mndtrp

I was surprised to see Muse in the Metal category. I haven't really listened to them at all, and what I have certainly didn't seem what I would call metal. Their song is a lot heavier than what I've heard from them before.

stvn1974

I love that Beyonce lost best album. The Grammy Awards have always been a joke. Just look at how many of the most popular artist of all time won best album awards. The Beatles. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc?

brainee

At least they're more metal than the first winner of that Grammy ... Jethro Tull

I have to laugh at people who are saying now the Grammy's have lost legitimacy. There have been bad winners for its entire history. Plus music is just so subjective. This is the one award that means the least to me as far as giving me suggestions for things I'll want to check out.

cultshock

Many of the metal catagory nominations never made any damn sense, right from the beginning, but I'm not really surprised. Bands nominated by out of touch people who don't even know what metal is.

I completely sympathize with Affleck, I sure wouldn't be able to sit through all that.

Decker

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band won Album of the Year in 1968.

But yeah, there are many, many terrible selections over the years (Lionel Ritchie over Purple Rain and Born in the USA? Celine Dion over "Odelay" and "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness"?). Though in recent years the Grammys have tried really hard to be more relevant and not a joke. That's why this loss was so stunning. RENAISSANCE wasn't my favorite album, but it was universally acclaimed. It was Metacritic's #4 album overall of 2022. It was Pitchfork's Album of the Year. It was Rolling Stone's Album of the Year


So it was kind of a slam dunk that it was an easy choice for the Grammys, especially considering how Beyoncé had clearly been deserving and lost for both self-titled and for Lemonade.
I can't really fault the organization. They nominated her in all the major categories. But somehow the voters got it wrong yet again. And gave it to a fine but pretty unspectacular album. It's a bad look.

Coral

I quickly perused the nods/winners list this morning. Not a lot of music I listen to or care about - not that I care about the Grammys anyway... was just a bit curious.

I noticed Aoife O'Donovan had a few nominations in categories no one gives a shit about. She put out a solid album.

I remember a couple years ago when Fiona Apple released "Fetch the Bolt Cutters" and the reviews were simply stellar from so many publications. It was ranked the best album of the year by so many of them... and second best by many others... and in a lot of top 5 lists as well. I thought she could probably win Best Album or come very close. Meanwhile the Grammy's just tossed her in the "Best Alternative Music Album" category instead. Who can understand any of this.

Grammy, Shammy.

William Fuld

It was pretty great that song of the year was credited to one person.

Decker

It’s a songwriting award and shouldn’t be based on popularity. That said, damn :

GatorDeb

Could someone help me find Sam Smith's Grammy performance of Unholy? I can find clips with people talking about it but not the whole uninterrupted performance.

Decker

Do you have Paramount+? It streams the whole show. Their performance is at 1hr 28 min mark.

GatorDeb

No but I just joined the trial and am downloading the app just to watch it thanks!

Yep, totally worth it.

rexinnih

Congrats to Wet Leg, wonderful band.

JeffTheAlpaca

Maybe Aflleck is not pissed and has resting mug shot face?

JeffTheAlpaca

I thought maybe their popularity peaked in the aughts and have not heard any of their music in the 2010's and beyond.

John Galt

Streaming has an inherent bias towards younger listeners. I bet if you looked up physical units sold, Bonnie Raitt would blow away the competition.

Decker

Harry's House sold physical 757,000 copies. Bonnie's album I can't find any sales numbers but it peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart, so I doubt that.
Again, not that it matters, but Raitt's album wasn't a big seller.

John Galt

Well, I meant for singles....which obviously aren't really sold anymore so it's impossible to gauge. Just saying it's not an apples to apples comparison.

jpcamb

I don't know what fact is most shocking:

• Bonnie Raitt won a grammy
• Bonnie Rait has not won a grammy before
• Bonnie Raitt has an album out.
• Bonnie Raitt beat out Taylor Swift and Beyonce for a grammy.

Decker

Bonnie Raitt has won a ton of Grammys before this year. She's up to 13 now. Major ones like Album of the Year, too (unlike Beyonce) . Just not for songwriting before now.

Coral

Out of curiosity I had to check out all the Song of the Year nods (a couple of them I've already heard).
Raitt's song was by far the best song. Wasn't even close.

"Just Like That" really channels John Prine (who she's worked with a few times) musically, lyrically and emotionally... which is a very good thing.

Decker

Look, music is subjective and I don't mind Raitt winning as she's a blues legend and a strong songwriter. And it's a nice song, and I'm all for a organ donation message.
But if you seriously want to argue that this :

is a MUCH better song than this :

That it's not even close? Come on, that's disingenuous. The song that Rolling Stone recently ranked #1 out of all 229 of her songs?
Here's what they said about it :1

“All Too Well” (2012-2021)

So casually cruel in the name of being awesome. This towering ballad is Swift’s zenith, building to peak after peak. For “All Too Well,” she teams up with her songwriting sensei Liz Rose to spin a tragic tale of doomed love and scarves and autumn leaves and maple lattes. And her greatest song just got even greater in the definitive 10-minute version, with Taylor digging up her lost verses, to bring it to a whole new level of All Too Unwell. What kind of artist takes her own masterpiece and tears it all up? This one. Only this one. Result: an even bolder masterpiece.

Every version of “All Too Well” tells a different story. There’s the “Sad Girl Autumn” version from Long Pond Studio, with Aaron Dessner on piano. The acoustic-guitar solo version from the theater premiere for her short film. But each version feels like it’s all her, because this isn’t really a song about a boy — never was. It’s about a girl, her piano, her memory, and her refusal to surrender her most painful secrets, even when it’s tempting to forget.

It’s full of killer moments: the way she sings “refrigerator,” the way she spits out the consonants of “crumpled-up piece of paper,” the way she chews up three “all”’s in a row. No other song does such a stellar job of showing off her ability to blow up a trivial little detail into a legendary heartache. That scarf should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, though in a way it already is. You can schaeden your freude all over the celebrity she reputedly sings about, but on the best day of your life you will never inspire a song as great as “All Too Well.” Or write one.

Best line: “Maybe we got lost in translation/Maybe I asked for too much/Maybe this thing was a masterpiece till you tore it all up/Running scared, I was there, I remember it all too well.” Listen here.

_________________________

I mean come on, have a little honesty or objectivity.
Now if you want to argue that All Too Well is a 2011 song and shouldn't be competing for Best Song of 2022? Sure that is a totally fair argument. But that Bonnie Raitt song, with its chorus of La La La La La isn't going to find its way to the top of the charts in another 11 years and there's a reason that only one song has ever done that. All Too Well is a spectacular song.

Coral

As I said... it's not even close. And it's not really about the message that made it for me (generally, I'm not a fan of songs that have a message), it's the emotion and simple, yet beautiful lyrics and composition. Her voice is honest and doesn't hide behind overproduced engineering. And I'm not really a big Bonnie Raitt fan - although I respect her music. Like I said, she's really channeling John Prine - an example of from his last/final album:


Rolling Stone's ranking doesn't mean much to me. And I haven't heard all of Swift's songs (probably heard about 25 or so... maybe more?) but based on those songs, this one being her best doesn't really say much in my opinion. Her music isn't offensive, I just don't find it all that good or inspired.

Someone who's close to the same age as Swift and released her first album at around the same age, I find Sarah Jarosz to be a real talent. Her musicianship and songwriting is simply incredible - always well beyond her years. Of course, her popularity and sales are only a fraction of what these lesser talents generate... although she has won a few Grammy's - just not in categories anyone really cares about.

This is all my subjective opinion of course.

Josh-da-man

"All Too Well" is the song about her getting pumped and dumped by Jake Gyllenhaal, isn't it?

John Galt

I did the same thing yesterday and came to the same conclusion (Easy on Me would have been a close second place on my ballot though). Of the nominees, I had only heard Adele, and the original "All Too Well". I listened to the new version of All Too Well and hated the production. The vocals sound like they're in an echo chamber and the simple guitar from the original has been replaced. I read the lyrics for the other seven songs and most of those were so vulgar they had no place being celebrated for anything. I thought Bonnie's song was great and I ended up listening to the album most of the day. That said, I could probably come up with a dozen songs from last year that I think are better songs than that, so I clearly have different tastes than the Grammy's.

And on a related note, it was very nice seeing Brandi Carlile win multiple awards and I think they've traditionally done a great job honoring true country music and rejecting all the pop songs that people try to use to take over the format.

jpcamb

I think someone on the internet lied to me, I thought "nick of time" won a bunch of stuff back in the day but its foggy from being so far removed from now. I gave up on listening to her after the radio saturation of that album. I feel she is more AOR than blues but I probably need to revisit her catalog since then as I haven't heard a note from her albums in a decade or so. Used to love her and saw her live at least once back in the 90s.

I'm kicking myself for not getting into John Prine directly until last year. The man was an absolute genius with lyrics, phrasing, and kindness. been listening to people cover him well for decades and I missed the fount.