--- title: Grammy Nominees: Album of the Year | TIME description: TIME's music critic Josh Tyrangiel critiques the Grammy nominees for best album canonical: https://time.com/video/jsvXQKSa/ og:title: Grammy Nominees: Album of the Year og:description: TIME's music critic Josh Tyrangiel critiques the Grammy nominees for best album og:url: https://time.com/video/jsvXQKSa/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jsvXQKSa/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Grammy Nominees: Album of the Year twitter:description: TIME's music critic Josh Tyrangiel critiques the Grammy nominees for best album twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jsvXQKSa/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Grammy Nominees: Album of the Year > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Grammy Nominees: Album of the Year [Watch (HLS stream): Grammy Nominees: Album of the Year](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jsvXQKSa.m3u8) (3:20)  _Published 2009-02-07. TIME's music critic Josh Tyrangiel critiques the Grammy nominees for best album_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:06 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Grammy Nominee Angélique Kidjo on Africa and Influences](/video/zQyKCt6d/) ### Grammy Nominee Angélique Kidjo on Africa and Influences [Fergie, Bees and Puppets: Grammy's Best Videos](/video/auF2F7sV/) ### Fergie, Bees and Puppets: Grammy's Best Videos [The Grammys: Best Musical Show Album](/video/jV4dnLhO/) ### The Grammys: Best Musical Show Album --- ## Transcript Closer, closer, hoo! >> This is Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for TIME. com. This Sunday night in Los Angeles, the National Academy of Recording Artists and Sciences will hand out its annual Grammy Awards. There are over a hundred Grammy categories, which means that if you are not nominated, you obviously weren't tried. But the biggest of all is, of course, Album of the Year. The add- on favorite going into this year has to be Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. It's probably not an album you've heard of. It wasn't a great commercial success, but Alison Krauss has 21 Grammy Awards already. >> Some sunny day- hay baby when everything seems okay, baby. You'll wake up and find out-- >> She's Gramm vote crack and you'd be crazy to vote against her. It also helps it is a pretty nice record. It's a duet album that mixes her very sweet soprano with Robert Plant's very familiar sexy rock and roll growl. >> Gone, gone, gone really gone. Gone, ga- gone, cause you done me wrong. >> One record I can almost guarantee won't be called when they announce the Album of the Year is Ne- Yo's Year of the Gentleman. It's a fine RNB record, just as good as about a dozen others released last year. But the Grammy's would like to have every genre represented when it comes to their big category. This year, they settled on Ne- Yo. I can't really tell you why. >> And I just can't pull myself away. Under a spell I can't break. I just can't stop. >> Well, of course, Viva La Vida is nominated for Album of the Year. >> I used to rule the world. Seas would-- >> Grammy voters are an older bunch, very industry friendly, and the fact that this was a global sales boheme, it certainly helps. Critics, as you may have read, are not quite as wild about Viva La Vida. Chris Martin is an acquired taste, one that this particular critic has yet to acquire. >> Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III is a dark horse candidate here. -[ unk ] >> Rap rarely does well on the Album of the Year category. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why. But Lil Wayne had a great year and the album happens to be funny and innovative. If Grammy voters actually bought it to listen to it, I would say it's got a fair shot at success. Finally, there's In Rainbows by Radiohead, an album that got lots of attention because e of its pay what you want pricing structure, but also because it's the band's warmest and probably best in a decade. >> You are all I need. You are all I need. I'm in the middle of your picture. Lying in the reeds. >> The problem for In Rainbows is it doesn't have any hits. 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