grammys 2019: best new artist nominees greta van fleet

idk about chloe/halle, but Margo Price is significantly more established than she was a couple years ago.

Brandi's album is beautiful and excellent; probably her best so far (though I don't know about "that much more" better)

New York Times critics discussion of Brandi Carlile:

PARELES: Well, it’s easy to see where Brandi Carlile came from. She’s more Americana or alt-country than folk, she’s got a gorgeous voice, she has built an extremely loyal following over multiple albums (including Barack Obama) and she writes songs (with her band members) that can pull people’s heartstrings. If the TV show treats her right in performance, she could gather a lot of new fans. For me, her latest album was slightly heavy-handed, but I’m not a Grammy voter. “The Joke,” her song that got nominated, is a consoling piano ballad about how people who have been scorned and left out will prevail as they persevere, and it’s got as big an emotional crescendo as an Adele song. She remade another song on her album, “Party of One” — a truly tortured longterm-relationship ballad — as a duet with Sam Smith. Those are the kinds of songs the Grammys have always favored.

CARAMANICA Can I just interrupt to iterate that it is completely within the realm of possibility that more people will vote for Carlile than for Drake, or Cardi B, or several other more famous artists. And now that I have taken a moment to listen to Carlile’s album, I can confirm that would be a mistake.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/arts/music/grammy-nominations-snubs-surprises.html

Also this:

PARELES The Grammys are really flummoxed by Latin music. Best Latin rock, urban or alternative album is a desperate catchall category that still manages to completely ignore a Latin and global phenomenon that became inescapable in 2017 with “Despacito”: reggaeton-flavored songs that dance past the language barrier. Even if they can somehow resist the groove, the Grammys should have been paying attention to the tens of millions of streams for the many offspring of “Despacito” — and to eligible 2018 albums by Ozuna and J Balvin. The Grammys did notice Balvin (and Bad Bunny) by nominating them with Cardi B on “I Like It,” but that’s no compensation.

I thought that carlile dig by caramanica was an oddly negative note in that otherwise puffy piece

Caramanica on his usual form

He's literally on the same level as all those Taylor Swift fan blogs posting "I don't know who Daft Punk is but how dare they" when they got AOTY over her

chloe x halle released their first proper album this year. the earlier releases were an ep and a “mixtape” that debuted on youtube

I thought this was kind of an interesting analysis (even if I don’t necessarily agree w/every point): https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-grammy-nominations-analysis-20181208-story.html

I predict GVF will sweep.

Also am I nuts or does "I'm Not Racist" actually stand a chance to win since the other 4 seem like vote-splits?

he's also the only white person nominated, which seems like a better indicator

lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd1tyxUQ1kg

I haven't seen it - is it supposed to be ironic? I would rather not see it in either case.