NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Rather than reposting U2 ’s “ New Year’s Day ” for the fourth year, I started the year with my Top 23 Songs 2023. I stuck to one song per artist, and the order is in flux. I’ve blogged about some of these songs, and some of them not yet. I’ll briefly describe the song and link to the original post if I wrote about it before. This isn't a list like Paste or Billboard; it's purely subjective. These songs I found myself listening to a lot this year. 23. “ DJ Play a Christmas Song ”  by Cher . I'm not sure if this is going to be a novelty song or a perennial classic, but one thing is sure--it's going to sound dated. Maybe it was the anthem we needed after several socially-distanced holidays. 22. “ Over ”  by Chvrches . Last year, I started listening to the Scottish synth-pop band. Their 2021 album Screen Violence was an excellent concept album. "Over" feels like an extension to the already extended album . 21. “ Take Me Home, Country Roads ” by Lana Del Rey . In r

The ‘90s in rock music started quietly. Hair metal was still around, but vibey New Wave tracks had gained traction in the late ‘80s. It was an eclectic time without a clear direction for a musical style. Of course that all changed in the fall of 1991 when Nirvana burst onto the scene and Alternative and mainstream rock listeners determined that grunge would be the collective musical trend. Just as disco didn't die in 1979, the New Romantics sound of the late ‘80s carried over into the early ‘90s. In fact, in the early ‘90s, New Order , The Smiths ’ Morrisey , and Depeche Mode enjoyed their peak success. For Depeche Mode, that success came from a dark pop song, which crossed the Alternative Rock band over to the pop charts with the single from their seventh album Violator , “ Enjoy the Silence .” ALL I EVER WANTED, ALL I EVER NEEDED IS HERE IN MY ARMS. Produced by the now legendary Mark Ellis, better known as Flood , Violator was years of dark electronica in the making. Flood’s fi

Netflix's  Song Exploder   tells the story of the first single from The Killers ' second album,  Sam's Town .  Toward the end of touring for their debut record,  Hot Fuss ,  The Killers started work on their second record .  The band changed their musical direction slightly for  Sam's Town , incorporating influences of Americana into their New Wave sound. Taking musical and lyrical influence from the Asbury Park superstar,  Bruce Springsteen , The Killers set out to tell the stories about the West and Las Vegas, a town they call home. From the opening guitar riff, inspired by the feeling of driving in the desert, to the spiritual conations in the lyrics, " When You Were Young " is an early track that shows the themes of the band in more recent years. WAITING ON SOME BEAUTIFUL BOY TO SAVE YOU FROM YOUR OLD WAYS.  I mostly skipped over The Killers' sophomore release,  Sam's Town . Critics and fans, too, were mixed on the album. The band who had named the

The Cure 's " Lovesong " peaked at number 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 in October of 1989. Hit Parade 's 2019 episode " Lost and Lonely Edition ,"  detailing the British Post-Punk movement, views this unlikely pop hit as a kind of peak of the movement that continued into the early '90s.  Of course, The Cure's commercial success came after years of songs that didn't chart and even the invention of a music chart for Alternative Rock bands, at the time called Billboard's Modern Rock Chart.  HOWEVER FAR AWAY, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. When Billboard launched the Modern Rock chart in 1988, "left of the dial" college radio stations began reporting the songs that they were playing. Some of the bands included on the predecessor to today's Alternative Airplay chart were established on other charts-- U2 , Elvis Costello , Tears for Fears had mainstream rock and pop hits prior to charting on the Modern Rock chart. However, other acts like

Today is a perfect day to revisit Kodaline 's In a Perfect World . The cover of the album reminds me of a summer day at the lake. The music soundtracks the drive to that lake outing as well as the lazy afternoon you spend in a coffee shop with a friend to beat the heat. However this summer is finding you; indoors or outdoors, rain or shine; I hope that listening to Kodaline's first album is the perfect accompaniment to these hot days! 1. " One Day ." The album starts with a radio-ready track. We're immediately drawn into Steve Garrigan 's unique vocals. Sometimes his Irish accent comes through, particularly on "through the eyes of someone else." The song builds from a simple guitar to more climactic backing vocals on the final chorus. The band re-recorded the song in 2014 , a year after the album's release, short-cutting the build, making the backing vocals even bigger. Both versions of the song are worth a listen, but the original fits better wi

It wasn't until last Fall that I listened to Tom Petty 's second solo record, Wildflowers . To be fair, I actually hadn't listened to his first solo record Full Moon Fever or any of his albums with The Heartbreakers . But in high school, I'm pretty sure that my sister and I wore the band's Greatest Hits  record out in my car CD player. Songs like " Refugee ," " Mary Jane's Last Dance ," and "You Got Lucky" eventually skipped from all the bumps we must have hit in my '91 Toyota Corolla and its awful suspension.I think that's the way that most of us experience a classic rock band, not through their definitive albums but on a compilation.  RUN AWAY; GO FIND A LOVER. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their Greatest Hits record in 1993. The Greatest Hits record included two new tracks, a cover of Thunderclap Newman 's " Something in the Air " and "Mary Jane's Last Dance," the former becoming a

Formed in 1992 as the house band for a series of UK youth outreach events called  The Cutting Edge ,  delirious?  became a full-time band after singer  Martin Smith  was hospitalized for several weeks after a car accident in 1995. Smith read Bill Flanagan's book  U2: At the End of the World ,  inspiring him to make the band a full-time career. The band released their second full-length studio album,  King of Fools ,  and their first under the moniker Delirious. The song " Deeper " hit the  UK pop charts , unexpectedly, peaking at number 20. The band would sign to  Sparrow Records  for their U.S. distribution, spanning several CCM and Christian Rock hits and helping to create the next generation of worship music. Delirious's music is usually worship, but they are a jam band at their core, particularly evidenced by their two follow-up records to  King of Fools,  Mezzamorphis   and  Glo .  The band writes anthems that sound like  U2 , but include electronic experimentati