NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

John Mayer released his first studio album,  Room for Squares,  20 years ago, in June 2001 on an indie label and rereleased it on September 18, 2001 on Columbia Records, though his first single, "No Such Thing" didn't hit the radio until February 2002. Room sold over 4 million copies and was Mayer's most commercially successful album. Mayer's success comes after dropping out of college--Berklee College of Music, a college in Boston where many contemporary musicians attended--and moving to Atlanta to begin writing and producing music with fellow musician Clay Cook. After the success of his first album, Mayer became a collaborator with other singer-songwriters, both his contemporaries and his influences. The songs on Room for Squares  are often autobiographical. Mayer set out to be the '70s singer songwriter for the new millennium. Born in 1977, the 24 year old sings about going back to his home when he was six years old in "83." He uses some effective

Shawn Mendes's first four albums all debuted at number one on Billboard's Hot 200 Album Chart. Born in 1998, he holds the records of being the youngest artist ever to achieve a number one record, the youngest artist ever to achieve two number one records, then three number one records, then four number one records. Like Troye Sivan, Charlie Puth, and Justin Bieber, Mendes gained popularity through posting his songs--first covers, then originals--on YouTube. Handwritten, Mendes's debut album was released in 2015 when the singer was sixteen years old. Filled with acoustic guitar ballads, like the UK number 1 hit, "Stitches," audiences found that the Canadian self-taught guitar-playing singer's music was  refreshing voice in pop music.  "Imagination" was released on  Handwritten (Deluxe Edition)   and is a straight-forward pop song about teenage infatuation.  MAYBE THIS WILL BE THE NIGHT. Erasmus said in his magnum opus The Praise of Folly , "Every

TRXYE was Troye Sivan 's major label debut EP in 2014. The Australian singer had started his career in 2007 by posting videos of his songs on YouTube . Meanwhile, while his musical career was taking off, he started acting, playing roles in musicals, plays, and even landing the role of young Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009. TRXYE sees the teen singer grow up. The EP charted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 , though his follow up, Wild , and debut studio album, Blue Neighborhoods,  would greatly overshadow the collection of songs on TRXYE. Perhaps less mature than Blue Neighborhoods and Bloom , songs like "Happy Little Pill," "Fun," "The Fault in Our Stars (MMXIV), and "Touch" remind listeners what is fun about electronic dream pop. Even if listeners missed this era of Troye Sivan, it's certainly worth a trip back to younger, less explicit, that's sexy without being explicitly so.  GLOW IS LOW AND IT'S DIMMING. The jazz pl

  Speaking of massive hits of the late’90s, The Goo Goo Dolls ’ 1998 album Dizzy Up the Girl also encapsulates that acoustic alt-rock sound that listeners can instantly identify the era. The follow up to their massive 4x platinum record released four years later, Gutterflower charted higher than their previous records, but ultimately sold much less than Dizzy . The band continues to release music from time to time, but their heyday remains in 1998. Gutterflower is a fine record and “ Here Is Gone ” is a fine song. But the acoustic rock band from Buffalo, NY had been there and done that, and the 2002 music scene was moving past pop rock aimed at adult contemporary radio. I WAS NOT THE ANSWER SO FORGET IT WAS EVER ME. Johnny Rzeznik has said that the music video for "Here Is Gone," which features some of the time  film tricks, sped up footage of several scenes, cost more to produce than the entire album. The video at youth counterculture in what looks like urban decay. The

  In 1995, the band Ednaswap , a female-fronted rock band from Los Angeles, almost released their song, " Torn ," as a single. However, nobody knows Ednaswap's version. Singer  Lis Sørensen  recorded the song in Danish as " Brændt " before Ednaswap recorded it in English. Ednaswap's version draws some comparisons to female-fronted rock bands of the time like Garbage or some songs by the Cranberries. In 1996 the song was covered by American-Norwegian singer Trine Rein , whose popularity declined with the release of her second album. None of the previous versions would be remembered by the English-speaking world. " Torn " is best known for its 1997 recording by Australian soap opera actress -turned singer Natalie Imbruglia , whose version topped the US Airplay charts for 11 weeks. In the UK, the song is the most played '90s song, and in Australia, it is the most played song on the radio since its release in 1997. THERE'S NOTHING WHERE HE USED

A short lived indie-rock band from Dallas, Texas, The New Frontiers released one full-length album on The Militia Group in 2008 before calling it quits the following year. Their album Mending was produced by Matt Goldman , the Atlanta-based producer known for heavy-hitting bands, like Underoath, The Chariot, and As Cities Burn. Goldman, however, isn't exclusively a hard rocker. Working as the drummer of the Christian Rock band Smalltown Poets, Goldman's early production credits include Luxury, Copeland, and Casting Crowns. The New Frontiers' mellow folk-rock album, Mending drew critical acclaim from Paste and Daytrotter. The band contributed the track "Mirrors" to the the 2008 Cornerstone Festival digital mixtape along with many other indie rock acts who performed at the festival. "Mirrors" deals with coming to terms with an inescapable realization of who one is by "mak[ing] peace with the world." THIS IS THE HOUSE WERE YOU WERE BORN . The c

Bright, happy music is what you could describe Taeyeon 's 2015 debut EP, I . The label also fits for her debut studio album, 2017's My Voice . However, amid the happy, soaring melodies, there is a twinge of wistful nostalgia in the lyrics. Songs like the lead single " Fine " and the standout track "Time Lapse," give the Girls' Generation singer a mature sound, quite far from the realm of the girl band's dance-pop sounds. "Time Lapse" was composed by Nell's lead singer, Kim Jong-wan for the soprano singer. Taeyeon also released a cover of Nell's "Time Spent Walking Through Memories," one of the band's biggest hits, as a bonus track on the My Voice deluxe edition. The title of Taeyeon's debut album alludes to her relationship with her standout feature. In middle school, her principal encouraged her to pursue her talents and convinced her parents to invest in their daughter's talents. This investment came to mean