Grammys 2010: An early look at album of the year contenders (Part 1)
sept 4, 2009 U2, groupes celebres
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Good news, perhaps, for Kanye West. He’ll have a little less competition to worry about when it comes to scoring some Grammy nominations.
For the first time ever, the Grammy eligibility year has been moved up from the end of September to the final day of August. In making the change, the eligibility period for the 2010 Grammy Awards was shortened to 11 months (the Grammy year will be back to a 12-month cycle, with the new qualifying dates, for the 2011 awards).
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For now, however, get your pencils and scorecards ready. Here’s an early look at some of the works most likely to receive album of the year attention when Grammy nominations are unveiled at the end of the year.
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U2, ‘No Line on the Horizon’
Grammy potential:
It’s U2, friends. This is the band that opened the 2009 Grammy Awards, despite not even having an album in contention during last year’s eligibility period.The band won album of the year for « How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb » in 2006, and also won for « The Joshua Tree » in 1988. That being said, the album isn’t generating the kind of sales heat that greeted « Atomic Bomb, » and no single from « No Line » has truly broken out. Yes, « No Line » and U2 will be nominated for multiple Grammys, but the only question is where.
Grammy deserving:
Here’s where things get a little interesting. U2’s last two albums were nominated for album of the year trophies, the aforementioned « Atomic Bomb, » plus « All That You Can’t Leave Behind » in 2002. But « No Line » is a significantly better record than both. It’s not perfect — witness the predictably sparkly phone-in-the-air rock ballad « I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight » — but by and large, « No Line » is U2 back to its risk-taking self. « Moment of Surrender, » in particular, is an extended gospel-influenced rock ‘n’ soul cut that’s all about relaxing into a groove rather than going for the stadium chorus. In short, if voters recognized U2’s last two albums, they can’t overlook this one, as it’s the superior effort.
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