NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Turn Off the Stars ’ self-titled album is one that I listen to every year. The band only released one album in 2006, which contained several reworked songs from their 2004 EP Everything Is OK . The Brit-pop-inspired Toronto-based band’s lyrics are simple. Their minor hit “ Please ” only has two verses and what could be better described as a pre-chorus and a drop if the song were EDM. The song is a guitar-driven track and, of course, is not electronic dance music. The band creates a wall of sound with the guitars that reach a climax after each pre-chorus. Like bands like The War on Drugs and The Amazing , “Please” creates tension with two chords--E minor and C-- for most of the song. The song adds D and A minor to pay off the tension. While the guitar is the star of the song (no pun intended), lead singer Michael Walker’s vocals, particularly his falsetto on the pre-chorus contribute to the emotional payoff of the song. WAIT, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY. “Please” is my favorite song on Tur

The War on Drugs released A Deeper Understanding on August 25, 2017. It was the band’s first major-label record as they had signed to Atlantic Records after releasing their previous music on the indie label Secretly Canadian . The album received critical acclaim from many publications, giving it a score on Meta Critic of 81%. The band doesn’t push for mainstream or crossover appeal, keeping their songs long, ranging from 3:59 on “ Knocked Down ” to the longest track “ Thinking of a Place ” at 11:10. Most of the songs are 5:30-7:20. Unlike the jam and progressive rock bands that listeners think of as commercially unviable, The War on Drugs’ sound is unpretentious by sticking to minimalism rather than ornate chords. Instead, the band builds an atmosphere often between two chords. IF I HOLD ON, SHOTS MAY RING. What’s a greater irony than a stoner rock band named The War on Drugs after Nixon’s extremely uncool, failed, documentedly racist program? The band’s latest album, I Don’t Live

  The Amazing is an Indie progressive rock band from Sweden. My dad told me about them, comparing them to the much more popular band The War on Drugs . The band released their first record in 2009 and after a five-year hiatus, The Amazing released three singles last year. Today’s song, “ Rewind ,” comes from their 2018 record, In Transit . Filled with long, jam tracks and atmosphere-building guitars, the record is a relaxing record for background music suitable for reading a novel on a winter afternoon. I couldn’t find the lyrics for “Rewind” online, so I had to transcribe them on Genius. I would appreciate any corrections. The song seems to be about remembering a lover who is no longer with the speaker, and with the guitars, it seems that the memory gives the speaker fond memories. Today, we’re going to extend that warm feeling with Winter, Part II, a playlist for the second half of the winter from January to March. I hope that these songs help you through the dreariest months.

  I'm pretty musically stubborn. Whenever somebody says that they found the next big band, I'm pretty shy to come around to that act. In the case of The 1975 , I'm ten years late from when their self-titled debut and the hit song " Chocolate " hit the lower reaches of the Hot 100 and the middle reaches of the Alternative charts --in America. In the band's home of the UK and in Europe, they fared even better as the concept of a band still sells records. I DON'T WANT YOUR BODY. I first heard the song " Chocolate " on Punk Goes Pop Vol. 6 performed by Knuckle Puck. I didn't know that the song was a hit by The 1975; I liked it but never looked it up out of laziness. Then in my podcast listening and research for my blog, I started hearing how much Aaron Gillespie loved The 1975. This recommendation didn't actually turn me on to them. I assumed that the band was another art rock band like The War on Drugs , which I got into somewhat relucta