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Rockhound Picks the Grammys By Kendall Polidori
PHOTOGRAPH: (FLEET FOXES) RICHARD GRAY/EMPICS ENTERTAINMENT
T
he creation and consumption of music have changed profoundly. So many artists are competing for attention that the average listener may know the names of only a fraction of them and would have trouble naming more than a few of their songs. So, do award nominations mean much in this new age of music? Maybe not as much as they did before Spotify, YouTube and TikTok came on the scene. But musicians still deserve recognition, and nominations for Grammy Awards still make sense in pop culture. The 64th Grammy Award ceremony is scheduled for Jan. 31, and here are my predictions for some of the top categories, based on music charts and the artists’ presence in pop culture.
BEST CONTEMPORARY BLUES ALBUM NOMINEES: Delta Kream (The Black Keys) Royal Tea (Joe Bonamassa) Fire It Up (Steve Cropper) 662 (Christone “Kingfish” Ingram) Who will win: Delta Kream (The Black Keys) Who should win: Delta Kream (The Black Keys) Delta Kream, one of the picks for Rockhound’s Top 5 Rock Albums of 2021, is meant to win a Grammy. The 10th Black Keys album, an ode to classic blues, reflects the band at its core. The album reached No. 1 on multiple music charts, including Billboard’s rock and blues charts.
Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes
BEST ALTERNATIVE MUSIC ALBUM NOMINEES: Shore (Fleet Foxes) If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power (Halsey) Jubilee (Japanese Breakfast) Collapsed In Sunbeams (Arlo Parks) Daddy’s Home (St. Vincent) Who will win: Daddy’s Home (St. Vincent) Who should win: Shore (Fleet Foxes) This is by far one of the strongest categories, and whoever wins is well-deserving. Annie Clark of St. Vincent is a veteran in the alternative/rock world and proved her range with her ‘70s-esque Daddy’s Home. Fleet Foxes shouldn’t be ignored but often slides under the radar of listeners who aren’t in tune with alternative folk-rock. Not one song on Shore deserves to be skipped. Listen to it from start to finish. It’s cohesive and adds to their long discography of accomplished recordings.
The Beatles, Stones and Zeppelin were awesome— but rock lives on. Why not break out of the classic rock cocoon and give new rock a chance? Rockhound is here to help. Think of it as a bridge from 1967 to today and beyond.
January / February 2022 | Luckbox
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12/17/21 2:29 PM
