NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Taylor Swift went from America's sweetheart to a polarizing figure in her twenties. Feuds with Kanye West and then wife Kim Kardashian, Katie Perry , and others; a dating reputation ; and self-deprecating and aggrandizing songs made Taylor's star not for everyone. But in 2019, Swift was starting to change the narrative, patching up things with Perry in the video for " You Need to Calm Down ," reducing her reliance on hip-hop beats, and reducing lyrical narcissism.  SAID I LOOKED LIKE AN AMERICAN SINGER. Swift didn't gain universal acclaim for Lover , though it did bode better with critics than Reputation .  Swift shows her most mature efforts on 2020's folklore and evermore . I've spoken at length about folklore this year, writing about the tracks " exile ," " august ," and " cardigan ." And my thesis about all of these songs is about how unlike Taylor Swift they are. I've argued that if you have bad blood with the pop

The Beautiful Letdown was the peak of Switchfoot 's career. When lead singer Jon Foreman was reflecting on his career on The Load Out Music Podcast last year, he said that the band decided to follow up their most successful pop record with one that critiques the American Dream, a somewhat controversial topic with Christian listeners. The opening track, " Lonely Nation ," warns listeners about consumerism and how it just creates social fragmentation and a desire for more. "Lonely Nation" is the representative song for my Independence Day mix called American Dreams: Hope for a Better Future. This playlist is far from perfect. Certainly it needs more diversity in style and artists' voices. But I hope that the songs on this playlist offer an alternative to blind patriotism. After all, patriotism shouldn't be blind nationalism, but rather a peaceful discourse between conflicting ideals. In a world where everything seems to be falling apart, it's so mu

Linkin Park 's fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns underperformed compared to the band's massive first three albums. The album produced two singles, " The Catalyst " and today's song, " Waiting for the End ," but ultimately listeners didn't like the album as most of the songs were not catchy. I always want to dig deeper into this album and its themes, but today, I wanted to introduce my AAPI Heritage Playlist, so I chose the most pop-oriented song on A Thousand Suns. If you want more information on the music theory behind this album, I'll link to The Discographers ,  an excellent podcast that explores the discography of Linkin Park in one of their seasons.  MY MOUTH KEPT MOVING AND MY MIND WENT DEAD.   May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, and I wanted to make a playlist that recognized some of the amazing talent by AAPI musicians. As with my other lists, I realize that making lists like this can be pr

  In 2016, Tyson Motsenbocker signed to Tooth & Nail Records and released his debut LP, Letters to Lost Loves . Motsenbocker had been deeply affected by the loss of his mother and decided to go on a walk between San Diego and San Francisco to process his grief. Some of those reflections could be heard on Letters. Although Motsenbocker didn't follow up Letters with a full length until 2020, Someday I'll Make It All Up to You , he released two EPs in 2017, Almira and A Kind Invitation .  I KISSED YOU AFTER MIDNIGHT. Almira is a beautiful EP with 5 songs, including " Rust " (see post) and " Coeur d'Alene ," and A Kind Invitation includes " Talk All Night for Nothing ," (see post) which Motsenbocker would go on to perform with Switchfoot 's Jon Foreman and release as a single, the eponymous storytelling, spoken word track; and today's song " Something in the Way ," which deals revisits relationship material as "Talk A

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

Everything  Switchfoot has done musically rests in the shadows of their 2003 album, The Beautiful Letdown . While Letdown was sonically superior to their prior albums, the once surf-rock band still needed to finish evolving after their commercial blockbuster record. I'm biased to think that Nothing Is Sound is lyrically and musically superior to Letdown, but that may be because of how Letdown lost its novelty over the countless plays on youth group trips, on Christian radio, then on rock and alternative radio, and finally on pop radio and in some TV shows. Subsequent Switchfoot releases garnered less attention. LAST WEEK SAW ME LIVING FOR NOTHING BUT DEADLINES. Two albums after Letdown, Oh! Gravity. attempted to bring Switchfoot back; this time with an experimental album with a flair for the avant-garde. The poppy second single stalled on the adult contemporary chart and was never released to pop and alternative radio as planned. But Switchfoot's fidelity to their Christian

  In 2003, Switchfoot reached their career high when they released their fourth album, The Beautiful Letdown . The band had been gaining popularity from their third album Learning to Breathe .  Three songs from the album were featured in the movie A Walk to Remember . What happened next was the massive rock radio/Top 40/Christian Rock hit, " Meant to Live ." The Christian surf rock band never quite reached the same level of success on their subsequent releases, but they consistently had tracks show up on Mainstream Rock and Alternative charts for years to come. And the Christian market? They devoured Switchfoot albums. SCREAMING WITHOUT LUNGS. Lead vocalist Jon Foreman set a distinct tone in Christian Rock. Arriving on the scene in 1997, Christian Rock was in the middle of a culture war. There were three big bands at the time: the Newsboys , dc talk , and Audio Adrenaline , and their message was "stand up for Christ no matter what you look like." The lyrics of the

  How is it May 2nd and this is the first time that Relient K has entered this playlist? I think Relient K is one of the most interesting bands in Christian Rock for several reasons. First, they've been around forever. Starting with their hit " My Girlfriend ," which played the morality police on a girlfriend who became consumed by Satan via the music of Marylin Manson to the youth group anthem " Sadie Hawkins Dance ," the band was a soundtrack to the I Kissed Dating Goodbye chastity and sexism of growing up Christian in the early '00s. Then there was the band's second act: toning down the tongue-in-cheek lyrics and heading to Top 40 radio, joining the likes of Switchfoot , Stacie Orrico , and other Christian acts being in , but certainly not of the scene. But just like Anberlin as we talked about yesterday, Relient K lost favor in the charts, and to a lesser extent, with the Christian scene, with the release of Forget and Not Slow Down , a record