There was a sentence when the Grammy Awards were incredibly bias with their nominees for the major awards (good, but still bias). The 2003 awards (meaning music from 2002) was the class when all the diversity bariers were broken down. The tracklisting still has a slight inclination towards pop, the ground for that is because Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocal are covered.
But Read Of The Year, Album Of The Class and Best New Artist are included as well:1) Vanessa Carlton "A Thousand Miles" A-. A beautiful, sweet almost philosophical pop song. The cloth may seem standard but Vanessa`s voice and lyrics make it a catchy piece of work.Endlessly listenable with wild images.2) Norah Jones "Don`t Know Why" C . What is this song doing in 2002? Everything around it seems outdated and unfinished, like the producers just stopped trying. What little heart is here is lost because listeners are put to sleep.3) Nickelback "How You Remind Me" A. This is almost as closely as you can get to a perfect rock song. It has all the things you ask from a rock song, yet Chad Kroger`s voice and the piercing lyrics add more weight and property to it.4) Dixie Chicks "Landslide" B. Again, country isn`t bmy cup of tea, but this song works for me. The girls` make this Fleetwood Mac song their own and add some blueglass flavor with unique acoustic arangements.5) Eminem "Without Me" A. Easily Shady`s most satirical, funniest and bitter work yet. His "razor tounged lyrics" find the correct targets, address a total of "issues" and take good point all to a hilarious entertaining results.6) Nelly "Hot In Herre" A. The point that this song works to is exceptional, considering its simplistic content. But Nelly`s trademarked "southern flavor" turns ikt into a must hear summer dance/rap song. Completely enjoyable in every way.7) Ashanti "Foolish" B . A smooth, relaxing and toughing R&B song which is darn infectious. Thankfully it contains a rather original idea, but has a flaw becuase it seems to handle the listener at a distance.8) Michelle Branch "All You Wanted" A. A rich and touching pop/rock song that finds the powerful impact from the lyrics and guitar chords. Another song that starts with simple material, yet rise far above it.9)Avril Lavigne "Complicated" A. Hands down THE best song writing from THE best new artist of 2002! Everything about this song works from the chilling guitar opening to deep, powerful and enotional lyrics. Every minute of this masterpiece should put a split in your eye.10) John Mayer "Your Consistency Is A Wonderland" A-. It`s hard to think that he was only 16 when he made this song. Content as old as Shakespeare gets a nice modern revamp in a sweet, light and easing ballad. It`ll ease the turbulent mind with no problem.11) Sheryl Crow "Soak Up The Sun" A-. This song just has an a perfect summer feel to it. Everything about this light, catchy, fun pop/rock tune demonstrates the total extent of Sheryl Crows comprehensive talents.12) P!NK "Get The Company Started" B . This was hailed by many as THE best talk of 2001. It`s not that good, but it is yet an endlessly enjoyable, clubbed up dance track with a combination of a slick production and killer voice and lyrics.13) Britney Spears "Overprotected" B-. It has more meaning than your standard Britney song, yet it still feels like a whiny rant under the surface. Darkchild`s production and the infectious beat make it listenavle though.14) Craig David "7 Days" B . The song isn`t in the same conference as "Take Me In", but is still very catchy and is a dainty little relaxing listen. Craig David finds a relaxed tone to give the song flow efforlessly.15) Sting "Fragile" C . Sting is a very talented male artist who just doesn`t put in the entire effort here. Everything starts out perfectly, then grows redundant and repedative as the song carries on. It`s a process that just diudn`t quite come together.16) James Taylor "October Road" A-. A gracious piece for his later career to even to get the gift he even has. Shows that sometimes a simple premise and feeling is all that is required to take a serious song.17) Bowling For Soup "Girl All The Bad Guys Want" A-. A foreign and original pop/punk transition. The song seems bizarre at first, but formerly it takes off it reaches maximum velocity. I love every second of it.18) Dave Matthews Band "Where Are You Going" C. Textbook standard light rock in every way. This is what happens when a group doesn`t try and simply goes through the standard flows of music.19) *N Sync "Girlfriend" B-. This isn`t bad, it only lacks that spirit that the Neptunes Remix feat. Nelly had. That version benefitted alot from Nelly`s style and attitude, maybe they couldn`t make it because it was remix. Still a Neptunes production, this variation remains listenable.Bottom Line: ***1/2. The album may suffer a few slow spots scattered about, but the diversity and copiousness of quality tracks get up for it. The nominees were a reasonably good survival of medicine in 2002, too bad the winners weren`t as well.
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