NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

On August 23, 2019, Tyson Motsenbocker released the first single from his second studio album, Someday I’ll Make It All Up to You , “ The Last Summer .” The wistful song about growing up and time passing was followed by “ Sunday Morning ,” a track in which Motsenbocker compares the feelings people get from religious experiences to those that people get from taking drugs. Finishing the trilogy of 2019 pre-release singles for his upcoming February 14, 2020 album was “ Autumn Love. ” The love song contrasts the passage of time, specifically in autumn, with a constant love that only deepens as natural events from the death of the last Junebug to the leaves changing and frost covering each morning. We are a few weeks into fall, but it’s a strange one in South Korea as the temperature has only started dropping. People are still swimming at the beach in October! “Autumn Love” presents an idyllic autumn scene, but what happens when the season starts to disappear because of climate change? CHA

Last year,  Lau ren Daigle  returned with her first record since 2018’s blockbuster sophomore record,  Look Up Child .  Daigle’s music has been featured in movies and television shows from  Blade Runner 2049  to  Grey’s Anatomy ,  which makes the singer stand out from other artists in her genre, Contemporary Christian Music, a genre she dominated with the number-one Christian song for  sixty weeks  for the crossover hit, “ You Say .”  WE KNOW THE FUTURE’S BURNIN’ BRIGHT.  Maybe like me, you spent a part of the ‘10s backsliding from your evangelical upbringing. Don’t worry, I’m not here to tell on you. You probably stopped listening to  DC Talk  and  Michael W. Smith , and maybe became a “ Bad Christian ” with  Emery , followed  Michael Gungor ’s journey, or went full-out atheist like  Underoath . Somewhere along the way, what was playing on Christian Radio sounded like a bad version of what was popular two years ago on the pop station, only mellower. Somewhere along the way,  Hillsong

  Before his record-setting 333 (and counting) Billboard Hot 100 entries and his record-tying number 13 #1 hits--tied with Michael Jackson --, Drake released his 2016 album Views . First, he scored a number 2 hit in 2015 with “ Hotline Bling ” before the album was released, and then he reached the top position on the chart with the single “ One Dance .” Drake released his first mixtape in 2006, but his 2009 single “ Best I Ever Had ” from his third mixtape was the breakout event for the Canadian rapper. Perceptions about Drake may have changed over the years, particularly earlier this year when he and Kendrick Lamar were involved in a nasty highly-publicized feud. “Hotline Bling” harkens back to a time when the perception of the Canadian rapper was mostly positive, even if the lyrics to the song have been criticized as sexist. EVER SINCE I LEFT THE CITY… The summer vacation sounds of “Hotline Bling” partly come from the song’s sample of Timmy Thomas ’s " Why Can't We Live T

  Fleurie   is just shy of 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter's majority of listeners, though, come from outside the United States from India, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany to be precise. Two years ago I talked about her cover of   Sufjan Steven 's   " To Be Alone with You ," which appears in the   Looking for Alaska   mini-series. While Fleurie has released many covers including a haunting version   Linkin Park 's " In the End " and   Gary Jules ' arrangement of   Tears for Fears ' " Mad World ," the singer also writes original songs and released her fourth LP earlier this year titled   Supertropicali .  CALIFORNIA GIRLS DON'T LOOK LIKE ME.  How to describe Fleurie's latest album,  Supertropicali?  Fleurie describes it on her Spotify page as "a world, an era, a story unfolding, all stitched together in '90s nostalgia, romance, youthful hope, and belonging." Taking inspirati

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