NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In 2015 when marriage equality was signed into law across the nation, Americans reacted in several ways. There was overt homophobia and blatant hatred often disguised as religion.  One of the last Adventist sermons I listened to was Dwight Nelson arguing that just because a nation can say something is legal doesn't make it moral.  There were   examples of civil disobedience in the courtrooms by the likes of Kim Davis refusing to perform same-sex weddings. There were businesses that refused service to same-sex couples getting married. Many took the law as a win for human rights. Statistics showed in 2015 that support for marriage equality was largely bi-partisan, meaning that people of all backgrounds, liberal or conservative, supported the right to marry. support for the victims following the  Pulse shooting in Orlando YOU TRIED TO SHRUG IT OFF WHEN I ASKED WHY SOMEBODY HURT YOU. Then came June 12, 2016. When I heard the news, it was my 29th birthday-Korean Standard ...

Industrialization has come at a major cost. Kentucky-born-and-raised author, poet, activist, and farmer Wendell Berry critiques modern life as being disconnected with nature and thus a root cause of the climate change we see today. One of Berry's most beloved poems, " The Peace of Wild Things ," shows how nature can free the speaker from existential anxiety. With modern life unrelenting and with the anxiety of financing an indie band after their record label folded, with the passing of loved one and a divorce, Paper Route dug into raw emotion lyrically, and yet something held the band together. Taking the title of the album from Berry's poem, Paper Route's The Peace of Wild Things   is a romantic album with a few dark undertones. EVERY CIRCLE WAS A LINE JUST CONNECTED BY DESIGN. The second track on The Peace of Wild Things,   " Two Hearts " builds the themes of love and marriage from the first track, " Love Letters ." The songs are convincing ...

In 2018  Nick Jonas   and  Priyanka Chopra Jonas   married in two ceremonies. The ceremonies took place in India and represented the religious backgrounds of both the Bollywood-turned-Hollywood actress and the singer/actor. The first ceremony was Christian, taking place on December 1, and the second was Hindu on December 2. In 2019, Nick and the two other Jonas Brothers  released their first album in ten years. Nick's solo career had heated up after the Jonas hiatus, but a reunited Jonas Brothers was even more commercially exciting. In 2021, Nick Jonas was back with a solo record, this time dealing with the themes of isolation due to the pandemic, but mostly about his love for his bride. I'M ON MY KNEES AND I CAN'T STOP NOW. From the moment I heard Nick Jonas's second single from Spaceman ,  " This Is Heaven ," on his Saturday Night Live performance, I started making connections to what I knew about the Jonas Brothers' religious upbringing, particularly t...

The sweet melancholy of You Are My Sunshine is always more uplifting than depressing. I've talked about this record so much because it fully encapsulated the winter of 2009 for me. At least the crueler part of winter, January to March or whenever the colder-than-expected winds wind down in Eastern Tennessee, giving way to an at-first temperate early spring to a melting mid-to-late spring, oozing in a concoction of sweat and humidity. Somewhere in the season changes I got the flu and missed a couple of days of school. My roommate and I had a cough that lasted until the end of the winter. And we listened to this album on the boring days. It was the soundtrack to Easy Mac and instant coffee--two things I don't miss at all. AND THE MAN IN THE MOON NEVER MAKES HIS REPLIES UNDERSTOOD. " The Day I Lost My Voice ," is the kind of song about a period in your life that you just can't seem to catch a break. Even the most careful singers often experience laryngitis on tour. ...

When We Were in Love covers a wide range of topics. Most of the songs are love songs in which Mike Mains reminisces about falling in love with his wife and bandmate Shannon Mains. A few of the songs mention God and religion, but mostly in the way that a country song would. However, the most notable tracks on the album deal with Mike Mains' battles with depression and his marital problems. The songs most explicitly dealing with those topics are " Breathing Underwater " and " Swamp ." Today's song, "Around the Corner"thematically matches with "Breathing Underwater" and "Swamp," though it doesn't seem to be an "in the moment account" of a depressive episode. Instead, Mains is reflecting on his experience, and hoping to give hope to his listeners.  WITH HEAVEN’S MANSION OUT OF REACH.  There are two sides to this song. Though I believe that ultimate message is one of hope, Mains doesn't belittle the depressed exper...

I'm a music snob. I'll admit it. That snobbery can make it take a long time for me to come around on some bands or artists who I dismiss as phonies. Sometimes I never come around to an artist. Sometimes that group becomes one of my favorites. Then there's Imagine Dragons , a band I have one of the most complicated relationships with. I could write a pros and cons list that would fill a blog post or twenty about this band. But instead of talking about how sickeningly synthetic most of their albums taste, how much I want to exit the conversation when someone says something like "I really like indie bands like Coldplay and Imagine Dragons," or the good points about how the band deals with faith deconstruction or champions LGBTQ+ rights, I'd like to talk about how one mediocre got stuck in my head today. Imagine Dragons' lead singer  Dan Reynolds performing live I WANNA PUT YOU IN THE SPOTLIGHT.   I watched the music video for “ Follow You ” last year shortly...

Hearing IU always reminds me that spring is on the way. Commonly called South "Korea's Sweetheart," the 30-year-old singer-songwriter and former teen singer, born Lee Ji-eun (이지은), explains the meaning of her stage name as "You and I become one through music." Today's song comes from her 2014 EP of covers of folk/rock ballads made popular in the '80s and '90s, A Flower Bookmark . The song was written by Kim Chang Wan and originally recorded with his punk-rock band Sanulrim (산울림, meaning Mountain Echo ), which was a hit in 1984. Kim also is featured on the IU cover version. Although the IU version was not released as a single, it was featured in an SK Telecom commercial and was often played in cafes, grocery stores, and everywhere in Korea in 2014 and still today. The original version was used in the zeitgeist drama Reply 1988 (음담하러 1988)   SADNESS BLOOMS AS COSMO FLOWERS AT THE TRAIN STATION. Today I'll present my final Romantic Mix  version...