NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

2017's  After Laughter   is arguably the best  Paramore  record both lyrically and musically. Musically, it's a pop album borrowing synths from the '80s, interesting drum arrangement, and some pensive guitars here and there. And although most songs are in major keys, lead singer and lyricist  Haley Williams  masterfully disguises some of the band's darkest lyrics with smiles and summertime vibes. The most telling track is  "Fake Happy,"   but also songs like  "Pool"  and  "Rose-Colored Boy"  show this beautiful confusion between  being the life of the party and dealing with other things inside. The name of the album itself is telling. Williams explains that the meaning is the expression the faces of a room full of people stop laughing. Smiles start to fade, maybe some tears are wiped away. While you may debate whether this band fits into their emo punk rock sound, the lyrics are an unadulterated emotional roller coaster. I CAN'T CALL YO

On January 14th, Underoath released their ninth studio record, the self-produced Voyeurist . Today, Labeled launched a new video series called Deep Dives on YouTube. The series sets out to document the creative process of creating music. In this season Underoath will talk about the background to their latest album. In the first episode, the band talks about tensions in the band surrounding their polarizing eighth studio record, Erase Me , released in 2018.    The band talks about their recording process  with producer Matt Squire who almost therapeutically helped the band work through their creative differences on their last record, ultimately producing an album very different for the band. On Voyeurist,  though, the band decided to channel what they learned from Squire and previous producer Matt Goldman and craft another very different Underoath record. GOTTA CLEAN YOURSELF UP BEFORE YOU FADE AWAY. "I'm Pretty Sure" is Spencer Chamberlain at his best--singing and scream

The fourth track on Kye Kye 's sophomore record, Fantasize , " Glass " continues to build the atmosphere on this Chad Howat -produced record. Back in 2014, there was still hope that Kye Kye could be the next big Christian band. Their 2011 debut, Young Love  landed them a feature interview in Relevant Magazine  and their follow up was well-reviewed in several Christian publications, including CCM Magazine . The band's story was fascinating for the Christian market. Siblings Tim and Olga  Yagolnikov grew up in a conservative Russian churches in Estonia before moving to the United States. In the Relevant article, Tim explains that the siblings' religious upbringing wasn't "really grace-centered, it’s really kind of more legalistic." Tim explains that their religious culture was "not for salvation, it’s for blessing or right-standing with God." TO HOLD ONTO AN IMAGE OF SHADOWS YOU REMEMBER. According to my Apple Music's "Replay '21

In March, I talked about Kye Kye's 2014 single, "I Already See It"   and gave a brief history of the band and their connection to the Christian music scene. Since their 2014 release, the 4-piece band, originally composed of siblings Olga, Timothy, and Alex Yagolnikov along with Olga's husband, Thomas Phelan, now is a duo of Olga and Timothy. They broke their six-year hiatus last year, releasing an eerie single titled "A Forest," an electronic rhapsody incorporating singing and spoken word and scary sounding electronic tones. Then, in June of this year, the duo started releasing a series of two-track singles that would be part of their July 30 release of the 16-track Arya. But with Kye Kye's hiatus and without a record label, the album is quite under the radar. One listener on Twitter called the album, " an ode to Bowie and Brian Eno ," and that sounds appropriate. Much of the tracks are not catchy--they don't often follow a pop-song formula

Kye Kye released two albums in the early 2010s. My earliest memory with this indie-electronic band was their single "Broke" on RadioU , which took a while to grow on their listenership, failing to beat the other singles of the week on their " Battle of the Buzz " program. However, when the single was finally released to regular rotation, it quickly topped their " TMW " (Ten Most Wanted) program. That summer, I saw the band perform at Cornerstone in the Come & Live tent before or after Showbread. Lead singer, Olga Yagolnikov Phelan, seemed a little shy when talking to the audience, but the band sounded great when performing. The band's strength lies in their atmospheric sound rather than their spiritually cryptic lyrics.  TAKE YOUR TIME; I ALREADY SEE IT. One Saturday night in college some of my friends and I were invited to one of our professor’s homes. That night the professor taught us a game involving classic issues of National Geographic and