NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In 2004, Sufjan Stevens released Seven Swans ,  a folk-rock album that is his most religious work to date. Drawing on Biblical themes, both Old and New Testament, Stevens has continued to intertwine the Bible into his folk and electronic music, but rarely could his works after Seven Swans  be mistaken for CCM. That's not to say that Seven Swans is a typical Christian album. In fact, songs like " To Be Alone with You " introduce new themes that much of his Christian audience would condemn. In "To Be Alone with You" the most obvious subject of the song is Christ who "gave up a wife and a family. . . . to be alone with [us, Christ] went up on a tree." However, the last line of the song: "I've never known a man who loved me" helps to offset the Christian interpretation and started listeners to think that Stevens was talking about homosexual love, a theme Stevens has embraced by writing and contributing to the Call Me By Your Name soundtrac...

Listening to Michael Stripe and Peter Buck talk, I couldn't place them as southerners from Georgia. Netflix Song Exploder 's episode on "Losing My Religion" wasn't the first time I had heard R.E.M. talk about their music; however, I was both intrigued and put off by Michael Stripe. He is perhaps one of the most articulate rock stars I've ever heard speak; however, I picked up on an underlying arrogance when he talked about this song. According to most accounts, the band recorded Out of Time  using the mandolin as kind of a throw-away record before they returned to more conventional writing approaches. The band chose "Losing My Religion" as the lead single, thinking that it wouldn't chart or that it would just be a minor hit. The band would quickly record more material and go on charting in the lower regions of the Rock Charts. However, "Losing My Religion," despite its unconventionality became a number 4 pop chart hit, a number 1 rock c...

In 2006 a new band released a brutal metalcore album called  Plagues . That band so happened to have the name of a much less metal PG-13 movie starring Anne Hatheway , Meryl Streep , and Stanley Tucci . The movie was actually directly based on the 2003  book of the same name. The band, however, chose the name as a protest against materialism. The band The Devil Wears Prada has become a staple in Hard Christian Rock and scene hardcore metal. In 2019, they released the album The Act  which expanded their sound to include more singing on ballads such as " Please Say No " and " Chemical ." Clean vocalist Jeremy DePoyster had always had duties Prada songs, in a sense, rewarding listers with melodic choruses; however, "Chemical" is a radio-ready hit. WAKE UP TO NO MEANING, I STARE AT THE CEILING. According to the band's episode of Labeled , DePoyster said that unclean vocalist Mike Hranica got the idea for this song after either watching a TED Talk or li...

Stephen Kellogg parted with his band, The Sixers , in 2012. Though the band doesn't consider themselves right-wing, they were named the “Armed Forces Entertainer of the Year” in 2010. Kellogg continues to play for the troops and raises money for St. Jude's every holiday season. His last album with the Sixers, Gift Horse  is a treasure of Northeastern folk-rock tunes, delving into topics of family, love, religion, and existential dread. In a concert clip, Kellogg describes " Charlie and Annie " as his memories from middle school during a time when he didn't feel very safe. The song talks about an ill-fated romance between alcoholic Charlie, who shows his kindness just enough to partially redeem himself through the singer. He's a victim of his addictions, though the singer doesn't let him off the hook. Annie is a beautiful woman who had quite the past before she got tied down by "Charlie and motherhood."  HIS RANTS COULD BE CONTAGIOUS. The puzzle...

COIN is another indie rock band I discovered when their song " It's Okay " was included on the 2012 Holiday Road Trip Mixtape from NoiseTrade. Formed in Nashville, TN in 2012 when Belmont University music majors Chase Lawerence and Joe Memmel joined with mutual friends Ryan Winnen and Zach Dyke. The band has opened for bands like The 1975, Neon Trees, Young the Giant, and Fitz and the Tantrums. They have also headlined several tours and played around the world, including a performance in Hongdae in Seoul in 2019. The band hasn't charted very well, their debut album peaking at 21 on the Billboard Heat Seekers chart and their sophomore record peaking at 177 on the Top 200 album sales. Still, COIN is a hardworking band whose flavor of alternative pop-rock is a worthy addition to July's playlist. OWNED A CITY, NEVER SAW THE STREETS. " Cemetery " is a cliche, yet catchy, story of a wealthy man who ended up dying alone after amassing a great fortune. Because...

Netflix documentary series Song Exploder takes a look at the writing process Alicia Keys and co-writer Samphra, a London-based electronic Soul/R&B singer, took when writing this emotional ballad. Musically, Keys takes a minimal approach: electronic beats and subdued piano chords. But like many of the songs of July, in the minimalism of this track, the meaning lives in the lyrics. The little details, too, like the sounds of water, the electric guitar at the end, give this track a quiet emotion. The song is inspired by motherhood. Singer Samphra's mother had recently died, and Keys thought about her children and that one day she too would die, leaving her sons to grieve her death, just as Samphra was grieving his mother's death. The four-minute track captures a moment of humanity--being alone with your thoughts, reflecting on something that's happened or going to happen. It talks about the moments you have enough time to let your mind wander where it needs to go.  I'M...

The opening track to Tyson Motsenbocker 's sophomore record, Someday I'll Make It All Up to You , " High Line " is the singer's thoughts as he takes the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan to walk on the High Line train overpass. As the singer is alone with his thoughts, he thinks about urban alienation, loss, the future, and realities he wants to deny, yet he can no longer deny. The calm acoustic guitar and warmth that the strings and piano bring the the melody as well as the female backing vocalist make this a track that works for every season, though admittedly, even in a somewhat cooler, northern city, like New York, nobody wants to be taking this kind of journey in the middle of the afternoon, despite the air conditioning on the subway. High Line Park in Manhattan. Source . TIME HOLDS ME DOWN LIKE A BROTHER. The High Line Park opened in 2009. In 2017, South Korea opened Seoullo 7017 borrowing the concept of the High Line. Since then it served as a first or last...