NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

The '80s revival has been going on since the mid '00s. The '90s revival has taken longer to catch on. Sure, the songs in my Pseudo '90s hits collection range from early '00s tracks that seem to be just a few years shy of the Third Eye Blind alternative rock sound, but I tried to focus more on tracks in the recent years that are slowly bring back the elements of boy bands and over-produced bubble gum pop; post-grunge chords progressions; and early '90s sax solos. Hope you enjoy this one!  

If you make a list of the most iconic singer-songwriters, the list would include all of  Ed Sheeran 's influences. In fact, many would have had no problem putting Ed Sheeran on that list, if it weren't for his huge mainstream pop hit " Shape of You ." If it weren't for the 2017 song, Ed Sheeran would still have been a driving force in the music industry, penning verses for pop artists and singing semi-acoustic ballads and rapping a few bars here and there. Some listeners are still scarred from the repetitive chorus with its contrived masculine rhyme, so much so that they would prefer not to hear the song's follow up. It's unfortunate enough that I couldn't take songs like " Perfect " or " Castle on the Hill " seriously. And when Ed Sheeran announced that he was back in June of last year, I was less than thrilled. But in September, thanks to musical algorithms, AppleMusic played " Shivers " when playing similar songs to  Ja

I've written a bit about how I'm a  Coldplay  apologist. I believe that the London-based band is very good at what they do. Though so many artists accomplish their sound, both musically and lyrically, better, there's something uplifting about a new Coldplay album. Two years ago, I talked about the band's first single from their ninth studio record,   Music of the Spheres , " Higher Power ." The album was released on October 15, 2021 . Before the release of the record and after releasing "Higher Power," the band released the promotional single, the 10:17 track " Coloratura ," which was praised by critics for its composition and production. Then they released the second radio single " My Universe ," featuring the South Korean boy band,  BTS . The song shot straight to number 1 on the  Billboard Hot 100 , becoming the second Coldplay single to top the Hot 100, the first being " Viva la Vida ." I JUST WANT TO PUT YOU FIRST .

  Around 2018, before I started paying attention to new music, I asked my middle school students who they were listening to these days, and it made me feel very old. There were a few singers I knew-- Charlie Puth , Troye Sivan --but the two top artists I had no idea who they were. The first was Anne-Marie , who, admittedly hadn't made it really big in America. I actually thought that the students liked the easy-listening singer Anne Murray , so I had to play her music for them! WAS I STUPID TO LOVE YOU?   The other artist was Billie Eilish , who hadn't yet released her eventually Grammy-winning album  When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go ?   In the early days, though, I was turned off by the singer's aesthetic: the gothic and neon, the adolescent morbidity. And the styles of her song titles bothered me. I felt that I had entered a new musical world where nothing made sense, that I was looking at the world through the eyes of Generation Z, and I felt not like a Millennial

  Linkin Park 's fourth studio album,   A Thousand Suns   underperformed compared to the band's massive first three albums. The album produced two singles, " The Catalyst " and today's song, " Waiting for the End ," but ultimately listeners didn't like the album as most of the songs were not catchy. I always want to dig deeper into this album and its themes, but today, I wanted to introduce my   AAPI Heritage Playlist,   so I chose the most pop-oriented song on   A Thousand Suns.  If you want more information on the music theory behind this album, I'll link to   The Discographers ,  an excellent podcast that explores the discography of Linkin Park in one of their seasons.  MY MOUTH KEPT MOVING AND MY MIND WENT DEAD.   May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, and I wanted to make a playlist that recognized some of the amazing talent by AAPI musicians. As with my other lists, I realize that making lists like t

  No matter how your Monday finds you, let's unwind with an album that meant a lot to me nearly ten years ago, the first spring I spent in Korea. I don't remember what first attracted me to Deas Vail 's third and eponymous album, but once I started listening, I couldn't stop. I also don't know much about where the band members are now, whether or not they remain in music in any capacity. What I do know is that Deas Vail captured a moment perfectly.  1. " Desire ." That being said, Deas Vail begins with my least favorite track. It's not a bad song, and it clearly has the guitar motifs and the husband-wife duet sounds which will be important elsewhere in the album. Lyrically, "Desire" isn't very interesting and it's skip-able. But that's my opinion. "Desire," does, though have the most streams of the album. 2. " Sixteen " begins the energy that is consistent in the rest of the album. Warm guitar tones bathe the

In 2018, Taylor Swift did the unthinkable. Country music stars had been expected to be either right-leaning or a-political. Although Swift wasn't a country music star in 2018, she was still associated with the genre. But as a resident of Tennessee, Swift came out publicly in support of two Democratic candidates in a midterm race. It took a Trump presidency and the callousness towards women's and minority issues to make Miss Americana  speak up.  SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.  On the opening night of Taylor Swift's Era's tour in Scottsdale, Arizona, another band of somewhat reluctant activists opened the show, Paramore . Most of the opening acts on the Eras tour include indie rockers or singer-songwriters, mostly female, feminist, and LGBTQ+ or allies. As my readers already know, Paramore is a band fronted by Hayley Williams and consisting of a consistent and revolving door of male band members. Paramore's presence on the Eras tour coincides with their own headlining to