Paul Mccartney
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Gwen Stefani
Love.Angel.Music.Baby.
U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Kanye West
Late Registration
Disc for disc, this is a stronger category than last year, when a wave of sentiment carried Ray Charles's relatively unremarkable Genius Loves Company to victory. This field would have been even better if Coldplay's egregiously overlooked X&Y—the real album of the year—had been nominated instead of weak link McCartney. A case can be made for any of the other four contenders. Comeback girl Carey hit the high note of her career with Emancipation, the best-selling CD of 2005, while Stefani left no doubt about who was the new Madonna. But this is a two-horse race between U2 and West. Had the powerful Atomic Bomb not been released way back in November 2004, we would have tapped Bono and the boys to win. Theirs is probably the better album. It's a virtual toss-up, but we'll go with the far fresher Late Registration. For sheer ambition, West (who was nominated in this category last year for his debut, The College Dropout) was in a class of his own with this hip-hop opus.
Record of the Year
Mariah Carey
"We Belong Together"
Gorillaz Featuring De La Soul
"Feel Good Inc."
Green Day
"Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
Gwen Stefani
"Hollaback Girl"
Kanye West
"Gold Digger"
Even more so than the Album of the Year lot, this is a better bunch than last year; any of these records would make a worthier winner than the Ray Charles-Norah Jones collaboration "Here We Go Again." Let's start, though, by throwing out Gorillaz. It's a big surprise—and a bit of a stretch—that the virtual hip-hop group made the cut; they should feel good about the nomination. And as much as Stefani's B-girl cheerleader anthem had us doing double backflips, it would be a little B-A-N-A-N-A-S if she took home this prestigious trophy. "We Belong Together" and "Gold Digger" spent a combined 24 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart, and although both were deserved smashes, they were so ubiquitous we're a tad sick of them. That leaves Green Day, which, with only this single nod, was sorely undernominated after an exceptional year. Give it to the punks for poignantly capturing a nation's disillusionment.
Best Male Pop Vocal
Jack Johnson
"Sitting, Waiting, Wishing"
Paul McCartney
"Fine Line"
Seal
"Walk On By"
Rob Thomas
"Lonely No More"
Stevie Wonder
"From the Bottom of My Heart"
One look at this underwhelming lineup and we're left wondering, "Where have all the male pop singers gone?" This has us seriously hankering for Justin Timberlake. Alas, the Recording Academy fell back on a couple of golden oldies: McCartney and Wonder. While both multiple Grammy winners demonstrated they still had their mojo with strong albums in '05—it was particularly good to hear Wonder back after 10 years—"Fine Line" and "From the Bottom of My Heart" are hardly any "Eleanor Rigby" and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life." Like Wonder, the always classy Seal has previously won in this category (for "Kiss from a Rose" in 1996), but he could probably have sleepwalked through his remake of the old Dionne Warwick gem. At least surfer dude Johnson represents a breath of fresh ocean air with his folk-pop ditty. Our pick, though, is Thomas for his surprisingly funky work on "Lonely No More," a song people have actually heard. We didn't know he had it in him.
Best Female Pop Vocal
Mariah Carey
"It's Like That"
Kelly Clarkson
"Since U Been Gone"
Sheryl Crow
"Good Is Good"
Bonnie Raitt
"I Will Not Be Broken"
Gwen Stefani
"Hollaback Girl"
Grammy darlings Crow and Raitt, who would be nominated for singing the phone book, delivered solid but unspectacular turns and are the clear also-rans here. If Carey were up for "We Belong Together" (for reasons that we don't understand, her performance of that hit was relegated to the R&B category), our choice would be a no-brainer. Although the octave-leaping diva displays unusual restraint on "It's Like That," her vocal is almost too understated. With a kitschy-cool performance that falls somewhere between singing and rapping, Stefani doesn't quite fit here. So we're cheering for Clarkson for fiercely letting loose her inner Pat Benatar and exorcising the ghost of American Idol.
Best New Artist
Ciara
Fall Out Boy
Keane
John Legend
Sugarland
We can think of at least a few talented newbies missing here: folk-soul man Amos Lee, old-school R&B belter Leela James, virtuoso singer-guitarist Raúl Midón. Any of those certainly would have made a better selection than crunk princess Ciara, who earned her spot on the strength of a double-platinum debut, Goodies, and a string of hit singles. And while the punk-pop band Fall Out Boy had a breakthrough year in 2005, they're neither new (they released their first album, Take This to Your Grave, in 2003) nor particularly good. Sugarland adequately fills the designated country slot, but we can't really see the trio bringing home the award to Nashville. Although Hopes and Fears had us keen on Keane, the Coldplay knockoffs lose points for originality. It seemed as if eight-time nominee Legend was destined to win this award when Get Lifted came out in December 2004. Time has only made the neo-soul singer-pianist a more obvious choice. There's nothing ordinary about his kind of people.
