NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

The second single from the 2006 album Eyes Open  after the album opener and rocker, " You're All I Have ," "Chasing Cars" is the most recognized song by  Snow Patrol . The band's frontman and songwriter Gary Lightbody said that he wrote the song after sobering up after a white wine binge in the garden of producer Jacknife Lee 's cottage. Lightbody told Rolling Stone  that "Chasing Cars" is "the purest love song I've ever written. There's no knife-in-the-back twist." He stated that "all the other songs I've written have a dark edge." While the song and video for "Chasing Cars" don't have a dark side, the connotation the song has with dramas like Grey's Anatomy and One Tree Hill  certainly wields the knife so carefully left out by the songwriter.  LET'S WASTE TIME CHASING CARS. As tempting as it is to make a Bad Romance playlist or Sad Romance playlist, I've decided to make my Spotify al

When I made my Under the Covers, Vol. 1 playlist last week, I knew that I would be making Volume 2 soon after. However, I didn't think it would be exactly one week later. Because of my rule of one song per artist, I couldn't simply add today's cover of The Weeknd 's " Blinding Lights " to Volume 1. However, if I followed the same rules for last week's playlist, covers only featured on my blog, I'd only have two songs in the playlist. So, I opened it up to covers of songs featured in the playlist. I made this playlist with YouTube because some of the songs aren't available on streaming services. I'm sure that I missed some. I had to add a few to last week's playlist I had overlooked. Here's volume 2: 1. " Blinding Lights " (The Weeknd cover) by Kurt Hugo Schneider & Sam Tsui 2. " True Faith " ( New Order cover ) by Anberlin 3. "Love Me Like You Do" (Ellie Goulding cover) by Boyce Avenue 4. "Eas

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming contain's M83 's biggest hit, " Midnight City ." Everything on Hurry Up, is calculated to give listeners, including M83's sole member Anthony Gonzalez, the maximum amount of nostalgia. After a song-length, mood-setting intro, "Midnight City" builds on a riff for three minutes before climaxing in a saxophone solo, unheard in most music since 1988.* Track three, "Reunion," builds on layers of guitars and harmonies by one singer. This guitar-based M83 is a bit rare in their catalogue, as most of M83 is programing in synthesizers with touches of guitar here and there. But a guitar-based track is no-less nostalgic. It's that '80s chord progression heard in New Wave rockers and glam hair metal that sounded so cool to a young Gonzalez, listening to music in his bedroom growing up that bleeds into this song. The lyrics beg for a reunion with a loved one who has gone away.  A NEVER-ENDING DANCE. For today's post

In October of last year, The War on Drugs returned after four years with their critically-acclaimed album, I Don't Live Here Anymore . The title track and lead single features indie pop group Lucius as backing vocals on the chorus.  Like their previous works, such as  A Deeper Understanding  (2017) and    Lost in the Dream   (2014),  The War on Drugs is able to play two chords back to back for six minutes and create a song that you never want to end. Those two chords create a warm cadence that's like a bonfire on a cold fall night. And that's reason enough to curl up with a blanket and enjoy The War on Drugs all day long. I NEED A CHANCE TO BE REBORN.  However, unlike their previous works, today's song " I Don't Live Here Anymore ," to me, sounds like an anachronistic '80s or early '90s hit. It's kind of like what Mic the Snare said about " Blinding Lights ": "It's just like that one song. Uh? Which one?" Is it "

If you believe in the Illuminati, Max Martin would certainly be a candidate of prestigious behind the scenes powers or principalities degenerating the minds of youth through pop music. I've talked about Martin's consistency on the pop charts when I talked about Coldplay's " Higher Power " last year. Since then I've learned a lot more about the Swedish force in the American pop charts. Martin, along with his "disciples" Shellback, Dr. Luke, and Savan Kotecha have been the go-to producers to get a pop act on the radio and charting highly. But if you want a track to go to number one, get it produced by Max Martin. Today, we're looking at one of Martin's first success stories. TELL ME WHY. Listening to "I Want It That Way" always triggers a particular funk. It's 1999 in the back of an old church van. It's middle school, and we're listening to pop radio because the conservative wave of "no music with a beat" leaders