NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Big TV is White Lie's first concept record. Every song on the record is part of a story in which a woman in the U.K. decides that her current relationship is not fulfilling, so she decides to wander around Europe in order to find herself. The fourth track, after the instrumental " Space i ,” helps to begin this journey. Whereas " Big TV " was the story's status quo, " There Goes Our Love Again " was the rising action in which the female protagonist wanders away from stability into something more adventurous, leaving her stable partner, and finding a life of her own. WE GO LIVE IN A HEARTBEAT. I remember radio call in shows. If you were the 20th caller or something like that, if you could answer the trivia question, you could win tickets to a concert, go on an all-expense-paid trip to Disney world, or $1000. The pop radio station out of Charlotte was giving away money as they always did, but suddenly my mom tuned in and started trying to call. It was li

  I first encountered  White Lies  in 2009 on an iTunes sampler. The song was " Farewell to the Fairground ," a song from their freshman album  To Lose My Life...  Their follow up album,  Ritual ,  was unimpressive, and I kind of forgot about this band until I heard their single " There Goes Our Love Again, " from their 2013 album  Big TV .  The album is certainly their strongest to date and plays like a New Wave album, taking influence from the most venerated post-punk acts of the ‘80s but released thirty years late. The song " Big TV " deals with themes of modern city life in regards to alienation, capitalism, and fleeting trends. Its electronic feel sounds like it's the kind of music that would be playing late at night, coming from the blue light of a big TV in a studio apartment downtown. YOU CAN RAISE A STAR FROM GARBAGE ON THE STREET.  Big TV  is a concept album, following a woman who leaves a relationship she’s unhappy with to find a lifestyle t

The first single and second song from their third record   " There Goes Our Love Again " sets  White Lies  firmly in synth-based post-punk. The Manchester-based band released   Big TV   in August of 2013. The lead single only charted in Belgium, where the album was produced, and the album's cover art was acclaimed by Pitchfork , which rated it as one of the best of 2013. But, if there's any consistent theme in my blog, I try to champion the underrated, and in my opinion,  Big TV is truly one of the most underrated rock albums of the 2010s, and " There Goes Our Love Again " one of the most underrated pop-rock songs. HOME IS A DESPERATE END.   In The Guardian 's review of Big TV , the critic talks about the concept of the album. The story tells of a young woman who has left her unfaithful boyfriend ("There Goes Our Love Again") to find happiness in running around in Europe. In a track-by-track audio commentary  of the album in which the band tal

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

Following up their 2013 album  Big TV , West-London-based post-punk band White Lies released their fourth album  Friends in 2016. The album continues on the band's homage to the '80s, though the synths are not always as prominent as their first and third albums. Lyrical themes deal with friendship deterioration, alienation, and loneliness, yet the ebullience of the music often disguises the sadness in the lyrics. NO, I'M NOT GOING TO BREAK YOUR HEART. White Lies started their career on a high note in the UK, but never really crossed over to the American market. The band formed in 2007 after ending an indie rock band called Fear of Flying the three member members of White Lies played in high school. In high school, the boys enjoyed listening to groups like Talking Heads and Franz Ferdinand , but with the inception of White Lies, the band claimed musical influence from Joy Division , Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Killers. The band decided to take a gap year between high

  I first encountered White Lies in 2009 on an iTunes sampler. The song was " Farewell to the Fairground ," a song from their freshman album To Lose My Life...  Their follow up album,  Ritual ,  was unimpressive, and I kind of forgot about this band until I heard their single " There Goes Our Love Again, " from their 2013 album Big TV . The album is certainly their strongest to date and plays like a New Wave album, taking influence from the most venerated post-punk acts of the ‘80s but released thirty years late. The song " Big TV " deals with themes of modern city life in regards to alienation, capitalism, and fleeting trends. Its electronic feel sounds like it's the kind of music that would be playing late at night, coming from the blue light of a big TV in a studio apartment downtown. AND YOU CAN GET ME WORK, BUT I CAN'T WORK FOR FREE.  A few years ago, CollegeHumor released a video about Zen Buddhist riddles for millennials . The line that I c