It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 15 years since these songs competed for Grammy Awards. As you might recall, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, winning five awards, including Album of the Year for their critically acclaimed album Raising Sand. Krauss became the sixth female solo artist to have won 5 awards in one night, joining Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Beyoncé Knowles, and Amy Winehouse.
Katy Perry made waves with her “I Kissed A Girl.” Duffy’s “Mercy” was the last nomination for a talented singer whose career imploded.
As usual, this sampler includes new groups and old groups, new performers and older performers. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
| Coldplay– | Viva la Vida | 3:44 | |
| Estelle– | American Boy | 4:02 | |
| Sara Bareilles– | Love Song | 3:53 | |
| Ne-Yo– | Closer | 3:55 | |
| Lil Wayne Feat. T-Pain– | Got Money | 4:06 | |
| Robert Plant & Alison Krauss– | Please Read The Letter | 3:56 | |
| Radiohead– | House Of Cards | 5:29 | |
| Lady Antebellum– | Love Don’t Live Here | 3:51 | |
| Jonas Brothers– | Burnin’ Up | 2:55 | |
| Jazmine Sullivan– | Need U Bad | 4:13 | |
| Duffy– | Mercy | 3:41 | |
| M.I.A. (2)– | Paper Planes | 3:24 | |
| Adele (3)– | Chasing Pavements | 3:32 | |
| Katy Perry– | I Kissed A Girl | 3:01 | |
| Leona Lewis– | Bleeding Love | 4:01 | |
| P!nk– | So What | 3:35 | |
| Gnarls Barkley– | Going On | 2:55 | |
| OneRepublic– | Apologize | 3:28 | |
| Maroon 5– | Won’t Go Home Without You | 3:46 | |
| Eagles– | Waiting In The Weeds | 7:46 |
Too true about the 15 year passage of time. Probably my favorite song here is “Viva La Vida”, and I think of that as a relatively “new” song. I also like “Mercy” by Duffy (she sounded a lot like Lulu to my ears): “implosion” doesn’t really do justice to the way her personal & professional lives utterly cratered. The biggest surprise here is that the Eagles, fixtures of my 1970s early-adulthood, were Grammy-nominated in 2009!
Deb, Duffy’s ROCKFERRY is one of my favorite albums! She had a career trajectory that could have mirrored Adele’s…but it crashed and burned. A great talent…wasted.
Well . . . I like Pink. Hell would be a tiny room where you’re subjected to Maroon 5 on endless replay. The Eagles released a record in 2009 !?
Fred, I suspect The Eagles were desperate for money and managed to pump out a single in 2009.
No. Didn’t listen to “new” music in 2009 any more than I listen to it today.
And Keep Off My Lawn!
I listen mostly to the 60s GOLD and 50s GOLD channels on Sirius XM.
Jeff, I have some 1960s music in my listening queue so I’ll be posting about that in the weeks ahead. Those Sirius/XM stations are great!
I too like Pink. And Sara Bareilles.
I recognize some of the artists but not the songs.
And who the hell is Duffy???
Beth, Duffy released her debut album, Rockferry, in 2008, which topped the charts in several music markets and led to worldwide attention. It followed the lead single “Mercy”, which reached number one in several countries and the top ten in twelve others. In 2009, Duffy received the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for Rockferry.. After that, Duffy’s career crashed and burned.
Not on my radar, although I know some of these people/groups!
Bob, I like much of the music on this CD. But some I don’t.
Pop anthologies are, as your experience keeps demonstrating, scattershot at best…
I hadn’t realized things Got That Bad for Duffy…pity, that, as for Amy Winehouse, whose crashing and burning was ineluctable at the time. My folks were busy having their own hard time about then, though it would get worse…
In 2013, I noted a K-pop version of “Mercy” by Girls Generation, in all its ridiculousness:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2013/01/saturday-music-club-on-wednesday-some.html
My old work-partner at TV GUIDE, Jeff Gemmill, on ROCKFERRY: https://oldgreycat.blog/2018/09/22/the-essentials-duffy-rockferry/
Todd, thanks for the link! As I’ve mentioned, I love ROCKFERRY!
Todd, I always feel sad when I see talented people come to Bad Endings. Duffy, Amy Winehouse, R. Kelly, and now Puff Daddy.
In the latter two cases, I find them far more malignant than talented. Latter-day Sinatras with less influence, but entirely similar levels of entitlement.
Todd, R. Kelly (no relation) is serving time and Puff Daddy’s music empire is crumpling.
And I have never found Kelly nor Sean Combs compelling artists. Combs serving some jail time, perhaps on the same cell block as Drumpf, probably wouldn’t be the greatest injustice in the history of humanity.
Todd, other than their abuse of women, the only thing R. Kelly and Puff Daddy have in common is the millions of records they’ve sold over the years.