A Few Should-Be Winners at the 2014 Grammys



 

The 2014 Grammys will be the usual glitz and glitter, from a corporate industry still fighting piracy, and still obsessed with celebrity: Madonna, it is rumored, will be taught how to twerk live and onstage, by some young pop minion half her age. Paul and Ringo ("peace and love/peace and love!") will needlessly reunite, in celebration of their arrival in the states fifty years hence. I don't necessarily keep current with the constant stream of Billboard's Top 10 hits (weekly, I'll give such FM stations a few hours' shot). I might be neglecting something great that's nominated, and that I haven't heard, so I'll refrain here from bestowing any Grammys, or making any comparative declarations-- but the few items I mention are worthy of recognition, if not tomorrow night, at least here.



 

The first is Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. A spectacular disco-driven affair driven and orchestrated by the French duo Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter, the jams get kicked out in tracelike fashion, combing choppy electronics with smooth, melodic and appropriate vocoder vocals, glistening above and around a fascinatingly sparse mix. The angular jams may be too long for some-- but not many these days, as the opus fits neatly into the biggest modern pop niches, namely electronic/dance, and three-chord rock. Either crowd can its get its groove on to what is, in physical format, four sides of vinyl (which was one of the biggest hits the limited-release vinyl market has seen in decades). When I was in college, our standby party soundtrack was the Beastie Boys' instrumental In Sound From Way Out, which had not yet been officially released in the states, and rivaled in funk anything any of us had ever heard; if I were beginning my undergraduate adventure today, this Daft Punk album would likely be my go-to, all-purpose jam, the one I'd be running around the dorm, turning people on to.

The other is the song "Royals," written by Joel Little and Lorde (Ella Yelich O'Connor), and made popular by the young Auckland singer/songwriter's simple, almost-acoustic version. Previously, Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know" held the record, for the longest run at the top of the Billboard Alternative chart by a woman; Lorde's melody of economic struggle now holds that honor. The chorus contains a call-and-response repetition of the word "royals" that, every time I hear it, reminds me of 'The People's Mic,' as used in Zucotti Park, and elsewhere. "We'll never be royals [...] And everyone who knows us knows that we're fine with this, we didn't come from money." This song is not only beautifully simple, but important: as economic collapse and repeated government stalemate drives public figures-- from Pope Francis to world leaders to the American mass media punditry-- to discuss how it may be in businesses' best interests, to not simply seek the accumulation and hoarding of profits (as many allege that ASCAP and other music industry titans still do).