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SDE Grammy nomination round-up: Paul McCartney and Steven Wilson in the running

2021 Grammy Nomination highlights

By Paul Sinclair

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Photo by Mary McCartney

Nominations for the 64th Grammy Awards were announced yesterday and SDE spotlights some of the artists, albums and songs selected that will be of interest.

ABBA’s ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ is nominated in the ‘Song of the Year‘ category, giving the Swedish quartet their very first Grammy nomination. Since the period of eligibility ended on 30 September 2021, the album Voyage arrived to late, but could make a showing for what will be the 2022 Awards. ABBA are up against Billie Eilish (‘Happier Than Ever’), Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’) and seven others.

‘Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album‘ includes Norah Jones‘ live album Til We Meet Again as well as Dolly Parton’s 2020 Christmas album, A Holly Dolly Christmas.

Chris Cornell’s cover of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ (from his No One Sings Like You Anymore album) is one of five songs nominated for ‘Best Rock Performance‘. AC/DC’s ‘Shot in the Dark’ and the Foo Fighters’ ‘Making A Fire’ also get a nod in this category.

Paul McCartney’s ‘Find My Way’ is Grammy nominated

‘Find My Way’, the second track on Paul McCartney’s 2020 album McCartney III is nominated for ‘Best Rock Song‘. This is the first time since 2008 that a track from one of Paul’s studio albums has received a Grammy nomination (‘That Was Me’ from Memory Almost Full was the last time this happened). These days we are more used to seeing McCartney be nominated for his Archive Collection reissues, but since nothing has been re-released since 2020’s Flaming Pie, that’s off the table for this year. Weezer, Kings of Leon and Foo Fighters are amongst the other acts in this category. There’s actually double success for Macca as the McCartney III album is also nominated for ‘Best Rock Album‘, despite the fact that it sounds nothing like a ‘rock’ album. Only one track, Slidin’ in any way ‘rocks’.

Stewart Copeland & Ricky Kej’s long-player Divine Tides is nominated for ‘Best New Age Album‘ and the Girl From The North Country musical (which uses Bob Dylan songs) is in the running for ‘Best Musical Theater Album‘.

‘Best Recording Package‘ nominations include Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ Carnage and the big one –  ‘Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package‘ – includes the Limited Edition Box Set version of Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass 50th anniversary edition, although the exact version for the latter isn’t specified, so we don’t know if it’s for the super or uber deluxe. The Gang of Four box set 77-81 is also nominated in this category.

Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites has two Grammy nominations

Prince’s Sign O’ The Times super deluxe edition is nominated for ‘Best Historical Album‘ as is the Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) box set.

Hats Anton-off for Jack Antonoff who surely should win in the ‘Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical‘ category for his involvement in many high profile albums from artists like Taylor Swift, St. Vincent, Lorde and Lana Del Rey.

Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites is a double Grammy nominee for 2021 since it is also in the running for ‘Best Immersive Audio Album‘. All four of Steven’s previous nominations have been in the same category (which was called ‘Best Surround Sound Album’) so I’d personally love to see him walk away with the award, finally (Harry Styles and Alicia Keys albums are nominated in the same category).

Finally, David Byrne’s American Utopia is nominated for ‘Best Music Film‘ and surely has a good chance of winning. We will find out all the results on 31 January 2022 when the Awards show goes ahead.

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18 Comments

18 thoughts on “SDE Grammy nomination round-up: Paul McCartney and Steven Wilson in the running”

  1. Personally I’d have been thrilled if anything off of the lockdown sessions had been nominated, or something from the Offsprings latest. Or Jeff Tweedy’s latest love is the king, or Eminem’s latest deluxe edition. Heck Stone Temple Pilots tiny music remaster and Cat Stevens’ Mona bone jakon, tea for the tillerman, and teaser and the firecat remasters, and even Lennon’s plastic Ono band remaster were all wonderful too, but nope nothing for them either. Lame just lame.

  2. I’ve been out of the loop for years now, but honestly this years crop of nominations is even worse than last years, and that’s saying something. With crap like Gaga Beiber Kanye and Olivia Rodrigo polluting the nominations it really does seem to be the worst year ever. Heck I can’t even look forward to rooting for the Christian nominations this year since boring groups like elevation worship and Hillsong are up for awards now. Basically the last time I was truly excited about a batch of nominees was when Arcade Fire’s the suburbs won it’s well deserved album of the year Grammy. Ever since it’s been nothing but crap in my mind, with the notable exception of Bowie’s blackstar winning its awards.

  3. Wow! With the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Mccartney, David Byrne, Tony Bennett, Stewart Copeland, ABBA, Dolly Parton and ACDC, all up for awards, is this the oldest collection of nominees ever? (And 3 nominees; Chris Cornwell, Prince and George Harrison, are dead!) I wouldn’t be suprised if the Foo Fighters and Norah Jones haven’t also been nominated in the “Best Newcomer” category.

  4. So SW gets nominated for what some would call technical categories: immersive audio and packaging. Good for the former but I’m sure there is better packaging for the latter out there like Elton John’s Jewel Box.

  7. “Only one track, Slidin’ in any way ‘rocks’.”
    And what is “Lavatory Lil” ? A polka track ? Some New wave number ? ;)
    Macca III is not less rock than Stadium Arcadium or Santana’s Supernatural, which were Grammy winners in the Rock Album section in the past. It’s never been an accurate definition.

      1. Slightly off-topic, but I don’ t know if there is an english word for the style of very mainstream artists like Shirley Bassey, Petula Clark or Gene Pitney. I call it pop by default. How would you call it ?

        1. Everything is pop music to me. Sgt Pepper is pop music, so is Neil Young, Roxy Music, Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, LLoyd Cole, Blur, Suede, Oasis, Tears For Fears, REM, Prince etc. Obviously Jazz isn’t, neither is thrash metal, but you get the point.

          1. It’s all so easy to classify music until you get to M’s 1979 “Pop Muzik” single – was it New Age, Death Metal, Spoken Word…I just can’t seem to make it out.

    1. Dear Mr. Adriano
      American’s poor taste in music? Contrary to the European’s taste for “quality music” like Adele, Ed Sheeran or “Now That’s what I Call Music” re-releases? Anyway, I don’t watch award shows, because they tend to favor music that all sounds like the same kind of pop music, just listen to the current state of Jazz or Country music. But we are all to blame for that, not just the Americans.

      1. Well said. It is not the lack of ‘good’ music or American’s taste for it, just rubbish award shows, which seem to be the Business doing business.

    2. @ YC adriano – you do realize that American listeners/fans don’t make the call here…it’s the Academy members who are artists, musicians, songwriters, producers, etc. voting. If you limit your listening to only music from your native country (who obviously have better “taste in music”) than why the interest in the Grammys anyway?

  10. It would have been even better for ABBA if they’d also been nominated for Song of the Year with Don’t Shut Me Down – what a classic ABBA CHOON. I hope the Voyage is long and fruitful for them as the album is really superb.

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