SZA? Taylor? Jon? Miley?: Reflections on the 2024 Grammy Album of the Year nominees
The nominees for the 2024 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, honoring what the Recording Academy’s members deems as the best albums of 2023, has shrunk from 10 to 8 nominees. Otherwise the list reflects the Academy’s self-conscious effort to represent as a wide a musical spectrum as possible and to draw a (mostly) young audience intrigued by who will perform, or at least make an appearance, at the annual televised ceremony.
This year’s contenders include three-time past AOTY winner Taylor Swift, 2022’s AOTY recipient Jon Batiste, past AOTY nominees Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monae, Olivia Rodrigio, and SZA, and first-time nominees boygenius and Miley Cyrus. As such contemporary pop, hip-hop inflected R&B, folk-rock, and fusion oriented pop (represented by Batiste) are represented. Country and hip-hop are surprisingly absent.
Among these nominees Swift’s Midnights was the most prominent topping the Billboard chart for 14 weeks, followed by SZA’s SOS, a 10-week chart topper, and Rodrigo’s Guts which spent one week at the top in the fall. Cyrus’s Endless Summer Vacation peaked at #3 but spawned “Flowers” a #1 pop hit for 8 weeks, and a nominee for Record and Song of the Year. Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Rodrigo’s “Vampire,” Batiste’s “Worship,” SZA’s “Kill Bill,” and boygenius’s “Not Strong Enough” are also Record of the Year nominees. The most obscure nominee is Batiste’s World Music Radio which only peaked at #104 on the Billboard Album chart. His nominations undoubtedly reflect industry respect for him. The ceremony airs on February 4th, 2024.
Below I offer my critical takes on the albums and conclude with thoughts on who I would vote for and who seems most likely to win the coveted prize.
The nominees (in alphabetical order):
The Age of Pleasure (Janelle Monae)
After releasing a steady stream of high concept albums Monae lets her hair down on Pleasure, a looser and sexier extension of her persona. Since coming out as queer and non-binary during the release of 2018’s superb Dirty Computer, Monae has become more playful and risqué in her public appearances. Pleasure presents Monae the Sybarite: Less “serious” and perhaps less guarded she conveys more overt hip-hop swagger in both her lyrics (“Champagne Shit,” “Haute”) and the fearless eclecticism of the music. “Float” and “Phenomenal” are as melodic and textured as anything she’s ever written, and the atmospheric reggae inflected “Lipstick Lover” and dreamy pop of “Only Have Eyes 42” grab your ear intensely and never let go. At 32 minutes this might be the slightest album Monae has released so far but its erotic currents and lack of pretense distinguishes it from the leaden concepts weighing down so many albums by her contemporaries.
Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Lana Del Rey)
Like Laura Nyro, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, and Erykah Badu Lana Del Rey’s albums create a sonic world rather than a patchwork of digestible singles. Listening to her albums is a nearly hypnotic experience akin to floating in an air pocket. Some will find her newest album dreamy and intriguing while others will find it wispy and pretentious. Like the Nyro, Amos, Apple, and Badu, she is “divisive” but consensus seems irrelevant to interesting art. She works with some of pop’s biggest hitmakers including producer Jack Antonoff, so if radio hits were what she wanted she would have probably produced some by now. Stylistically Del Rey, who has a modest vocal range, sings in a closely miked, hushed sound well-suited for her stream-of-conscious songs. By definition this style requires close listening but many of the lyrics are too obtuse to register instantly which defies the “hit” mentality common to pop. Though Tunnel’s songs reference family, mortality, sexuality, and spirituality, the aural journey itself seems more central than a unifying lyric theme. Among its individual songs the haunting refrain of the title track, the provocative lyrics of the Grammy nominated “A & W,” and the gorgeous melody of “Let the Light In” sung with Father John Misty, are most likely to grab you.
Endless Summer Vacation (Miley Cyrus)
Because Miley Cyrus is more of a celebrity who makes music than a musician with a distinctive identity she is more of an outlier among the nominees. Her lack of direction might be mistaken for “eclecticism” but she is really a singer in search of a sound. On Endless Summer Vacation she finds it by reaching back to 80s style synths to create atmosphere for otherwise accessible if mostly generic pop.
Cyrus’s transition from the wholesome Hannah Montana persona to an “edgy” performer, symbolized her infamous (and embarrassing) “twerking” with Robin Thicke from the MTV Video awards in 2013 and the release of Bangerz, garnered her considerable attention for a while. Frankly, this was the last time I was aware of her. Since that album she has served as a judge on The Voice, gotten married (then divorced), and released three albums and an EP, and several moderately popular singles.
Endless is her first major Grammy contender. Apparently inspired her divorce from Liam Hensworth and a love for 80s pop Endless is a self-consciously “mature” album that mixes an “I-Will-Survive” Girl energy pop (e.g., the pop hit “Flowers”) with a lot of earnest ballads about naivete and temptation (“Rose Colored Lenses,” “Thousand Miles,” “You”). The songs rarely tell us anything new about adult relationships but there are two undeniable pieces of ear candy that use her raspy voice well: “Muddy Feet” allows her to project anger with the fervor of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” and Kelis’s “Caught Out Here,” and “Used to Be Young” is notable for stepping beyond f the heartache clichés and clarifying the difference between being viewed as wild and free, nostalgically by an ex, and merely being young and stupid, in hindsight. Despite the different personae Cyrus has tested out over time she has a fundamental pop sensibility which informs the melodicism and relative brevity (46 minutes) of the sleek album. She does not overstay her welcome.
Guts (Oliva Rodrigo)
Since her stunning debut S.O.U.R. Rodrigo has become a pop icon. On Guts she has further embraced elements of power pop, punk, and 80s style rock, and grown more incisive as a lyricist. Most notably her songs evoke the potency and songcraft of artists like Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, The Go-Gos, The Cars, and Avril Lavigne on effortlessly melodic gems like “get it back” and “pretty isn’t pretty.” Whereas her debut was clearly a “bad boyfriend” album on Guts she delves more deeply into the landmines young women navigate in a contemporary society that condemns them for being both too strong and too weak (“all american bitch,” “ballad of a homeschooled girl”). She also makes room for regret and imperfect judgment (“bad idea right?”) as effectively as Adele and Taylor Swift, and delivers one of the most searing and hilariously bitchy songs about an ex’s new girlfriend on the folky “lacy” sung in a conniving hush that makes it that much more powerful.
The album’s only flaw is her teetering between anger and self-pity on a few lethargic piano ballads (“logical,” “the grudge”) with predictable progressions and a croon that can devolve into a grating mewl. She’s more interesting when her anger and hurt are wrapped in a cleverer and musically surprising setting notably the hit “vampire” that fuses piano balladry and crunchy guitar rock while centering her palpable feelings of regret, betrayal, and anger.
Midnights (Taylor Swift)
Midnights is sleek, moody singer-songwriter pop that melds a series of intimate character songs (“Anti-Hero,” “Vigilante Shit”) with pulsating R&B flavored tracks delivered in a hushed almost spoke-sung style. The songs flow together from track-to-track maintaining a certain low-key ambiance. Devoid of clear highs or lows it mostly simmers. Swift’s songs feature lots of internal repetition and hooks aligning them with contemporary pop conventions and helping keep the album at a brief, mostly satisfying 44 minutes.
The Record (boygenius)
boygenius is a folk-rock group comprised of three musicians associated with contemporary rock and folk scenes including Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. They follow up their 2018 eponymous EP with a full-length LP The Record comprised of very thematically diverse songs propelled by guitar-based melodies and arrangements. The songs present a range of contexts and characters including a mother seeking to please her daughter (“Emily I’m Sorry”), and a man acknowledging his limitations (“True Blue”), in listenable if serene settings. Vocally the trio projects a range of moods including the old-timey spiritual harmonies on “Without You Without Them” and the raucous energy of “Not Strong Enough.” The Record is not a particularly stunning or dynamic record in the manner of a more overt pop set; rather it’s the kind of album that rewards close listening and attention to individual songs to cohere as a whole.
SOS (SZA)
SZA’s “bad-ex-boyfriend” concept album SOS is a lengthy and redundant set with intermittent moments of cleverness and inspiration from the darkly humorous and obsessive (“Kill Bill”) to the yearning (“Love Language”) to the vengeful (“F2F”). Musically the songs fuse R&B and trap, with occasional forays into folk-soul that offer relief from the familiar grooves. The songs pour into each other quite seamlessly but the narrow thematic focus becomes wearying; there are too many interchangeable songs about the same theme.
World Music Radio (Jon Batiste)
Batiste is a well-trained musician and a likable entertainer with a sunny personality and a quiet spirituality that emerges in interviews. After winning multiple Grammys in 2022, including the coveted Album of the Year for We Are, he has widened the platform to spread his philosophy of music as a social movement which has paralleled his celebrity. His singing and dancing in a Diet Coke commercial to launch his tour and promote World Music Radio indicate his ambition to an extent. While his bandleader role on The Stephen Colbert Show broadened his audience and crossed him over from the jazz world, so to speak, World Music Radio is his most overt pop bid yet.
Batiste seems motivated less by a desire to be a world-dominating pop star—which he could easily do by hooking up with pop producers and hiring the right promoters—than to be a global translator. His faith in pop music as a form of unity rooted in an experimental fusion of musical styles and textures seems sincere but still feels like a backdoor to pop fame. Though the pretense of experimentation seems like an unorthodox commercial strategy listening to World Music Radio one hears a well-crafted yet unsatisfying sprawl rather than a record that pushes boundaries. It feels like both an uneasy attempt to recreate the sleek, generic populist appeal of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and a window into Batiste’s most idiosyncratic instincts.
Batiste adapts a DJ persona (“Billy Bob”) to anchor the album, though the “DJ” signs off toward the end with several songs remaining. Vocally, Batiste is a capable crooner though the album periodically employs vocoders and other effects to add a surreal edge that makes him sound impersonal and robotic. He shares the mic with various guests, adding to the eclectic global flavor, but rather than drawing on broader traditions wholly he centers American pop recycling the feel of “Blackbird” and “Ordinary People” in “Butterfly,” and evoking Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye in other songs.
Given its aim to fold in different styles with mainstream popcraft it’s not totally surprising that the best tracks are both its overtly melodic songs, notably the dreamy R&B ballad with Leigh-Anne “Running Away” and the soul jazz of “Uneasy,” and more personal if esoteric tracks like “Movement ’18 (Heroes)” which fuses various spiritual and vernacular recitations over a bed of music, and ends in Arabic.
Beyond these songs are multiple efforts striving to be anthemic, including “Be Who You Are” and “Worship,” and the cliched closer “Life Lessons” sung with Lana Del Rey, interlude-like throwaways such as an unnecessary “Claire de Lune” (featuring Kenny G), and sentimental ballads. Lacking the fun of the best pop or the edge of avant-garde music the result is a muddled patchwork.
Which album is most likely to triumph? (in order of LEAST likely to MOST likely):
8. Endless Summer Vacation: Though the album and its songs were hits, the nomination itself is the reward for Cyrus’s more palatable and “mature” mainstream persona. The single “Flowers” might triumph in at least one of the three categories where its nominated.
7. The Age of Pleasure: Monae is a previous AOTY nominee and is well regarded in the industry as a genuine artist. Pleasure lacks the commercial impact or the buzz characteristic of typical Album winners. She might triumph in the Progressive R&B Album category though SZA’s SOS will be hard to top.
6. World Music Radio: Though Batiste is well-regarded, and the album features numerous prominent guests including Quincy Jones and Lana Del Rey, it was not successful commercially and the Academy might be leery of awarding him the prize since he won two years ago with a similarly obscure album.
5. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd: Though Del Rey is not a big album seller this is her second AOTY nomination indicating industry interest in her music. Her image as a progenitor of bedroom pop, the album’s positive response from critics, and the inclusion of high-profile collaborators like Jack Antonoff, who has won two consecutive Producer of the Grammys, make her the hipster nominee. Her lack of sales and a major single hinders her chances compared to other nominees.
4. The Record: Though all of the nominated albums are singer-songwriter sets boygenius has an indie, folk, and rock “credibility” that might appeal to older industry voters who are skeptical of “manufactured” pop. The album’s success, including its hit single “Not Strong Enough,” makes it somewhat of an anomaly for folk and rock-oriented music which helped albums like the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and Allison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Raising Sand triumph in this category previously.
3. Guts: Rodrigo’s commercial success and critical acclaim was only slightly more muted than her debut but she has transcended the sophomore slump and further carved out a sound and identity for herself. The fact that “vampire” was a #1 pop hit and is nominated for three Grammys means she will likely win something on Grammy night.
2. SOS: SOS was a commercial breakthrough for SZA and the most commercially successful R&B album released in years. Though released in late 2022 (during the Grammy eligibility period) the buzz it generated remains as does the memory of “Kill Bill” nominated for Record and Song of the Year, and R&B performance. Additionally, four other songs from the album were nominated so from a commercial perspective SOS is a serious contender.
1. Midnights: 2023 found Swift dominating pop culture in record sales, airplay, concert revenues, and film. Combine this with Swift’s three previous AOTY awards, and her three nominations for “Anti-Hero” and Midnights seems like an inevitable triumph.
If I were voting I would choose…
My winner:
Among these eight nominees the album I have find myself listening to most often is Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts. Though it has a few pedestrian tracks as a whole its energy, melodicism, and point of view are marks of an artist skilled at synthesizing pop, rock, and singer-songwriter elements to elevate her lyric perspective. As the only AOTY nominee with one producer (Dan Nigro) and two songwriters, Rodrigo and Nigro, its focus is laudable in an era where too many cooks can dilute a musical soup.
My runner-up:
Monae’s Age of Pleasure is the most musically adventurous of all the nominees I just wish there was a little more to it.
The rest:
The moody “dream pop” aesthetic of Del Rey and swift can be appealing but sometimes it can too easily descend into easy listening background pop. The Record is very solid folk-rock but it is a bit repetitive and takes few risks musically. SZA and Cyrus reflect contemporary R&B and pop trends which informs the accessbile “hits” they have generated but also contributes to a sense of déjà vu in their approach over the course of listening. Finally, World Music Radio would work better if Batiste chose to either embrace his pop side or his more outré side.
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“i think she captures perfectly what it’s like to be a (black) woman in this society, especially when it comes to dating and love.”
The Teenager’s Perspective…
You’ve kindly listened to my voice. Since many of the albums nominated inevitably resonate differently for different people I asked my goddaughter Delaney Bakst, who is a musician and music lover, to share her takes on the nominees and she expressed the following:
“her album SOS is so intimate and captures raw emotion in a unique way that makes her music both relatable and real. i think she captures perfectly what it's like to be a (black) women in this society, especially when it comes to dating and love.”
“olivia rodrigo is my guilty pleasure. but i mean who doesn't love her? her new album has a range of genres that keep the album interesting. one moment you're hearing blaring guitars and drums blasting from your speaker, and the next you're crying to an emotional piano piece. i think this album perfectly captures teenage angst and the experience of being forced to grow up quickly in this generation.”
The Grammy Awards ceremony airs on CBS on February 4, 2024.
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