55th annual Grammy nominees + some quick thoughts

The Grammy list

Some quick thoughts:

-not too many surprises here. Florence + the Machine and LMFAO nominated in Pop Duo/Group Performance vocal certainly is one.

-Pop Solo record: If Adele doesn't win then why bother giving out awards to artists? Just send the hardware over to the engineers and producers who made the other robots in the category what they are.

-My favourite category: Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media, with Tintin, Hugo, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Dark Knight Rises, The Artist, and popular indie video game Journey! I don't recall video games ever being nominated in the past, but I suppose that's why the category title was given its now inclusive title.

-What's up with Spoken Word? I think audiobooks should be split off into their own category.

-Mumford & Sons nominated under Americana? Ironic, no?

-John Adams nominated for Orchestral performance... the classical categories always strike me as odd because it's all music composed by people who have, by and large, passed on from this mortal coil. It's a stark juxtaposition to the top/highlighted categories which all emphasize newness and youth and make up the televised ceremony.

video: Flying Lotus – “Tiny Tortures”

video: Flying Lotus – “Tiny Tortures”

gorilla vs. bear’s albums of 2012

gorilla vs. bear’s albums of 2012

Bring on the year-end deluge!

Pitchfork Reader's Poll

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For my albums I went with Hot Chip, Japandroids, Wild Nothing, Divine Fits and Joel Plaskett Emergency. Although... in a different mood I could have gone with Chromatics, Beach House, Patrick Watson, Darcys... and so on. If I had given more time to Tame Impala or Flying Lotus I may have put them on there as well.

This is kind of the problem with Year-end lists. For instance, how can I objectively rate an album that I've enjoyed for six months against an album that only came out three weeks ago? One I've had the chance to enjoy on commutes and road trips, the other is in a digital pile of listening that I'm trying to catch up on before the next album cycle begins.

Last year the M83 record came out in mid-November, and while it may have been better than the TV on the Radio record, I had a whole summer of late night walks home with it where I really got to know the songs and the flow of the whole thing. It's almost like the album cycle should go from March to March, since January and February are sort of dead months for top/hyped albums.

Consolation prize I guess: I put Flying Lotus down on the Pitchfork poll for best album cover.

I also put Frank Ocean down for most overrated. Not that I don't think it's a good album, I just don't think it's a 9.5 on the Pitchfork scale. Too many filler tracks on that record, which is symptomatic of far too many contemporary hip hop records.

Another prize over to Flying Lotus: My favourite video of the year.

The entire second page of the Poll is some a marketing survey/hipster test. Not terribly surprising but it's always interesting to see 'under the hood' in a way as big websites collect reader data.