NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Many boys go into the woods and play soldiers or cops and robbers. I did that when I played with other boys, but when I was by myself, I went into the woods and pretended to be someone else. I fantasized about being Michael W. Smith . I'd sing in the forest and dance around like the stones were my audience, pretending to play piano and sometimes guitar making up my own songs. Michael W. Smith is probably the closest Christian music ever got to having a bona fide  male sex symbol, if you exclude Carman for just being creepy. Sure, there were other handsome CCM singers, but no of them played off the scratchy voice and five o'clock shadow the way that Smith's marketing team did.  OF THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS. My fandom of Michael W. Smith lasted the span of three records starting with 1998's Live the Life  and ending with 1999's This Is Your Time with his second Christmas record, Christmastime between them.  Smith's music prior to   Live the Life felt too dated and

  After releasing their fourth album,  Fangs! Falling Up went independent, releasing their albums without a label and crowd-funding to produce them, starting with 2011's Your Sparkling Death Cometh . The album was further departure from their former Christian Radio rock sound, the band expounding upon strange space aesthetics and experimenting with longer song formats and delving deeper into science fiction lyrical themes.  THERE'S A STAR IN THE SKY. In 2013, Falling Up announced the follow up to Your Sparkling Death Cometh would be two records aimed to satisfy two different types of fans the band had gathered. First came Hours , a rock concept album for which lead singer Jessy Ribordy wrote and read an accompanying audiobook. The second record, Midnight on Earthship also had science fiction elements but ultimately the band pushed into their Christian Rock roots to create a spiritually-themed record. But also in 2013, the band released a Christmas record, Silver City . The Ch

In 2003, Relient K released their first Christmas album titled Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand . The record is no longer available for sale or on streaming platforms because the band replaced the ten-track record with 2007's Let It Snow Baby . . . Let It Reindeer . The 2007 version added seven tracks to Deck the Halls. The two versions of Relient K's Christmas record spans two eras of the band. Deck the Halls was released as a bonus disc with the band's third record, Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do , and Let It Snow was released between Five Score and Seven Years Ago and The Birds and the B Sides .  HOW MUCH YOU'VE TOUCHED MY LIFE.  Last month when I was researching Relient K, I found out that there's a fan podcast titled Sadie Hawkins Pod  in which two Relient K fans dig into the band's history, discography, and fandom, delivering their insights to their listeners. I'm not sure if their facts check out because one of the insights they h

In 2007 Aaron Gillespie released Southern Weather   with producer Aaron Sprinkle , under the moniker The Almost . At that time Gillespie was known as the drummer and clean vocalist for Underoath , a band that had just released their biggest record, Define the Great Line , the year before. In many ways, Southern Weather was like the first Foo Fighters record written and performed by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl .  Like Grohl, Gillespie played almost all of the instruments on the record, wrote all of the songs, and then assembled a band to tour with the record. Often filling in on bass, though, is Gillespie's good friend Kenny Vasoli of The Starting Line .    WINTER DAYS MAKE ME SAY, “WHAT THE HEY?" Like all of Aaron Gillespie's projects,  Southern Weather  captures a moment of sincerity in the singer-songwriter's life. Before what some conservative critics might say that Gillespie became the a gitprop for exvangelical deconstruction, The Almost's Southern W

  “ Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow !” was written in 1945 and first recorded by Vaughn Monroe . It’s often grouped with Christmas songs, but the holiday season is never referenced in the lyrics. In fact, in the Southern hemisphere, it is sometimes played in June, July, and August. The song was famously covered by Bing Crosby , Frank Sinatra , and Dean Martin . Other popular adaptations are by Michael Bublé , Jaci Valesquez , and Kacey Musgraves . Today's version comes from Filous with vocals by Florence Arman . It's an extremely moody version of the song. It's not particularly a Christmasy adaptation of the track and more likely to end up on my playlist in January as well if the snowy mood should occur. But for today's post, I wanted to create an Apple Music version of my playlist that I made yesterday, but with a little difference because Apple Music has a bigger song selection. So I present  Christmas '22. Enjoy! Read the lyrics on Genius.

  Today our representative song is Wham!' s " Last Christmas ." Maybe it's overplayed, but it's a synth-pop classic. It's the kind of song that gets stuck in your head for days, and it's okay because it's Christmastime. It's one of the signature songs of Wham!  and one of the most played songs of Christmas. It's been covered by many artists from Jimmy Eat World to Carly Rae Jepsen to Hawk Nelson and each cover has its merit. But today, my Christmas mix begins with the original. Enjoy the mix! 1. "Last Christmas" by Wham! 2. " (Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home " by Anberlin 3. " Wish " by Paper Route  (The band has a bigger Christmas catalogue, just not on Spotify). 4. " Amy, I " by Jack's Mannequin   5. "The Winter Song" by Eisley 6. "Happy Christmas" (War Is Over) by Sent by Ravens 7. " O Holy Night " by Stacie Orrico 8. " I Celebrate the Day " by Relient K

  Christopher Michael Taylor, better known as Sohn , is an English singer, songwriter, and producer. The London-born musician moved to Vienna in 2007, signed to the British record label, 4AD , and released his debut record Tremors in 2014. The Guardian gave the record a mixed review, criticizing the singer's flare for the dramatic on certain songs, particularly on the track " Paralysed ," but  praising Sohn's musicality. SOMEBODY BETTER LET ME KNOW MY NAME. The minimal sounds of Sohn's Tremors can start to usher in winter. The first single " Artifice " is the most exciting the album gets, and thus stands out on the album. Sohn has released three LPs, including this year's Trust, but his listenership is only at about 460,000 a month on Spotify. Before releasing Tremors, Sohn remixed Lana Del Rey 's " Ride ," and he has produced remix tracks for The Weeknd and Honne . The vocals on Tremors are vaguely reminiscent of early Fleet Foxes