By Max Luebbers ’16, Entertainment Editor
Its Grammy Season again, and with that comes the endless streams of predictions from various respected music publications. We here at The Scroll like to count ourselves among these hallowed few so I’m going to give you my own 58th Grammy predictions. While there have been some nomination snubs (Carrie & Lowell anyone?) it’s an overall strong general field. The nominations for the four main awards are:
Record Of The Year
• Really Love – D’Angelo And The Vanguard
D’Angelo, producer; Russell Elevado & Ben Kane, engineers/mixers; Dave Collins, mastering engineer
• Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars
Jeff Bhasker, Bruno Mars & Mark Ronson, producers; Josh Blair, Serban Ghenea, Wayne Gordon, John Hanes, Inaam Haq, Boo Mitchell, Charles Moniz & Mark Ronson, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer
• Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Jake Gosling, producer; Jake Gosling, Mark ‘Spike’ Stent & Geoff Swan, engineers/mixers; Stuart Hawkes, mastering engineer
• Blank Space – Taylor Swift
Max Martin & Shellback, producers; Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Sam Holland & Michael Ilbert, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer
• Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd
Max Martin & Ali Payami, producers; Serban Ghenea, John Hanes & Sam Holland, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer
Album Of The Year
• Sound & Color – Alabama Shakes
Alabama Shakes & Blake Mills, producers; Shawn Everett, engineer/mixer; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer
• To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
Bilal, George Clinton, James Fauntleroy, Ronald Isley, Rapsody, Snoop Dogg, Thundercat & Anna Wise, featured artists; Taz Arnold, Boi-1Da, Ronald Colson, Larrance Dopson, Flying Lotus, Fredrik “Tommy Black” Halldin, Knxwledge, Koz, Lovedragon, Terrace Martin, Rahki, Sounwave, Tae Beast, Thundercat, Whoarei & Pharrell Williams, producers; Derek “Mixedbyali” Ali, Thomas Burns, James “The White Black Man” Hunt, 9th Wonder & Matt Schaeffer, engineers/mixers; Mike Bozzi, mastering engineer
• Traveller – Chris Stapleton
Dave Cobb & Chris Stapleton, producers; Vance Powell, engineer/mixer; Pete Lyman, mastering engineer
• 1989 – Taylor Swift
Jack Antonoff, Nathan Chapman, Imogen Heap, Max Martin, Mattman & Robin, Ali Payami, Shellback, Taylor Swift, Ryan Tedder & Noel Zancanella, producers; Jack Antonoff, Mattias Bylund, Smith Carlson, Nathan Chapman, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Imogen Heap, Sam Holland, Michael Ilbert, Brendan Morawski, Laura Sisk & Ryan Tedder, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer
• Beauty Behind The Madness – The Weeknd
Lana Del Rey, Labrinth & Ed Sheeran, featured artists; Dannyboystyles, Ben Diehl, Labrinth, Mano, Max Martin, Stephan Moccio, Carlo Montagnese, Ali Payami, The Pope, Jason Quenneville, Peter Svensson, Abel Tesfaye & Kanye West, producers; Jay Paul Bicknell, Mattias Bylund, Serban Ghenea, Noah Goldstein, John Hanes, Sam Holland, Jean Marie Horvat, Carlo Montagnese, Jason Quenneville & Dave Reitzas, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne & Dave Kutch, mastering engineers
Song Of The Year
• Alright
Kendrick Duckworth, Mark Anthony Spears & Pharrell Williams, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar)
• Blank Space
Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)
• Girl Crush
Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose, songwriters (Little Big Town)
• See You Again
Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz, songwriters (Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth)
• Thinking Out Loud
Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge, songwriters (Ed Sheeran)]
Best New Artist
• Courtney Barnett
• James Bay
• Sam Hunt
• Tori Kelly
• Meghan Trainor
Expect Meghan Trainor to win Best New Artist. Last year Sam Smith proved that a more unconventional nominee in an underrepresented genre could take home the prize, and there’s no reason to believe that it’s not going to happen again this year. Meghan Trainor is not my favorite, but I can’t help admitting that her rise as a body-positive icon and the release of three hit singles in one year makes it hard to not give her the award. Indie-rocker Courtney Barnett received some critical acclaim and may give Trainor a run for her money, however Barnett lacks major mainstream appeal, and this will ultimately hurt her in the selection.
The real snub of the show is “Wesley’s Theory” by Kendrick Lamar. It is a crime against humanity that this song wasn’t nominated for Record of the Year. Excellent in lyrics, writing, instrumentation, and production, “Wesley’s Theory” is one of the most musically complete releases of the year if not the decade. With that being said we are looking at a strong field of nominees for best production. The real contenders here are “Uptown Funk”, “Blank Space”, and “Can’t Feel My Face”. It’s a hard choice; all three released to massive commercial success, therefore it’s difficult to really narrow it down. I would personally give it to The Weeknd for “Can’t Feel My Face”, but it’s truly a toss-up. For the sake of naming a winner I think “Uptown Funk” will edge out the competition for its dance tempo and broad instrumentation.
The Song of the Year award favors composition and writing over production. I think we can immediately discount Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush.” Despite some pretty compelling lyrical work, its song song structure is nowhere near varied enough to say it’s the best choice out there. “See You Again” also doesn’t have the songwriting punch to beat out the Lamar, Swift, and Sheeran trio. While “Alright” has become the anthem of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, it lacks the lyrical clout of other To Pimp a Butterfly singles like “Blacker the Berry.” That leaves to a toss-up between “Thinking Out Loud” and “Blank Space”. I think if the academy doesn’t give the nod the Swift for any of the other categories, it has to come here, and even still “Blank Space” is the better choice. With that being said don’t discount “Thinking Out Loud” as the dark horse.
Album of the Year. This is it. The big one. Whoever wins will join the ranks of Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, and the Dixie Chicks (who knew). I’m going to preface this by saying the Academy will lose all of its credibility if Kendrick Lamar’s magnum opus, To Pimp a Butterfly, doesn’t win. With a voting base that tends to favor cultural impact, Lamar should be the clear front-runner, and given the albums role as the anthem of the new social activism movement, it would be hard for anyone to make that argument that it shouldn’t get the nod.
That leaves four albums fighting for the unofficial runner-up. I might be the minority in this, but Sound and Color should be immediately discounted. The sophomore album from psychedelic roots group, Alabama Shakes, lacks energy as well as any notable grooves. The album really drags on without delivering any compelling dynamics, although it does retain a consistent (if not stale) tone and sound. I can only assume that the Academy was looking for a less immediate album than the other nominations.
Taylor Swift’s 1989 is an interesting one. In any other year (one without Kendrick Lamar) it would take the win. It’s a “new” direction for Taylor Swift and I’m confident that voters would have rewarded the further departure from her country roots.
I had initially written off the next nomination, Traveler by Chris Stapleton, as the award’s token country album, but after giving it a shot, it turned out to be a strong, if not lengthy release. It doesn’t move the genre in any new directions but is well polished and incorporates a mix of southern rock, bluegrass, and soul, reminiscent of Ray Lamontagne. It’s a little too safe to be truly compelling, but it is overall well-produced and well-written—a nice diversion from the stream of country-rock coming out right now.
That leaves us with Beauty Behind the Madness, the second studio album from the hair that gave us singles like “Earned It” and “Can’t Feel My Face”. The Weeknd has proven to be the musical equivalent of eating pop-rocks and Karo syrup. His modern fusion of dance/electronica and contemporary R&B is highlighted by some fantastic hooks and vocal performances, but despite these electrifying moments the album is far too lengthy and drenched in crunchy synths, low-pass filters, and trippy tales of sex and drugs that often put the album’s more memorable tracks behind a thick muddy screen.
And that’s all we have time for. There are over fifty other categories (some won’t be televised), but the you should really be paying attention to these four awards, as they will most likely shape the upcoming releases in 2016.
Sources:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/grammys/6785974/grammy-nominations-2016-full-list
Image Source:
http://www.grammy.com/news/the-recording-academy-cbs-announce-58th-grammy-awards-date
