JANUARY. It’s finished now. Good riddance to it.
It was largely cold and rubbish. But it produced some good music and some good music videos.
Here are my ten favourite tracks I’ve written about on this here blog so far in 2011. If you’ve missed any of them, go and check them out. You won’t regret it.
What have I missed that’s rocked your January?
It’s an interesting evening for collaborations. Following on from Robyn’s moonlighting, here’s something a little more complex and worthy of attention.
CREEP is a collaboration between New York producers Lauren Flax and Lauren Dillard. Lauren Flax is a pretty big deal house DJ, but chiefly known to me for her ace track with Sia a few years back (listen below).
Here they’ve roped in Romy from the xx for a really fascinating track. Moody yet delicate, it maintains the charm of Romy’s band while layering it with skittery beats, drones and twinkles. Perhaps the xx wouldn’t have caught on were it not for the simple naivete of their debut, but this offers intriguing possibilities of what they could sound like with a more adventurous production team.
Great stuff. And the gorgeous award-nominated video is directed by Warren Fischer (Fischerspooner). Fact.
The Best of British
OK let’s kick this thing off with a great big BLAH. Yes, the Brits are necessarily a big old corporate shambles. Yes, we know what they’re for. Annie Lennox. Nothing new. BLAH.
But, come on, wouldn’t it be nice if they weren’t so predictably rubbish every year?
Elements of this year’s list are Not Awful compared to some recent years, but mostly it’s just all so DULL. Is that because music is dull at the moment – if so I hadn’t noticed – or that the charts are (perhaps)>?
Anyway.
BRITISH MALE
Crappest nomination: Robert Plant (sorry to any Dads reading)
Surprise nomination: None
Yawn: Paul WellAH, Mark Ronson
SHOULD win: Tinie TempAH.
Will win: Plan B 
BRITISH FEMALE
Crappest nomination: Rumer
Surprise nomination: Laura Marling
Yawn: Cheryl Cole, Paloma Faith, Ellie Goulding
SHOULD win: ?!? Marling is the least yawn.
Will win: Ellie Goulding
BRITISH BREAKTHRU”’
Crappest nomination: Mumford & Sons (runner up: Rumer)
Surprise nomination: None
Yawn: Ellie Goulding
SHOULD win: Tinie Tempah or The XX
Will win: Mumford & Sons
BRITISH GROUP
Crappest nomination: Mumford & Sons
Surprise nomination: None.
Yawn: Biffy Clyro, The XX
SHOULD win: Gorillaz
Will win: Probably Take That, but that’s OK
BRITISH SINGLE
Crappest nomination: Olly Murs v Scouting For Girls
Surprise nomination: None, this is alway inexplicable
Yawn: All of it, especially Florence and Plan B
SHOULD win: PASS OUT
Will win: Something godawful like Florence or Plan B
BEST BRITISH ALBUM SUPPORTED BY MASTERCARD
Crappest Nomination: Mumford
Surprise nomination: Emphatically none
Yawn: Plan B, Take That
SHOULD win: The XX (or Tinie Tempah)
Will win: Plan B or Mumford
INTERNATIONAL MALE
Crappest nomination: Bruce Springsteen in 2011 (not that I have anything against The Boss in general, mind)
Surprise nomination: Not sure Guetta counts given his omnipresence
Yawn: Cee Lo Green, Eminem
SHOULD win: KANYE
Will win: I have literally no idea
INTERNATIONAL FEMALE
This category is actually really good, but in fairness it would be really, really hard to fcuk this up
Crappest nomination: None!
Surprise nomination: ROBYN 
Yawn: Kylie in 2011 perhaps? Alicia Keys now and then
SHOULD win: A MILLION TIMES ROBYN
WILL win: Rihanna, which will suffice I suppose
INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHRU”’
Crappest nomination: Bruno Mars
Surprise nomination: Glee Cast. WTF?
Yawn: The National, The Temper Trap
SHOULD win: None of them
WILL win: Justin Bieber
INTERNATIONAL GROUP
Crappest nomination: The effing Script
Surprise nomination: None
Yawn: Kings of Lyawn, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire
SHOULD win: Oh I don’t know, Black Eyed Peas?
WILL win: Arcade Fire
INTERNATIONAL ALBUM
Crappest nomination: Kings of Lyawn
Surprise nomination: Katy Perry
Yawn: Arcade Fire, Eminem
SHOULD win: Oh I dunno, is Cee Lo’s album any good beyond the single?
Will win: Arcade Fire
I’m skipping over Critic’s choice. We’ve all had that conversation.
BRITISH PRODUCER
Crappest nomination: I had to look him up, but “Ethan Johns” does not sound like My Kind Of Guy
Surprise nomination: Mike Pela (Sade I think)
Yawn: John Leckie, “Markus Dravs” (Arcade Fire)
SHOULD win: Stuart Price!
Will win: Oh I dunno.
The only bet I’d place on the back of this is that all my predicted winners will be wrong. Occasionally something even worse will happen, but mostly we’ll just go ‘meh’ and continue throwing things at James Corden’s face.
Hopefully Robyn will sing, then everything will be OK.
AM I WRONG?