Album of the Year

The Grammy nominations came out this week.  As is customary, the nominations elicit an equal number of thumbs-ups and WTFs.  One of the more bizarre items on the list is Bon Iver's nomination as Best New Artist (snubbing Pittsburgh native Wiz Khalifa).  There's really no universe in which Bon Iver can be considered a new artist.  The Grammy time lags lead to all sorts of weirdness, including the fact that Rihanna's Loud (released in November of 2010) is still eligible this year, when she has already released another album, Talk That Talk.  Similarly, Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has to compete against his duet album with Jay-Z, Watch the Throne--not sure where I stand on that battle.  

Anyway, I just made a playlist of all of the albums nominated for Album of the Year.  So, that's 21 by Adele, Born this Way by Lady Gaga, Doo Wops and Hooligans by Bruno Mars, Wasting Light by the Foo Fighters, and the aforementioned Loud by Rihanna.  Wasting Light is the wild card on this list for me:  I haven't heard a single thing from it.  Everything else has been played pretty incessantly on pop radio that you would had to have made a special effort to avoid, for example, "Grenade" or "Edge of Glory," to say nothing of "Someone Like You."  There may be a radio station somewhere that, in fact, only plays "Someone Like You."  Lord knows that may be a more successful format than some of the stuff you hear while spinning your FM dial.  

So this is going to be my gym mix this week.  In particular, I'm going to try to give the Foo Fighters a serious listen:  in homage to my 14-year-old self, if nothing else.  Right now, however, I think the smart money is on Adele winning Album of the Year--along with every other award for which she is nominated.  And, as I said to a few folks before the nominees were announced, I think Adele might win all of next year's Grammys, too--and then perhaps be awarded last year's Grammys retrospectively.  I'm not sure that 21 is my favorite record of this year, but it's a pretty stunning blend of chops and pop appeal.  Not many records get made like that.