With tonight's Grammy nominees full of surprises and disappointments, we're all feeling a little salty toward at least one of the categories. Here is a compilation of my five biggest grievances about tonight's awards:
5. Arctic Monkeys for "Best Rock Performance"
It's not that "Do I Wanna Know?" isn't an amazing song, because I definitely played it every single time I got behind the wheel of my car over winter break. It's that the Grammys completely ignored the utter genius that was Arctic Monkeys' 2011 masterpiece "Suck It And See." The album, which had many songs on the soundtrack of the critically-acclaimed British film "Submarine," displayed an impressive growth in the band's songwriting prowess and may be its strongest work yet. Coming on the heels of this work, "AM," no matter how well loved, simply can't compete.
4. "Best" Album of the Year — Did We Even Try?
Upon seeing the bland musical drivel that was offered up by this year's Best Album category, I found myself asking: Where was the creativity? With the likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Beyoncé populating this year's nominees, the year's most innovative, interesting albums seemed to have been long forgotten. With FKA Twigs's debut "LP1" and St. Vincent's eponymous magnum opus coming out this year, I was extremely disappointed to see the musical white rice (jasmine, not even long grain) that was nominated for the category this year.
3. James Franco for "Best Spoken Word Album" — Please God, No
Gif Courtesy of TLC / "Toddlers in Tiaras" Between making millions cracking jokes about the suffering of North Korea and completely destroying Faulkner, James Franco has done enough damage for one year. There are a lot of other great options within this category, from Joan Rivers to Jimmy Carter to Elizabeth Warren. However, literally anyone else could win this award and I would be satisfied. Give it to Iggy Azalea, for crying out loud. I'm not picky, and "The New Classic" was supposed to be spoken word, right?
2. Jack White for "Best Alternative Music Album"
Did Jack White even try this year? After his solo debut "Blunderbuss" proved White's chops as a musician (as if we weren't already convinced), "Lazaretto" just seemed lazy. "Blunderbuss" was a cross-genre adventure through the depths of White's angst and poeticism, while "Lazaretto" just falls flat with unimaginative lyrics and instrumentals that simply don't live up to what we know he's capable of. With the likes of St. Vincent and Alt-J up for this same award, here's to hoping that the Grammys don't reward White's slacking and instead give the award to someone who actually deserved it.
1. Is Iggy Azalea Even A Rapper, Guys? With last year's Macklemore upset still leaving a bad taste in our mouths, I sincerely hope the same doesn't happen this year with Iggy Azalea's "The New Classic." With five other formidable rap names up against her, it's obvious to all that Iggy doesn't deserve the award, but the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has given us reason to doubt them before. I'm personally pulling for Childish Gambino's "Because the Internet," but I have a bad feeling that it'll be everyone's favorite Australian igloo taking home the Gramophone this year.
Tell the reporter about your middle school crush on Jack White (maybe that was just me) at ezentner@asu.edu or follow @emilymzentner on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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