and may feel the urge to contact your local congress person to start an investigation into the FCC's practice of allowing a song that doesn't use profanity to subvert heteronormativity, but rather does so with its gender-fluid music video that depicts Sam Smith arriving to a decadent party at an English mansion with subtle hints at golden showers and drinking a yellow liquid that...wait, what? THIRTY ALMOST GOT ME, AND I'M SO OVER LOVE SONGS .  An Atlantic article published a day before Sam Smith released fourth album Gloria on January 27th this year dives into the recent controversy surrounding the artist. How did a Grammy-winning singer who made music so innocuous that you could enjoy it with your conservative Christian mom gather the old gang of S

  Somewhere between cleaning up at the  2015 Grammy Awards  for  In the Lonely Hour   and 2020's  Love Goes ,  Sam Smith 's music lost momentum with listeners. Of course, a lot has happened to the singer since then. In 2015, Smith was an openly gay Grammy-winning artist. In 2019, the singer came out as non-binary, telling the  BBC , "I do think like a woman sometimes, in my head. Sometimes I've questioned, 'Do I want a sex change?'" Since coming out as non-binary, the singer has embraced both the masculine and the feminine in their videos, concerts, and album promotions. But not only did the singer's sexuality evolve, but also their musical versatility, from a gospel-inspired second record ( The Thrill of It All ), a Bond theme (" Writing's on the Wall "), featured in a  Calvin Harris  track (" Promises "), a dance-pop record in 2020--nothing seemed beyond the scope of the singer, though never they quite matching the success of