The Grammy's really don't know their stuff. Here are my picks for the best albums of the year and the best singles. This is my my first list of the "best." The list of the best TV shows, performances in TV, and TV episodes of the year is up next!
Best Albums
1-Adele's-21
It's hard to find people who do not love this album. I have one friend who does, but his argument is he does not like Adele's voice ( I am baffled). From start to finish this album is beautifully flawless. Their is pure raw energy and talent. This is one of my favorite albums of all time
Best Track "Someone Like You"
2-Bon Iver-Bon Iver
The music on this album is hauntingly beautiful. The songwriting and tone of this somewhat soft pop is terrific. One of the most soothing albums, while his voice may be unmistakable, there is something about the way his music lulls you into believing you are surrounded by nothing but beauty.
Best Track "Holocene"
3-Beyonce-4
A lot of people wrote off this album, but I think this is one of Beyonce's strongest albums. This did not have a lot of success sales wise, but sometimes the best material does not. Beyonce has put her heart and soul into this album and it shows!
Best Track- "Countdown"
4-Jay-Z and Kanye West-Watch the Throne
The combination of these two performers could have been explosively bad, with both of their egos. Yet the music speaks for itself with songs that go into deep subject matters like racism, this album takes hip hop to another level.
Best Track-"Otis"
5-The Black Keys- El Camino
This album keeps up with the trend of their music have an influence with the blues, but also finds inspiration in rock. The album is their first that has found the best balance in going beyond their overtly sad, and finds more upbeat sounds.
Best Track-"Dead and Gone"
6-Florence + the Machine-Ceremonials
There is no sophomore slump here, in fact this disc may be better than their first. The music is haunting, and with every track their is new discovery of the talents within this group. Florence's vocals are some of the best of the year, her voice is just perfection on these tracks.
The Grammy Award nominations were announced live on CBS last night, and these awards are always tough for me to predict. As you can tell I rarely post about music, I like it, but I only talk about when it comes to award shows. I think the nominees are interesting with some surprises. This is an interesting year where Pop dominates!
Adele leads the female nomination tally with 6 award nominations including Album of the Year (21), Record and Song of the Year for "Rolling in the Deep", nominations in the Pop categories, and Short Form Music Video. Adele has had an amazing year and at the moment I would crown her the frontrunner for most of these awards.
The shocking leader of the pack is the man so divisive, Kanye West with 7 nominations. This is not Kanye's first time having the most nominations he had that honor two albums prior. Kanye also had two albums out this year which helped him to rack up the largest number of nominations. The two albums were "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and "Watch the Throne" his collaboration with Jay-Z. While Kanye did receive a Song of the year nomination for "All of the Lights" he was shut out of the Album of the Year category.
Bruno Mars like Adele landed 6 nominations. Mars was nominated for Album of the year for "Doo-Wops and Hooligans"; he also received Record of the Year and Song of the Year nominations for smash hit "Grenade", and some nominations in the Pop categories.
The other big nominee was The Foo Fighters with 6 nominations. The Foo Fighters netted an Album of the Year nomination for the second time, and they were honored in the Rock category for the rest of their nominations.
The Foo Fighters are only artist in the Album of the Year category that are not nominated in the Pop Album of the Year. This bodes well for this group to win this award for the first time. The other Album of the Year nominees are Lady Gaga's "Born this Way" (her third Album of the Year nomination) and, I can't believe I am going to say this, but Rihanna is nominated for Album of the year with "Loud."
There were a few shocking omissions from the major categories. Taylor Swift, the winner of Album of the year two years ago, was left out of the general field categories and only received three nominations in the country categories. In fact the only general field nomination in the Country genre is for The Band Perry for Best New Artist.
The Best New Artist's did a great job with nominations this year; Nicki Minaj has four, Bon Iver also has four, but is the only Best New Artist nominee with nominations in the general field category. Bon Iver is nominated in Record and Song of the Year for "Holocene." The other nominees are J. Cole and Skrillex.
Beyonce a 16 time Grammy winner has only two nominations in minor categories. Her album "4" was not as commercially successful, and divided the fans and critics alike. Tony Bennett was seen to be a spoiler in the general field categories, but was only nominated for two trophies.
This is going to be an interesting year, with pop dominating. The general field categories reflects the year well. There were not a lot of great Albums, but Adele's, and The Foo Fighters were two of the best. I think this Gaga's weakest album, and Rihanna came back with a stronger album, but I would not have nominated her in this category. Here is the list of the general field nominations.
Album of the Year
Adele-"21"
The Foo Fighters-"Wasting the Light"
Lady Gaga-"Born this Way"
Bruno Mars-"Doo-Wops and Hooligans"
Rihanna-"Loud"
Record of the Year
Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"
Bon Iver-"Holocene"
Bruno Mars-"Grenade"
Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"
Katy Perry-"Firework"
Song of the Year (award is given to the writers)
Adele-"Rolling in the Deep"
Bon Iver-"Holocene"
Bruno Mars-"Grenade"
Mumford and Sons-"The Cave"
Kanye West-"All of the Lights"
Best New Artist
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex
Predicting winners at this point is difficult, but I would say that The Foo Fighters will win album because it's the only rock album amongst four other pop albums. With that said last years Album of the Year winner was a shock, so this is by no means a done deal. I think Adele has an excellent shot, and Bruno Mars could be a spoiler. I think "Rolling in the Deep" is going to easily take both Record and Song of the Year. Bon Iver will most likely win Best New Artist, but look out for the country voting block. The Band Perry is the only nomination for country in the major catgeories, and they may team up to make sure that win happens.
