This Is the New Year

The first time I heard This Is the New Year, I felt it wasn’t just an opening song, but a ritual. The duo A Great Big World — Ian Axel and Chad King — recorded it between 2011 and 2013, yet the track carries the urgency of something that was already there, waiting to be named. It doesn’t sound like a polished studio product, but rather a moment where melody and lyrics lock in without filters. The bass and piano move in a rhythm that won’t stay still, as if the beat itself were celebrating the turning of a page. There’s something in that loop that pulls you in: it’s not a chorus that hits once and leaves, but an idea that repeats with subtle variations, like a reminder that the new doesn’t always arrive all at once.

The song was born in the context of their debut album Is There Anybody Out There?, released in January 2014, but its seed was in the air long before. Axel and King met at New York University, where they studied music business, and instead of going their separate ways, they decided to write together. The track ended up reflecting that stage: something that begins shyly but gains strength with each repetition. In 2013, Glee’s version took it to the Billboard Mainstream Top 40, and though it wasn’t their biggest hit — that was Say Something with Christina Aguilera — This Is the New Year became an anthem for those seeking to start something without fear of making mistakes. The exact duration is 3:14, but in those minutes lies all the energy of a year reinventing itself.