Kendrick Lamar has a stranglehold on music's biggest night. CBS announced the nominations for the 58th annual Grammy Awards this morning, and the LA rapper is leading the pack with 11 nominations, including nods for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rap Album. His closest competitors, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, have seven nominations each. Lamar's no stranger to the Grammy game: he earned seven nominations in 2014 for good kid, m.A.A.d city before going home without a single win, and picked up two trophies last year for To Pimp a Butterfly's lead single, "i."
In some ways To Pimp a Butterfly is tailor-made for oft-conservative, staid Grammy voters. It's musically and thematically complex; it's socially conscious; it was released by an established Grammy presence, one who many thought was unfairly snubbed two years ago when his last album was nominated. After cracking through the Grammy ceiling last year, Lamar's poised to pick up more awards than he can carry.
Best Rock Album is still a morass
A quick glance at the rest of the year's major categories suggests the Grammys are sneaking closer to contemporary critical consensus after being lampooned for decades. Lamar, Swift, and The Weeknd all released albums that married commercial performance and decent critical responses. If you were forced to pick three #1 albums for Grammy recognition, you could do much worse. There are a few category-level races without a single head-scratching inclusion, a rarity in recent years; I'd be happy with any of the nominees in the dance / electronic, country, and rap categories winning. (I'm sad to report Best Rock Album is still a morass.) The eligibility period for this group of Grammy Awards ran from October 1st, 2014 to September 30th, 2015, meaning new albums from people like Janet Jackson and Justin Bieber just missed the cut.
Here are the nominees for some of the night's biggest awards:
Record of the Year
D'Angelo and the Vanguard, "Really Love"
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars, "Uptown Funk"
Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud"
Taylor Swift, "Blank Space"
The Weeknd, "Can't Feel My Face"
Album of the Year
Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
Chris Stapleton, Traveller
Taylor Swift, 1989
The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness
Song of the Year
Kendrick Lamar, "Alright"
Taylor Swift, "Blank Space"
Little Big Town, "Girl Crush"
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth, "See You Again"
Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud"
Best New Artist
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly
Meghan Trainor
Best Pop Vocal Album
Kelly Clarkson, Piece by Piece
Florence + the Machine, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Mark Ronson, Uptown Special
Taylor Swift, 1989
James Taylor, Before This World
Best Dance / Electronic Album
Caribou, Our Love
The Chemical Brothers, Born in the Echoes
Disclosure, Caracal
Jamie xx, In Colour
Skrillex & Diplo, Skrillex & Diplo Present Jack Ü
Best Rock Album
James Bay, Chaos in the Calm
Death Cab for Cutie, Kintsugi
Highly Suspect, Mister Asylum
Muse, Drones
Slipknot, .5: The Gray Chapter
Best Alternative Album
Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
Björk, Vulnicura
My Morning Jacket, The Waterfall
Tame Impala, Currents
Wilco, Star Wars
Best Urban Contemporary Album
The Internet, Ego Death
Kehlani, You Should Be Here
Lianne La Havas, Blood
Miguel, Wildheart
The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness
Best R&B Album
Leon Bridges, Coming Home
D'Angelo and the Vanguard, Black Messiah
Andra Day, Cheers to the Fall
Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show
Charlie Wilson, Forever Charlie
Best Rap Album
J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive
Dr. Dre, Compton
Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint
Best Country Album
Sam Hunt, Montevallo
Little Big Town, Pain Killer
Ashley Monroe, The Blade
Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
Chris Stapleton, Traveller
Best Music Video
A$AP Rocky, "LSD"
The Dead Weather, "I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)"
Kendrick Lamar, "Alright"
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Bad Blood"
Pharrell Williams, "Freedom"
Best Music Film
Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown
Sonic Highways
What Happened, Miss Simone?
The Wall
Amy
This year's Grammys will air on CBS on February 15th, 2016.