Recording artist Kanye West attends an autograph-signing session for his album.
The Recording Academy is a hipper-than-average grandparent. It sort of understands what's going on in music, but it is easily confused, and this year's 50th annual Grammy nominations, announced this morning, prove it. Herbie Hancock and Vince Gill for album of the year? A record of the year nod for Corrine Bailey Rae's Like a Star, which isn't just aggressively dull, but was first released in 2005? A best new artist nomination for veteran singer Leslie Feist? As pop cultural statements go, these are the equivalent of "Who stole my glasses!"
You can peruse the complete list of nominees here, but rather than apply logic to the logic-less, let's sort through who benefited and suffered at the hands of whimsical old Grammy.
Winners
Kanye West
His Graduation leads the pack with eight nominations, including album of the year. It's his worst record to date, but it sold well and is the one rap album Grammy voters know they are supposed to pretend they heard this year.
Amy Winehouse
Her six nominations (second overall to West) are the only real indicator that the Grammy people have some taste. It's not just that Back to Black is a great album; it's original and daring — words not usually associated with Grammy. Be sure to set your TiVo, just in case Winehouse somehow toddles past security and makes an appearance at the Feb. 10 ceremony at Los Angeles' Staples Center.
Justin Timberlake
His FutureSex/LoveSounds was nominated for album of the year in 2006. It lost. Timberlake hasn't released a new album since then, but he did get five more nominations. Dude is that lucky.
Feist
Shut out of the big stuff, Leslie Feist at least got nominated for best new artist (heretofore known as best artist new to Grammy voters) and best pop vocal album. It's a nice capstone to a year in which she went from indie-folk darling to the Top 10 (thanks largely to Steve Jobs' using "1,2,3,4" in iPod ads).
Herbie Hancock
Nothing against Hancock, a fine gentleman and terrific musician, but even he had to wake up this morning and think Ashton Kutcher had finally delivered on Jazz Punk'd. This was one of the five best albums of the year? Really? If Hancock gets to perform at the ceremony, he better at least dust off the robots from "Rock It." He owes us that.
Losers
Bruce Springsteen
The Boss has never won album of the year, and there was growing sentiment in the last few weeks that Magic would end up being the Grammy equivalent of the The Departed — a lifetime achievement make-up call for years of overlooking superior work. Instead, Springsteen gets bumped out of album consideration by the Foo Figters, and his four nominations are in lesser categories.
LCD Soundsystem
Still a little avant-garde for the Grammys, but usually the committee finds a way to reward fringe bands within their genres. Not this time. Mika and the over-the-hill Chemical Brothers get nods for best dance recording while LCD's brilliant Sound of Silver gets nothing. Except perhaps a little more credibility.
R. Kelly
Even if he had been nominated for best contemporary R&B album, it's doubtful he'd have made the ceremony, what with recording for Trapped in the Closest Pt. 788 still ongoing. But Kelly's snub probably has less to do with feelings about the genuinely strong Double Up than with his, uh, "legal issues."
Reba McEntire
When you do a duets album, you get nominated for album of the year. It's a law! The Grammys are flouting this law, albeit, in a qualitative sense, wisely.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
See Reba, except this T-Bone Burnett-produced trifle wasn't just deserving of praise, it featured 20-time Grammy winner Alison Krauss, the sweet-voiced crack of the Grammy committee. Its absence from the glamour categories is mystifying.