NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming contain's M83 's biggest hit, " Midnight City ." Everything on Hurry Up, is calculated to give listeners, including M83's sole member Anthony Gonzalez, the maximum amount of nostalgia. After a song-length, mood-setting intro, "Midnight City" builds on a riff for three minutes before climaxing in a saxophone solo, unheard in most music since 1988.* Track three, "Reunion," builds on layers of guitars and harmonies by one singer. This guitar-based M83 is a bit rare in their catalogue, as most of M83 is programing in synthesizers with touches of guitar here and there. But a guitar-based track is no-less nostalgic. It's that '80s chord progression heard in New Wave rockers and glam hair metal that sounded so cool to a young Gonzalez, listening to music in his bedroom growing up that bleeds into this song. The lyrics beg for a reunion with a loved one who has gone away.  A NEVER-ENDING DANCE. For today's post

Dark is the Way, Light Is a Place is a portrait of band stylistically in their element, but there is something lacking. Following Anberlin 's major label debut New Surrender , the band worked with legendary rock producer Brendan O'Brien. Critics, fans, and the band didn't like New Surrender . Critics didn't like how the album lacked cohesion. Fans didn't like how Surrender departed from the band's darker, heavier sound on fan favorites Never Take Friendship Personal and Cities . And according to the band's livestream for New Surrender, Paper Tigers , they were so busy touring and promoting their hit " Feel Good Drag ," many of the songs on their longest album were neglected live. I FEEL THE CHANGE IS HERE. Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place  returned the band to a darker sound and would have been a more natural follow-up to Cities, but the darkness in the album comes mostly from moody instrumentals, rather than the heaviness of the guitar, bass, an

There's always a certain level of trust an artist has to have in a producer. Pvris had worked with one producer, Blake Harnage , on their first two albums and EPs. But after recording with Paper Route 's JT Daly , the band decided to finish their third album, Use Me , with him. The result was a hookier, poppier, vibier version of the group. This met with some backlash with some of the fans of the band's older material; however, lead singer Lynn Gunn told Alternative Press , "We've always been kind of a pop act." The first single from the Hallucinations EP " Death of Me " helped to bridge the old sound to their second single "Hallucinations," which sees the band flirting with EDM production, yet in the haze and psychedelia, it's still clearly rock. MY MIND IS RUNNING WILD.  Gunn had had a songwriting session with Marshmello and Amy Allen, but she didn't think anything from that session fit her band. JT Daly told Gunn, "Serio

Yesterday, I woke up to an announcement in my Instagram feed: a dream concert in Las Vegas later this year in October. Headlined by My Chemical Romance and Paramore , and featuring over 60 emo and punk bands over the span of one day, this one-day event is quite mind-blowing. Of course there's no way I'll be in Vegas on October 22nd, but this is pretty much my dream concert, other than Cornerstone magically resurrecting. In fact, the concert line-up seems a little too good to be true for many scene fans, leading to online speculation that this is the Emo Fyre festival. I thought it would be fun today to make a playlist for this festival with one song representing each band. I thought it would be fun also to see 1) how many bands I've talked about in my blog post, 2) how many I haven't listened to in years, 3)how many I'm only kind of aware of, and 4)how many I've never heard of. And that's the order we'll proceed. First of all, I'm sad that Las Vegas

In October of last year, The War on Drugs returned after four years with their critically-acclaimed album, I Don't Live Here Anymore . The title track and lead single features indie pop group Lucius as backing vocals on the chorus.  Like their previous works, such as  A Deeper Understanding  (2017) and    Lost in the Dream   (2014),  The War on Drugs is able to play two chords back to back for six minutes and create a song that you never want to end. Those two chords create a warm cadence that's like a bonfire on a cold fall night. And that's reason enough to curl up with a blanket and enjoy The War on Drugs all day long. I NEED A CHANCE TO BE REBORN.  However, unlike their previous works, today's song " I Don't Live Here Anymore ," to me, sounds like an anachronistic '80s or early '90s hit. It's kind of like what Mic the Snare said about " Blinding Lights ": "It's just like that one song. Uh? Which one?" Is it "