NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  The 2013 film Begin Again stars Keira Knghtley , Mark Ruffalo , Maroon 5 ’s Adam Levine . The film tells the story of a heartbroken English singer-songwriter, Gretta James (Knightley), betrayed by her boyfriend, David Kohl (Levine), when he becomes a superstar and cheats on her while on tour. Gretta processes the breakup by recording an album dealing with the end of the relationship. But beyond the theme of heartbreak, the film deals with the state of the music industry. Without spoiling the ending, Gretta sticks it to the joint-stock capitalist record label in a very satisfying way.  HELL, JUST THROW ME. I want to talk about my admiration for the film, and I’m sure I will. But today I’m pissed off, and it has to deal with he subject of this song. So I’m going to rant instead. I’m in America righ now, specifically Anytown, USA where there’s no god damn Internet. My parents don’t have Internet and I’m going though withdrawals. Fortunately, I have mobile data but the fucking cellphone

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 the '80s.  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. Today I

In 2007,  Falling Up  released their third studio record,  Captiva , returning to the production of  Aaron Sprinkle . Unlike their debut album  Crashings , also recorded with Sprinkle, on  Captiva,  Sprinkle plays the role as songwriter alongside lead singer  Jessy Ribordy .  Captiva  also marked the end of four years of a daunting release schedule. Their debut album and follow-up  Dawn Escapes   were released within just 20 months of each other. They then released their remix album,  Exit Lights  a year later.  Captiva  attempted to keep hype in the Christian Rock and pop market, releasing four singles, the first of which is today's song, " Hotel Aquarium ." ALL THE LONELINESS IS FILLED BY YOU INSIDE . By Falling Up's third album, Captiva, musicians started shuffling to other, more successful, more overtly Christian bands. Falling Up's lyrics started mentioning Greek gods and space. Frankly, Ribordy's lyrics sounded more like an acid trip and less like a chu

In April 2012, five months before they released their second album,  The Peace of Wild Things ,  Paper Route  performed a concert in an art studio, which was filmed and aired as the third episode of Brigham Young University Television's music show,  Audio Files .  The show only lasted for two seasons, but the first episode featured then up-and-coming band  Imagine Dragons .  Paper Route performed songs from their first album  Absence ,  but also indulged listeners' expectation by performing several songs from their upcoming album and shared stories about the songs and the recording process. WE WELCOME YOU THIS EVENING.   The entire performance used to be up on the show's now defunct website, but now we can only watch " Wish " and " Tamed ," on YouTube, the latter being a short eerie duet with singer-songwriter  Cacie Dalager , lead singer of the indie band  Now, Now , and harpist  Timbre . I don't remember all of the songs Paper Route performed on th

MUNA ’s third and self-titled album   was released on June 24th. Their album gives the single from September 2021, “ Silk Chiffon ,” a home. The band also released three other singles from the 11-track album prior to its release. But in early June last year, MUNA released a non-album track--a cover of Britney Spears ’ 1999 bubblegum ballad “ Sometimes ”--for the Hulu original film Fire Island , also released on the same day. The film was written by and stars comedian Joel Kim Booster and co-stars the Saturday Night Live openly gay comedian Bowan Yang in a modern queer retelling of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice set in New York's legendary LGBTQ+ haven.   BABY, ALL I NEED IS TIME.   “Sometimes” is Britney Spears’ second single from her debut record, ...baby one more time . Following her smash #1 hit “ …Baby One More Time ,” “Sometimes” takes a more laidback adult contemporary sound. Like many of the songs on Britney’s debut record, “Sometimes” was produced by Max Martin

  While Mae has emphasized that they "are not a Christian band," the second full-length original record, The Everglow ,  on  Tooth & Nail debuted atop Billboard 's Christian albums charts in 2005. For many Mae fans, The Everglow is the album on which the band best demonstrates their vision of being a Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience, engaging listeners with artwork accompanying the album as a "read along booklet." The album's " Prologue " invites listeners to view the album artwork insert in a similar way that children may listen to books on tape from the library.  LOVE, IT'S THE WAVE I RIDE THAT WON'T EVER REACH THE SHORE. Musically, Mae treats listeners to sappy melodies that bring us along on a range of sad-to-happy emotions on The Everglow. The album starts a little slow with the piano-vocal composition " We're So Far Away ," which feels a bit Broadway for the Virginia Beach-based band. But then The Everglow turns

Coming to the end of the year, it's time to remember some of the musical highlights of 2022. I listened to a lot of music this year and maybe more new music than last year. But there certainly were albums that slipped under the radar. I had every intention of digging into  The Weeknd 's  Dawn FM   ,  but somehow I was never in that dark of a mood to resonate with the characteristics of that record. Today, I'm going to reveal my controversial list. Enjoy! #10 .  The Loneliest Time  by  Carly Rae Jepsen . The latest from the " Call Me Maybe " singer is a record that isn't immediately catchy and could easily fall between the cracks because of all the big releases of this year. The diverse singles showed different camera angles of a maturing pop singer who has solidified her status in music nerd-dom and gay music listeners alike. And with her first explicit labeled song, Jepsen is distancing herself from former tween-friendly aesthetic. I'm sure next year I