NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Remember what I said about Taylor Swift steering away from narcissism in folklore and evermore ? Well that version of Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, at least not at Midnights , particularly the album’s lead single “ Anti-Hero .” Two weeks ago Taylor Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights  to unprecedented chart and sales success. And this week, tracks from Midnights populate every spot on Billboard’s Top 10 of the Hot 100 .   I’M THE PROBLEM, IT’S ME.  I still have yet to spend a meaningful amount of time with Midnights . The little time I have spent with it made me feel a little underwhelmed after spending so much time with the lush instrumentation and lyrics on folklore . Midnights is a return to form for Taylor Swift the pop star, but as I read more about the record and spend a little more time with it, it seems to be a return to form with a new richness absent of pre- folklore   Swift. I think my initial impression is wrong, but I haven’t been listening to m

Brace yourself for today's song. On Anberlin 's legendary third record, Cities , listeners are eased into one of Anberlin's fastest guitar-riff heavy tracks with an atmosphere-building track ( Début ). The instrumental track feels like Jerry Martin 's epic Sim City 4   score, using guitars and sampled recordings to paint a dingy, urban landscape. What Anberlin creates with their third record is a portrait of wandering anonymously through bustling but lonely metropolises. In contrast to the "thousand names" lead singer Stephen Christian talks about in " Hello Alone ," the singer talks about the theme of the album as "Man vs. Self," and those introspective lyrics can be heard throughout the record. THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG. But "Godspeed" isn't so much an introverted emo track as it is a hard rock cautionary tale about rock stars who die too young, leaving their fans wrecked by the wasted potential celebritie

Dutch DJ  Armin van Buuren 's sixth studio album  Embrace   was released in 2015. The album topped the Dutch charts and reached number 4 on the  Billboard  US Dance/ Electronica charts. " Heading Up High " was released as a single in February 2016. The song featured Dutch rock band  Kensington . The band had formed in 2005 and had modest success in the Netherlands and Belgium. Like groups like  A-ha ,  Scorpions , and  Blindside , Kensington prefers to record songs in English rather than their native tongue. "Heading Up High" reached number 40 on the Dutch charts. It's a pop song, but it also has clear rock origins. These days, EDM has mostly ignores rock, yet 'rock bands' such as  Imagine Dragons  and  Coldplay  have incorporated more and more electronic elements to stay relevant. The smokey, rock-vocal style of  Eloi Youssef   makes for an interesting dance track along with the the synthetic sounding electric guitar.  WHEN YOU'RE HOLDING ONTO A

Silversun Pickups came at the end of the Indie Rock revolution of the early '00s. The bromine-colored album jacketed  Swoon was a smash hit on Alternative and Active Rock stations, even gaining the band entry into the Hot 100 on the first and third singles, " Panic Switch " and " The Royal We ."   Swoon is a more refined version of the band's debut,  Carnavas , though there was a time when Silversun Pickups seemed to be a desired sound with tracks on Guitar Hero and Rock Band from both Swoon and Carnavas  and a Grammy nomination for best new artist. Today, though, the band is relatively obscure, despite continuing to release music, most recently late August's Physical Thrills .  HOW MANY WAYS DO YOU WANT TO DIE? Swoon starts off with the fast-tempo track " There's No Secrets This Year " easily recalling the garage rock shoegaze of Silversun Pickups' first record Carnavas. The track is energetic, and while the lyrics feel a little poi

  Muna 's 2017 record  About U  takes listeners on a rollercoaster of emotion. Unlike their 2019  Saves the World   record,  About U  focuses on the positive and negative of being in love and breaking up.  About U  doesn't enjoy the near universal acclaim that their follow up has, but album helped to establish the three-piece band of queer musicians on the scene of Alternative dark synth pop. Today the sadness, desperation, and loneliness of " If U Love Me Now " resonated with the sadness felt by the nation of South Korea after the tragic events of Saturday night  in which at least 153 people lost their loves, crushed in a stampede during Halloween festivities. While today's song doesn't deal with the topic of tragedy, it is a very sad song, so I think it reflects my feelings about an otherwise beautiful Halloween day. IT'S JUST A HYPOTHESIS I TEST. “If U Love Me Now”  explores the theme of mental illness and suicide. The singer explores options before tel

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

  Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, or Halsey , released If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power  in 2021, recording with Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross . The production leans into Nine Inch Nails’ industrial sound, making Halsey both a rocker and a dark pop artist on her latest album. The emotions are high in the singer's latest record; Halsey called the album “a concept record about the horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.”  EVERY MORNING GOT A HOLLOW WHERE MY HEART GOES.  The album’s cover features Halsey sitting on a throne with a bare breast exposed and holding a baby, inspired by various artistic depictions of the Madonna and Child, Mary and the Christ child, a kind of crèche scene, though the focus seems completely on the “god” herself, not the child. Some of the themes on the record deal with the singer’s bisexuality and non-binary gender identity. As of last March, Halsey claims both “she/her” and “they/them” pronouns. Wrapped into the fabric of Halsey’s mus