Grammy Nominees 2010

Whoa! I guess sometime when we weren't looking, our blog turned one year old! Happy birthday, blog!

I know Julia is going to flinch when she sees this post. How do I know? Look to the right where you can see the number of blog posts every month. See how there's one or two a month, if that? (Don't judge. We have lives. Crazy busy lives. And we don't get paid to blog.) (Yet.)

Then, see how January has 47 posts??!

That was last year's Grammy awards, folks. And boy was it a marathon. Basically, both Julia and I were simul-blogging our stream of consciousness and posting at every commercial break. It was hours long, and intense. I may or may not have snapped at former roommates for talking over the winners. (Sorry, Johnny D!)

I can promise you that this year will be different. Nonetheless, I'd be remiss not to introduce the nominees and get you pumped about it.

Ready??

RECORD OF THE YEAR (aka a single song's award to the producers, engineers, mixers, and artist.Think engineering award or "Recording of the Year".)

Nothin' On You  - B.o.B. featuring Bruno Mars


Love The Way You Lie - Eminem featuring Rihanna


F*** You - Cee Lo Green


Empire State of Mind - Jay Z & Alicia Keys


Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

I think the theme of this year is very cool, well-mixed piano parts. Think the catchy piano and drums on "Nothin' On You", the legato arpeggio on "Love The Way You Lie", Alicia's standard rhythmic seven chords on "Empire State of Mind", and the pretty, single-note countermelody on "Need You Now".

Then there's Cee Lo's "Fuck You".

What's that? You haven't heard of it?! Shame on you.

Here: Watch this. Quick. Before someone notices.



Don't worry. I won't tell on you.

Now that we're all on the same page, I'll move on to the other categories (we'll come back to this song momentarily):

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The Suburbs - Arcade Fire


Recovery - Eminem


Need You Now - Lady Antebellum


The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga


Teenage Dream - Katy Perry

I still haven't forgiven the academy for last year's slight against Lady Gaga. (Sorry, Taylor.) It's well established that we are die-hard Gaga fans, and I'd love to see her prevail in this category. Then again, Eminem made a fantastic showing with Recovery and is better than ever, and Katy Perry's Teenage Dream is filled with gems. She gets consistently stronger, and has risen from a suspected flash in the pan to a real career artist. In case you missed it, see me gush about her here. And Arcade Fire?? How awesome to see them get such a huge nomination!

Maybe it's just me, but although I love Lady Antebellum, I suspect that last year's country album win will cause the pendulum to swing in another direction this year. But who really knows.

Finally, my favorite category of all time:


SONG OF THE YEAR

Beg Steal or Borrow - Ray Lamontagne, songwriter (Ray LaMongagne And The Pariah Dogs)

F*** You - Cee Lo Green, Phillip Lawrence & Bruno Mars, songwriters (Cee Lo Green)

The House That Built Me - Tom Douglas & Allen Shamblin, songwriters (Miranda Lambert)


Love The Way You Lie - Alexander Grant, Holly Hafferman & Marshall Mathers, songwriters (Eminem featuring Rihanna)


Need You Now - Dave Haywood, Josh Kear, Charles Kelley & Hillary Scott, songwriters (Lady Antebellum)


(Did you catch that? BRUNO MARS helped to write "Fuck You"? I just learned that today. The man can sing AND write.)

You have to love a song that rose to the mainstream despite the fact that it was far too profane to be designed for it. The melody is so damn catchy and upbeat despite it being a song about misery. I'm a sucker for intelligent contrasts like that. And with a vocal range like Cee-Lo's, the melody gets away with spanning more than an octave. In a time when it's trendy to write one-note hooks (Far East Movement's "Like a G6", Kevin Rudolph's "Let It Rock", Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream"), a soaring, well-crafted melody is a breath of fresh air.

The rises and falls of the melody even coincide with what would actually get the emphasis in a spoken sentence:

"I see you driving round town with the girl I love, and I'm like, 'Fuck you!'
I guess the change in my pocket just wasn't enough, and I'm like, 'Fuck you!'"

When you speak these sentences out loud, which words get the emphasis? Probably the "fucks" first of all. Probably "change" and "pocket" and "driving" as well. It's no coincidence that these words end up being the highest peaks in the melody. It's intentionally designed to mimic a naturally spoken vocal inflection. That's why you can hear the attitude immediately.

Isn't that cool?? I'm such a geek for this stuff. Where are my musical theatre peeps at!?

Enough about the melody. Let's talk lyrics:

"I said I'm sorry / I can't afford a Ferrari
But that don't mean I can't get you there.
I guess he's an XBox / And I'm more Atari
But the way you play your game ain't fair"

Um, internal rhyme with "atari"/"Ferrari"? The video game metaphor? So damn clever. It's also not often you run across ABAB rhyme schemes in songs nowadays- AABB is far more common.

I'm not even going to mention the choir who comes in at just the right moment when the chorus is about to get repetetive, then changes their vowel sound just to heighten the energy for us once again. Or his versatile, expressive voice. It's just a well-written, well-executed song.

All of the nominees are more than deserving, but I'm clearly rooting for Cee Lo to win this one.

We'll see, I suppose! Now if @julz422 would just return my phone calls to live-tweet this thing. ;)

Love,
@lauravand