12 February, 2015

The 2015 Grammy Awards - a (delayed) live ’blog

3:30 DACCAAAA! You've got to give credit where due: they transcend fashion. Audience look genuinely starstruck.

9:00 Um... "T-swizzle"??

16:00 Ariana Grande. Generic, over-earnest soulful ballad.

19:00 It's pretty sad that Jessie J can sell You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling better than Tom Jones. He may have the voice, but I get the feeling he's never had his heart broken.

22:00 Best pop vocal is Happy. I'm cool with that. It's a great pop song. Pharell is honoured to be grouped with the other nominees and was sure one of the others would win, so DRINK!

25:00 Miranda Lambert. I don't think you can call this a country song just because it's sung in a serthern accent. Nice to see a woman almost fully dressed though.

32:00 Kanye. Why is he performing to a backing track when it would have been so easy to have Paul play piano on this? Could lose the auto-tune.

40:00 Madonna. I really prefer her when she's singing rather that leading aerobic workouts.

43:20 Why does the get-off music sound like the speaker is about to be killed?

44:25 George Harrison is a recording academy lifetime achievement honouree? What was it Stella McCartney said? I'm sure George would be the first to ponder how long you have to be dead before having a lifetime achievement recognised.

45:30 None of the Best R&B nominees sound remotely like rhythm and blues to me. Is R&B like NPR where the letters don't stand for anything any more?

49:00 Ed Sheerin. Ironically, this is sounds like rhythm and blues.
51:15 You know, you don't expect to hear a tone like that coming out of a Jackson superstrat!

54:30 Jeff Lynne sounds great. Don't know why they had to cut The Evil Woman off though. Or add Ed Sheerin, who seems to have left his guitar out in the rain.
 
1:01:00 They said everyone would be talking about this duet between Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani. I'm not. 

1:05:00 Annie Lennox is selling Hozier's own song better than he is.
1:07:30 I Put a Spell on You seems apropos of bugger all but bloody awesome all the same.

1:14:30 Full points for being a very different version of Happy but why? To prove it could be done? Bold, but messy.
Carry your bags, mister?
1:16:00 Message from Barack Obama against domestic violence. Interesting. Obama has an clever way of telling you you're not doing enough and making it seem like a compliment. There's something through-the-looking-glass about the President of the United States telling musicians they could be doing more to make the world a safer and more peaceful place.  

1:24:00 Katy Perry. A little over-earnest for may tastes but can't argue with the sentiment.  

1:28:00 Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Not sure whose credibility is damaged more by this.  

1:33:30 Usher. Nice to have just the harp accompaniment and let the song stand by itself. Would it be too bad a pun to comment on this possibly being the first time there has been harp and harp used together.  

1:34:00 5 seconds each for Boulez and Buddy Guy's lifetime achievement recognitions? Pathetic! 

1:39:30 Eric Church. Sounds like there might have been more to this song but for me it got lost in the generic nature of a country song about someone's home town.

1:42:00  Brandy Clark and Dwight Yoakam. Also a big generic country but nice enough, and definitely live.

1:46:00 Four Five Seconds. This is the first time I've heard this song, mainly because I really prefer to avoid hearing music for the first time on YouTube if I can. Not bad. Paul and Kanye are basically surplus to requirements here though.

1:52:00 Sam Smith and Mary J Blige. Not terrible. Not great.

1:56:00 Juanes. Nice stuff. I quite like this. I've already forgotten how Four Five Seconds goes.

1:56:50 Prince: "Albums, remember those?" I do, but I'm old. Hey wait. He's announcing an award. What's going on?

1:58:05 THAT moment. Well, what a beat-up that was! All Kanye did was move towards the mic, then grin and walk away. Beck got it. He even invited him back. It was actually an amusing moment in a ridiculously scripted show.

What West said afterwards is not relevant to this review but I don't recall him giving any of his awards to more deserving artists.

1:59:15 30 seconds for the music educator of the year award. Better than nothing, but this is important.

2:01:00 Well, that was awkward.

2:05:00 Sia's performance was confusing but rewarding when they finally revealed it was actually on stage.

2:05:25 The producer of the year award is announced as having been awarded earlier. This is an insult.

2:09:00 Acknowledgement by Dave Grohl of David Letterman. Nice touch, and thoroughly deserved.

2:13:00 Beck was excellent, with more than a shade of Nick Drake. Chris Martin brought very little other than the collaboration which seems obligatory this year. I might have to get this album.

2:16:00 Sam Smith again? Nice enough guy, but come on! I almost thought he was going to thank Tom Petty.

2:28:00 Beyonce. Seemed a bit overdone to me. They stopped just short of saying "Please feel deeply moved by this."

2:31:00 John Legend and Common. Now THIS is moving!

2:35:00 Oh, and it's over. Not so much as a 'thank you and goodnight.'

Well, I might as well post this since I've written it but apart from a few moments, I have an overwhelming sense of meh. I might go back to not watching.
  
 






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