On Sunday night, the 57th Annual Grammy Awards will air on CBS. We’ll have live updates from the ground at the Staples Center and real-time results beginning at 8 p.m. EST, but for now, it’s that time when we look at the nominees in some of the major categories and weigh in with our predictions and proclamations on who will win, who should win and who got snubbed. Take a peek at our thoughts below, and be sure to check back on Sunday for all our live coverage of the ceremony.
Record of the Year
“Fancy,” Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX
“Chandelier,” Sia
“Stay With Me,” Sam Smith
“Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift
“All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor
Who Will Win: Sam Smith
Who Should Win: Sia
Who Got Snubbed: Sylvan Esso, “Hey Mami”
This is actually a pretty stacked category—at least in terms of what Grammy voters typically go for. Any one of these stands a pretty solid chance to win, but ultimately Sam Smith’s soaring sad-guy ballad has everything the Grammy voters love to reward: sales, strong vocals, breakout star power.
Album of the Year
Beck, Morning Phase
Beyoncé, Beyoncé
Ed Sheeran, X
Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour
Pharrell Williams, Girl
Who Will Win: Beyonce
Who Should Win: Beck
Who Got Snubbed: The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream
I wasn’t sure I needed an album like Lost in the Dream until I heard it. Even then, it took a few listens before I could articulate why it scans the way it does: Wistful but not resigned, invigorated but not wide-awake. As its title suggests, Lost in the Dream often trades in gaseous, impressionistic hues, and a cavalry of affected guitar, synth, lap steel, sax, harmonica and piano tracks gel into luminescent aural sunsets at several points throughout the album. These ambient drifts bookend Adam Granduciel’s tender songs, the lyrics of which also tend to reveal themselves in refracted ways. Indeed, it can be difficult to discern more than a handful of lines in succession—Granduciel’s feathery, mostly reserved delivery sees to this, as well as the tonnage of reverb baked into the mix—but listeners can’t miss the sense of melancholy and anxiety woven into nearly every second of Lost’s hour-plus run-time. “Am I alone here, living in darkness?” he asks on “Eyes to the Wind,” his questioning telling all in a handful of words.—Ryan Burleson
Song of the Year
“All About That Bass,” Kevin Kadish & Meghan Trainor, songwriters (Meghan Trainor)
“Chandelier,” Sia Furler & Jesse Shatkin, songwriters (Sia)
“Shake It Off,” Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)
“Stay With Me,” James Napier, William Phillips & Sam Smith, songwriters (Sam Smith)
“Take Me To Church,” Andrew Hozier-Byrne, songwriter (Hozier)
Who Will Win: Megan Trainor
Who Should Win: Sia
Who Got Snubbed: Sylvan Esso, “Hey Mami”
The Song of the Year should be one that makes you remember exactly where you were and how you felt when it first graced your senses. It should conjure up even the smallest details of that original moment. For me, the first time I heard Sylvan Esso’s “Hey Mami” was on a cross-country drive on Highway 10, in that dreary stretch of Texas that has absolutely nothing to look at for eight hours. I popped in a pre-release stream of Sylvan Esso’s self-titled debut and was greeted to singer Amelia Meath’s gentle coo singing “Hey Mami, I know what you want Mami…Hey Mami, I know what you want Mami…” Her comfortably settling vocal intro felt similar to the album’s first single, “Coffee,” but about a minute and a half later, something happened. Producer Nick Sanborn dropped an explosive bass-boom to accompany Meath’s voice, and everything I thought I knew about Sylvan Esso up to that point was thrown out the window as my energy was rattled into motion and elation. These are the beautiful and lasting moments in music; the one’s you don’t expect, yet were everything you ever wanted.—Adrian Spinelli
Best New Artist
Iggy Azalea
Bastille
Brandy Clark
Haim
Sam Smith
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