NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Shura 's 2016 debut,  Nothing's Real   made a splash in the U.K. and Europe, but the electro-pop singer-songwriter didn't make a huge impact on the American charts, which is a shame. Hits like " What's It Gonna Be? " and " What Happened to Us? " were perfect hits for the mid-summer of the album's release, and I find that I come back to it every spring to early fall. But while her contemporaries like  Ellie Goulding  and  Carly Rae Jepsen  keep songs pretty light and upbeat, there's a sadness and introversion that hides the lyrics beneath even the most dance-floor-worthy tracks. SMALL CHANGE IN THE UNIVERSE . The daughter of a British documentary filmmaker, Shura uses a documentary-style motif throughout  Nothing's Real,  featuring audio of Shura as a child speaking and singing. Also in the vein of a documentary, Shura sings about her breakup in the third person " Make It Up ." Other songs, like " Indecision " and ...

Two years before her debut album    Nothing’s Real  was released,  Shura 's debut single, " Touch ," began generating acclaim across the Internet. Working with guitarist and vocalist of the indie rock band  Athlete ,  Joel Pott , Shura began co-producing her album .  Shura played the keyboards and synthesizers on the record and co-directed the music video for "Touch," which features her twin brother, Nicholas. The single was re-released along with a remix of the track in 2016 before the release of  Nothing's Real.  Today, "Touch" is Shura's most streamed song on Spotify. I ONLY NEED YOU TO BE FRENCH WITH ME.  Born to an English father and a Russian mother, Aleksandra Lilah Yakunina-Denton and her brother Nicholas were raised in Manchester, UK. Aleksandra, better known by her stage name, Shura, started playing guitar at the age of 13. By 26, she was gaining popularity in the UK. The video for "Touch," which features lots of kissing be...

Today we enjoy another track from Shura 's debut record, Nothing's Real . While Shura is an out and proud lesbian, she decided to release her first record mostly with ambiguous second person pronouns which can be interpreted by listeners however they wanted to interpret the song. Several songs on Nothing's Real refer to the same break up, and today's song " What Happened  to Us? " refers to the drifting apart in that break up. I WAS NEVER READY FOR YOUR LOVE. The Madonna for millennials as one magazine article called her, Shura's vibey first record captures the wonderment of growing up, even if there's a little pain involved. I've talked quite a bit about Nothing's Real and even did a track-by-track analysis in April. Today, I'm going to look at this one track and how it captures an unhealthy nostalgia about our past. At the core of the song, Shura talks about falling in love with someone who is a "fiction / someone [she] made up....

Today is the third entry from Shura 's Nothing's Real album. In an interview at Austin City Limits in 2019 , Shura said that her mother said that her mother said of her first album "It gets better the more you listen to it," which Shura and the interviewer lightheartedly took as a  criticism of the singer-songwriter's 2016 album. I agree with Shura's mother, but not as a criticism of the album. It was great the summers of 2016 and 2017 when I first enjoyed Nothing's Real . But the album was more than just a song fleeting song of the summer. To me, it gets better every time I listen to it.  IF YOU LET ME DOWN, LET ME DOWN SLOW. Today, I'll provide a track-by-track reaction to each song on Shura's Nothing's Real much like what I've done with Acceptance 's Phantoms and Turn Off the Stars .    My reaction isn't meant to be extensive, and I will add to it as I choose more songs to be the song of the day. I'll provide the Spotify ver...

Artists often show off their influences when they play a cover. In 2004, Copeland released an EP of covers of songs by singer-songwriters from the '70s and '80s. While the band has moved into more experimental territory in recent years, know nothing stays the same shows the musical education, the melodies, the song structure from which Copeland came. Today's song was written by Billy Joel and released in 1977, and Billy Joel's version appears on the Spotify and AppleMusic version of the April 2022 Mixtape  because know nothing stays the same is a rare Copeland release. Copeland's covers EP is worth checking out, though. Hearing the band's unique take on the soft rock classics gave me a new appreciation for the band when I heard this EP, and I only wish it was more widely available. THE WORST SHE CAN DO IS THROW SHADOWS AT YOU. Now we come to Under the Covers,   Volume 3 (see below), naturally another YouTube Edition to the playlist because the main song on wh...

Shura 's 2016 debut, Nothing's Real made a splash in the U.K. and Europe, but the electro-pop singer-songwriter didn't make a huge impact on the American charts, which is a shame. Hits like " What's It Gonna Be? " and " What Happened to Us? " were perfect hits for the mid-summer of the album's release, and I find that I come back to it every spring to early fall. But while her contemporaries like Ellie Goulding and Carly Rae Jepsen keep songs pretty light and upbeat, there's a sadness and introversion that hides the lyrics beneath even the most dance-floor-worthy tracks. SMALL CHANGE IN THE UNIVERSE . The daughter of a British documentary filmmaker, Shura uses a documentary-style motif throughout  Nothing's Real,  featuring audio of Shura as a child speaking and singing. Also in the vein of a documentary, Shura sings about her breakup in the third person " Make It Up ." Other songs, like "Indecision" and "Kidz ...