Brits '10

Oh, The Brits. Remember when we were proud of our music award ceremonies? It's becoming a brief glimmer in the distance, awash within a leaking sewer among the other media turds.

2010 is shaping up to be a particularly bleak year. Music is quite probably the most important thing in my life, and quite frankly the Brits make me ashamed to BE one. Why has nobody stopped to ponder the freak accident that has led JLS to be nominated for three nominations? My only condolance for them being nominated for Best Group is the the word 'group' and not 'band' is used.

The latter is thrown around the world of pop as if it has lost all meaning - well it HAS NOT. A BAND is a collective of peoples with musical ability, instrumental and vocal skills, and the cognitive strength to actually write the noise they're pumping out. The mainstream band ratio is a dispairingly minimal piece of the popular music pie.

Pixie Lott - now what on earth is the point? She's, what, twelve years old, peroxided to within an inch of her life, omni-semi-nude, and, honestly, I can only feel sorry for her really, because it's all been done a thousand times - mostly within the last five years. I have no desire to even attempt to count the swelling, crushing volume of tweenie female solo singers there has been popping in and out of the charts just for year-long (at most) limelight, during which they join in with the Buzzcocks panel to be the token giggling bimbo who doesn't realise she's the butt of the joke, and six months later as part of the identity parade.

The sad thing about most of them is that they think they're black. It's not the 50's, black people can and do sing, and are generally a hell of a lot better than the dribbling queue of blondes dressed like they're in Heartbeat and sounding as if they have sinus issues. I'm looking at you, Duffy.

Even Lily Allen is all over the nominations this year. When is everybody going to get as bored of her as I was on the first listen? At least she was reasonably original at the time, and her lyrics can occasionally be witty, but it's done now. She got a fresh lease of life just because she lost some weight and ditched the trainers/prom dress combo - so what? She's a gobby cow and I applaud that, but she's just not that great.

How needy do the misguided and desperate folks who create the nominations lists have to be to have Florence and The Machine in the Best Female Solo Artist section when FATM is a band? That's BAFFLING more than anything else. JLS alongside Muse, Eminem next to Springsteen - am I even more aged of mind that is oft speculated?
ROBBIE WILLIAMS receiving the Outstanding Contribution Award... Honestly, what is the world coming to?

Well, I have a few album recommendations of my own, for anybody whose hope in new music is waning - the good stuff's still there, you just have to sift through the scrattocks first:
Stone Gods - Silver Spoons and Broken Bones (2008)
Muse - Resistance (2009)
Parlor Mob - And You Were a Crow (2009)
Travis - Ode to J. Smith (2008)
Streebeck - Catch as Catch Can (2009)

Plugging fine music feels GOOD.