NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

On the first season of the  Labeled Podcast , Aaron Marsh talked about his writing process for Copeland 's debut album, Beneath Medicine Tree . In early 2019, he returned to the podcast to talk about the band’s latest album, Blushing . If most listeners casually picked up the two records, forgivably, they'd assume they were listening to different bands. Beneath is a guitar-driven product of late '90s/early '00 emo rock. The album has mostly an optimistic tone. Blushing is a dark electronic-influenced album with darker lyrics. Marsh told Labeled host  Matt Carter that rather than writing lyrics that are easily pinned to real people, like his ex-girlfriend Paula (in the song " When Paula Sparks ") he doesn't "want to write songs about [his] private life." He says, instead, "I want to write poetic songs about my private life." The band's fourth album, You Are My Sunshine , does just that. Listeners don't know the deep sense of...

It's Friday night and I'm enjoying a little bit of time at home after a crazy first full week of school. I decided to make a playlist based on songs to welcome the weekend after listening to Taeyang 's " Ringa Linga ." This playlist is mostly made up of sugary synth-pop ballads that will make most people want to go out and hit the club. But I'm getting old, so I'd much rather put the playlist on and remember the good ol' days before 2020. I hope that this playlist serves you well, however you spend your weekend. Oh, and that's right, there are 52 songs in this list for 52 awesome weekends this year! I might bring this back for an updated Apple Music edition or YouTube edition later.

Today is St. Patrick's Day. The holiday is celebrated around the world. Although the holiday holds religious significance and had been a religious holiday in Ireland for more than 1,000 years, the celebrations today have more to due as a celebration for Irish heritage. About 70 million people have some Irish blood, and the Irish diaspora due to the potato famine in the mid-19th century brought a large number of Irish immigrants to many countries including the United States. Because of the large Irish-American population, holidays like Halloween and St. Patrick's Day became popular in America and spread around the world. TRAIN THIS CHAOS; TURN IT INTO LIGHT. The following playlist was made to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, not in its original form--celebrating the slave who became a priest only to return to the land he was enslaved (Ireland) to convert the natives to Christianity--supposedly driving all the snakes out of Ireland along the way. Instead, we're taking this li...

Paramore 's 2017 album After Laughter not only took the band in a new direction musically, the lyrics of the band's latest album started a conversation about mental health.  Lead singer Haley Williams transcends the emo genre in this mature discussion about the depression that followed her divorce, band mate controversies, and media scrutiny.  The album's opening track and first single, " Hard Times ," sets the tone for the album along with calling on the motif of weather, all the while disguising itself as an upbeat, positive track musically. It's not, though.  YOU HIT ME WITH LIGHTNING. I just realized the other day that March is Women's History month, so today, I decided to make a playlist titled  Women Rock: A Playlist Celebrating Women in Music Pt. I. This is a compilation of songs from my blog featuring female artists who have made a difference in the genre that they play. Enjoy! Tracklist: 1. "Hard Times" by Paramore. The...

Starflyer 59 produces a lot of music. With sixteen studio albums as of last year and a ton of EPs, the band's prolific yearly album cycle has gained the band many die-hard fans. A staple of Tooth & Nail Records in the early '90s, the band started as a shoegazer band but started to diversify their sound in the late '90s.  The musical shift in Starflyer sparked new interest in the band, particularly on 1998's The Fashion Focus and 1999's Everybody Makes Mistakes . The latter mixing a variety of styles and becoming one of the most beloved indie Christian records. Opening with droning "Play the C Chord" and ending on 12-minute piano/saxophone tune "The Party," Everybody Makes Mistakes certainly is no blip in the band's discography.  YOU KNOW WE HAD A HELL OF A DAD. Blue Collar Love ,  A Starflyer 59 fan podcast, said that the style of this album was "New Wave, Beach, [and] Country." Everybody Makes Mistakes was one of the last rec...

  I listened to an episode of The New York Times' Popcast reviewing the critics' top singles of the year 2015 when looking for new perspectives on Carly Rae Jepsen 's masterclass in pop music E-MO-TION this evening. For that particular episode, the critics tried to pick singles that either were released without an album or the song far outshined the album. However, they came up with the "Carly conundrum." The critics felt that Carly Rae Jepsen's 2015 album contained many good songs, but it wasn't a great album. They compared it to a box of candy, and they said you wouldn't want to eat the whole box in one sitting. 'CAUSE I WANT WHAT I WANT. DO YOU THINK I WANT TOO MUCH?  I think that there's certainly more substance to this album than a pixie stick. I've talked about this album being a calculated, smart indie pop record. Jepsen moves to more mature themes, assuming adult relationships. She's not going to win the Rebecca St. James award...

The Corrs formed in their hometown of Dundulk, Ireland. Consisting of four siblings, the band started as a duo of the two eldest siblings and became a quartet in 1990. They got their start playing in their aunt's local pub, but after being discovered by their manager, the band started getting gigs in Dublin. In 1994, the band was asked to play for the World Cup in Boston after the US ambassador to Ireland say their show in a Dublin bar. In 1996, they played the Olympics and then they opened for Céline Dion . The band's sound was rooted in Celtic folk music, but in their third album In Blue the band started to cross over into a mainstream pop sound. THE DAYLIGHT'S FADING SLOWLY.   To bring The Corrs into the new millennium, the band enlisted Robert John "Mutt" Lange to produce their third album. Lange’s mainstream success started when he produced AC/DC ’s Highway to Hell . In the ‘80s he was known for his Def Leopard albums, but in the late ‘90s the producer w...