How many Grammy awards for Norah? I lost count... (1 Viewer)

[Angelo.M]

Evan:

I think you have another thread there, but I'll bite. I've been listening to Springsteen for about 25 years, and I consider myself closely, if not intimately, familiar with his stuff.

I put The Rising in my 'third tier' of Springsteen albums.

The 'first tier' includes the masterworks: Born to Run, Nebraska and Greetings from Asbury Park. My 'second tier' has the albums that are great with minor flaws, and includes The River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, and Born in the USA.

The 'third tier' has the stuff that is very good, but I don't return to as often: Tunnel of Love, The Ghost of Tom Joad and (yes) The Rising.

The 'fourth tier' has the stuff that just went wrong: Lucky Town and Human Touch, two albums which have barely enough between them for a decent single album, with plenty of embarrasing moments otherwise.

I think The Rising is solid, but too long, and too many of the tracks don't quite do it for me. The best cuts, however, including the title track, "Into the Fire" and "My City of Ruins" rank right up there. I could imagine the album moving up to my 'second tier' much more easily than the others I've classed it with.

I have, intentionally, left the 2 boxed sets out of my hierarchy.

 

[Evan S]

Thanks Angelo...you've just saved me $15.

 

[Brian Burgoyne]

You guys are spending a lot of time debating between Norah and Bruce. I think the best way to view Norah's success is that she is NOT Brittany or Christina wiggling their booties around!!!!! Maybe Norah Jones and Diana Krall's success will pave the way for some more female musicians that display more genuine talent than belly buttons.

I love Bruce too and it's too bad they had to go head to head when their music is so different. I guess when you're hot, you're hot. Bruce's legacy is long lived and well deserved. I guess Norah should be nervous about her sophmore album. But I can't wait to hear it...

 

[Hunter P]

I'm an avid reader of Bill Simmons on ESPN's Page2 Website. He summed up my sentiments pretty well: winning multiple awards is the kiss of death.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/030224.html

 

[RickGr]

There sure are a lot of talented young women in the business and it will be interesting to hear their second efforts. Michelle Branch should be the first with a sophmore effort and can Carlton, Lavgine and Jones all do it again with album(s) number 2?

 

[andrew markworthy]

Well, I'm glad that Norah Jones won rather than another Britney or similar. Plus, it's a good collection of easy listening songs. I don't know why folks get so up tight about 'easy listening'. Give its modern cousin the title of 'chillout music' and that's respectable, so what's wrong with something that is pleasant to relax to or have in the background?

Having said all of this, I don't think the album deserved the plethora of awards. It's *competent* but I don't think there's anything very interesting or novel there, other than the pleasant, rather 'breathy' vocals of Ms Jones (though for me, they get rather tiresome afer a few tracks).

 

[Christopher P]

Thanks for the reference Hunter, I too love Bill Simmons' columns on page 2.

Chris

Edit...10 minutes later....oh my God that Simmons article was hilarious, and I didn't even watch the Grammys.

 

[KeithH]

Hunter wrote:

I'm an avid reader of Bill Simmons on ESPN's Page2 Website. He summed up my sentiments pretty well: winning multiple awards is the kiss of death.

It's not like she won the Heisman Trophy.


I was surprised to see Norah Jones walk away with so many Grammys, but I think she is a great young talent. Come Away With Me is an excellent album, and I too have been playing it constantly since buying it about three months ago. Now I'm waiting for the SACD.

 

[KeithH]

There is an interesting thread running on Steve Hoffman's web site about whether Norah Jones deserved those Grammys. A newspaper article spurred someone to start the thread. The author of the article points out that Patricia Barber has never won a Grammy, though she may be a greater talent than Norah Jones. The thread that ensued is quite interesting. Here is a link:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/sh...threadid=11898

 

[KeithH]

Oh, one more thing. When Norah Jones dons a headset on stage and gyrates to the point where it is obvious she is not singing, then you can place her in the pop category.

 

[Angelo.M]

I think Norah deserved what she got, and I think there are plenty of other "jazz" (I use the term loosely for Norah) vocalists who are equally or more talented and who deserve more recognition/attention than they get (Patricia Barber, Holly Cole, Stacey Kent, Jane Monheit, etc and so on). If Norah paves the way for others, fine. If not, fine.

I think the real problem is the way in which Grammy has constructed its categories. If you win for "best female pop vocal performance" and for "best record" for the same recording, does it really mean anything, because if you do, then the Grammy folks are saying that the best female pop vocal performance is the best record of the year, and the redundancy makes one or the other award unnecessary. Also, I used to be certain I understood the distinction between "best record" and "best song", but when you throw in "best engineering" or whatever, I think the waters are unnecessarily muddy; engineering is part of creating a record, so how can the best record also not be the best-engineered record?

I have way too much time on my hands...

 

[Trey Fletcher]

My confusion stems from the Album of the Year vs. Record of the Year. Anyone know what the hell the difference is?

 

[Brian E]

Isn't record of the year for a single & album for the entire album?