NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Hailing from a place she claimed had “no music scene,”  Holly Humberstone  has taken her music to the global stage. Raised in Lincolnshire, England, Humberstone nurtured a passion for music from a young age. She played the violin in the  Lincolnshire Youth Symphony  before pursuing her studies at the  Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts . Humberstone’s career as a singer-songwriter took off after her performance at the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2019. Since then, she has graced the stages with notable artists like  girl in red ,  Olivia Rodrigo , and  Taylor Swift . In October of last year, she released her debut studio album, “ Paint My Bedroom Black , ” which received widespread acclaim from music publications, earning a commendable score of 75 out of 100 on Metacritic . DID I USE YOUR BODY? The first single from Holly Humberstone’s debut album, Paint My Bedroom Black , delves into the dark themes explored throughout t...

On folklore , Taylor Swif t’s essential fall album, the singer delves into the craft of storytelling. While many of Swift’s songs tell stories, until her eighth studio album, most of those stories were about herself. Tales about “ betty ,” James, and Augustine could be a metaphor for the singer but it was quite refreshing to hear about other people in towns created by the singer. With Swift returning to making anthemic pop hits, the lowkey double album cycle has come and gone.  “ The Last American Dynasty ” is a song on folklore in which Swift tells the story about the previous owner of her house. The song tells the story of the wealthy widow to the heir of the Standard Oil fortune, Rebecca “Betty” Harkness. It’s a kind of country song, romanticizing its subject and drawing parallels between Harkness and Swift, setting them up as outsiders unable to fit into the social classes they happened to belong to.  THERE GOES THE MADDEST WOMAN THIS TOWN HAS EVER SEEN. Taylor Swift has b...

  In 2020, MUNA was dropped by their label RCA for “ not making enough money .” The queer-identifying trio had modest success with their first two records,   About U and Saves the World , but they would actually achieve a higher level of success on an indie label. The key to this renewed success was partnering with an indie rock darling who had come to be known as a “serial collaborator” due to appearing on a range of projects from Paul McCartney to Taylor Swift . Phoebe Bridgers signed MUNA to her label Saddest Factory and functioned as the trio’s A&R person. MUNA quickly expanded their listener base with the hit featuring Bridgers, “ Silk Chiffon .” The song preceded  MUNA’s eponymous album by more than nine months and became the band’s most-streamed song. In March of 2022, MUNA released the second single from the album, “ Anything But Me .” YOU’RE GONNA SAY I ASKED FOR THE MOON. While MUNA is certainly overshadowed by Phoebe Bridgers and her own trio, boygen...

Conan Gray ’s Found Heaven is possibly one of the most under-rated albums of the year. The pop world of 2024 is dominated by powerful women and so is rock and alternative. Looking at the list of albums this year, there is one big one that seems overrated— Taylor Swift ’s The Tortured Poets’ Department — but every single artist with a big year, Swift included, has earned it. But with all of the big pop artists this year, Conan Gray hasn’t yet had a breakthrough moment. Found Heaven is far from a perfect album but its post-punk style and Gray’s conviction in songwriting make this one of the albums I keep coming back to all year.  DON’T MEAN THAT YOU’RE MARRYING ME TONIGHT. Part of Conan Gray’s conviction to his sound, I feel, is a reason why Found Heaven isn’t a bigger pop album, and maybe why it isn’t as good as it could be. Gray doesn’t do many collaborations and he explained that he felt that his latest album is complete. I feel that a well-chosen collaboration could have broug...

  MUNA  is an alternative pop group composed of three friends who studied together at the  University of Southern California . The trio self-produced their debut EP and uploaded it to  Bandcamp  and  SoundCloud . The band's success with their debut EP led to the group signing with  RCA  records and releasing their 2017 debut record,  About U.   In May 2021, the band announced that they had signed to  Phoebe Bridgers '  Saddest Factory  record label. The group recently released the single " Silk Chiffon " which features Bridgers singing a verse. The song is one of the group's few singles to chart on  Billboard , peaking at #35 on the US Alternative chart.  KEEPIN' IT LIGHT LIKE SILK CHIFFON.  I think I first heard MUNA in the awkward teen comedy  Alex Strangelove ,  a story about a high school senior who is struggling to understand his sexuality. All the members of MUNA identify as queer, though, as...

  I would argue that since   reputation ,  Taylor Swift   has made a career based on revenge. The singer-songwriter is extremely intentional and calculated when releasing new singles and albums. Last year, Swift released yet another deluxe edition of   Midnights ,  this time calling it   The Til Dawn Edition ,  featuring a new song and two remixes. When she first released   Midnights    in October of 2022, many listeners were wondering what was different about the album. It felt like   reputation  but the singer was in a steady relationship with English actor   Joe Alwyn , and everything was going great, right?   right? KARMA IS A CAT PURRING ON MY LAP.  When tabloids started reporting that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn had split in early April this year, the pointed lyrics of  Midnights  started to make a little more sense. Was Swift reacting to the expectations--from others or even Alwyn-- that thei...

  Did you have a good brat summer? This has been another incredible year for women in pop music, from Ariana Grande to Sabrina Carpenter , as women have dominated the pop charts. The competition for a number 1 album has been fierce with so many strong releases by Dua Lipa , Billie Eilish , and Chappell Roan so far failing to reach the summit of Billboard ’s 200 Albums Chart.  Besides the K-pop idol groups Twice and Stray Kids ; country singers Morgan Wallen and the late Toby Keith ; and rappers 21 Savage , ¥$ ( Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign ), Future and Metro Boomin , Eminem , and Post Malone ; female pop singers held the number one spot for 22 weeks so far this year. Only Taylor Swift , Ariana Grande, Beyoncé , and Sabrina Carpenter have occupied the top spot as female pop acts.  SHOCK YOU LIKE DEFIBRILLATORS. Of the 22 weeks that the female pop superstars spent atop Billboard’ s 200 Albums Chart, Taylor Swift has claimed 17 of those weeks, and her latest album...

Last year, when promoting Re: This Is Why , the remix album of Paramore ’s sixth studio album This Is Why , lead singer Hayley Williams talked to Jimmy Fallon about her teenage friendship with Taylor Swift . Williams describes the friendship as coming from a time when Swift and she were pursuing music while growing up in Nashville. According to Williams, Taylor Swift’s mother was looking for a friend for Taylor, particularly someone else in music. At this point, neither Taylor nor Paramore were household names, but even as teenagers both Williams and Swift were focused on their goals, which allowed for little time for normal teenage things, especially socializing. The singers’ friendships and careers have intersected several times before Paramore’s opening slot on the Eras Tour. On their latest album, Swift inspired a lyric from an impression she left on Williams. THERE WAS A FIRE (METAPHORICALLY). After releasing three pre-release singles for This Is Why, Paramore released the album...