NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Best known for their hit, " Boston ," Augustana is a band whose members met at Greenville University in Illinois, where bands Jars of Clay and Paper Route also formed. Following up their debut album, All the Stars and Boulevards , the band released Can't Love, Can't Hurt  in April of 2008. The lead single, " Sweet and Low " didn't chart as high as "Boston," and the band started fading into obscurity. The band's next album, their self-titled , was praised by American Songwriter ,  but by their fourth record, Life Imitating Life , only lead singer Dan Layus remained in the band.  I'LL DRIVE ALL NIGHT. There's an energy to " Meet You There with Me " that made me think for years that it's all sunshine and roadtrips with the one you love. But the Americana pop-rock song talks more about the ups and downs of a relationship between people who love each other, but ultimately can't understand each other. The hope is that

Before they recorded their breakthrough EP, Sun Giant or their self-titled album that was so loved by Rolling Stone that it was included in their book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, the folk-rock band Fleet Foxes released their debut eponymous EP in 2006. The Seattle-based band appeared on the music scene around the time when mellow music started flooding Alternative music, which had been dominated by hard rock-leaning acts since Nirvana crashed onto the scene. But along with British folk-rockers Mumford & Sons changing the focus from power chords on electric guitars to acoustic guitars and folk instruments, the template was set for a very different, post-rock scene. Fleet Foxes used Flemish painter Pieter  Bruegel the Elder’s  Netherlandish Proverbs for their self-titled album cover. I’M JUST A LITTLE MIRAGE. The YouTube channel Polyphonic  released a video in September 2021 called " A Love Letter to Pop Punk ." The video reminded me of all of the colliding

Two years before her debut album was released, Shura 's debut single, " Touch ," began generating acclaim across the Internet. Working with guitarist and vocalist of the indie rock band Athlete , Joel Pott , Shura began co-producing her album, Nothing's Real . Shura played the keyboards and synthesizers on the record and co-directed the music video for "Touch," which features her twin brother, Nicholas. The single was re-released along with a remix of the track in 2016 before the release of Nothing's Real. Today, "Touch" is Shura's most streamed song on Spotify. I ONLY NEED YOU TO BE FRENCH WITH ME. Born to an English father and a Russian mother Aleksandra Lilah Yakunina-Denton and her brother Nicholas were raised in Manchester, UK. Aleksandra, better known by her stage name, Shura, started playing guitar at the age of 13. By 26, she was gaining popularity in the UK. The video for "Touch," which features lots of kissing between pe

In 2015 when marriage equality was signed into law across the nation, Americans reacted in several ways. There was overt homophobia and blatant hatred often disguised as religion.  One of the last Adventist sermons I listened to was Dwight Nelson arguing that just because a nation can say something is legal doesn't make it moral.  There were   examples of civil disobedience in the courtrooms by the likes of Kim Davis refusing to perform same-sex weddings. There were businesses that refused service to same-sex couples getting married. Many took the law as a win for human rights. Statistics showed in 2015 that support for marriage equality was largely bi-partisan, meaning that people of all backgrounds, liberal or conservative, supported the right to marry. support for the victims following the  Pulse shooting in Orlando YOU TRIED TO SHRUG IT OFF WHEN I ASKED WHY SOMEBODY HURT YOU. Then came June 12, 2016. When I heard the news, it was my 29th birthday-Korean Standard Time June 13th.

Industrialization has come at a major cost. Kentucky-born-and-raised author, poet, activist, and farmer Wendell Berry critiques modern life as being disconnected with nature and thus a root cause of the climate change we see today. One of Berry's most beloved poems, " The Peace of Wild Things ," shows how nature can free the speaker from existential anxiety. With modern life unrelenting and with the anxiety of financing an indie band after their record label folded, with the passing of loved one and a divorce, Paper Route dug into raw emotion lyrically, and yet something held the band together. Taking the title of the album from Berry's poem, Paper Route's The Peace of Wild Things   is a romantic album with a few dark undertones. EVERY CIRCLE WAS A LINE JUST CONNECTED BY DESIGN. The second track on The Peace of Wild Things,   " Two Hearts " builds the themes of love and marriage from the first track, " Love Letters ." The songs are convincing

In 2018  Nick Jonas   and  Priyanka Chopra Jonas   married in two ceremonies. The ceremonies took place in India and represented the religious backgrounds of both the Bollywood-turned-Hollywood actress and the singer/actor. The first ceremony was Christian, taking place on December 1, and the second was Hindu on December 2. In 2019, Nick and the two other Jonas Brothers  released their first album in ten years. Nick's solo career had heated up after the Jonas hiatus, but a reunited Jonas Brothers was even more commercially exciting. In 2021, Nick Jonas was back with a solo record, this time dealing with the themes of isolation due to the pandemic, but mostly about his love for his bride. I'M ON MY KNEES AND I CAN'T STOP NOW. From the moment I heard Nick Jonas's second single from Spaceman ,  " This Is Heaven ," on his Saturday Night Live performance, I started making connections to what I knew about the Jonas Brothers' religious upbringing, particularly t

The sweet melancholy of You Are My Sunshine is always more uplifting than depressing. I've talked about this record so much because it fully encapsulated the winter of 2009 for me. At least the crueler part of winter, January to March or whenever the colder-than-expected winds wind down in Eastern Tennessee, giving way to an at-first temperate early spring to a melting mid-to-late spring, oozing in a concoction of sweat and humidity. Somewhere in the season changes I got the flu and missed a couple of days of school. My roommate and I had a cough that lasted until the end of the winter. And we listened to this album on the boring days. It was the soundtrack to Easy Mac and instant coffee--two things I don't miss at all. AND THE MAN IN THE MOON NEVER MAKES HIS REPLIES UNDERSTOOD. " The Day I Lost My Voice ," is the kind of song about a period in your life that you just can't seem to catch a break. Even the most careful singers often experience laryngitis on tour.