NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

On January 16, 2014, Anberlin posted a video on their social media platforms with a special message . The three-minute eighteen-second black and white video opened with a quote by Helen Keller; a droning guitar riff; and footage of a sideways camera playing a loop of a city from a car, an Anberlin concert, and footage from their “ Paperthin Hymn ” music video --all with a new emblem watermarking the footage. That new watermark was of fingers crossing. As the footage played, each member of Anberlin talked about their experiences in the band. A drumbeat joined the guitar and later a synthline. Then at 1:49 seconds into the video, the band gets to the point of the video: Anberlin is breaking up after releasing a new album and giving a final world tour. The video ends by reiterating the upcoming final album and final tour and with a Tooth & Nail Records copyright notice, inadvertently announcing that Anberlin had returned to their first record label to release their final album.  LO

  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 their relationship should end in marriage? Could the singer stay in a "1950s shit"

Last month,   The Japanese House   released their long-anticipated follow-up album to 2019's   Good at Falling .  The solo project of   Amber Mary Bain , The Japanese House collaborated with a number of musicians from   Bon Iver 's   Justin Vernon   and   The 1975 's   Maty Healy   and   George Daniel   to   MUNA   and   Charli XCX   on their latest project,   In the End, It Always Does .  The English singer-songwriter Amber Bain offers a hybrid between the acoustic and highly processed, like if Bon Iver recorded and produced   Joni Mitchell . It's simple. It's zen. It's nice music for a rainy or slow humid summer day. I'M STILL LOOKING OUT FOR ME.  Before releasing  In the End, It Always Does,  The Japanese House released the lead single, " Boyhood ." The instrumental direction of  In the End, It Always Does  feels less processed than The Japanese House's earlier work. Singer Amber Bain had talked about using The Japanese House to mask the per

Last year, I listened to a podcast introducing artists who sound similar to another artist in order to help expand lesser-known artists expand their fan bases just to hear some takes that the commentators had to say about another artist I was preparing to post about. I didn't actually end up writing about that artist, but I inadvertently discovered a few new artists to add to my AppleMusic library, one of which was Filipina-British singer-songwriter  Beatrice  Kristi Ilejay Laus , better known by her stage name  beabadoobee . BUILDINGS AND RUST.   With over 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify, bedroom pop singer beabadoobee opened for  Taylor Swift  last year on a leg of the Eras Tour. Laus is just one of many artists that Swift was probably introduced to through rumored ex,  The 1975 ’s Matty Healy .  Born in Iloilo City in 2000 and relocating to London with her family at the age of three, Laus was influenced by indie rock from an early age. At the age of seventeen, she learne

My mom didn't let me play video games unless they were educational. So I didn't grow up on  Mario  or  Donkey Kong  at home. Instead, I got to play educational games like  The Oregon Trail   or  Math Blaster .  My favorite game, though, was  Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego ? Despite the implausible premise of being a detective, tracking down a criminal who stole intangible cultural heritage, I loved flying around the world to fifty countries--some of which no longer exist--listening to strange music, and discovering the cultures that made the world so interesting.  IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT TO DRAG ME AWAY FROM YOU.  TOTO  is often classified as a Yacht Rock band today, a somewhat pejorative term for the smooth-sounding light rock of the late '70s and early '80s. The term "Yacht Rock" actually comes from a YouTube mockumentary from the early age of YouTube. Music critic  Chris Molanphey  goes to great pains to define the imaginary genre in his episode of

Last year Taylor Swift was in the middle of a whirlwind romance with the frontman The 1975 , Matty Healy , allegedly. This romance came after Swift broke up with actor Joe Alwyn after a six-year relationship. Swift and Healy’s relationship has never been confirmed by Swift or Healy, but the press surrounding the two and neither’s denial of the affair has cemented the relationship in pop culture canon. The spring fling was said to have lasted for a month, possibly a fortnight . All of this was happening in the middle of Swift’s Midnights Era—songs about life experiences that supposedly happened in the past. Some listeners have interpreted Midnights as a breakup album. LIKE A TATTOOED GOLDEN RETRIEVER.  Fans were eagerly awaiting for Taylor Swift to reward their Easter Egg hunt with the release of The Tortured Poets Department , the album that she announced when she won Album of the Year at the 2024 Grammy Awards. The Easter Eggs Swift gave fans and the press led listeners to believe

Stand Atlantic formed in 2012 in Sydney, Australia. After gaining a following in the Australian music scene and releasing two demo EPs,  they released their first single “ Coffee at Midnight ” on international indie label Rude Records in 2017 and then signed with California-based indie label Hopeless Records in 2018. The band formed as a four-piece under the name What It’s Worth with lead vocals by Bonny Fraser , Arthur Ng on lead guitar, David Potter on bass, and Jordan Jansons on drums. Playing the local scenes, the band started touring Australia with American bands, such as State Champs , Cute Is What We Aim For , and New Found Glory .   I THINK I LIKE THAT SWEET CINNAMON . Since signing with Hopeless Records, Stand Atlantic has released four albums. The band captures an infectious sound with their brand of pop-punk.  Their second album Pink Elephant was released in 2020 and recorded with Stevie Knight . In later releases, the band experiments with hard rock, but the songs on