Grammy Album of the Year

The Grammy Awards are tomorrow night, so like many observers, I'm thinking about who might win, as well as who should.

Album of the Year seems pretty sewn up this year, but I'd love to see a spoiler here. Three of the nominees are pretty easy to dismiss. Katy Perry's Teenage Dream didn't deserve the nomination in the first place, and I think a lot of Grammy voters would agree it is not deserving. Lady Antebellum's Need You Now isn't really my style, but from what I've read, it's not even the frontrunner for Best Country Album, let alone Album of the Year. And Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, despite being the best album here, isn't popular enough to generate widespread support.

That leaves Eminem and Lady Gaga duking it out for the win. Although relative newcomer Taylor Swift won the award last year, most recent honorees have been veterans, and believe it or not, Enimem is the most veteran act nominated this year. He was twice nominated before in 2000 for The Marshall Mathers LP and in 2002 for The Eminem Show, leading some voters to possibly view it as his "turn" to win. Recovery was also viewed as a comeback for him, giving him his biggest hit in years. It was also the best-selling album of last year, a factor that may have also worked in Taylor Swift's favor last year, as the music industry continues to struggle with album sales in the post-CD world. These factors will likely lead Recovery to victory tomorrow night, and it won't be Eminem's only statue either.

Yet, wouldn't it be grand to see an upset here? Yes, Eminem generated a lot of sales, but 12 years into the limelight now, he's just not that interesting. The figure who has most arguably reinvigorated pop music the most in the last 2 years is Lady Gaga, who just this week unleashed her latest sugary pop confection. Fame Monster was a lean and mean set of great pop songs. That it's considered an EP is probably a strike against it, as is her still "newcomer" status, but still, it's a much better album than most of the nominees.

Will win: Eminem
Should win: Lady Gaga (or Arcade Fire)

What I Said...

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (4.5). "The Suburbs is infused with that special type of youthful angst that the suburbs are adept at producing: an unholy blend of rage and boredom. Although the concept gets a bit heavy handed, particularly on closing duo 'Sprawl,' it serves to provide an interesting thematic thread through these songs, which deliver as much musical variety as we’ve heard from the band."



Eminem - Recovery (3). "Recovery has a lot of pop appeal, although it's an interesting twist of how hip-hop can appropriate pop into something dark and sinister. The kind of wicked goofiness that he showed on his earlier work, such as "Without Me" or "The Real Slim Shady" is missing here. Instead, the album is dominated by plodding, dark, guitar-driven songs that hybridize rap and pop, often with a great sample."



Lady Antebellum - Need You Now (3.5). "I'm not a big country listener, but I don't need a broad grounding in the genre to know this sounds very commercial. It's clearly meant to generate hits, which is a double-edged sword. Sure, it sounds slick, and there are some winners here, but there's also nothing really different or interesting that hasn't been done before."



Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster (4). "As much as anything, The Fame Monster advances Lady GaGa's apparent bid to become the new Madonna, taking several pages from the singer's '80s and early '90s playbooks. With Madonna moving on to do who-knows-what with the Live Earth people, its a role I'm happy to see someone take on."




Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (2.5). "With Teenage Dream, Katy Perry establishes herself as the poster child for prolonged adolescence, taking us through a carefree romp of drinking, flirting, and partying with hardly an adult consequence in sight. After [a] strong opening, the album goes downhill pretty fast, from a few more songs of mild interest, to quite a few that are just...well, dull."

Album Review: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (4.5/5)

During a recent visit to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, I was intrigued by an architectural piece on the suburbs. It featured a model of a typical suburban home on a green lawn with a street out front and then used mirrors on all sides to replicate the house infinitely in all directions. It was an obvious but very effective critique on the soulless replication of suburban façade.

The Suburbs, the third album from the Montreal-based 7-piece Arcade Fire, is infused with that special type of youthful angst that the suburbs are adept at producing: an unholy blend of rage and boredom. As a former suburbanite myself, I could recognize this, although I wouldn't say relate, as I was neither angry nor bored as a child. However, I too grew up in a house built in the ‘70s--just like the ones “The Suburbs” says will one day fall.

The album is out the gate with a very promising beginning. The title track sets the theme from the start with a lovely player-piano type melody over a chugging piano, guitar and strings background. “You always seemed so sure that one day we’d be fighting a suburban war,” sings Win Butler. “But by the time the first bombs fell, we were already bored.” “Ready to Start” plunges deeper into the suburban abyss, with layers of guitar propelling the ominous melody. The band uses vampire imagery to describe the “business men” who want to drink their blood “like the kids in art school said they would.”

Although the band has cited Depeche Mode and Neil Young as influences on this album, “Modern Man” sounds like Springsteen with its warm, driving guitar melody. “City of No Children” sounds also sounds Springsteen-influenced. “Rococo” has that big, deep sound like a lot of the songs from their last album, Neon Bible, developing further as the song progresses and the band adds more layers of sound. Short and sweet “Empty Room” bristles with energy and boasts the highest BPM of any song here. It also features both Win Butler and his wife Regine Chassagne doing joint vocal duty.

The album’s first half closes with the two-part composition “Half Light.” “Half Light I” slowly builds dramatic tension with grand musical layers in classic Arcade Fire form. Then “Half Light II (No Celebration)” follows with a darker new wave feel. The Depeche Mode influence is obvious on the guitar-driven tune enhanced with synthesizer touches.

“Suburban War” is a quiet opening to the album’s second half. It begins with hazy memories of youth (“I remember when you cut your hair; I never saw you again”). Not content to plod along in this vein, the song takes some dramatic, heightened twists. Punky “Month of May” like “Empty Room” also ramps up the pace, reminding me of Violent Femmes. Like most of the songs here, it provides lyrical references to “the kids,” although the autobiographical nature of the album makes it clear these are not the kids of today but from the band’s youth (and the band itself).

“Wasted Hours” has a plodding guitar melody enhanced to deep sonic saturation with synth effects. This is the boredom side of suburban angst, evoked as it is with such a beautiful melody (“endless suburbs stretched out thin and dead”). “Deep Blue” is another gorgeous melody, riding on deep, rough guitars and the purer sounds of synths and pianos. It’s this contrast of grit and shine that marks a lot of these songs…and really the suburbs themselves as well. Dark synths underpin “We Used to Wait,” another Depeche Mode-ish song. The song builds a lot of anticipation without much release. Perhaps that is the point.

The second half of the album also ends with a two-parter: “Sprawl.” “Sprawl I (Flatlands)” lays the suburban angst on a little too thick. Yes, suburban youth can be lonely, but this song is a bit much. Sings Butler, “took a drive into the sprawl to find the house where we used to stay.” “Stay?” He’s not even going to credit his suburban childhood as place to “live?” Apparently not since, “It was the loneliest day of my life.” “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” is a more enjoyable affair—a bright, synth-based pop song. Chassagne’s airy vocal is the sole voice this time. A coda to the opening title track ends the album with an appropriate bookend.

Apparently inspired by Win and Will Butlers’ upbringing in suburban Houston, The Suburbs is much more a concept album than the band’s vivid 2004 debut, Funeral, or its darker 2007 follow-up. Although the concept gets a bit heavy handed, particularly on closing duo “Sprawl,” it serves to provide an interesting thematic thread through these songs, which deliver as much musical variety as we’ve heard from the band.

Best: The Suburbs, Ready to Start, Half Light II (No Celebration), Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Wasted Hours, Modern Man, Month of May, Deep Blue

Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" Cover

Arcade Fire's new album, The Suburbs (out next week), is being released with eight different covers. Which is best? I'm kind of partial to the one in the lower left, which sort of reminds me of my grandmother's neighborhood. I have to say, I grew up in the suburbs (of Portland, Oregon), and my neighborhood didn't look anything like this, since our houses were built in the '70s, but the older neighborhood next to ours kind of looked like this (without the palm trees of course).

Aracde Fire "The Suburbs"

The Arcade Fire return with their third album in August. Here's a little sample, "The Suburbs."