Music Bummys: Best Songs of 2019

Top Twenty

20. Sunday Service Choir, “Lift Up Your Voices”: This whole album was brilliant, full of refreshingly pure and pared-down gospel music, but this is the choir’s crowning achievement, the chorus gradually rising and falling from ecstasy into bliss.

19. Vampire Weekend, “This Life”: The two Vampire Weekend songs on this list were probably my most-listened-to of the year, and “This Life,” a song about getting through suffering and doubt with the backdrop of the sunniest instrumentation you could imagine, was a big escape for me all 2019 and into 2020.

18. Ariana Grande, “NASA”: I think I dismissed this song on first listen, because she spells out “N-A-S-A,” and superficially that seemed silly to me, but this is a perfectly crafted little amuse-bouche of a song.

17. Big Thief, “Not”: Frontwoman Adrianne Lenker and her bandmates make music that often seems to exist on another plane, but this song about remaining present in the here and now is the most alive they’ve ever sounded.

16. Billie Eilish, “bad guy”: Eilish is less of a provocateur than the jittery villainy of her most famous song made her appear to be, but it nevertheless made her instantly iconic.

15. Joan Shelley, “Teal”: Shelley may never get the recognition she deserves, but according to “Teal,” all she needs are “fresh air, and wind, and waves,” and maybe that’s enough for me too.

14. Billie Eilish, “everything i wanted”: I love “bad guy,” but if you want to hear something closer to Eilish’s true capacity, “everything i wanted,” while closer to sounding like a more straightforward pop song, is the one.

13. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “Bright Horses”: Cave’s incredible two-album cycle processing grief and the loss of his son is best represented by this ode to the impossibility and necessity of hope.

12. Brittany Howard, “Stay High”: Jaime didn’t quite work for me as a full album, but this highlight makes me so happy every time I hear it.

11. Taylor Swift, “Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. The Chicks)”: This isn’t the first Taylor Swift song to make me cry, but it’s probably the one I’ve cried during the most.

10. Lana Del Rey, “F*ck it I love you”: If there’s any song that more succinctly sums up Del Rey’s appeal, I haven’t heard it. She’s an avatar for millennial malaise, high expectations with mild disappointment leading to self-medication in one way or another more often than not in her songs. In this one, she reaches for clichés (“California dreamin’, got money on my mind”) but ends up forsaking them for something ostensibly more meaningful in her lover, but succumbing to meaninglessness anyway.

9. John Moreland, “East October”: Trying to survive in a cruel world necessitates either hope or despair, and John Moreland’s music exists at the intersection between the two. This song leans into the despair of getting by as a sober person, without anything to ease the pain. But Moreland understands that the act of living is inherently connected to the spiritual, and the pain in this song is cut with the knowledge that there is a way, even if its somewhere above his understanding.

8. Taylor Swift, “Cornelia Street [Live from Paris]”: This is cheating a bit; this version of the song wasn’t released till May of this year, though the performance is from September 2019, so I’m counting it as a 2019 song. The original “Cornelia Street,” combining the fear of losing a good thing with an incredible sense of place within her memories, is pop perfection. But this version features Swift on acoustic guitar, and it’s an incredible example of the connection she can foster with her audience when she strips her songs down and lets her songwriting take center stage.

7. Dua Lipa, “Don’t Start Now”: Lipa broke the Best New Artist curse with this song. It should have been hard to replicate her early success, the propulsive pop anthems of “IDGAF” and “New Rules” matching any hit from the last ten years for addictiveness, but Future Nostalgia‘s first single has been the best of the bunch. Those first hits were precocious, rising above her status as a newcomer; “Don’t Start Now” solidifies her as a contender for one of the queens of pop.

6. Vampire Weekend, “Harmony Hall”: If you listen to Ezra Koenig tell it, this song is intensely political, carrying loaded themes of power and oppression. I believe him, but like many songs that reach for higher meaning, it needs to work on a visceral level as well, and “Harmony Hall” was probably the biggest balm for me of 2019. Sometimes I’d listen to it on repeat after a hard day and just be comforted by the acoustic guitar lick that forms the song’s backbone and by the plinking piano that gives it flavor, while repeating the refrain of “I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t know why,” somehow finding in the paradox a salve.

5. Sharon Van Etten, “Seventeen”: Van Etten has always been one of a kind at painting her songs like the landscape of her inner mind, but she outdoes herself on this single from Remind Me Tomorrow. If her forte before this album was introspection, she takes a detour into retrospection for a song, diving into the freedom she felt as a teenager in New York City. I’ve never lived in New York City, but “Seventeen” perfectly captures for me the feeling at the titular age of having the world at your fingertips without any understanding of what time can do to you. It also sums up what seeing people that age now feels like, that they are somehow your “shadow.” Maybe it’s just a product of being in my thirties that songs like this, about the profundity of time passing, resonate with me. Or maybe it’s just a great song.

4. Taylor Swift, “Lover”: Swift has written a lot of songs about love, but she hasn’t written a lot of love songs, and there’s been a special dearth of them since 2012’s Red. Most of her songs about love look into the past at relationships since dissolved. “Lover” is the first in a long time, and it’s the most content she’s ever sounded. Swift likes a chorus that propels you into the upper stratosphere, and “Lover” doesn’t do that. Instead, “Lover” finds peace in current commitment with a view to a life of the same. That doesn’t sound exciting put that way, but it’s one of the most life-giving songs she’s ever written.

3. Our Native Daughters, “You’re Not Alone”: There are other uplifting songs on Songs of Our Native Daughters, but after an album about suffering and oppression, the folk supergroup chose to end it with a lullaby to the next generation, and it listens like the light breaking over the horizon. Group member Allison Russell wrote and sings the song specifically for her 5-year-old daughter, hoping she can face the world with the knowledge that she is loved by her earthly family and the host of African ancestors that faced the world before her. I know that I cannot draw from the same heritage that Russell is evoking here; it’s specific to her family, her people. But the wider themes of encouraging her daughter that she is connected to a history of love and strength in the face of a cruel world…yeah, I think that’s hitting home right about now.

2. Lana Del Rey, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it”: I already unpacked Del Rey’s puzzling lack of self-awareness regarding her privilege in the post about my favorite albums of 2019, and here’s an example of the exact opposite. If there’s an example of someone’s complexity perfectly reflecting the current state of culture, it’s Del Rey, and this song is the perfect reflection of that reflection. It’s what made her response to her critics so frustrating; songs like “hope” reveal that she does know her place in the world. She’s a certain kind of woman living a certain kind of life, and that means something specific.

Del Rey is known (and criticized) for playing into the stereotypes of a fragile woman, dependent and submissive to the men in her life, sometimes to the point of abuse, which is an archetype rife with land mines. I think she pulls it off, but your mileage may vary. A song like “hope” is about this tension though, “a modern day woman with a wake constitution” still maintaining the belief that life will get better. She thinks that the culture thinks hope isn’t an option for her, and she defies that notion. It’s the strongest song on a strong record, and I couldn’t get enough of it in 2019.

1. Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, Beyoncé & WizKid, “BROWN SKIN GIRL”: You may be seeing a trend in these top three songs: female empowerment anthems that may or may not be meant for a daughter. I promise this isn’t a “as a father of a daughter” moment though; I liked these songs before we even knew we were having a child at all, let alone that she would be a girl. But I can’t deny that thinking about my daughter facing the world gives these songs extra power for me.

LION KING: THE GIFT is Beyoncé’s project, so it’s significant that she gives her daughter first billing on this song. Coming from Beyoncé later in the song, the song’s chorus is meant as an exhortation to her child to love herself, even if the world’s artificial standard of beauty doesn’t match up. But having Blue sing it at the beginning makes it sound like a mantra Blue has internalized, something that’s taken root in her heart.

I know this song is for Black girls of all shades and shapes and not for me. But it’s been good for my heart to listen to this song over and over again over the last year, feeling the pure love in Beyoncé’s words and the desire for her child to find her worth in something outside the wider culture. There’s common ground there for me; I don’t know what my daughter will be tempted to believe about herself from a world that doesn’t value the good things inside of her. But “Brown Skin Girl” is such a beautiful model for how a parent can shut the world out for her child and teach her what good really is.

Another Thirty Contenders (alphabetical by artist)

21 Savage, “a lot”

Angel Olsen, “Lark”

Ariana Grande, “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored”

Better Oblivion Community Center, “Dylan Thomas”

Beyoncé, “SPIRIT”

Bill Callahan, “Lonesome Valley”

Bon Iver, “Faith”

DaBaby, “Suge”

FKA twigs, “cellophane”

HAIM, “Summer Girl”

The Highwomen, “Highwomen”

Holly Herndon, “Frontier”

Joan Shelley, “The Fading”

Joan Shelley, “The Sway”

John Moreland, “Harder Dreams”

Josh Garrels, “Follow”

Katy Perry, “Never Really Over”

Megan Thee Stallion, “Hot Girl Summer (feat. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign)”

Miranda Lambert, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love (feat. Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes & Caylee Hammack)”

Miranda Lambert, “Tequila Does”

Over the Rhine, “Broken Angels”

Purple Mountains, “All My Happiness Is Gone”

ROSALÍA, “Milionària”

Sam Smith, “How Do You Sleep?”

Selena Gomez, “Lose You to Love Me”

Sunday Service Choir, “Count Your Blessings”

Sunday Service Choir, “Revelations 19:1”

The Tallest Man on Earth, “I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream.”

Thom Yorke, “Dawn Chorus”

Young Thug, “Hot (feat. Gunna)”

Past Top Tens

2018

Ariana Grande, “thank u, next”
The 1975, “Love It If We Made It”
Ariana Grande, “no tears left to cry”
Drake, “Nice for What”
Janelle Monáe, “Make Me Feel”
Our Native Daughters, “Mama’s Cryin’ Long”
Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin, “I Like It”
Ariana Grande, “imagine”
Drake, “In My Feelings”
Courtney Marie Andrews, “May Your Kindness Remains”

2017

Sufjan Stevens, “Mystery of Love”
Brandi Carlile, “The Joke”
Selena Gomez, “Bad Liar”
Kesha, “Praying”
Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Pa’lante”
Rhiannon Giddens, “Birmingham Sunday”
Lorde, “Green Light”
Propaganda, “Gentrify”
The War on Drugs, “Thinking of a Place”
Julien Baker, “Appointments”

2016

Kanye West, “Ultralight Beam”
Rae Sremmurd, “Black Beatles (feat. Gucci Mane)”
Rihanna, “Work (feat. Drake)”
Drive-By Truckers, “What It Means”
Chance the Rapper, “No Problem (feat. Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz)”
Leonard Cohen, “You Want It Darker”
Solange, “Cranes in the Sky”
Car Seat Headrest, “Fill in the Blank”
Lecrae, “Can’t Stop Me Now (Destination)”
Japandroids, “Near to the Wild Heart of Life”

2015

Leon Bridges, “River”
Sufjan Stevens, “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross”
Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, “Sunday Candy”
Blood Orange, “Sandra’s Smile”
Kendrick Lamar, “Alright”
Alessia Cara, “Here”
Justin Bieber, “Love Yourself”
Rihanna and Kanye West and Paul McCartney, “FourFiveSeconds”
Jack Ü, “Where Are Ü Now (with Justin Bieber)”
Miguel, “Coffee (F***ing) (feat. Wale)”

2014

FKA twigs, “Two Weeks”
Strand of Oaks, “Goshen ’97”
The War on Drugs, “Red Eyes”
John Mark McMillan, “Future / Past”
First Aid Kit, “Waitress Song”
Sia, “Chandelier”
Jackie Hill Perry, “I Just Wanna Get There”
Taylor Swift, “Out of the Woods”
Parquet Courts, “Instant Disassembly”
Sharon Van Etten, “Your Love Is Killing Me”

Music Bummys: Best Albums of 2019

Top Ten

10. Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride: Vampire Weekend have been an indie rock staple for the last twelve years. I remember listening to their debut album during my freshman year of college having mostly had a diet of Christian music and classic rock up till that point, so I was a little befuddled by what I was listening to and why I loved it so much. Nothing they’ve made since has had quite the same effect on me, until Father of the Bride, which was on repeat for much of the latter part of last year. The band has gotten more collaborative and less derivative, and Father of the Bride is the result of artists who are more comfortable with relying on good hooks without getting bogged down in trying to make something more than good pop music. It’s the most relaxed they’ve sounded in years, and as a result it sounds like they stumbled onto their best album in years.

9. Bon Iver, i,i: Much of the same could be applied to Bon Iver. They debuted the same year, and they’ve been pillars of the indie music community ever since. The difference is that their albums have consistently been showing up on these lists, so it’s hard for me to pick the best among them all. Every album since the beginning has felt like a refinement of Justin Vernon’s vision, from the more straightforward folk of For Emma, through the pop filtered through AM radio on the self-titled album, to the totally deconstructed folktronica on 22, a Million, and all of them have presented a view of the world somewhere between hope and anxiety. i,i feels like Vernon crested some kind of wave of anxiety with 22 and is more hopeful in its aftermath, giving us flashes of the narrative dissonance on 22 while shifting his focus in its themes toward uplift and community. It’s a welcome direction, and it may be their warmest record yet.

8. FKA twigs, MAGDALENE: When FKA twigs released her first album, LP1, in 2014, I dismissed her music as brooding and obtuse, as if those were bad things. Later the next year, I named her song “Two Weeks” as my top song of 2014, so clearly she grew on me. This is her first full-length since, and it’s a supreme step forward in both confidence and execution. On LP1, twigs found joy in playing around with one’s expectations for R&B music, casting about for a direction worth moving in. On MAGDALENE, she’s forging her own path forward, staking claim to control over all aspects over all aspects of her life while the world rejects her claims at every turn. This leads to her most assured songs yet, holding up over the album’s full length with music that sounds like almost nothing else. She finds inspiration in the persona of Mary Magdalene as a judged woman to rise above the culture’s collective expectations for what she should do with her life, her body, and her art.

7. Taylor Swift, Lover: It’s fascinating to look back on Lover after the 2020 release of folklore. Remembering the Lover rollout, much like remembering the reputation rollout, is to remember the underwhelming first singles. But by now we should realize that Swift’s album-making should never be doubted on the basis of her marketing, because Lover is a return to form for her after the uneven (but still pretty good!) reputation after the perfection of 1989. It shouldn’t be surprising that the artist who has been one of the best songwriters alive since she was in high school can fill an album with great pop songs. And yet it still amazes me that her pop albums are the documents that so consistently reflect the state her generation as she’s gotten older. Lover is the album of a thirty-year-old grappling with insecurity, commitment, and her aging parents. Stars aren’t just like us, but I’ll be damned if Taylor Swift doesn’t keep convincing me she is.

6. Ariana Grande, thank u, next: After everything that’s happened in 2020, I almost forgot what Ariana pulled off in the 10-month period from April 2018 to February 2019, rolling out two different near-pitch-perfect pop albums in the wake of the 2017 Manchester suicide bombing at her concert. If you don’t put much stock in the importance of pop music, that’s fine, but I tend to think of all art as having a cultural and personal significance. Ariana’s thank u, next set a standard in a cultural way, taking a step beyond most female empowerment projects’ speculative nature to embody the very ideal of what a woman in power might sound like, from the economic latitude of “7 rings” to the romantic domination of “break up with your girlfriend.” And the significance that the album must have for Ariana personally, in the ardent optimism of “imagine” to the self-love of “thank u, next,” is what seals the deal for me on continuing to revisit this album.

5. Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains: I had never listened to any of David Berman’s previous musical project, Silver Jews, so Purple Mountains hit me like a sucker punch. It’s impossible not to listen to this album in light of Berman’s suicide one month after its release. This makes it difficult not to read too much into these songs as cries for help. Songs like “All My Happiness Is Gone” (“I confess I’m barely hanging on”) and “That’s Just the Way That I Feel” (“The end of all wanting is all I’ve been wanting”) sound like message from the brink. It’s a dark album, but there is something life-giving in Berman’s honesty, his willingness to empty his soul in his music. That darkness is a part of life too, and actively listening to someone face it feels like a necessary act of living.

4. Beyoncé, Lion King: The Gift: Smarter people than me were critiquing this album for failing to be a full representation of the continent of Africa, neglecting to include East or North African artists. They also found that Bey had nothing new to add to genres (namely Afropop and South African house) that are already finding growing worldwide popularity. But I can’t get behind these critiques, because while for them The Gift may not tick all the boxes needed for a masterpiece of pan-African or diaspora culture, it was for me an incredible window into Beyoncé’s vision of blackness’s ties to an extraordinary history. It’s good to call for better representation and more innovation, but those criticisms don’t address the fact that The Gift is front-to-back bangers. When an artist is so sure of her vision and holds an entire culture in the palm of her hand, a flawed statement is still a masterpiece.

3. Joan Shelley, Like the River Loves the Sea: Joan Shelley has been making music since 2010 and has appeared in the annals of this weblog since 2014, when she released what could be termed her breakthrough album, Electric Ursa – that is, if she had really had anything to break through or had been trying to break through anything. Shelley’s music isn’t really the kind of music that breaks anything, unless you count hearts. She’s appeared on these lists in the past for the kind of spare folk music she’s become known for, for masterful albums that need little ornamentation to elevate them. What sets apart Like the River from her older work is a new poise, slight enough that it’s of a piece with the rest of her catalog and present enough that Shelley sounds like she’s writing from a new perspective: as one taking ownership of her comfort and pleasure rather than one only wishing for them.

2. Lana Del Rey, Norman F*cking Rockwell!: There’s a song on NFR called “The Next Best American Record,” which isn’t even close to my favorite song on the album but sums up the album’s ambitions perfectly. No, I don’t mean this is Del Rey’s attempt to make a grandiose, critically revered statement album that sums up the modern American experience. I mean Del Rey is doing that while scoffing at the very idea. After all, on a song called “Venice Bitch,” she describes herself as “fresh out of f*cks forever,” and on “The greatest,” she declares that “the culture is lit.” That’s not the language of someone concerned with serious album-making.

Yet the landscape that Del Rey crafts on NFR with the help of pop super-producer Jack Antonoff, a hazy version of classic pop orchestration utilizing every instrument from harps to flugelhorns, together with her voice, which Del Rey has honed ever since 2011’s “Video Games” into a dynamic weapon of faux delicateness, are marks of a a serious album. And for as cheeky as her lyrics are, Del Rey is remarkable at walking the line between honest and acidic. There’s sarcasm at play here, but there’s also sensitivity.

Del Rey made some news earlier this year for implying on Instagram that female artists of color get to make music about sex without criticism, while she gets critiqued for glamorizing abuse. It was hardly the first Lana Del Rey controversy, but it was the most indicative of her place in the culture. She benefits from all the pop-music tropes she likes to twist, but is unaware that those are uniquely white tropes. She’s almost unquestionably less popular than the artists she called out but is still nominated for Grammys and has access to producers like Antonoff.

Del Rey’s lack of self-awareness is ironic, given how incisively she observes American culture. But maybe that’s appropriate. After all, if there’s any culture that lacks self-awareness, it’s America’s. So with all her gifts and with all her flaws, Lana Del Rey is the mirror America deserves. For better or for worse, she made the most recent best American record.

1. Our Native Daughters, Songs of Our Native Daughters: Before this February, I would not have expected an album inspired by a museum to top this list. But that month I visited the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., before everything shut down. That museum, part of the Smithsonian complex, provides an immersive experience in the history of slavery on its bottom floors. It was impossible to remain unmoved by the stories told in those exhibits.

Those very stories inspired Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell to form a folk supergroup and write music honoring the history of African-American women in particular. These songs are both personal and empathetic. They are not just stories of tragedy, though there are some of those (“Mama’s Cryin’ Long,” “Blood and Bones”), but also stories of resilience and liberty (“Quasheba, Quasheba,” “You’re Not Alone”), often in the same songs. This album doesn’t fall into the twin traps of fetishizing suffering or turning a blind eye to it.

Most of these songs are story songs, told from someone else’s perspective. The women in this group are masters at creating these kinds of songs, using their crafts (singing and banjo-playing) to transport the listener to a different time and place to confront the feelings and thoughts of people not like them. This is a gift of some of my favorite artists – Bruce Springsteen and Patty Griffin to name a couple – and is one of the more potent remedies for selfishness.

But that can sound a bit like eating your vegetables, and Songs of Our Native Daughters is nothing if not a collection of beautiful music. This is a transportive experience, not a history lesson. It draws from historical narratives but explores them with the contours of blues and bluegrass. No album I listened to in 2019 was as triumphant as Our Native Daughters’. Perhaps 2020 has colored that opinion, but listening to the album today makes it feel more like a fact.

Another Fifteen Contenders (alphabetical by artist)

Angel Olsen, All Mirrors: The best chamber-pop album of the year.

Billie Eilish, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?: The best horror movie of the year.

Caroline Spence, Mint Condition: A pure country experience.

Ondara, Tales of America: The most incredible voice I heard from 2019.

Jamila Woods, LEGACY! LEGACY!: LEGACY felt like an announcement to the world that Woods is a singular artist.

Josh Garrels, Chrysaline: The best worship album of the year; just missed out on the Top Ten.

Kings Kaleidoscope, Zeal: The best non-worship Christian album of the year.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Ghosteen: An incredible exploration of grief.

Over the Rhine, Love & Revelation: This duo has never gotten its due, and this album is a continuation of an incredible career in Americana.

PUP, Morbid Stuff: The best rock band working today.

Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow: Another album that just missed the Top Ten, Van Etten’s foray into adolescent insecurity as she faces being a mother contains some of the most propulsive hooks of the year.

Sunday Service Choir, JESUS IS BORN: I never got a chance to write about this record, but it’s the best thing Kanye has done in ten years.

The Tallest Man on Earth, I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream: Kristian Matsson’s one of Sweden’s best folk exports, and this album is his most joyous yet.

Weyes Blood, Titanic Rising: The best chamber-folk album of the year.

Young Thug, So Much Fun: Thugger isn’t my favorite rapper alive, but he’s my favorite combination of prolific and consistent, and So Much Fun adds to that reputation.

Past Top Tens

2018

Brandi Carlile, By the Way, I Forgive You
The 1975, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
Ariana Grande, Sweetener
Robyn, Honey
Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer
Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour
Cardi B, Invasion of Privacy
Sandra McCracken, Songs from the Valley
The Carters, EVERYTHING IS LOVE
Courtney Marie Andrews, May Your Kindness Remain

2017

Gang of Youths, Go Farther in Lightness
Rhiannon Giddens, Freedom Highway
Propaganda, Crooked
Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Navigator
Father John Misty, Pure Comedy
Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.
The War on Drugs, A Deeper Understanding
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound
Joan Shelley, Joan Shelley
Lorde, Melodrama

2016

Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book
Beyoncé, Lemonade
Sturgill Simpson, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial
Solange, A Seat at the Table
Miranda Lambert, The Weight of These Wings
Sho Baraka, The Narrative
Bon Iver, 22, a Million
Courtney Marie Andrews, Honest Life
Jeff Rosenstock, WORRY.

2015

Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
Leon Bridges, Coming Home
Phil Cook, Southland Mission
Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
David Ramirez, Fables
John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat
Ben Rector, Brand New
The Tallest Man on Earth, Dark Bird Is Home
Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

2014

John Mark McMillan, Borderland
Sharon Van Etten, Are We There
The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream
Strand of Oaks, HEAL
Taylor Swift, 1989
Liz Vice, There’s a Light
Jackie Hill Perry, The Art of Joy
First Aid Kit, Stay Gold
Miranda Lambert, Platinum
Propaganda, Crimson Cord

If I Ran the 2020 Grammys

Well, this is the 7th time I’ve done this Grammys post, and if there were ever a year the title was prescient and necessary, it’s this year. Most people are going to wake up on Sunday, January 26th, go to Sunday brunch, take an afternoon nap, and then turn on the red carpet coverage without a care in the world. Most people will just blithely look forward to Lizzo or Ariana Grande performing. Most people will be blissfully unaware that the Grammys are in turmoil, bubbling under the surface of the overcrowded tribute songs and Alicia Keys’s game attempts to make the night interesting.

I, unfortunately, am not most people. I have paid attention, and it has been brought to my attention that everything we suspected about the Grammys (that they were corrupt, biased, sexist, and racist) is true. Or at least alleged to be true by the current CEO, Deborah Dugan, who was placed on administrative leave sometime in December and who subsequently filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In the complaint, Dugan claims the CEO before her, Neil Portnow (who infamously claimed that female artists needed to “step up” when asked about poor representation on radio and in the industry) had a rape claim made against him before he left after his contract was up last July. She also claimed that an attorney retained by the Recording Academy (which oversees the Grammy Awards), Joel Katz, had sexually harassed her. On top of those two statements, Dugan also alleged corruption in the Grammy nomination process, as well as on the organization’s executive board itself.

You can find an explainer for all of that here. It appears as if the Recording Academy is continuing to resist change, furthering and solidifying the concept that the Grammys will forever be stuck in a different era with nary a forward-thinking bone in their leadership. In the past, this manifested as weird nomination choices and weirder winner choices. Now, it appears that something far more sinister is going on.

In the meantime, I’ll do what I usually do and try to fix the nominations, predict the winners, and change the genres around. I did significantly less genres this year. One reason for this was that I found I was often drawing genre lines based on race, which is why I no longer have an R&B or Soul category. Those albums were often more suited to pop or Americana anyway, and I tended to associate black acts with those categories. I don’t want to do that anymore.

I also got rid of the Christian category. The albums I was forcing into that category can compete against secular albums just fine. My feelings have grown more mixed about the idea of an entire industry built around Christian music anyway, so I’m ready to move past that concept. I’m sure the entire Christian music industrial complex will follow my example and liquidate its assets to give to the poor.

A few ground rules:

1) I’ll give the real nominees with my prediction for the winner in bold. Then I’ll give you who I would have nominated, with my choice for the best in that group in bold.

2) We all know the October 1st, 2018-September 30th, 2019 qualifying dates are stupid, but we’re going to keep them in the interest of chaos. I can’t fix everything about the Grammys. So JESUS IS KING is out, but The 1975’s A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (from 2018, but released in November) is fair game.

3) For the four major awards (Album, Record, Song, New Artist), I’m realistic. The Tallest Man on Earth and Our Native Daughters made two of my favorite albums in the qualifying year, but they’re too niche to be nominated for Album of the Year. However, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift also released albums I loved, and they’re plausible options for the big one. But when it comes to the genre awards, anything goes- hence, artists like Over the Rhine, Jamila Woods, and Charly Bliss getting nods over more popular acts in their respective categories.

4) Even with less genres, genre boundaries are still fuzzy- Chance’s and Jamila’s albums could really fit into pop or hip-hop, PUP and Kings Kaleidoscope could easily be considered alternative instead of rock, The Lion King: The Gift has equal elements of hip-hop and pop, etc. So I went with my gut. I don’t have your gut, so if you disagree with me on whether or not Josh Garrels belongs in the alternative or Americana category, sorry.

I’ll start with the main awards.

Album of the Year

Real nominees: Ariana Grande, thank u, next
Billie Eilish, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
Bon Iver, i, i
H.E.R., I Used to Know Her
Lana Del Rey, Norman F***ing Rockwell!
Lil Nas X, 7 EP
Lizzo, Cuz I Love You (Deluxe)
Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride

My nominees: The 1975, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
Ariana Grande, thank u, next
Beyoncé, The Lion King: The Gift
Bon Iver, i, i
Lana Del Rey, Norman F***ing Rockwell!
Pistol Annies, Interstate Gospel
Robyn, Honey
Taylor Swift, Lover

I came late to Billie Eilish, only listening to WHEN WE FALL within the last week. I’ve loved it so far, but it’s a little late for me to have added it to my nominees, so I’m going to stick with what I have. That won’t stop her at the actual ceremony, however. She’s in for a possible sweep of the Big Four, which hasn’t happened since 1981 when Christopher Cross beat Pink Floyd’s The Wall for Album, Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” for Record, Irene Cara’s “Fame” for Song, and The Pretenders for New Artist. (Yikes.) She’s currently favored for all but Record, in which Lil Nas X has the edge.

The thing is that Lizzo actually has the most nominations of any artist and could easily procure a sweep of her own. The argument for Lizzo is that she draws so much from established genre tropes, while Eilish’s music is a little unsettling if not entirely unconventional. Eilish has been the favorite for about a year now, which could mean she’s too entrenched to be unseated or that voters are tired of her. My guess is that Eilish will ride the wave of support from her New Artist wins at both the American Music Awards and MTV Video Music Awards to at least three of the four awards. I’m betting on four of four though.

I loved seeing Lana Del Rey get a nod here and in Song, her first Big Four nominations. That album is my favorite of the year, and it’s hard to see it getting upended before the Bummys in August. Ariana is also a welcome sight, and it will be nice to see her perform after last year’s kerfuffle with the show’s producer, Ken Ehrlich, who will step down after this year’s show. Swift was fully expected to be among the nominees, given she’s been a perennial favorite of the Academy’s, but I suppose that was before she started stepping on the toes of powerful people. Lover was a more complete album than reputation and deserved to earn her a nomination.

I like Lizzo, but her two albums before Cuz I Love You were better. Cuz I Love You leans a little too hard into her self-mythology, amping up the polish and sacrificing some of the rawness of her independent-label output. I’d rather see Robyn (who has only been nominated in Dance category) get some Big Four love for Honey, which is an all-time great sad-pop record. I could also do without H.E.R., who continues to be a very solid artist getting way more attention than expected from the Academy, and Lil Nas X, who had a stellar year with a couple of massive hits on a so-so EP.

I’m a little puzzled by the lack of love for The Lion King: The Gift, which I thought was a marvel of a showcase for African artists. I’m similarly puzzled by the love for Bon Iver’s i, i, not because it’s bad, but because frontman Justin Vernon vocally hates the Grammys, and it’s hard to believe the Academy would respond to an obtuse album like this, as great as it is. I’d definitely pick it for my nominees though. I’d knock Vampire Weekend off and throw some love to The 1975, who made my favorite record of 2018 with their breakout A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. This era is dominated by pop, so I’m not surprised they haven’t broken through into the Big Four, since they’re generally pegged as rock, though they’re more genre-fluid than that.

And finally, I’d highlight one Americana record from the Miranda Lambert-led supergroup Pistol Annies. Twenty years from now, when the men who currently run the Recording Academy are giving interviews at the end of their careers, interviewers will ask them about the Grammys’ and music industry’s record with female artists. They will point to Album wins for Taylor Swift, Adele, and Kacey Musgraves. And those of us without too much earwax in our ears will say the name, “Miranda Lambert,” who has only ever been nominated for Grammys in the Country genre. Then we’ll drop the mic right on their toes, still sore from Swift stepping on them, and walk out of the room, confident in our good taste.

Record of the Year

Real nominees: Ariana Grande, “7 Rings”
Billie Eilish, “bad guy”
Bon Iver, “Hey, Ma”
H.E.R., “Hard Place”
Khalid, “Talk”
Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road [Remix] (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus)”
Lizzo, “Truth Hurts”
Post Malone & Swae Lee, “Sunflower”

My nominees: Ariana Grande, “thank u, next”
Beyoncé, “BROWN SKIN GIRL (feat. SAINt JHN, Wizkid & Blue Ivy Carter)”
Billie Eilish, “bad guy”
Bon Iver, “Hey, Ma”
Katy Perry, “Never Really Over”
Lil Nas X, “Old Town Road [Remix] (feat. Billy Ray Cyrus)”
Post Malone & Swae Lee, “Sunflower”
Taylor Swift, “Lover”

The distinction between Record and Song of the Year is unclear to most people who watch the Grammys, but Record is for the performance and the production, while Song is for the songwriting. I struggle every year with good songs to determine where the line is supposed to be between those aspects. But now that we have some evidence that the committees involved in the nomination process are rigging it anyway, I’ve decided I don’t care and will just try to include as many songs as I can between the two categories, with only the truly great songs garnering nods in both.

The odds currently favor Lil Nas X in this category. “Old Town Road” was such a massive and unexpected hit that I’d have no problem with that. But I think Billie Eilish is going to sweep the Big Four, and it’s hard to argue that the performance and the production of “bad guy” are less deserving than the songwriting. Lizzo also stands a chance. Everyone else is just happy to be here.

It’s fun to see “Sunflower” and “Hey, Ma” here, two songs that I loved that I would not have expected the Academy to recognize. I like “Talk” and “Hard Place,” but not enough to place them in the top 8 records of the year. Instead, I’d rather include the best song from the Lion King compilation and the title song off of Swift’s album, both of which are marvelous examples of how their respective artists have grown.

I didn’t include “Truth Hurts,” because it came out 3 years ago at this point. The Grammys have some way of nominating songs like this that reach a certain level of popularity a certain amount of time after they were released, and like everything else, this process lacks transparency. In my Grammys, “Truth Hurts” is a great song, but not eligible for this award. Instead let’s give Katy Perry a slot for the best song she’s ever written. “Never Really Over” is somehow underrated after Perry being overrated for most of her career.

As far as who I would pick to win this category, I’d go with Ariana Grande, though not for the song they nominated. “7 rings” is cheeky and fun, but the standout Ariana single from the qualifying period is clearly “thank u, next.” Ken Ehrlich wouldn’t let Ariana perform “thank u, next” at last year’s ceremony, which prompted her to drop out of performing at all. I’m not saying this is why the Academy chose “7 rings” over “thank u, next,” but I am saying that the Academy sucks.

Song of the Year

Real nominees: Billie Eilish, “Bad Guy”
H.E.R., “Hard Place”
Lady Gaga, “Always Remember Us This Way”
Lana Del Rey, “Norman f***ing Rockwell”
Lewis Capaldi, “Someone You Loved”
Lizzo, “Truth Hurts”
Tanya Tucker, “Bring My Flowers Now”
Taylor Swift, “Lover”

My nominees: Ariana Grande, “thank u, next”
Beyoncé, “BROWN SKIN GIRL (feat. SAINt JHN, Wizkid & Blue Ivy Carter)”
Big Thief, “Not”
Brittany Howard, “Stay High”
Katy Perry, “Never Really Over”
Lana Del Rey, “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it”
Taylor Swift, “Lover”
Vampire Weekend, “Harmony Hall”

As long as we’re distinguishing between songwriting and performing/producing, I’ll say that there are better-written songs on WHEN WE FALL than “bad guy,” but the song is such a juggernaut that it doesn’t matter. Billie Eilish is all but assured to win this. Again, Lizzo may sneak ahead of her, which we can chalk up to the Academy voters being more comfortable with a song that has a traditional structure. I could also see the Academy giving this award to Tanya Tucker, totally rejecting youth culture as a big middle finger to anyone pushing for a more forward-thinking awards ceremony.

It’s a little surprising that this is the only major award A Star Is Born was nominated for. An Album of the Year nomination was fully expected, and this nomination feels like settling for that soundtrack, especially since this song is far from the first, second, or third song you remember from that movie. Also surprising is that this is Swift’s only Big Four nomination this year, but I guess that’s what she gets for standing up to one of the most powerful men in music.

The holdovers from Record among my nominations are Ariana, Beyoncé, Perry, and Swift. I’m confused by the lack of love for the Lion King compilation in general, but especially for “BROWN SKIN GIRL,” which was something of an Internet phenomenon upon its release. I can’t think of a single reason a song like this wouldn’t be nominated by the Recording Academy. Nope. Not one.

I also included songs from Big Thief and Vampire Weekend that dominated my playlists this year. The Big Thief song is a little bit of a stretch, but the Grammys nominated the Brooklyn band for Best Alternative Album, so they’re at least on the radar. Alabama Shakes has been nominated for Album of the Year in the past, so it’s not crazy to imagine Brittany Howard getting nominated for the best song from her bold solo album. And I’d sub Lana’s title song out for “hope,” which is still breathtaking for me even after my hundredth or so listen.

Best New Artist

Real nominees: Billie Eilish
Black Pumas
Lil Nas X
Lizzo
Maggie Rogers
ROSALÍA
Tank and the Bangas
Yola

My nominees: Better Oblivion Community Center
Billie Eilish
The Highwomen
Lil Nas X
Our Native Daughters
ROSALÍA

Best New Artist is  known for being a terrible category, but the Grammys track record of anointing a hot artist as one to watch is a little better than you might think. Running through the category’s history turns up a lot of one-hit wonders, but also a lot of artists that have had staying power. This award is Billie Eilish’s to lose, though Lizzo is right there on her heels. Again, this is hard to predict, but they both seem to me like artists with more to say who can last.

It’s fun seeing ROSALÍA represented here, as I had thought she was more niche than she is; she’s actually blown up in a really cool way over the last year. Lil Nas X is deserving based on the strength of “Old Town Road” and “Panini” alone, even if he has yet to show he has any other cards up his sleeve. If I had listened to their albums earlier, I may have included both Maggie Rogers and Tank and the Bangas on my list. Black Pumas and Yola, on the other hand, didn’t stand out to be enough to make it into my top tier.

I cheated a little bit with my nominations, including three low-key supergroups that have artists that are definitely already established. Better Oblivion Community Center is a collaboration between Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes fame). The Highwomen are Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires. And Our Native Daughters are Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell. All of these groups released their debut albums during the qualifying period, so I’m going with it. The work that Our Native Daughters did on their debut was particularly astounding, so they’d get my top pick.

Best Alternative Music Album

Real nominees: Big Thief, U.F.O.F.
Bon Iver, i, i
James Blake, Assume Form
Thom Yorke, ANIMA
Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride

My nominees: boygenius, boygenius EP
Bon Iver, i, i
Sharon Van Etten, Remind Me Tomorrow
The Tallest Man on Earth, I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream.
Vampire Weekend, Father of the Bride

I’ve got no problem with the nominees for this category. Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend have clearly reached upperclassmen status to have been included in the Big Four nominations, so it makes sense they would be nominated here too. Thom Yorke is Thom Yorke, and at this point, James Blake is James Blake, though it’s a little weird that he’s here instead of Dance/Electronic. I liked Two Hands, Big Thief’s second album released in 2019, more than U.F.O.F., but it’s fun that an up-and-coming indie band got recognized.

Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend get to stay in my nominees, as both albums are both extremely listenable and endlessly interesting snapshots of both artists’ musical progression. Sharon Van Etten’s fifth album gets one of my slots; after her breakout fourth album, Are We There, Van Etten leans away from confessional songwriting and toward something more obtuse, but no less beautiful. boygenius deserves a nod for their debut EP as a supergroup (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus) after I gave them Best New Artist last year. And my winner would be The Tallest Man on Earth, who keeps finding new ways to make his brand of Swedish folk into ever-expanding musicscapes.

Best Americana Album

Real nominees (Country Album): Eric Church, Desperate Man
Pistol Annies, Interstate Gospel
Reba McEntire, Stronger Than the Truth
Tanya Tucker, While I’m Livin’
Thomas Rhett, Center Point Road

My nominees: Joan Shelley, Like the River Loves the Sea
Josh Garrels, Chrysaline
Our Native Daughters, Songs of Our Native Daughters
Over the Rhine, Love & Revelation
Pistol Annies, Interstate Gospel

Tanya Tucker clearly has the support with the Song of the Year nomination, perhaps because it was co-produced by Brandi Carlile, who emerged as a Grammy favorite last year with 6 nominations. It’s also a nice comeback story for Tucker after a 50-year career that started during her outlaw country years in the 1970s. Rhett is an up-and-comer, while Reba and Church are Grammy mainstays at this point. This is Pistol Annies’ first nomination and Miranda Lambert’s 16th. She’s only got 2 wins to her name, so I’d love for this to be the 3rd, as unlikely as it is.

These categories get confusing, because the Grammys have several Roots categories as well as an Americana category and a Bluegrass category. It shouldn’t get that confusing though, because none of my nominees were nominated in any of those other categories. Joan Shelley, a Kentucky-based musician, has become one of my favorite roots musicians with her spare instrumentation and spellbinding voice. Over the Rhine, based out of Cincinnati, have been at this for some time, mastering the folk genre and bending their style into other genres as well. Josh Garrels, from South Bend, has produced some of the more beautiful folk music centered around Christian themes this decade, and his most recent album is designed to function as a musical liturgy. But the best Americana album of the year was by far Songs of Our Native Daughters (seen above winning Best New Artist in my world), which paints a clear picture of our American history that was built on the back of violence and callous disregard for the value of human life.

Best Hip-Hop Album

Real nominees (Rap Album): 21 Savage, i am > i was
Dreamville & J. Cole, Revenge of the Dreamers III
Meek Mill, Championships
Tyler, the Creator, Igor
YBN Cordae, The Lost Boy

My nominees: Beyoncé, The Lion King: The Gift
Chance the Rapper, The Big Day
Jamila Woods, LEGACY! LEGACY!
Young Thug, So Much Fun

This year both hip-hop and rock suffered in my listening habits. I was only able to cobble together four nominees for both of those genres. If you look at the nominees, it’s not hard to see why. There’s only one artist here that has established himself as a major artist, and that’s Tyler, the Creator. This is his second nomination for Rap Album, and while all of these albums were well-received, Tyler’s was the only one that lingered in the culture through the end of the year.

However, Tyler isn’t my bag. I’ve given each of his albums a try, and he hasn’t clicked for me. Young Thug has definitely clicked for me on almost all of his albums, especially this most recent, which isn’t his best but might be his most polished with the most accessible hooks. Jamila Woods is probably best known for her featured singing on a couple of Chance-related songs (“Sunday Candy,” “Blessings”), but her second album, a step up in ambition from her first, leans enough into hip-hop traditions for it to qualify here. Speaking of Chance, The Big Day wasn’t particularly well-received, but it’s growing on me enough to convince me that it’s actually good and deserves recognition. But the best hip-hop album of the year was Beyoncé’s Lion King compilation, which followed in the footsteps of Kendrick’s curation of the Black Panther album by showcasing some of hip-hop’s underheard talent. The Academy nominated this in the Pop Vocal category, but one listen makes it clear this is a hip-hop album through and through.

Best Pop Album

Real nominees (Pop Vocal Album): Ariana Grande, thank u, next
Beyoncé, The Lion King: The Gift
Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Ed Sheeran, No.6 Collaborations Project
Taylor Swift, Lover

My nominees: Ariana Grande, thank u, next
Lana Del Rey, Norman F***ing Rockwell!
Nao, Saturn
Robyn, Honey
Taylor Swift, Lover

As I said above, Billie Eilish would likely have made these lists if I had listened to her earlier in the year. As such, she’ll have to comfort herself with winning actual Grammys. No surprise to see Ariana and Taylor present here, and Beyoncé’s compilation fits in this category fine. Sheeran has been getting nominated for Grammys since his first single, “The A Team,” was nominated for Song of the Year in 2013, but it’s a little surprising he didn’t slip into the Big Four this year.

My nominees include Nao, who is nominated this year in the Urban Contemporary Album category and who has never made a bad song, and Robyn, whose comeback album was completely ignored and who was hugely influential on all the biggest pop stars of the 2010s. The winner would be the artist that would win Album of the Year, Lana Del Rey, because it’s only logical for her to be nominated and most likely win in her genre if the album’s received an Album of the Year nomination. What’s that? You mean the Grammys nominated Norman F***ing Rockwell for Album of the Year and not in her genre? You mean the Grammys are stupid and don’t make any sense? Someone should fix these things!

Best Rock Album

Real nominees: Bring Me the Horizon, amo
Cage the Elephant, Social Cues
The Cranberries, In the End
I Prevail, Trauma
Rival Sons, Feral Roots

My nominees: The 1975, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
Charly Bliss, Young Enough
Kings Kaleidoscope, Zeal
PUP, Morbid Stuff

Remember how I detailed the Rap Album nominees to demonstrate how this was a down year for hip-hop? Well, I’m not even sure I should point you to the real nominees for Rock Album, lest I give you whiplash or lockjaw. I know who Cage the Elephant is and The Cranberries, and that’s the extent of my understanding of this category. I originally thought “amo” was the name of the band and “Bring Me the Horizon” was the name of the album, by the way. I mean, good for these bands. Far be it from me to begrudge less-popular acts from getting their moment in the son.

The issue is with the Academy’s process itself, which seems to ignore vast swaths of rock music in favor of groups associated with certain members of the genre’s elite. I’m not here to cast aspersions on these bands, but there are really cool things happening on the edges of rock scenes around the world. Charly Bliss and PUP are rising stars in Brooklyn and Toronto, respectively, and both their newest albums honor the genre’s past while pushing forward our ideas of what rock can be. I’m not surprised Kings Kaleidoscope wasn’t nominated; even in the Seattle-based band’s Christian music industry circles, they’re almost like black sheep for including a curse word on their 2016 album, Beyond Control. Zeal is their most ambitious album yet, rewarding for its exploration of what faith looks like in the real world.

But the most obvious snub of all is The 1975, which became a legitimate phenomenon with A Brief Inquiry. They play around the edges of pop, sure, but their entire ethos is about as rock and roll as you can get. The Grammys know who they are; they nominated “Give Yourself a Try” in the Rock Song category this year, so that means they recognize them as rock music as well. If I needed one category to sum up how disparate and discombobulated the Grammys’ nomination process is, they gave me a layup with this one.

Tentative Top Tens for 2019

Movies

1. The Lighthouse: Nothing about this Robert Eggers movie is conventional, and I was both haunted and delighted by it.
2. Knives Out: No mainstream studio movie was better executed or more enjoyable than this whodunit from Rian Johnson.
3. High Life: Few science fiction films are bold enough to capture the coldness of space and the warmth of humanity the way Claire Denis’s first foray into the genre did earlier this year.
4. Once upon a Time… in Hollywood: One of the few movies I was able to see twice in theaters this year, Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature and the performances from DiCaprio and Pitt have lingered with me.
5. The Irishman: Much has been made of the run-time (3.5 hours!) and director Martin Scorsese’s comments about Marvel, but the slow-burning Oscar frontrunner deserves consideration on its own merits as an instant-classic gangster movie.
6. Booksmart: Vulgar teen movies are an essential genre for coming-of-age stories, and Booksmart rides a whip-smart screenplay and tender direction from Olivia Wilde to a rip-roaring showcase for its two leads, Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever.
7. Avengers: Endgame: The second part of the blockbuster event of the decade (if not the century) didn’t disappoint on any level.
8. Us: While Jordan Peele’s second effort didn’t catch on in the zeitgeist in the same way as Get Out, it’s going to stand the test of time as both horror movie and social commentary, thanks largely to some indelible images and the transcendent talent of star Lupita Nyong’o.
9. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum: I think Chapter 2 might be the peak of the series thus far, but Parabellum is a non-stop thrill ride.
10. Spider-Man: Far from Home: Far from Home took a step forward from Homecoming in scale but didn’t suffer on the teen-comedy front, deftly navigating teen romance and its supervillain plot in hilarious ways.

Notable movies I have yet to see: 1917, Bombshell, The Farewell, Jojo Rabbit, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Little Women, Marriage Story, Pain and Glory, Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Transit, Uncut Gems

Albums

1. Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!: I kind of hate that my top record is one that’s on so many end-of-year lists, but some albums are just undeniable, and Del Rey’s opus is one of them.
2. Our Native Daughters, Songs of Our Native Daughters: An unforgettable and emotional record of traditional folk music created by four artists of color to document African-American history.
3. Ariana Grande, thank u, next: Sweetener was already a huge step forward for Grande, and thank u, next feels like a natural progression as she grows in confidence.
4. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Ghosteen: As much as it felt like a record about grief, Cave’s last record was mostly written and recorded before his son’s death, so Ghosteen feels like Cave’s complete, abstract statement about sorrow and loss.
5. Over the Rhine, Love & Revelation: This husband and wife duo from Ohio continue to overwhelm me with the maturity and complexity of the folk songs they release, this record being one of their most fully formed achievements yet.
6. Josh Garrels, Chrysaline: Garrels has released a lot of otherworldly music during his career, but Chrysaline, which works like a liturgy for life itself, feels like his best yet.
7. Bon Iver, i, i: Justin Vernon continues to bend my expectations for what music is supposed to sound like with his oft-copied mix of folk and electronica.
8. Beyoncé, Lion King: The Gift: This one is of a piece with Kendrick Lamar’s Black Panther album as showcases by American artists for talented African artists and for black empowerment.
9. Taylor Swift, Lover: I liked reputation quite a bit, but Lover is a purer Swift and a more enjoyable one as a result.
10. The Tallest Man on Earth, I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream.: Kristian Matsson has consistently allowed his sound to mature from record to record, so I Love You takes his sometimes inscrutable folk style and lays it over with an earnestness that has a surprisingly emotional impact.

Notable albums I have yet to listen to: Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?; FKA twigs, Magdalene; Fontaines D.C., Dogrel; H.E.R., I Used to Know Her; Lil Nas X, 7 EP; Purple Mountains, Purple Mountains; Tyler, the Creator, Igor

Best Book I Read

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (2015): A lot of science fiction or fantasy epics seems to conform to certain expected tropes. One of the joys of Jemisin’s first novel in her Broken Earth trilogy is how the story unfolds in unexpected ways. Her characters are wonderful to read, but it’s the ingenious presentation of their history that makes The Fifth Season such a must-read.

Best Graphic Novel I Read

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden (2016): This is the last piece of media I’m writing about, but by no means do I want that to minimize the effect this book had on me. Graphic novels have limitations compared to books of pure prose, but they also can communicate visually. In this case, Walden’s art helps her dialogue and plotting in building a spellbinding world set in space. The story, of people on the edges of society who find among each other their place and something to fight for, appeals to me as someone who bristles at outside expectations and conformity. The art, surreal and beautiful, floats the idea that there are other worlds than the one currently oppressing you with ordinariness. Some may find the abstraction a little hard to get past, but I found it intoxicating.

Quick Listen: Natural Born Losers (2015) by Nicole Dollanganger

If the album cover for Nicole Dollanganger’s Natural Born Losers creeps you out, then you probably shouldn’t listen to her music. There’s a seedy underbelly to America (or, in Dollanganger’s case, Canada), and she’s made it her duty to normalize it. Her connections to Grimes and Lana Del Rey are immediately evident in her little-girl voice and her baroque rhythms, though her lyrics are ultimately far darker than either of those artists’. She shoots down an angel and makes it into taxidermy in album opener “Poacher’s Pride”, bastardizes an old hymn into twisted stories in “In the Land”, and giving herself over to a sadistic high school hero in “You’re So Cool”. It’s not uplifting stuff, but it certainly is a fascinating perspective. While she sounds like the kind of young girl that would be taken advantage of in her own backwoods stories, she brings a masochistic agency to the proceedings that exposes society’s depravity rather than her own complicity.

Quicker listen: If Grimes and Lana Del Rey aren’t weird enough for you, Natural Born Losers should do the trick.

If I Ran the Grammys 2015

Last year, I ran the first of what will hopefully be an annual feature about what the Grammy Awards would look like if I ran them. All systems are broken, but this year it’s more evident than ever that the Grammy system is a knot with no chance of being untangled anytime soon. We know this, because there’s only one worthy Album of the Year candidate (last year saw at least three- okay, at most three), and because there’s a legitimate chance Sam Smith might sweep the four major awards. This would be awful. I’m holding out hope that the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has come to their senses, so you’ll see below that I’ve bet against him in every category. Seriously, Academy- for the sake of all our brains overloaded with thinkpieces about race, do not give Sam Smith all the awards. Please.

A few ground rules:

1) I’ll give the real nominees with my prediction for the winner in bold. Then I’ll give you who I would have nominated with my choice for the best in the group in bold.

2) We all know the October 1st, 2013-September 30th, 2014 qualifying dates are stupid, but we’re going to keep them in the interest of chaos. So no 1989, but Reflektor (from 2013, but released after October 1st, 2013) is fair game.

3) For the four major awards (Album, Record, Song, New Artist), I’m realistic. The War on Drugs made my favorite album in the qualifying year, but they would never be nominated for Album of the Year. Lana Del Rey’s album isn’t even my favorite pop album of the year, but it’s the likeliest of that group to be nominated for Album of the Year. You get the idea. But when it comes to the genre awards, anything goes- hence, bands like Slow Club, Twin Peaks, and Kye Kye getting nods over more popular bands in their respective categories..

4) Genre boundaries are fuzzy- Beyoncé could really fit into pop or R&B, Arcade Fire could fit into rock or alternative, Drive-By Truckers could be rock or Americana, etc. So I went with my gut. I don’t have your gut, so if you disagree with me on whether or not Lecrae belongs in the rap or Christian category, sorry.

Album of the Year

Real nominees: Morning Phase, Beck
Beyoncé, Beyoncé
X, Ed Sheeran
In the Lonely Hour, Sam Smith
Girl, Pharrell Williams

My nominees: Reflektor, Arcade Fire
Beyoncé, Beyoncé
Turn Blue, The Black Keys
Ultraviolence, Lana Del Rey
Platinum, Miranda Lambert

If anyone but Beyoncé wins, the Grammys will have returned to their stupid ways. Daft Punk last year was fine; even if you liked Kendrick Lamar’s album better, it was hard to argue against Random Access Memories as a quality choice. But there is nothing else in this category that even comes close to being a worthy Album of the Year. And that’s not for lack of quality albums either! Why not Arcade Fire’s bold Reflektor, or The Black Keys’ solid Turn Blue, or Lana Del Rey’s legitimately and surprisingly great Ultraviolence? Are we really convince that Beck’s Morning Phase was anything but a rehash of Sea Change? And the other three nominees seem like votes for mediocrity and the status quo rather than quality. It’s a shame Miranda Lambert, who is a bona fide star, couldn’t get some love over Ed Sheeran, of all people. There’s only one right choice here, and the Academy better make it, or the Internet’s shit is gonna hit the fan.

Record of the Year

Real nominees: “Fancy (feat. Charli XCX)”, Iggy Azalea
“All About That Bass”, Meghan Trainor
“Stay with Me (Darkchild Version)”, Sam Smith
“Chandelier”, Sia
“Shake It Off”, Taylor Swift

My nominees: “Problem (feat. Iggy Azalea)”, Ariana Grande
“Drunk in Love (feat. Jay Z)”, Beyoncé
“Boom Clap”, Charli XCX
“Chandelier”, Sia
“Shake It Off”, Taylor Swift

“Fancy” is nice and all that, but everything Iggy in that song gets on my nerves. Regardless of how I feel, though, it was the biggest song of the year, and the Grammys will likely reward it for its success (though I prefer Charli XCX’s “Boom Clap”). For everything I said about Sam Smith, “Stay with Me” is actually a really great song. Still, if I had to choose, I’d choose the remaining three. And where is “Problem”? There was a point over last summer where we didn’t know whether “Fancy” or “Problem” was the song of the summer, and just because “Fancy” won doesn’t make it the better song. I would’ve liked to have seen some love for “Drunk in Love” too, but “Problem” was the coolest record of the year.

Song of the Year

Real nominees: “Take Me to Church”, Hozier
“All About That Bass”, Meghan Trainor
“Stay with Me (Darkchild Version)”, Sam Smith
“Chandelier”, Sia
“Shake It Off”, Taylor Swift

My nominees: “Afterlife”, Arcade Fire
“Drunk in Love (feat. Jay Z)”, Beyoncé
“West Coast”, Lana Del Rey
“Chandelier”, Sia
“Shake It Off”, Taylor Swift

Song of the Year is a songwriting award, and there wasn’t a better-written song this year than “Chandelier”. I’m not a fan of “Take Me to Church” at all, so I’ll gladly replace it with Arcade Fire’s best song of Reflektor. As much as I love “All About That Bass”, “Drunk in Love” beats it out by a mile. And “Stay with Me” isn’t a well-written song at all (especially considering the Tom Petty controversy); its charm is in its performance. I’d rather include one of the most interesting songs of the year, Lana Del Rey’s “West Coast”.

Best New Artist

Real nominees: Bastille
Brandy Clark
Haim
Iggy Azalea
Sam Smith

My nominees: 5 Seconds of Summer
Charli XCX
Meghan Trainor
Sky Ferreira
Sturgill Simpson

If I’m honest with myself, Sam Smith is probably going to win this award. In an ideal world, either Brandy Clark or especially Haim would get it. But if any award is Sam Smith’s to lose, it’s this one. Even if the Academy realizes in the other categories that Smith isn’t the most deserving, it would be hard for them to ignore him in this one. But I’m kind of leaning toward a full-on Sam Smith fatigue having set in for the industry, so I’ll bet on Azalea’s monster year to push her into the lead. As far as my Grammys go, where are 5 Seconds of Summer, Charli XCX, and Meghan Trainor? Any of them would be better than Bastille, for goodness’ sake. I’d pick Charli XCX over Iggy Azalea even, since “Fancy” is largely successful because of its hook and not because of Iggy’s verses. And, just to make myself happy, I included two stars in the underground, the pop savant Sky Ferreira and the country up-and-comer Sturgill Simpson.

Best Pop Album

Real nominees (Pop Vocal Album): My Everything, Ariana Grande
Ghost Stories, Coldplay
X, Ed Sheeran
Prism, Katy Perry
Bangerz, Miley Cyrus

My nominees: 5 Seconds of Summer, 5 Seconds of Summer
My Everything, Ariana Grande
Ultraviolence, Lana Del Rey
Midnight Memories, One Direction
Night Time, My Time, Sky Ferreira

I promise I don’t have anything against Ed Sheeran or Sam Smith. I just find them bland. That said, Sheeran has the inside track on this category, since he obviously had enough support to secure an Album of the Year nominee. The best album actually nominated, though, is My Everything. The best pop album not nominated was Sky Ferreira’s brilliant Night Time, My Time. Ultraviolence got my vote for one of the more realistic Albums of the Year, so she’s obviously in here as well, taking Coldplay’s more alternative pop slot. And I’d replace Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus with a couple of other hit generators who were more on target: One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer.

Best Rock Album

Real nominees: Morning Phase, Beck
Turn Blue, The Black Keys
Ryan Adams, Ryan Adams
Hypnotic Eye, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Songs of Innocence, U2

My nominees: Transgender Dysphoria Blues, Against Me!
Reflektor, Arcade Fire
Turn Blue, The Black Keys
English Oceans, Drive-By Truckers
Wild Onion, Twin Peaks

Why do people think Beck is good? He hasn’t made an authentic album since Sea Change. Every album since then has been an effort to appease rather than challenge. That wouldn’t be a problem if the attempts were interesting, but he’s always boring. I’d choose any other album on that list over his. But on my personal list, I’d shoehorn Arcade Fire in on this ballot rather than the alternative genre, and give some love to some of the more underrated artists of the year: Against Me!’s brash punk, Drive-By Truckers rootsy epic, and Twin Peak’s blast of indie rock.

Best Alternative Album

Real nominees (Alternative Music Album): This Is All Yours, alt-J
Reflektor, Arcade Fire
Melophobia, Cage the Elephant
Lazaretto, Jack White
St. Vincent, St. Vincent

My nominees: Electric Ursa, Joan Shelley
Fantasize, Kye Kye
Sunbathing Animal, Parquet Courts
Are We There, Sharon Van Etten
Lost in the Dream, The War on Drugs

St. Vincent has the edge, since she was the critical darling of the last year on this list. I love Reflektor, but it belongs in the rock category, as does Lazaretto. In what world is Jack White not considered rock? I don’t care about alt-J or Cage the Elephant- they belong in the bland category with Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. I’m surprised The War on Drugs didn’t make it onto the Grammy’s list, since they received just as much if not more critical attention than St. Vincent. The same goes for Parquet Courts, thought they surely couldn’t care less. I enjoyed the albums by Sharon Van Etten, Joan Shelley, and Kye Kye far more than I liked St. Vincent’s. But that’s just my personal taste.

Best R&B Album

Real nominees: Lift Your Spirit, Aloe Blacc
Islander, Bernhoft
Black Radio 2, Robert Glasper Experiment
Give the People What They Want, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Love, Marriage & Divorce, Toni Braxton & Babyface

My nominees: Beyoncé, Beyoncé
Cupid Deluxe, Blood Orange
Food, Kelis
There’s a Light, Liz Vice
Complete Surrender, Slow Club

Aloe Blacc is probably the only one the Academy has actually heard of on their own list. For my list, this is the category Beyoncé belongs in. She would fit just as well into pop music, but Beyoncé is way more D’Angelo than Katy Perry. Kelis also deserves some love for her sexy album, Food, but it went by this summer without anyone really noticing. Blood Orange and Slow Club received a little more attention in the indie world. And Liz Vice is the outlier of the group, a little-known Christian artist who has nailed how to pull worship R&B off.

Best Rap Album

Real nominees: Because the Internet, Childish Gambino
Nobody’s Smiling, Common
The Marshall Mathers LP2, Eminem
The New Classic, Iggy Azalea
Oxymoron, Schoolboy Q

My nominees: Instruments of Mercy, Beautiful Eulogy
Old, Danny Brown
Anomaly, Lecrae
Crimson Cord, Propaganda
Sinema, Swoope

I don’t like Iggy’s style at all, but there’s no doubting she has all the momentum here, especially in such a down year for mainstream rap. I wish Danny Brown would get some love, but he’s the lone winner in a year full of rap losers. That wasn’t the case in the Christian rap scene though, with Beautiful Eulogy, Lecrae, and Swoope all releasing stellar versions of the genre. None was better than Prop though; he’d never win it in real life, but since I’m running things, Prop’s Crimson Cord would get the love it deserves.

Best Christian Album

Real nominees (Contemporary Christian Music): Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong., for KING & COUNTRY
If We’re Honest, Francesca Battistelli
Welcome to the New, MercyMe
Hurricane, Natalie Grant
Royal Tailor, Royal Tailor

My nominees: Devotion, Anberlin
Neon Steeple, Crowder
As Sure as the Sun, Ellie Holcomb
Borderland, John Mark McMillan
Rivers in the Wasteland, NEEDTOBREATHE

“Christian” is hardly a genre, but it’s a useful denomination for music that doesn’t really belong anywhere else. You could make the argument that Anberlin, Crowder, and NEEDTOBREATHE all make rock music, but they’re undeniably pigeonholed into the Christian category. Nothing on the Grammy list belongs in the conversation, though Francesca Battistelli probably has the most industry pull. I’d rather listen to Ellie Holcomb’s full-length debut any day. And the most overlooked of all will always be John Mark McMillan, always on the outskirts of even the Christian mainstream, forever going to be ignored by the Academy. He gets my vote though.

Best Americana Album

Real nominees: Terms of My Surrender, John Hiatt
Bluesamericana, Keb’ Mo’
A Dotted Line, Nickel Creek
The River & the Thread, Roseanne Cash
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson

My nominees: Stay Gold, First Aid Kit
Lateness of Dancers, Hiss Golden Messenger
Small Town Heroes, Hurray for the Riff Raff
Platinum, Miranda Lambert
Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson

Sturgill Simpson’s album was a wonderful breath of fresh air in the country genre. There are plenty of artists like him out there, injecting a stale genre with modern ideas, but he’s received the most attention for it, and deservedly so. But Roseanne Cash is the daughter of Johnny Cash, so she’s going to win. One of those other artists like Simpson is Hurray for the Riff Raff, and her Small Town Heroes was maybe the second most acclaimed album of its kind behind Metamodern Sounds. Hiss Golden Messenger and First Aid Kit both released my favorite folk albums of the past year, but the award should really go to Miranda Lambert. She’s nominated in the Best Country genre, and she’s the best example of mainstream country in years. Literally years. She may lose her real Grammy to Eric Church (another for the bland pile), but she would win my Grammy.

—

I’m aware I didn’t include all the nominees for these categories. I blame the layout of the Grammys’ website.