Grammys 2024 — the good, the bad and the ugly (part 2)

I’m back, and it’s time for part 2 of my breakdown of this year’s Grammy nominations! After last time, where we sang the praises of Troye Sivan, bemoaned the seemingly eternal presence of Ed Sheeran and questioned the absence of ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2', read on for fifteen more lukewarm-to-scalding takes on the year’s list of nominees!

A GOOD PICK: Seven Psalms (Paul Simon) — sort of

Paul Simon dropping a single-track, seven-part exploration of the Psalms was not on my musical bingo card for the year, but it’s a truly captivating experience that unfolds more and more with each successive listen. My slight gripe comes less with the idea of nominating the album for a Grammy, and more for its categorisation. Folk? Really? It feels like a gross oversimplification of the album simply on account of the acoustic guitar that underpins it. But still, glad that the structural risk and compositional dedication put into the album has paid off in some small way for awards season.

A BAD CHOICE: Summer Too Hot (Chris Brown)

It’s exactly the same kind of washed-out, smutty, stuff that Chris Brown has been putting out for the better part of his career. My personal distaste for Brown aside, the fact this track is even breathing the same air as the other nominees (and in particular a song as monolithic and insurmountable as ‘Kill Bill’) is quite frankly an offense.

… The less I talk about him the better, really.

AN UGLY OMISSION: Dogsbody (Model/Actriz)

Metal, rock and the related genres are an area which typically can often seem to be nominated by default (just pick a famous name and see whether they’ve released that year), and while there are some good picks in the mix this year, blatantly missing are many of the year’s most experimental, adventurous and well-beloved releases. Liturgy’s 93696 seems to be frequently cited as a keen oversight, but for me just as disappointing is the absence of Model/Actriz’s noisy, frenetic debut. Even if the album itself didn’t tickle the jury, at least give us something — a Best Rock Performance of ‘Mosquito’, maybe? But nada, to my disappointment, simply nada.

A GOOD PICK: Weathervanes (Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit)

Written while Jason Isbell was filming his role in Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon, Weathervanes continues to hone his roots rock sound with the added benefit of the best ensemble work from the 400 Unit to date. Perhaps the album’s overall ‘same-iness’ might limit its success on the night, but I feel more optimistic for the prospects of ‘King Of Oklahoma’ and ‘Cast Iron Skillet’ in their respective categories. Glad to see the whole album here in the running too, though.

A (somewhat) BAD CHOICE: the 2023 Broadway Cast recording of Sweeney Todd

This is a rather pernickety BAD CHOICE, to be fair — the singing is pretty good (particularly from corners I wasn’t expecting it, cf Gaten Matarazzo) and the orchestra play well. But something about the mix of this album is way off — the voices are close-mic’ed to hell and the balance of the instruments way off. And don’t get me STARTED on the accents. They’re perhaps most prevalent in Annaleigh Ashford’s eager but hackneyed Mrs Lovett, but everyone here has some struggle getting the particularities of the diverse London accents called for down. Even Pirelli’s cartoonish faux-Italian brogue feels underwhelming, and for a musical as melodramatic as Sweeney Todd it can end up deflating the whole thing.

AN UGLY OMISSION: anything for Mitski

This one, perhaps, is in some ways understandable. Mitski’s phenomenal sixth studio album The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We was released on the year’s eligibility cut-off date, September 15th. Still, the no-show of the lead singles — ‘Bug Like An Angel’, ‘Heaven’ and ‘Star’ — prove less easy to justify. Furthermore, given the acclaim and awareness that ‘My Love Mine All Mine’ has garnered since the album’s release, surely a nod in one of the big categories was warranted? Frustrating, too, that this won’t be in the mix next year on account of the release date — The Land deserved better.

A GOOD PICK: The Omnichord Real Book (Meshell Ndegeocello)

Neo-soul vanguardist Meshell Ndegeocello’s latest offering features a whole host of guest singers and instrumentalists to realise the dramatic and engaging 18-track set list — Cory Henry, Brandee Younger, and Joan as Police Woman are just three of the more famous names on the roll-call. The album is virtuosic on all counts, and yet none of the technical prowess overshines the underlying funk and groove of the songs — but then again, what else to expect from someone of Ndegeocello’s iconic status.

A BAD CHOICE: the overflow of nominations for the Barbie soundtrack

Look, I love the Barbie soundtrack. I really do. No, honestly. But did we need four songs from the movie’s soundtrack taking up slots in the ‘Best Song Written For Visual Media’ category? ‘What Was I Made For?’ is already up for Song and Record of the Year, we don’t need to pretend that any of the others have any chance anyway. But when you look at some of the other fabulous songs from films and TV released in the eligibility period — the Sharon Van Etten pick ‘Quiet Eyes’ from Past Lives; ‘Besharam Rang’ from Hindi-language, SRK-helmed spy film Pathaan; even something from the Creed III soundtrack — picking four from the same film feels more lazy than anything.

AN UGLY OMISSION: False Lankum (Lankum)

Whether this would comfortably fit in th Grammy’s folk category, I’m not sure (honestly I could see it under rock or alternative, and all the better it would be), but Lankum’s fourth album is an absolute tour de force of pushing the trappings of traditional musics to artistic extremes. It’s not an easy album, that much is evident, but a truly invigorating one, and it’s a damned shame that it’s missing from either category — particularly when folk benefited from an enlarged pool of nominees.

A GOOD PICK: For That Beautiful Feeling (The Chemical Brothers)

A new Chemical Brothers release is always a good thing, but perhaps in contrast to the frenetic energy that propels much of their discography, For That Beautiful Feeling seems to enjoy itself more, taking the time to explore different sonic spaces. There are the pounding beats and stuttering samples we all know and love, but there’s also the radiant joy of tracks like the Beck feature ‘Skipping Like A Stone’, or the choral washes of the Halo Maud-bolstered title track. Very glad that it was still noticed, given how close to the cut-off it was released.

A BAD CHOICE: Karma (Taylor Swift ft. Ice Spice)

Really? This over ‘Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2'? Don’t get me wrong, ‘Karma’ is without a doubt one of the strongest tracks on Midnights, but out of all the supplemental material Taylor has brought out since her tenth album dropped the song’s remix is perhaps one of the least exciting appendices. Ice Spice’s flow is fun in its own way, but doesn’t gel comfortably with the underlying track’s tempo or production, and her adlibs prove more distracting than anything. I’d rather just see the original song nominated alongside ‘Anti-Hero’ in Pop Solo.

AN UGLY OMISSION: Any K-pop? Like, at all?!

This is maybe the least surprising snub of all, though it should be outrageous to any and all music fans and a perennial embarrassment to the Academy — no K-pop. At all. As a general rule, the Grammys tend to keep to their very specific geographical remits, so music from all over Asia is conspicuously absent, but with the chart success that Korean pop in particular continually garners, you’d think they’d have caught up by now. Jungkook and Latto’s ‘Seven’ might have been a bit too filthy for the more conservative Academy voters, but NewJeans and LE SSERAFIM were perfect candidates for a New Artist nomination, and cuts from TXT, IVE, Stray Kids, aespa and SEVENTEEN (amongst others) could have easily stood toe to toe with other nominees this year. We can only live in hope.

A GOOD PICK: Shucked

Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally’s corn-centric musical (cornsicle?) has swept the Tonys, so perhaps its inclusion at the Grammys isn’t really a surprise, but still — what a pleasure this OCR really is. Alex Newell is obviously a star, and ‘Independently Owned’ is easily one of my favourite musical songs of the past ten years, but the entire cast does a stellar job of telling this slightly silly story with wit and charisma. It’s incredibly American — corn, whiskey, conmen, Whole Foods and a good old-fashioned Guys and Dolls-style marriage hoohah, scored by jangly bluegrass and country strains — but in a charming and forward-thinking way that’s not afraid to poke fun at itself.

A BAD CHOICE: What’s In A Name? (Dave Chappelle)

This one irks me for quite a few reasons. Not to get too deep into the Dave Chappelle ‘Closer’ controversy, but amidst the fallout from his … somewhat select material at the expense of the trans community, Chappelle’s alma mater renamed their theatre in his honour. That this ‘comedy special’ is nowt more than his acceptance speech at this event is only a further reason why this nomination (in the Best Comedy Album category, no less) feels not just questionable but outright peculiar.

AN UGLY OMISSION: RAYE

Ending on perhaps the most inconceivable snub of them all — RAYE should have been leading the pack here this year, I make no apologies. Album awards? Check. Production awards? Check. Songwriting, songs, records, pop, dance, R&B — Song/Record of the Year for ‘Escapism.’? Check times eight. Even Best New Artist — if Noah Kahan counts as a new artist then RAYE does too, goddammit. My 21st Century Blues was a smash hit in every sense of the word, bolstered by strong singles and a wave of public support for the artist. What the RA were thinking in leaving her out in the cold this year is absolutely beyond me — perhaps the album’s unflattering portrayal of the industry hit just a little too close to home?

So there we have it — a grand total of 30 unwarranted opinions on the 2024 Grammy nominations. Will my opinions change come February 4th? Most likely, but I’m nothing if not fickle. Anywho, until next time,

AC.