NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  On October 1st this year, signs and wonders and rumors of a fourth album by international superstar Adele appeared around the globe. The singer has been dropping hints of a new record since 2019; however, the recording process was delayed in 2020 due to the pandemic. Adele is a relatively reclusive pop star, taking long breaks between albums and rarely offering fans singles in between. In 2020, she emerged 100 lbs lighter, flexing her acting and comedy muscles hosting Saturday Night Live . Fans were shocked at her acting range as she wasn’t even the musical featured guest. But in true Adele fashion, the British singer kept a low profile after the comedy performance until this Fall. Billboards and holographic writing appeared on the Empire State Building, at the Louvre, and the side of the Colosseum among other landmarks with the number 30. Adele fans around the world began to speculate about the singer’s follow up to her Diamond-certified 2015 masterpiece, 25 . I KNOW THERE...

I probably wouldn't pick up an album by a group called "Mischievous Child Musician," but in 2013, a group by that name, or Akdong Musician, AKMU for short, won the hearts of the Korean people when they won the second season of  K-pop Star. AKMU are siblings Lee Chan-hyuk  (이찬혁) and Lee Su-hyun (이수현). They began playing music together because they were bored. Their parents were missionaries in Mongolia and their mother homeschooled the children. However, Su-hyun had to return to South Korea to sort out a visa issue, and while she was away, she began auditioning to be singer. Later her brother joined her and the two competed on K-pop Star. The group's debut album Play was released in April of 2014 and peaked on the Billboard World Albums at #2 . " 시간과 낙염 ” (Time and Fallen Leaves) was released in October of 2014.  TIME PASSES LIKE WATER FLOWS. Originally planed to be part of the group's debut album, it felt out of place with the energetic, spring-released P...

Watashi Wa was a band signed to Tooth & Nail Records in the early '00s. The band had formed in 2000 when the members were still in high school. After releasing two albums on Betty Rocket, a small label, the band signed to Tooth & Nail in 2002. The next year, they released their LP  The Love of Life . The band broke up two years later and singer Seth Roberts went on to form the band Eager Seas . Roberts negotiated with the label to fulfill Watashi Wa's contract with his new band; however, Eager Sea's debut record undersold the label's expectations. The label decided to re-release the record as Watashi Wa's final album titled Eager Seas, including the band's most recognized song " All of Me " on the record. Roberts went on to form the band Lakes and signed to The Militia Group. Watashi Wa is a forgotten gem in the Tooth & Nail catalogue. IT WAS WRITTEN IN A LETTER TO ME. Maybe it was an abundance of incredible releases in 2003 that made Wat...

Before releasing his critically acclaimed third album, Continuum , John Mayer released a live album called Try! The album prepared his listeners for a shift into the blues. Mayer had succeeded in becoming a pop star, but with Continuum  he hoped to be taken seriously as a musician. The singer-songwriter wasn't happy with just MTV calling him a modern-day Eric Clapton or Tom Petty ; he wanted to share the stage with his heroes. In 2008, Mayer released a concert film, Where the Light Is , which features Mayer playing acoustic songs and full blues-band arrangements of songs from his discography as well as a cover of Tom Petty's " Free Fallin' ." As listeners and critics were taking note of Mayer's musical credentials, the singer became more controversial for his public relationships and breakups with stars and some unfortunate interviews. These antics, along with a health scare, led him to withdraw from public life from 2010 to 2013. I TRY TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND...

Following up their 2020  album,  Dreamland ,   COIN  dropped three EPs in early 2021, leading up to their full album,  Rainbow Mixtape ,  released in April. The band wrote and recorded their follow up album after their 2020 supporting tour  for  Dreamland  was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Singer  Chase Lawerence  sold his house at the beginning of the pandemic and moved back to his childhood home in Virginia where he began writing music for the next record. The band recorded many songs, yet the songs didn't seem to have a theme. “We broke it down to its elementary form and felt like colors really represented the lyrical and sonic themes,” Lawerence told  American Songwriter.   Each song corresponded with a color and were released on three EPs, though the second and third is combined on Apple Music.  Red-Orange, Blue-Green,  and  Indigo-Violet  make up the three sections of the band'...

You wouldn't expect it, but the musical master of bedroom pop, the so-called "godfather of chillwave," has a faint southern accent when you hear him in interviews. Hearing " Feel It All Around " as the theme to Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein's surrealist parody of the hipster town on the West Coast, made me think that Ernest Weatherly Green, Jr., the creative force behind Washed Out, was from a more secular part of the country. I talked about the rise of the Perry, Georgia native earlier this year when I discussed Washed Out's song, " Burn Out Blues ." But today we return to where it all started in the summer of 2009 and the September 17-minute EP Life of Leisure.  YOU FEEL THE THOUGHT OF LOVE AGAIN. On the cover of Life of Leisure, there is a picture of Greene's wife, Blair, who is part of the touring band accompanying Greene. The album cover captures a feeling: swimming in the early evening sun. Besides being interested in electronic...

If it wasn’t for Grey’s Anatomy , we probably would have forgotten The Fray . The massive number-three hit “ How to Save a Life ” surpassed the band’s first single " Cable Car" (Over My Head) . But the band of Denver-area former worship leaders failed to keep the listeners of the top 40 interested with their ‘90s-piano-driven coffee shop rock. The reviews were fairly negative when the band released their sophomore self-titled record. Rolling Stone said the album was “nothing new.” Entertainment Weekly commented that the album was “all blah, all the time, minor-key melodies and more dreary tempos. But Christian radio play for the single “You Found Me” and record sales kept the band going for two more album cycles. The Fray may not be the most exciting group, but there is something about beautiful about the insights that can spark from their ordinary songs. IS THIS ALL WE GET? The Fray started when childhood friends Isaac Slade and Joe King played music together in Christian hi...