Björk's losses for the best alternative album Grammy ... which album that beat her is the dumbest?

def that beck album

Are we straight up voting for the worst album in the pack or the one that we feel least deserved to beat the corresponding Bjork album?

I didn't include which albums they beat because, yeah, Homogenic not winning is a crime but OK Computer is maybe only the 5th or 6th least dumbest album in this group.

Like Parachutes is definitely not the worst album here but had absolutely no business beating Vespertine.

I won't dictate how people vote here ... Beck's could be the dumbest but also Utopia might be Björk's dumbest, so shrug.gif

Parachutes also has the least place being in an "alternative album" category considering how much it sold.

I can honestly say I've not listened to any single song from the Gotye album that wasn't the huge hit. And that's the one that beat Biophilia, which has become my favorite post-Vespertine album. Is Gotye's album any good?

(Side note, the Grammy nominations started 48 minutes ago and are still going on. I think this is my last year even paying muscle-memory attention to this entertainment awards relic.)

God I love the 'alternative' genre

i completely forgot that beck album existed. i listened to "up all night" first. that will be the last new beck song i ever listen to, i think.

voted beck, colors

i hate new music that sounds like that. why does all new music sound like that

i listened to that gotye record once or twice when it came out. pretty ok iirc

it winning over biophilia is a bit much but that's like typical "grammy dumb," beck's colors winning any category is more like "grammy braindead"

anyway, utopia is good

Yeah the Beck album is the worst, but Vespertine was so much better than Parachutes than Biophilia was over Colors

Sorry, I'd rather listen to Volta for the rest of my life and nothing else than sit through Utopia one more time

parachutes is... fucking awesome, idk how they got that atmosphere where it's obv a loud guitar rock album but it feels like it's being whispered to you in a dark room, and idk why they abandoned it to be more like u2, but it's great, vespertine is obv the better more artful portrayal of domestica but i am not mad at parachutes winning

i was 18 when vespertine came out. i'm trying to remember, how was it received when it came out, among fans? i think in my little circle i was the really annoying whiny one who was slightly disappointed by it. i loved homogenic and post, so, so much. i wanted more of that. i thought it was too experimental for my tastes. (and yes, anyone who had good ears knew how good it was, immediately. i remember melissa w absolutely gushing about it on the radiohead msgboard and thinking "what is she hearing in this?!")

now i hear nothing but immense beauty in vespertine, and it also seems very, very accessible, like one pop hit after another.

Yep, as I said upthread, I'm not mad at Radiohead winning even if I think it's also ridiculous

My experience with Vespertine was a little bit counterinstinctual ... it came out roughly around 9/11 and I decided I didn't want to experience a new Björk album in that context. I finally gave in during the holidays a couple months later and the album's textures immediately turned it into my new favorite Christmas album. Which it's basically been ever since.

it is definitely her most wintery album, i think, and i'd like to think i'd still believe that even if there wasn't a song called "frosti" on it

maybe controversial but Gotye is pretty good, Peter Gabriel-inspired art pop with a fair amount of experimentation and world influences. Like Drawing Blood was far more creative than Making Mirrors but also didn't sell 2 million units. I have never cared for anything from Alabama Shakes, but I have a higher bar for Beck.

Convenient that those poll choices are already ranked in order of quality.

Side note, insane to see that the Grammys are still throwing noms to the Black Pumas for their debut record from... checks notes... 2019.

Congratulations 65th #GRAMMYs Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package nominees: Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined; @dannyelfman; @BlackPumasMusic; @tmbg; and @GratefulDead: https://t.co/zovEzfXor6 pic.twitter.com/fTTDcLGUTe

— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) November 15, 2022

St. Vincent's album was better than Beck's or Utopia that year.

Beck deserves to have shelf full of Grammy trophies (eight and counting), but most of them have come from his post 2010s work which I guess is par for the course with the Grammy Awards.

I'd put A Ghost Is Born and Icky Thump over Parachutes.

Convenient that those poll choices are already ranked in order of quality.

Well music has been in a downward spiral for decades now right?

Yep, as I said upthread, I'm not mad at Radiohead winning even if I think it's also ridiculous

It's ridiculous Radiohead didn't win Album of the Year for OK Computer over Dylan imho

When is the AOTY winner NOT ridiculous? (I can probably count on one hand when it isn't.)

Out of curiosity, I went through AOTY every year. It's not as bad as I thought.

Probably five were good calls, maybe six I'm on the fence about. At least twelve are very good, maybe even really good, but no way do they deserve AOTY.

Beck got his most ridiculous nom to date today, for the cover of Neil Young's "Old Man" he did in honor of Tom Brady and the NFL.

It would be smart if Big Thief beat her this year.

Yeah, Big Thief deserves it more, but maybe she'll win as a consolation for all the times she should have but didn't.

When is the AOTY winner NOT ridiculous? (I can probably count on one hand when it isn't.)

that beck album was pretty bad but i did apparently like "Square One" enough to keep the mp3 when i deleted the rest of the album

Three of those fingers better be Stevie Wonder

Two were good calls. Fulfillingness' First Finale was on the fence - it was up against Court and Spark, but there were also a LOT of great (and arguably better) albums that weren't nominated: Pretzel Logic, Stranded, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Late for the Sky, Too Much Too Soon, Red, Grievous Angel, Radio City, Good Old Boys, On The Beach, It's Too Late To Stop Now, Veedon Fleece, Country Life...

Limiting it to the nominees didn't feel right. In some cases it bolstered the case for the winner, but in a lot of cases, all five nominees were lacking and it just seemed shitty to say something deserved to win when it wasn't that great of an album.

Didn't we just not care about the Grammies a few years ago?

Yeah the Beck album is the worst, but Vespertine was so much better than Parachutes than Biophilia was over Colors

― octobeard

Cosign

I saw that Gotye tour and they were great.

I assume from the noms Big Thief will win this year - maybe not because grammys - but I think it’s baffling they nommed Arcade Fire. Not only because Win Butler, but because WE is not a good album. So many actually good albums they could have picked instead like idk: Beach House or Arctic Monkeys or Nilufer Yanya or Aldous Harding or Cate Lebon or Ethel Cain… I could go on but Arcade Fire are definitely not runner-ups on a list of the 50 best alternatives albums of 2022 for me.

nominating the boring arcade fire album is an extremely grammys move

what's this stuff the alternative to again?

Michael Buble i think

There was a White Stripes album called Icky Thump? The Archers of Loaf were probably pissed.

Icky Thump the song was a fanbase-propelled No. 2 hit in the UK, despite being a tuneless acid rock jam that can barely hold itself together (yet it's one of the handful of Stripes songs I like).

I cannot hear Wow without my dad remarking that it was the Clangers when the intro was used in a pub music quiz. This improves my enjoying of it a lot.

As for the rest of Colors I remember nothing except the other notional hit which was pretty good but sounded from about 2008/09 (not an inherently bad thing ofc, quite the opposite). The Grammys really take to Beck don't they - my friends who hate Jacob Collier might make similar if vague accusations about Beck's Grammys relationship if they didn't think he was any good.

I hated Colors when it came out, it felt like Beck was consciously trying to be contemporary and make pop hits rather than follow his own path. Months later I saw him at Riot Fest where he put on a great show as a headliner - hearing him mix his back catalog with the new material actually made sense of it. Like everyone's picked up on how Colors was evoking or lifting hooks from more recent records like the Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face," MGMT, etc. Hearing those tracks next to his most famous hits where he weaved in plenty of familiar samples, it sounded like he was updating the same approach on Colors but exploring what was now playing on the radio rather than diving into old record bins. It's still a lightweight album but I can at least enjoy it now.

I'm glad there's some muted defence of Colors on this thread, so I don't have to do it myself, though I can't compare it to Utopia

Has St. Vincent entered her latter-day Beck phase - institutional acclaim and hipster disdain?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i was 18 when vespertine came out. i'm trying to remember, how was it received when it came out, among fans? i think in my little circle i was the really annoying whiny one who was slightly disappointed by it. i loved homogenic and post, so, so much. i wanted more of that. i thought it was too experimental for my tastes. (and yes, anyone who had good ears knew how good it was, immediately. i remember melissa w absolutely gushing about it on the radiohead msgboard and thinking "what is she hearing in this?!")

Peak Bjork. Every BJork fan I knew loved it.

I’ll never understand the appeal of Alabama Shakes. Perfectly serviceable, but completely bland

otm

yes, they are dull. the last three in this list all neck and neck with being the most boring. The other albums are alright though that Wilco album was where they began to get boring for me too.

The Brittany Howard solo record is fantastic though

Every Bjork fan i knew also loved Vespertine on release. One of those wonderful times of buying an LP on first day of release, and instantly knowing it was a classic and their best. It's still her best.

i vaguely remember some people not liking it but I think those were, like, blog reviews or something, angry that it was so twiddly. I still think it's the best thing she's ever done.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

7 FP candidates

i am fine w/ the winner though.

(and yes, anyone who had good ears knew how good it was, immediately. i remember melissa w absolutely gushing about it on the radiohead msgboard and thinking "what is she hearing in this?!")

Lol, think you're confusing her with someone else - she's posted repeatedly on this site about how much she hated Vespertine. I remember because she made some good arguments against it and made me second-guess my liking of it for some time

wow, no way is parachutes the worst. I realize everyone hates them for what they became but that was a strong debut.

point is that it beat Vespertine I think

The vote was for dumbest tho. What is CD iq

7 FP candidates

― I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THE DIAPER GOT LOOSE (Neanderthal), Tuesday, January 31, 2023 4:03 PM

oh friend, my reason was a funny one though!

Now, let's get Björk that damned Grammy for an album that I more-or-less couldn't be brought to listen to all the way through

Let’s mold a metallic shape, call it a god dammy, and give it to her for vespertine. And also homogenic, post, and “come to me”. A 4x god dammy winner

This poll was ludicrously long lol. Think I voted for Alabama Shakes. Incredibly boring music.

LOL she lost again!

And not even to Big Thief lol

that wet leg record is better than the women music of bjork (not a high bar)

Uh

it's definitely one of these three:

Gotye, Making Mirrors 22
Beck, Colors 16
Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color 8

Any other one you could at least make the case for it winning a grammy (even Coldplay, who I do not like at all), but these are meritless.

The Gotye album is not bad, and he was good live when I saw that tour. More importantly, he seems to have parlayed his surprise success into preserving and restoring the music of Jean-Jacques Perrey and his Ondioline, which if you think about it is a pretty Bjorky thing to do.

The Gotye album is legit great, it’s basically the solo Sting album Sting should have recorded

This topic came up at the end of Pitchfork's Grammy coverage.

Just give Björk a damn Grammy already

It famously took soap icon Susan Lucci 19 nominations to win a Daytime Emmy for her deliciously bitchy tenure on All My Children, and it may take Björk just as many to win a Grammy. She’s now been up for 16 awards—mostly in the Alternative Album and Music Video categories—with no wins. Last night, British duo Wet Leg nabbed the Alternative Album trophy, for their gnawingly catchy debut, over Fossora. But hey, it could be worse—Björk once lost the accolade to a one-hit-wonder (Gotye) and a bad, late-career Beck album. Besides the fact that she obviously makes great music, Grammys producers should consider this: Björk went to the Oscars approximately once, and we’re still talking about the Swan Dress. Let this woman shine!

The last point doesn't make sense? She could choose to attend the ceremony any of these times she's nominated

...or are they saying they should give her a Lifetime Achievement Grammy or something

does she ever attend? does she care?

they did just give Dr Dre the inaugural Dr Dre award

Isn't it a coincidence that Lou Gehrig died of etc etc

Too bad we need to wait another 977 years to find out who wins MTV's next Artist of the Millennium award.

Wipo of Burgundy was fuckin robbed