NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

The state of the album--a collection of tracks, unusually at least 30 minutes in length, often a minimum of 9 tracks (though that idea has certainly been challenged)--is constantly being questioned. The structure that dates back to vinyl and solidified in the CD era. Singles are nothing new, dating back to the phonograph at the end of the 19th century. In the vinyl age, singles fit on a seven--, ten-, or twelve-inch record. But in the 1960s, music markets started to focus on LPs or long-playing albums. The concept of buying a single song was foreign to me in high school when most of the music I consumed was on full-length albums and the occasional EP, a format between the length of a single and an LP.   TELL MYSELF THAT BOYS WILL BE BOYS.  Chvrches is an album-oriented band. They have released four full-length records, with the most recent being the deluxe edition of Screen Violence , the so-called Director’s Cut of their concept album. The band finally was able to tour the album in

Charlie Puth ’s third record, self-titled Charlie contains perhaps a higher percentage of mopey songs about being a “ Loser ” in love.  From “ That’s Hilarious ” in which the speaker laments losing a year of his life to a relationship that ended in heartbreak to the fast-paced “ Light Switch ” about a 11:30 booty call. Today’s song, “ Tears on My Piano ” takes direct inspiration from one of Taylor Swift ’s breakthrough hits, “ Teardrops on My Guitar .” The weepy song born out of heartbreak and mellow drama. Rather than analyzing this song, I thought it would be a good point to invoke the pathetic fallacy for this rainy weather and make my Apple Music edition of Rain. Enjoy it with a nice hearty soup!  

In today’s pop scene, there are more Taylor Swift s and fewer Adele s, at least in terms of output. Yes, both artists release music in the form of full-length albums, but Swift is constantly releasing music. Adele on the other hand waits years between albums to release new music. But the modern pop artist is continually generating music for their fans. The “post-album” single is now the thing, which may or may not lead to a deluxe edition of the album you paid good money for if you still music, but probably just streamed. Two years ago, Olivia Rodrigo shook up the pop chart, bringing pop-punk to the forefront again, and then after SOUR ’s album cycle, the singer kept a low profile.  FAME FUCKER. Olivia Rodrigo returned in June with “ vampire ,” her first single after SOUR with the first single from her album GUTS , released two weeks ago. The song drew immediate comparisons to the lead single from SOUR, “ driver’s license ,” for its mellow, piano-driven tone, which was only partially

As the music industry changes, many vestiges from when pop music was based on radio mono-culture don’t make sense anymore. Still, every pop critic feels the need to discuss “The Song of the Summer,” a made-up title given to often a high-energy pop song that usually peaks in popularity during the summer months. Billboard started tracking the song of the summer from 2010, naming Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg ’s “ California Gurls ” for that year and retroactively dubbing a hit from each proceeding year until 1985. Later, they went back to 1975 and even listed the top tens from every summer since the chart's inception in 1958 . YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW MY NAME. “California Gurls” made sense as a song of summer. It was about sex on the beach, girls in bikinis, and all things summer. “ Call Me Maybe ,” “ Despecito ,” and “ Old Town Road ” were all listed as songs of the summer for the year they peaked in popularity. Psy ’s “ Gangnam Style ” wasn’t a contender because it didn’t chart because B

Years ago, I was singing karaoke and my friend started giggling. I was singing “ Lost Stars ” by Adam Levine and the line “Yesterday I saw a lion kiss a deer” got this friend rolling on the dirty 노래방 floor. Admittedly, it’s a funny line for a pop song. And besides colorful Taylor Swift revenge lyrics, pop music has been mostly scrubbed of quirkiness by the late ‘10s. Back in the ‘90s and even into the ‘00s, the pop charts were littered with head-scratching lines. However, that eye-rolling line in Begin Again wasn’t written by Levine or co-star Keira Knightly . That line came from the lead singer of a one hit wonder in the ‘90s, Gregg Alexander or New Radicals .  FOUR A.M., WE RAN A MIRACLE MILE. New Radicals broke up the year after releasing their debut record, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too . The album contained two singles, “ You Get What You Give ” and “ Someday We’ll Know .” Musically, the two hits sound like typical ‘90s pop rock. Listeners can mistake the band for The

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