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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Tuesday, December 30, 2003 np: bill hicks - rant in e-minor speaking of things i ought not to let myself get too worked up about... the grammy nominees are out.. even on the popular/commercial front, music made some strides this year. only one album in the best album category actually made me shiver in disgust. let's play guess which one made me shiver...and the nominees are: Missy Elliot - Under Construction Evanescence - Fallen Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below Justin Timberlake - Justified The White Stripes - Elephant evanescence is truly the hideous one of the bunch. missy and outkast's albums are superb, per usual. the white stripes are finally beginning to overcome my hype hesitancies. it's still going to be awhile before i want to own any records. timberlake's album..well, i haven't heard all of it. but the singles are grudgingly catchy and good. and i don't care what brynn says, "rock your body" is better than "cry me a river," end of discussion. song of the year isn't even worth listing the nominees, but my personal fave of the bunch is avril lavigne's "i'm with you," which i find actually...touching in a weird way. i still find her success confusing. speaking of confusing...the best new artist category once again defies logic in grand style. remember the big head scratching moment from the 2000 awards where shelby lynne was nominated (and subsequently won) best new artist, close to eleven years after her first album was released? well, they're at it again. see if you can spot the imposter in the list: Evanescence 50 Cent Fountains of Wayne Heather Headley Sean Paul yeah. fountains of wayne, far more deserving than every other person on that list of actually winning a grammy (with 50 the closest, just based on sales), released their debut album in 1996. unlike shelby, whom success had been eluding until her nominated album, fountains of wayne have had hit singles on all of their three albums. "radiation vibe" was definitely all up in my radio in 1996. with the famous curse on this award to sink the career of whomever wins it (with notable exceptions), i'd love for either evanescence or sean paul to take it home. but that's just me. in the "sad, cos it wouldn't have happened otherwise" department, warren zevon has racked up a whole slew of nominations from his last album, the wind. hateful as it is to say, i truly wonder if zevon's critically lauded work would have registered this kind of blip on the grammy radar had he not, very sadly, passed away shortly after it was released. will they throw out the same posthumous respect for elliot smith upon the release of his double album next year? we'll see. lucinda williams has two nominations: best female rock vocal for "righteously" and best contemporary folk album for world without tears. as much as i would love her to win both, i wish she had been nominated for some song other than "righteously." i've come to like that song, but i still consider it one of the least effective from that album. despite him not (supposedly) releasing a new album until this spring, tom waits gets in on the best rock vocal performance racket with his cover of the ramones' "the return of jackie and judy" from we're a happy family: a tribute to ramones. i'd like to see him win, mainly just to see if he's there or not. the best alternative music album category is always pretty interesting and not quite as dated as the name of the category would have you believe. remember when you could walk into a camelot music store and actually find the 'alternative' section labeled for you? alternative : 1994 :: emo : 2003. they both mean nothing. the nominees are: The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Radiohead - Hail to the Theif Sigur Ros - Untitled The White Stripes - Elephant Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell on the grammy site the flaming lips' album is listed as fight test, so i'm going to assume they just got it wrong, cos i can't imagine the fight test EP being nominated in this category. again, only one album makes me shake my head and it's the yeah yeah yeahs' fever to tell. in this case i just have a serious pre-disposition to a band. i will never like the yeah yeah yeahs. i won't hide my disdain or subjective opinion. the best rap album nominees are: Missy Elliot - Under Construction 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin' Jay Z - The Blueprint 2 : The Gift and the Curse Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below The Roots - Phrenology my favourite of the five is easily the roots. the jay z album is more of a curse than a gift. 50 i could really not care too much about, despite "in da club" being quite addictive. so, for my money, the real competition is between missy, outkast and the roots. we'll see. in the best country album category only two albums really catch my eye: lyle lovett's new one, my baby don't tolerate and the various artists tribute album to the songs of the louvin brothers. i haven't heard the new lovett record, but i'm a huge fan of his songwriting. so it's good to see him there. i haven't heard the louvin tribute either, but damn if they didn't write some amazing songs as well. and it's good to see them getting a wider exposure. if you've never heard them, check out gram parson's version of "cash on the barrelhead" (or dolly parton's version, for that matter), the byrds' take on "the christian life," or the fantastic version of "atomic power" that uncle tupelo did. finally, the producer of the year is a category rife with possible debate. the nominees (nigel goodrich, jimmy jam and terry lewis, the matrix, the neptunes and outkast) are a diverse bunch. goodrich is nominated for having produced only one album (radiohead's hail to the theif) but his year after year quality is undeniable. outkast is nominated for their production on their own speakerboxx/the love below as well as killer mike's album monster. but as my friend michael says, killer mike's album "sucks. bad. and they should now lose" for that. fair enough. jimmy jam and terry lewis brought us most of beyonce's big singles for the year. the matrix gave us the new liz phair record. they are now barred from ever working again. ever. the neptunes would be my pick for who probably ought to win. they should've won last year, but they weren't nominated, so that was a problem. i probably would personally pick nigel goodrich for "who produced the things i listened to more this year," but that's not what the grammys are about. they're not about me. in case you didn't know. you'd think they were based on how long this post is becoming... but there you have it. forty-five minutes of my life i'll never get back cos i sat here and prattled on about the grammys. i'll probably lose another good chunk planning the grammy-oriented j's indie/rock mayhem so it's okay. at least i'm...educated. posted by J. Neas | 12/30/2003 10:17:00 PM
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