NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

It’s time for our annual Pride Month playlist. Headlining this year is Sufjan Stevens with his hipster hit “ Video Game .” Last year, Stevens officially came out after years of speculation and artist support through songs from the 2017 film Call Me By Your Name   and the single  Love Yourself / With My Whole Heart . This year I’m including my usual mix of queer artists and allies. While the corporates may be scaling down their Pride sections this year, I say, now is the time that counts. So many human rights are on the verge of collapse. Today’s the day we say, “I don’t wanna play your video game!” Check out Pride ‘24 on Spotify.

Sufjan Stevens ' 2015 album  Carrie & Lowell   is a heartbreaking album in which the singer-songwriter deals with the death of his mother. The opening track, " Death with Dignity ," is the beginning of an album that chronicles Stevens' grieving process and the real and imaginary conversations between Stevens and his estranged mother.  Carrie & Lowell  was a rare peak into the personal life of the elusive singer, and unfortunately, grief was necessary to make a personal project.  WHAT IS THAT SONG YOU SING FOR THE DEAD ? Earlier this month, Sufjan Stevens revealed an album borne out of another tragedy. And while I have yet to dig into  Javelin   and grieve anew with Sufjan, this time for  his late partner  who died last April, I feel that "Death with Dignity" would get me ready to digest this incredibly sad album. The song with its wispy plucked guitar in five chorus-less verses introduces folklore and Biblical imagery to memorialize his mother. While

Director  Luca Guadagnino  approached    Sufjan Stevens  to provide narration to Guadagnino's 2018 film  Call Me By Your Name   and Stevens refused. Guadagnino reached out to Stevens again, but this time asking him only to provide music for the movie. Stevens accepted and provided three songs to the critically acclaimed film. He  reworked  a track from his 2010 album  Age of Adz ,  " Futile Desires ," and wrote two new tracks, " Mystery of Love " and " Visions of Gideon ." The songs were used throughout  the film along with  classical, jazz, and early '80s music as a backdrop to the setting of Northern Italy in the early '80s.  FLEW UP TO YOUR ARMS.  I often think of Elaine Benes stuck in the theater with her boss J. Peterman, forced to watch   The English Patient ,  a movie that received so much praise in the '90s.   Seinfeld ' s Elaine can't stand the long, pretentious movie, despite everyone in her circle loving it. And yet twent

  Back to our somewhat weekly countdown of the top songs of last year ranked completely unscientifically by me. Now that we’re in the top ten, these songs either have some critical acclaim or I think that they are critically underrated. These are songs that resonated with me at a time when I wasn’t particularly in the mood to digest a boygenius record--no shade to the extremely talented musicians. So sorry Phoebe Bridgers , Julien Baker , and Lucy Dacus --I hope to get into the record soon. Also, sorry for the exclusion of Sufjan Stevens and Taylor Swift . I was too sad to listen to Javelin and I just dropped Taylor’s “ I Can See Yo u” in favor of a song that was actually new in 2023. 10. “ Chasing That Feeling ” by Tomorrow X Together . I just added this song because it’s been one of my recent favorites. While K-pop girl groups FIFTY FIFTY and NewJeans and BTS soloist Jung Kook had a big year in international acclaim, I feel like TxT was a little lower-key than a few years ago

Sufjan Stevens ' 2015 album Carrie & Lowell is a heartbreaking album in which the singer-songwriter deals with the death of his mother. The opening track, " Death with Dignity ," is the beginning of an album that chronicles Stevens' grieving process and the real and imaginary conversations between Stevens and his estranged mother. Carrie & Lowell was a rare peak into the personal life of the elusive singer, and unfortunately, grief was necessary to make a personal project.  WHAT IS THAT SONG YOU SING FOR THE DEAD ? Earlier this month, Sufjan Stevens revealed an album borne out of another tragedy. And while I have yet to dig into Javelin and grieve anew with Sufjan, this time for his late partner who died in April of this year, I feel that "Death with Dignity" would get me ready to digest this incredibly sad album. The song with its wispy plucked guitar in five chorus-less verses introduces folklore and Biblical imagery to memorialize his mother. W

We’re reliving pop-era Taylor Swift in the middle of the Midnights album cycle and on the cusp of Swift rereleasing her game-changing record 1989 . Even the re-record of Speak Now seemed to bypass its original country twang and highlight a pop-rock Taylor. But before we’re welcomed back to New York, especially as the summer is winding down, I’m drawn to the Taylor Swift that’s not quite Nashville, not quite L.A. but somewhere in Appalachian folklore perhaps lost for evermore . I’ve written a lot about folklore , but that release eclipsed the equally surprising release of evermore. While folklore was a more cohesive record, evermore was the album on which Taylor Swift gives herself permission to experiment in what could have been her new sound for the ‘20s. WRECK MY PLANS; THAT’S MY MAN. Taylor Swift begins her experimental album evermore with a song that could have easily been released on folklore, “ willow .” Similar to “ the 1 ” and “ cardigan ,” “Willow” didn’t immediately draw m

  The list of albums turning 20 this year makes me feel really, really old. Earlier this week, I covered the youth group classic The Beautiful Letdown . Anberlin released their debut record Blueprints for the Black Market , which also made a huge impact on my teenage life. But then there were albums that came out that year that I didn’t listen to until later. I had known Copeland from their first low-budget video “ Walking Downtown ,” but it wasn’t until their third record, Eat, Sleep, Repeat , that I started listening to the band. The spring of ‘06 when I was about to graduate from high school I started buying Copeland’s CDs, picking them up on discount if I could from Best Buy. The first two records were perfect late spring/summer listening.  I AM STARVED FOR HER ATTENTION . Copeland’s Beneath Medicine Tree has the most delicate lyrics of all Copeland records. The loose concept of the album deals with the death of lead singer Aaron Marsh ’s grandmother and the hospitalization of h