Daft Punk & Kanye at the Grammys last year
While it looks like the Grammys did a decent job keeping the other categories relevant, they have completely NO understanding of dance/electronic music. Let’s look at them:
New York City, Brazilian Girls —— Are you kidding me? French lounge music with tribal rhythms? Wrong category!!
Alive 2007, Daft Punk —— OK, a live recording of their hits all mashed and mixed up in an exciting fashion. This is live, repeat, and not engineered all that well. (Can we get a Best DJ mix category?) But if The Grammys are always playing catch-up, then Daft Punk deserves it more than anybody, because they’ve never won.
Bring ya to the Brink, Cyndi Lauper —— What?!? This isn’t 1986!! I love her old stuff too, but come on… Ok, I wasn’t really being fair just passing this off. With the exception of ‘Lay me Down’ produced by Kleerup (which Lauper sounds like herself and is superbly Grammy award-worthy), the album isn’t that ground-breaking. There are some soulful-house numbers if you like those, but most of the album falls under the predictable ‘dance-factory’ progressions. (If you like soul-house, there is plenty more current and exciting stuff out there.) The Robyn album is slightly better in my opinion.
X, Kylie Minogue ———- Again, I also have respect for Kylie and her battle with cancer, but this album is dance cheese aimed at teen-girls.
Last Night, Moby ———— Well, this is an average Moby record, that actually has gotten better remixes than the songs on the album. Shouldn’t be here, but Moby has never won a Grammy either, so catch-up is a possibility.
Robyn, Robyn ——— OK, the sorta ‘Cyndi Lauper of our day’ gets recognized, and ‘With Every Heartbeat’ is a masterpiece produced by Kleerup. But most of the record is pop, not dance. As a whole the record isn’t great. But it is better than Britney Spears being here instead.
**This category needs to be judged like the jazz and classical categories, more on overall artistic merit, not by name recognition or album sales. This category is so broad, you have pop acts competing with serious instrumental music competing with stuff like Thievery Corporation or M83. I’ll be sharing the real, five best electronic/dance albums of the year very soon, so stay tuned.**
Tags: Grammy
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December 10, 2008 at 1:51 pm |
did you even listen to Cyndi Laupers new album? It is electronic at its best…produced by Axwell, Basement Jaxx and Digital Dog.
December 10, 2008 at 3:53 pm |
I thought I listened to it at the beginning of the year, but maybe not, because I don’t recall Axwell, Basement Jaxx, and Digital Dog. To be fair, I’ll listen to it today and edit the post before tomorrow.
February 10, 2009 at 3:51 am |
[…] -OK, so Daft Punk got the their two Grammys finally, and while they haven’t released a true album in four years, they deserve some dance Grammy love more than anyone. (You can read my initial critical thoughts about the Best Dance Album category here.) […]