Album of the Year:
# The Suburbs – Arcade Fire
# Recovery – Eminem
# Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
# The Fame Monster – Lady Gaga
# Teenage Dream – Katy Perry
Who SHOULD Win: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs. Hands down this is the best album nominated, and I ranked it just below Kanye's album (he missed the deadline for the 2011 awards, so look for him next year) for my personal AOTY. This album is not only a great piece of music, but also provides a great social commentary on American suburbia.
Who WILL Win: Eminem - Recovery. Now I have a love/hate relationship with this album. Eminem touched on a lot of topics on this album I was hoping he'd talk about on his 2009 album. This along with a great lead single, and getting outside production made me really like it right away. But the more I listened to it throughout the year, the more I didnt like it. His yelling-delivery is grating and annoying and his lyrics and rhyme schemes are terrible compared to the rest of his catalog (especially compared to the rhyme fest that was Relapse).
So Recovery will win because The Grammys loves to give the award to old timers, and since there's no odd ball, washed up 1970s revival album nominated this year (see: Steely Dan and Herbie Handcock in years past), I think this is finally Marshall's year to bring home the most coveted Grammy award.
Song of the Year:
# “Beg, Steal or Borrom” – Ray LaMontagne
# “Forget You” – Cee Lo
# “The House That Built Me” – Miranda Lambert
# “Love the Way You Lie” – Eminem feat. Rihanna
# “Need You Know” – Lady Antebellum
Who SHOULD Win: This is a songwriter's award, so lyrics and songwriting are a major part of how this is decided who wins. I think Cee-Lo's "Fuck You" is the best written song on this list. While I'm completely annoyed with this song now because my roommates played this song 4 times a night, every weekend since September.
Who WILL Win: I could see this award rightfully going to Cee-Lo, but I think Marshall and Rihanna (who wont get this award because the chorus was written by Skylar Grey) will bring this award home.
Record of the Year:
# “Love the Way You Lie” – Eminem feat. Rihanna
# “Nothin’ On You” – B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars
# “Forget You” – Cee Lo
# “Empire State of Mind” – Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
# “Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum
Who SHOULD and WILL Win: This could a number of different ways. Record of the year basically means the best song of the year (as opposed to best written song). I wouldnt be mad if Eminem, Cee-Lo, or Jay-Z won this award. To be honest I'm pretty much over all of these songs, because people who don't really listen to music have overplayed the shit out of these songs over the course of the past year. I think Marshall will continue his award tour by winning this one too. I'm hoping that Jay wins this though because it's a great track that was ruined by the radio, but now that's not in rotation anymore, I might enjoy it again.
Best New Artist:
# Justin Bieber
# Drake
# Florence + The Machine
# Mumford & Sons
# Esperanza Spalding
Who SHOULD and WILL Win: I don't know much from Florence + The Machine other than a few tracks that I've heard and really enjoyed so I won't be mad when they WIN this award. But I'm rooting for the Canadian wordsmith, Drake. I think Drake is a very good rapper and a great songwriter. He has a great personality that is brought out on his tracks.
Best Rap Album:
# The Adventures Of Bobby Ray – B.o.B
# Thank Me Later – Drake
# Recovery – Eminem
# The Blueprint 3 – Jay-Z
# How I Got Over – The Roots
Who SHOULD Win: The Roots - How I Got Over. This ranked #4 on my BRL end of the year rankings. A phenomenal album with great production and rapping. This is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite Roots album, but I'm sure they're not going to win because...
Who WILL Win: Eminem - Recovery - Yepp. Eminem is going to be hella annoying Sunday night with his "yaknowhatI'msayin'" and emotional speeches about how tough the past 5 years have been.
Best Rock Song“Angry World” — (Neil Young)
“Little Lion Man” — (Mumford & Sons)
“Radioactive” — (Kings Of Leon)
“Resistance” — Matthew Bellamy (Muse)
“Tighten Up” — (The Black Keys)
Who SHOULD Win: "Tighten Up" was one of the best songs I heard all year. It instantly turned me onto the Akron Blues duo.
Who WILL Win: But I'm thinking Kings of Leon will take this award, which wouldn't be a terrible thing, because it's a pretty damn good song.
Best Alternative Music Album
The Suburbs — Arcade Fire
Infinite Arms — Band Of Horses
Brothers — The Black Keys
Broken Bells — Broken Bells
Contra — Vampire Weekend
Who SHOULD and WILL Win: This is a great category. I'd happy with anyone winning this as long as it's not Band of Horses (not that they're a bad band, but not on the same level as the others mentioned). I think Arcade Fire will win this award, as they should.
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
“Nothin’ On You” — B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars
“Deuces” — Chris Brown, Tyga & Kevin McCall
“Love The Way You Lie” — Eminem & Rihanna
“Empire State Of Mind” — Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
“Wake Up! Everybody” — John Legend, The Roots, Melanie Fiona & Common
Who WILL Win: I think Marshall will get his first loss of the night because Bobby Ray and Bruno Mars will win this one. This was Mars' breakthrough, and he hasn't looked back since. This track also pretty much buried the artist B.o.B that we once loved. Playing guitar and singing/rapping has been traded in for simplistic rapping (which has sort have always been there) over cheesey soulless mainstream production, with Mr. or Ms. WhoeverIsHotAtTheTime on the chorus.
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