NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

MUNA ’s first two albums weren’t exactly uplifting, at least as a whole. Sure there are moments of empowerment, but the glass appears half-empty more times than not with songs about breakups and lost loves. On 2019’s Saves the World , two songs act as companions to a terrible breakup. “ Stayaway ” is an if/then song, explaining why the speaker won’t go out. She might see her old friends or the friends of her ex and might be dragged back into a bad romantic situation. “ Who ” is a song that speculates about the person who replaced the speaker. “Who are you singing about now?” Katie Gavin pleads on the chorus.   W HEN I GO OUT AGAIN… In the fall of 2021, MUNA returned with the bright duet with Phoebe Bridgers , the lead single “ Silk Chiffon ” from their third and self-titled album . While the other pre-release singles were not as hopeful as the lead single, all of them were more optimistic than the last album’s twin break-up tracks. There was, however, the album’s final single, rel...

  I hope you've been having a nice  Vampire Weekend . Honestly, the band is one I've never gotten into, like other heady rock bands such as The National and Tame Impala . Formed in 2008, a time when vampires were all the rage, many rockers took issue with the band calling themselves a rock band, which singer Ezra Koenig addresses in an episode of Song Exploder discussing today's song, " Harmony Hall ." Part of that controversy comes from a featured interview with Koenig in The Guardian titled, "Rock music is dead, so it's more joyful to me." In the article, Koenig talks about the state of the genre as well as the band's extensive hiatus over the 2010s. ANGER WANTS A VOICE, VOICES WANNA SING. The four original members of Vampire Weekend boasted an Ivy League-educated band, leaving a critic to call them "The whitest band in the world." Ezra Koenig responded to this biting critique, saying, "Nobody in our band is a WASP." Ko...

  Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, or Halsey , released If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power  in 2021, recording with Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross . The production leans into Nine Inch Nails’ industrial sound, making Halsey both a rocker and a dark pop artist on her latest album. The emotions are high in the singer's latest record; Halsey called the album “a concept record about the horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.”  EVERY MORNING GOT A HOLLOW WHERE MY HEART GOES.  The album’s cover features Halsey sitting on a throne with a bare breast exposed and holding a baby, inspired by various artistic depictions of the Madonna and Child, Mary and the Christ child, a kind of crèche scene, though the focus seems completely on the “god” herself, not the child. Some of the themes on the record deal with the singer’s bisexuality and non-binary gender identity. As of last March, Halsey claims both “she/her” and “they/them” pronouns. Wrapped into the fabric ...