NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Berlin 's 1986 light-rock hit " Take My Breath Away " in its somewhat cheesy ascending scaled-note chorus speaks to the common human experience of falling in love with someone. The old aphorism, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," speaks to the times when life surprises us so much that if the shock of the good surprise were to kill us, we would have died happy. In other words, I may feel "so happy that I could die." These moments are breathtaking, like seeing a Van Gogh in person, seeing  a beautiful woman, or experiencing a new life.   Perhaps this is what  The Weeknd  intended for his lead single from  Dawn FM ,  " Take My Breath ," but in typical  Weeknd  fashion, the video and the lyrics hint at a darker side of those breathtaking moments. YOU'RE OFFERING YOURSELF TO ME LIKE SACRIFICE.  Since   Beauty Behind the Madness   brought The Weeknd to the forefront of popular

Back in 2010, we learned that yes, a pickle can get more likes than  Nickelback , a band that had become the most hated  "butt rock"  band in the mid-'00s. In fact, the conclusions of the social media study found that a pickle had more likes than Oprah Winfrey or other beloved figures. It turns out that internet users' hate outweighs Internet love, or the terrible outweighs the good. In 2014, the most hated rock band would become  U2  after their release of  Songs of Innocence   was forced into every  iTunes user's library. People tried everything to scrub the songs from their shuffle. Today, people have mostly forgotten about Nickelback, and Apple Music no longer comes standard with that U2 album, so people have other musical axes to grind. Justin Bieber has grown up and is no longer blaring in our cultural continuousness. So who is the most hated band these days? After the 2019 Super Bowl,   Maroon 5 , for taking to the stage when the NFL was in the middle of ra

Ah! The weekend: a time when many of us can breathe that collective sigh of relief, leaving our forty hours at the office, forgetting about the boss, and maybe making some time for Number 1. Before I read into  The Weeknd ’s 2015 hit, the upbeat track reminded me of catching a fresh cup of Guatemalan iced coffee before catching a bus to meet friends for a weekend in another city. One weekend, I was in a cafe in Hongdae that was playing covers of hit songs and I heard a female version of " Can't Feel My Face " playing. I can't be sure if it was  Andie Case 's  version . However, after adding Case's version of The Weeknd's #1 hit, I think it gives an interesting, mellow take on the normally, upbeat song. It's the alternate perspectives that makes YouTube cover artists and interesting addition to your music library. SHE TOLD ME 'DON'T WORRY.  ' The Weeknd is known for his melancholy, self-destructive tunes. However, Andie Case's vibey cove

  Last year, I ranked The Weeknd ’s Dawn FM as my fourth-best album of the year, right behind Underoath ’s Voyeurist . While I’d probably re-rank the list and add a few albums I missed like Lizzy McAlpine ’s five seconds flat , I still admire my fifth and fourth-placed records. Although I ranked The Weeknd and Underoath highly last year, I didn’t listen to either artist’s album very much for similar reasons. Voyeurist was a dark album dealing with drug addiction, suicide, and hopelessness. Unlike Underoath’s Christian albums, the darkness had the reprieve of light somewhere within a song or the album. However, the post-Christian Underoath offered an album so dark that I couldn’t listen to it, especially with some of the stuff that I was going through last year. Similarly, The Weeknd's Dawn FM was a beautifully crafted album, but it was too dark for me to enjoy for my mental state last year. I REMEMBER WHEN I HELD YOU. On paper, Dawn FM should have been my album of the year last ye

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 person behind the music. I've written

Berlin 's 1986 light-rock hit " Take My Breath Away " in its somewhat cheesy ascending scaled-note chorus speaks to the common human experience of falling in love with someone. The old aphorism, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away," speaks to the times when life surprises us so much that if the shock of the good surprise were to kill us, we would have died happy. In other words, I may feel "so happy that I could die." These moments are breathtaking, like seeing a Van Gogh in person, seeing  a beautiful woman, or experiencing a new life.   Perhaps this is what  The Weeknd  intended for his lead single from Dawn FM ,  " Take My Breath ," but in typical  Weeknd  fashion, the video and the lyrics hint at a darker side of those breathtaking moments. YOU'RE OFFERING YOURSELF TO ME LIKE SACRIFICE.  Since   Beauty Behind the Madness   brought The Weeknd to the forefront of popular m

I've written a bit about how I'm a  Coldplay  apologist. I believe that the London-based band is very good at what they do. Though so many artists accomplish their sound, both musically and lyrically, better, there's something uplifting about a new Coldplay album. Two years ago, I talked about the band's first single from their ninth studio record,   Music of the Spheres , " Higher Power ." The album was released on October 15, 2021 . Before the release of the record and after releasing "Higher Power," the band released the promotional single, the 10:17 track " Coloratura ," which was praised by critics for its composition and production. Then they released the second radio single " My Universe ," featuring the South Korean boy band,  BTS . The song shot straight to number 1 on the  Billboard Hot 100 , becoming the second Coldplay single to top the Hot 100, the first being " Viva la Vida ." I JUST WANT TO PUT YOU FIRST .

  Warning: the following post could be deemed filthy, vile, disgusting, perhaps even Unholy . If you are reading this in the states of Florida, Texas, Montana, the Evangelical parts of Colorado, you may be shocked, outraged, and may feel the urge to contact your local congress person to start an investigation into the FCC's practice of allowing a song that doesn't use profanity to subvert heteronormativity, but rather does so with its gender-fluid music video that depicts Sam Smith arriving to a decadent party at an English mansion with subtle hints at golden showers and drinking a yellow liquid that...wait, what? THIRTY ALMOST GOT ME, AND I'M SO OVER LOVE SONGS .  An Atlantic article published a day before Sam Smith released fourth album Gloria on January 27th this year dives into the recent controversy surrounding the artist. How did a Grammy-winning singer who made music so innocuous that you could enjoy it with your conservative Christian mom gather the old gang of S

Coming to the end of the year, it's time to remember some of the musical highlights of 2022. I listened to a lot of music this year and maybe more new music than last year. But there certainly were albums that slipped under the radar. I had every intention of digging into  The Weeknd 's  Dawn FM   ,  but somehow I was never in that dark of a mood to resonate with the characteristics of that record. Today, I'm going to reveal my controversial list. Enjoy! #10 .  The Loneliest Time  by  Carly Rae Jepsen . The latest from the " Call Me Maybe " singer is a record that isn't immediately catchy and could easily fall between the cracks because of all the big releases of this year. The diverse singles showed different camera angles of a maturing pop singer who has solidified her status in music nerd-dom and gay music listeners alike. And with her first explicit labeled song, Jepsen is distancing herself from former tween-friendly aesthetic. I'm sure next year I