http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UcVtuwc ... LSyZo74zw2
And here's the full write-up from my site featuring my picks for best albums of the year and best sound quality as well.
It’s time once again to announce the nominees for the Dynammy Awards, my annual look at the best music of the year.
As usual I’m offering up five nominees for Album Of The Year, fifteen for Song Of The Year, which is enough to fill up an awesome mixtape, and for the first time ever I have a full five nominees for Best Sound Quality. Is the fact that I found five albums worth mentioning a sign that the good guys are finally winning the Loudness Wars? Let’s hope so.
Album Of The Year
Camera Obscura – Desire Lines
Steve Earle – The Low Highway
Jason Isbell – Southeastern
Lightning Dust – Fantasy
Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day
Song Of The Year
Steve Earle – Burnin’ It Down
Jason Isbell – Travelling Alone
Lightning Dust – Diamond
Laura Mvula – Green Garden
The National – I Should Live In Salt
Daft Punk – Get Lucky
Iron & Wine – Grace For The Sinners And Ramblers
Goldfrapp – Drew
Patty Griffin – Don’t Let Me Die In Florida
Blackberry Smoke – Pretty Little Lie
Camera Obscura – Break It To You Gently
David Bowie – I’d Rather Be High
Yo La Tengo – I’ll Be Around
The Devil Makes Three – Stranger
Marcus Mumford & Oscar Isaac – Fare Thee Well
Best Sound Quality
Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
Jason Isbell – Southeastern
Mazzy Star – Seasons Of Your Day
Patty Griffin – American Kid
Patricia Barber – Smash
This year’s nominees feature some old favourites of mine like Iron & Wine, Steve Earle, and Camera Obscura, as well as a whole host of first-time nominees like Laura Mvula, Daft Punk, and Blackberry Smoke.
The only artist to be nominated in all three categories is Jason Isbell for his excellent album Southeastern, making him a leading contender to pick up some Dynammy hardware.
One notable omission this year is “Royals” by Lorde. I was intrigued by the song when I first heard it, even though I felt the lyrics were full of mixed messages, and I eventually got sick of it because I was hearing it everywhere. It’s a terrific piece of music, and so is “Bravado”, but in the end I felt like Lorde had gotten more than enough hype this year and didn’t need my seal of approval.
Another honourable mention is “Hail And Farewell” by Big Country, my favourite band of all time, whose surviving members recruited Mike Peters of the Alarm to fill in for the late, great Stuart Adamson and released an album called “The Journey”. I have low expectations for band reunions at the best of times, but without their original leader I seriously doubted this re-imagining of Big Country could ever work, but they did deliver one very solid song, even if the rest of the album left me cold. If I could have found a decent video on YouTube I would have included it, but it wasn’t going to win anyway, and Mike Peters has already left the band, leaving their future in doubt, so I decided to include something else and give “Hail And Farewell” a special mention here instead.
- See more at: http://dynamicrangeradio.ca/dynammy-awa ... zRuN7.dpuf