Brit Awards predictions

Well, it is the Brit Awards next Wednesday night, with those idiots out of Gavin & Stacey presenting it this year, along with Kylie. And as promised in my last blog post, I am previewing the Brit Awards and making my predictions on who will win, as well as saying who I would vote for if I was canvassed for my vote. So here's my rundown in each of the award categories.

As ever, these are purely my own thoughts and wherever any of you reading this blog have any disagreements, I will be very interested to hear your take on things. So here goes then.

BEST MALE SOLO ARTIST (Ian Brown, James Morrison, Paul Weller, Streets, Will Young)
With no Robbie Williams material these days, there is no longer a monopoly in this category. I didn't even know Ian Brown had released anything in the last year. I've never really enjoyed his solo stuff as much as his work with the Stone Roses in any event. Paul Weller last released a good song about 10 years ago and surely is just paying for his retirement fund these days. Streets misses out simply because how can you take the man seriously when a) he calls himself Streets and b) his songs come up with the kind of rhyming scheme that a 6 year old would be embarrassed by. There are 2 contenders for this award, Will Young and James Morrison, and although I wouldn't profess to being a huge fan of his, James Morrison's recent duet with Nelly Furtado was pleasant enough (although I think Nelly is the main reason for that) and with that song riding high in the charts, I think Morrison shades this award because he is currently in people's consciousness.
MY PREDICTION: James Morrison MY SELECTION: James Morrison

BEST FEMALE SOLO ARTIST (Duffy, Adele, Beth Rowley, Estelle, MIA)
Well, Estelle is by far and away the most aesthetically pleasing of these artists, but sadly I don't think this is going to be the judging panel's criteria for picking the winner. Can't say I know anything about Beth Rowley and I thought MIA was some dodgy action movie starring Chuck Norris and while I'm sure they both have their followers, I don't think they have the mainstream support required to win this award. Estelle had one of the big hits of last summer with "American Boy" which I liked when it came out, but got bored with by the time the radio played it for the 10,000th time. Adele and Duffy sold bucketloads last year so they are the two real contenders, although I can't stand Adele and "Warwick Avenue" aside, Duffy's voice is the kind to shatter glass from ten paces. Rockferry was the best selling album of 2008 though and so on that basis, I see this award heading over the Severn Bridge, although I would have liked to have seen Sharleen Spiteri nominated for this award after her impressive debut album was released in 2008.
MY PREDICTION: Duffy MY SELECTION: Estelle

BEST BREAKTHROUGH ACT (Adele, Duffy, Last Shadow Puppets, Scouting For Girls, Ting Tings)
This is rather an uninspiring list, I have to say. I would have said that the Ting Tings were the most annoying act to emerge last year until I saw the presence of Scouting For Girls among the nominees. I'm sure most of their songs came out the year before last anyway, although it is so hard to tell with Scouting For Girls as all of their songs sound the same. The Last Shadow Puppets are basically the lead singer out of the Arctic Monkeys' side project and I always thought they were overrated anyway. That just leaves us with Adele and Duffy again and although it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the judges might come over corinthian and split the awards between Adele and Duffy, I expect the Welsh songstress to win this award too.
MY PREDICTION: Duffy MY SELECTION: Duffy (by default!)

BEST BRITISH GROUP (Coldplay, Elbow, Radiohead, Girls Aloud, Take That)
The Brit Awards are the only music awards where you'd see this shortlist of nominations slugging it out for Best British Group, aren't they? I doubt Girls Aloud or Take That would feature in the Q Awards, nor would I expect Elbow or Radiohead to feature in the Smash Hits Awards (not least because Smash Hits doesn't exist any more!). Girls Aloud and Take That continue to churn out songs that appeal to their audience and sell well, so they are not without a chance, especially given how Take That tickets sold like hot cake last year. Elbow's album Seldom Seen Kid was fantastic and fully deserved to win the Mercury Music Prize last year but I don't think they are mainstream enough to get the vote in this award. That just leaves Coldplay and given that in the last year they have released 4 great singles, 2 fine albums and currently have genuine claims to being the biggest band in the world, I expect them to wipe the floor in this category.
MY PREDICTION: Coldplay MY SELECTION: Coldplay

BEST BRITISH LIVE ACT (Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Elbow, Scouting For Girls, The Verve)
Some rather odd nominees for this award. Iron Maiden have been performing for 30 years now, so why have they suddenly been nominated this year? I didn't even realise The Verve had performed together on tour since they reformed other than at Glastonbury, but I've never really regarded them as a great live act and have been disappointed with their material since their surprise comeback. Scouting For Girls's inclusion here is surely a joke, especially when there are some notable absentees, such as Razorlight, Keane and Kaiser Chiefs, who were all active in 2008. I enjoyed Elbow's sessions at Abbey Road on the red button the other week and they are a good live act, but Coldplay are up there with the best stadium bands in the world right now, so again this is another award in the bag for them.
MY PREDICTION: Coldplay MY SELECTION: Coldplay

BEST BRITISH SINGLE (Coldplay - Viva La Vida, Duffy - Mercy, Girls Aloud - The Promise, Leona Lewis - Better In Time, Scouting For Girls - Heartbeat)
I would really question whether these are the best five songs of the past year. Mercy wasn't even the best song that Duffy released last year, if Warwick Avenue was nominated then I would agree. Equally, as much as I think Viva La Vida is an epic tune, I'd have put Violet Hill ahead of it out of Coldplay's singles released in the past year because, just in my personal opinion, I think Violet Hill is the best song they have ever recorded. They are some fine tunes from different genres that are strangely absent and yet that dreary glass shatterer Leona Lewis gets nominated along with those talentless idiots Scouting For Girls. Viva La Vida is head and shoulders above the other nominated songs, but pop oriented songs often win the best single award which is why I have a hunch this award will end up in the Cole household.
MY PREDICTION: Girls Aloud MY SELECTION: Coldplay

BEST BRITISH ALBUM (Coldplay - Viva La Vida, Duffy - Rockferry, Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid, Radiohead - In Rainbows, Ting Tings - We Started Nothing)
What on earth would possess someone to buy an entire album of Ting Tings songs? The only reason they are so popular are because there's a real shortage of guitar bands with a female lead singer now. If Sleeper and Garbage were still around they would show just how ordinary the Ting Tings are. I notice Sharleen Spiteri's Melody album was cruelly overlooked, which is a pity as it is a mighty fine album. I haven't heard Radiohead's album although I predict it was just the usual cure for sleep deprivation, while Rockferry has a lot of filler on it outside of the singles. The 2 albums I own are Viva La Vida and Seldom Seen Kid and both are fantastic albums in their own way, although they are very different. My slight gripe with Viva La Vida is that I feel it was a half finished album in as much as some more songs appeared on an 8 track EP just a few months later with Life In Technicolor being much better for having words in it rather than the instrumental that is track 1 on Viva La Vida and Lovers In Japan sounding better as a standalone track on the EP rather than one half of a track on Viva La Vida. I'm nitpicking really though because it is a really polished album where each track fits with the next one, and although Seldom Seen Kid is very, very good, I think Viva La Vida edges it. Radio 2 listeners pick this award I think and so because I expect more 30 and 40-somethings to listen to Coldplay rather than Duffy, I think they will win.
MY PREDICTION: Coldplay MY SELECTION: Coldplay (although it's very close between them and Elbow)

BEST INTERNATIONAL ALBUM (AC/DC - Black Ice, Killers - Day and Age, Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night, MGMT - Orancular Spectacular, Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes)
The international group and album categories look far stronger than the British equivalent categories this year. All five of these nominees have got some valid claim for winning this award. AC/DC came back after a long hiatus and hit number 1 with this album and with them you always know what you are getting and they do what they do very well. MGMT have had a couple of quite funky tunes out in recent months and look like they could be a band to follow in the next couple of years. I would also draw your attention to Fleet Foxes (as I did in my last blog), who are probably less known than the other bands nominated, but whose album is a lovely composition. If you like late 60s music like the Beach Boys, Mamas & The Papas and Simon & Garfunkel, you will probably quite like their mellow harmonies. Nonetheless, I think this award is a straight battle between the 2 Ks. The Killers's latest album is a better all-round album than their previous two efforts. Whereas after a while, I grew to just like repeating certain songs on their first 2 albums, there are several mighty fine tracks on their 3rd album. In any other year, they would clean up this award, but the Kings of Leon are huge right now and 2008 was their breakthrough year. I can't see past them winning this award.
MY PREDICTION: Kings of Leon MY SELECTION: The Killers

BEST MALE INTERNATIONAL SOLO ARTIST (Beck, Neil Diamond, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Seasick Steve)
This album should be sponsored by Stannah Stairlifts given how old a couple of the nominees are. Blues singer Seasick Steve must be about 70 and Neil Diamond can't be far off it either. I didn't know who Seasick Steve was until I saw him on GMTV the other morning and I think if I heard him perform for long, I'd start feeling nauseous. I didn't know that Beck had released anything this side of the millennium so not quite sure what he's doing here and Neil Diamond is surely just nominated to remind people that he is still alive and well. Although I'm not a great fan of the rap genre, Jay-Z and Kanye West have been by far and away the most active acts during the past year and so it would be somewhat surprising if these 2 were not contesting the award. Jay-Z has been busy collaborating on other artists' work as well and I think that is what just edges this award in his favour.
MY PREDICTION: Jay-Z MY SELECTION: Er, Jay-Z I suppose, don't really like any of their stuff

BEST FEMALE INTERNATIONAL SOLO ARTIST (Beyonce, Gabriella Cilmi, Katy Perry, Pink, Santogold)
This looks quite a tough category to call with all of these artists having had their moments in the sun during the past year. I must confess to a guilty pleasure where Gabriella Cilmi is concerned as not only is she a good looking girl, but I thought that "Sweet About Me" was one of the best pop songs from last summer. That said, I do wonder whether she will end up being a one hit wonder who gets picked out of the Buzzcocks ID parade in 10 years time. Pink continues to churn out hit after hit although I haven't really liked the music she has released since the "Misundazstood" album. I'm not all that familiar with Santogold's music, although I would say that Ladyhawke is conspicuous by her absence from the nominees. Katy Perry was one of the more irritating personalities from last year but she is performing live on the night and I'm sure that having got her to come all that way to perform, the organisers will ensure she has something to put in her luggage for the flight home, however much we all like a bit of Beyonce.
MY PREDICTION: Katy Perry MY SELECTION: Beyonce

BEST INTERNATIONAL GROUP (AC/DC, Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Killers, Kings Of Leon)
The line-up here is identical to the line-up for best international album and that reflects the popularity of these acts over the past year. I think with both MGMT and Fleet Foxes, they are bands who probably have not been discovered enough by the wider public for them to win this award just yet, although their time could come. There would be a minor earth tremor in central London if AC/DC managed to win the award after all these years, but they don't realistically stand a chance of winning this accolade. It comes down to the 2 Ks again who are both at the top of their game at the moment, both had worldwide smashes in 2008 and both have genuine claims to being the biggest band on the planet right now. It's a close call, but once again I think the sheer volume of copies and downloads that have been shifted of Kings of Leon's last 2 singles demonstrate just how popular they are at the moment and I expect that to be the determining factor.
MY PREDICTION: Kings Of Leon MY SELECTION: The Killers

CRITICS' CHOICE (Florence & The Machine)
The winner saw off Little Boots and White Lies to win this award, although I would expect in the long run that the White Lies will be the act that go on to have the most amount of success and longevity. If the White Lies had released their album a couple of months earlier, I think this award would have gone to them but as it only came out at the start of this month when the award had already been decided, they missed out. If you like The Killers, chances are you will quite like the White Lies, as their music is quite new wave influenced and has quite dark, edgy lyrics. I am really enjoying their album at the moment. I've only heard one of Florence's songs and it seemed alright, but I think she just happened to be flavour of the month when the music execs were deciding this award.
MY PREDICTION: Florence & The Machine (not difficult given the result has already been announced) MY SELECTION: White Lies

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC (Pet Shop Boys)
Did anyone suppress a laugh when reading that sentence back? Quite apart from being responsible for covering that song that gets used at football matches for "Stand up if you hate Man U" they also were responsible for releasing a cover version of "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2 which has to be up there with Leona Lewis's version of "Run" as one of the worst cover versions of all time. It's A Sin and West End Girls were good I suppose but they were released 20 odd years ago and I can't recall them releasing anything in the last 10 years or so. I think they have a new album out this year, but then so too do Simple Minds and so have The Cure, so if you are giving out lifetime awards to bands who have been around a long time and released some good songs, they have as much right to win this as the Pet Shop Boys.
MY PREDICTION: Pet Shop Boys (obviously) MY SELECTION: Simple Minds or The Cure