don’t underestimate the things that i will do
(or: december 1’s honey from the hive)
posted at 5:17 am by brandon in sweet you rock and sweet you roll
Adele — “Rolling in the Deep” (from 21
Precisely one year ago today, just after the nominations for 2010’s Grammy Awards had been unveiled, I put my noodle to work, employed some achingly clear-cut iron logic, and correctly predicted that Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” would go on to nab the Record of the Year trophy in a walk. The nominations for 2011’s awards were revealed last night, and prepare to be amazed as your Uncle Brandon slips on his swami hat and calls it from the git-go all over again: the Adele Express has been barreling toward this very moment for most of a year now, ever since it became clear that 21 was going to be every bit as ginormous a commercial smash as it was a creative one, and she’s gettin’ ready to steamroll over the whole lot of these clowns who are unfortunate enough to be up against her. (And just like with “Need” last year, the fact that “Rolling” is far and away the best song among the contenders for Record of the Year — a field that also includes sterling selections from Bon Iver and Mumford & Sons and a middling pair of tunes from Katy Perry and Bruno Mars — is immaterial: Adele is one of the few winners of the Best New Artist Grammy whose career has benefited, in a way that is eminently quantifiable, from the honor, and her classy, inescapably compelling sophomore record lives up to the hype from every corner of its existence, which means that the members of the stodgy ol’ Academy can feel hip and with it by voting for this and still respect themselves in the morning for their choice. Besides all that, Bon Iver and Mumford seem doomed to split the fringe vote, Mars is here with the wrong song entirely, and Perry has no business being anywhere near this hot mess with her prefabricated, passion-free hokum.) Yep, folks, step right up and get yourself a front row seat for the most suspense-free Grammy ceremony ever, and sidle right up beside your next Record of the Year winner. (And Song of the Year winner. And Album of the Year winner. And whatever-the-hell-else-the-heffa-is-nominated-for-this-year winner. And remember who told ya first.)
