With the inspiration of the People’s Choice Awards, the Recording
Academy gave this year’s Grammy nominations to all that was good,
bad, and – most importantly – popular. Ashanti,
Sheryl Crow, Eminem,
Norah Jones, Avril
Lavigne, Nelly, and Bruce
Springsteen got five nominations apiece. And Chad
Kroeger, Nickelback’s
frontman, got four nods, mainly for power-chording Spiderman’s
theme into a September 11th homage (Kurt
Cobain rolls in his grave). Here’s a rough analysis of this year’s
contenders for the four big awards: Record of the Year, Song of the
Year, Best New Artist, and Best Album.
Record of the Year
Vanessa Carlton’s “A
Thousand Miles” was pretty, and Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” was
beautiful. Eminem’s “Without Me” had a bombastic hook and made all
us white-boys feel cool, but “Lose Yourself,” from Eminem’s 8
Mile Soundtrack, was twice that track with ten times the creativity.
Nelly’s “Dilemma” – who voted for that? Anyone? Either some of the
Recording Academy let their kids fill out their votes or we have a
problem with soulless R&B songs getting to much credibility. It’s
likely the latter. Then Chad Kroeger and his Nickelback brothers have
“How You Remind Me” contesting for this Grammy. It's a better record
than Kroeger's “Hero,” but it's also shamelessly unoriginal and comes
off as a half-baked grunge anthem from guys that hit guitars better
than they play them. Who will Win? “Without Me,” because awarding
Eminem is the IV in Grammy’s dying ratings.
Song of the Year
Carlton and Jones get respectable nods once again. Bruce Springsteen’s
“The Rising” is a tremendous song detailing the physical-then-spiritual
ascension of a NYC
firefighter on September 11th. It should win, but it won’t. Alan
Jackson can’t tell us “the difference between Iraq and Iran,”
but he can get nominated for “Where Were You (When the World Stopped
Turning),” a real dud of a September 11th ballad that ranks right
up their with a Neil Young’s
equally awful “Let’s Roll.” The Taliban wreaked a lot of worthless
music on this country, folks. Ending out the Song category, Avril
Lavigne and the Matrix earn a nomination for “Complicated.” It is
nice that Lavigne writes her own music; it isn’t nice she writes watered-down
punk-pop and gets Grammy nominations for it. Who Will Win? Jones for
“Don’t Know Why.” She’s the Recording Industry’s sweetheart this year,
and they won’t hesitate to deny it come February 23rd.
Best New Artist
The punk-garage-band craze (The Hives,
The Vines, The
Strokes) has been forgotten in this category, and perhaps deservedly
so. The Streets came out too late for nominations this year – but
if British rapper Mike
Skinner isn’t nominated next year, names should be taken. Nominees
Ashanti and Michelle Branch
have some catchy hits, and if you have some catchy hits and you are
a new artist, hey, you get nominated in this category. The same goes
for Avril Lavigne, who got teenage girls wearing scarves and hating
Britney but is destined to make no important music whatsoever. Despite
what some may say, John Mayer
does even less for the music than Lavigne. Romantics love “Your Body
Is a Wonderland,” but Dave Matthews
Band did half a dozen tracks (“Lover Lay Down”, “Crash”, etc.)
with far more grace. Mayer’s album may be a hit, but Bright
Eyes and Badly Drawn
Boy, two of Mayer’s contemporaries, deserve this nomination much
more than Mayer does. Norah Jones is the only nominee here worth praising.
Jones’ "Come Away With Me" is the equivalent of a gorgeous
lingering dream, an album filled with slow, thick, beautiful sounds
that not only echo with the past but resonate with the future. Who
Will Win? Jones, and deservedly so.
Album of the Year
Wilco’s Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot? Nah, too groundbreaking. Red Hot Chili Peppers’
By
the Way? Nope, those guys aren’t credible artists. Beck’s Sea
Change? Well, they gave him a Grammy early on…. Perhaps these
were the behind-closed-door discussions before selecting the nominees
for 2002’s Album of the Year. It’s no coincidence that the five nominees
here are likely the five most popular albums of the year. The Grammy
Awards are obviously selling out, and pretty soon, Billboard
will simply pick the winners (imagine if the Oscar voters shared the
same values as Grammy voters…. Episode
II: Attack of the Clones would be nominated for Best Picture –
Oh God!). Luckily, three of the five nominees for Best Album deserve
the nod.
First, let’s get the undeserving out of the way. Just because Nelly
produced a slew of Frat party hook-up songs doesn’t mean he deserves
a Grammy nomination, especially in this category. Actually, Nelly’s
last album was better than his new one, and the same goes for Eminem.
While The
Eminem Show is a musical tour de force, the album itself is an
exercise in anal. For over seventy-two minutes, Eminem tells us how
bad (“White America”), cool (“Without Me”), sensitive (“Hailie’s Song”),
and important (every song) he is, and the self-congratulating routine
of the album gets old fast. Inhabiting another persona for the 8 Mile
Soundtrack did wonders for Eminem’s music, but The Eminem Show simply
shows him in a creative slump, even sinking so low as to sample an
old Aerosmith hit.
Now for the deserving nominees: The
Dixie Chicks created a country album for the history books with
Home,
using spirited banjos and mourning mandolins to articulate a bluegrass
journey that certainly is homegrown. Particularly notable tracks on
Home include “Long Time Gone,” a tune that splits across the airwaves
with shouts out to Johnny
Cash and Hank Williams, and “Travelin’ Soldier,” which heartbreakingly
evokes a Vietnam story. As said before, Norah Jones’ Come
Away With Me is a wonder in itself. The album deserves awards,
and it will get them, but not this one. Bruce Springsteen’s The
Rising is the album of 2002, hands down. No one but Springsteen
could have told the stories following September 11th with such precision
and understanding. But more than just tastefully evoking September
11th, The Rising brought Bruce Springsteen back from the dead. The
Rising, in a way, is Bruce Springsteen calling up his own ascension,
calling up his rise back into the world of great music. Who Will Win?
No other than The Rising, because while Grammy voters are conformists,
not even they could miss a miraculous album when they see one.
