February 10, 2013 may seem like an ordinary date for most, unless you’re amongst the ranks of talented musicians nominated for the 55th annual Grammy Awards. For some lucky artists, two months into the new year promises an accolade of musical achievement in the famed form of a gilded, gramophone trophy. In the list below, you can find your favorite nominee(s) for the upcoming Grammy extravaganza:

Album of the Year
The Black Keys – El Camino
Fun. – Some Nights
Mumford & Sons – Babel
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange
Jack White – Blunderbuss

Record of the Year
The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”
Fun. feat. Janelle Monae – “We Are Youngâ€�
Kelly Clarkson – “Stronger”
Gotye feat. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
Frank Ocean – “Thinkin Bout You”
Taylor Swift – “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Best New Artist
The Alabama Shakes
Fun.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean

Best Pop Vocal Album
Kelly Clarkson – Stronger
Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials
Fun. – Some Nights
Maroon 5 – Overexposed
Pink – The Truth About Love

Song of the Year
Ed Sheeran – “The A Team”
Miguel – “Adorn”
Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
Kelly Clarkson – “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
Fun. – “We Are Young”

Best Pop Solo Performance
Adele – “Set Fire to the Rain (Live)”
Kelly Clarkson – “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
Katy Perry – “Wide Awake”
Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
Florence and the Machine – “Shake It Out”
Fun. – “We Are Young”
Gotye feat. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
LMFAO – “Sexy and I Know It”
Maroon 5 – “Payphone”

Best Dance Recording
Avicii – “Levels”
Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo – “Let’s Go”
Skrillex feat. Sirah – “Bangarang”
Swedish House Mafia feat. John Martin – “Don’t You Worry Child”
Al Walser – “I Can’t Live Without You”

Best Dance/Electronic Album
Steve Aoki – Wonderland
The Chemical Brothers Don’t Think
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Kaskade Fire & Ice
Skrillex Bangarang

Best Rock Performance
Alabama Shakes – “Hold On”
The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”
Coldplay – “Charlie Brown”
Mumford & Sons – “I Will Wait”
Bruce Springsteen – “We Take Care of Our Own”

Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance
Anthrax – “I’m Alive”
Halestorm – “Love Bites (So Do I)”
Iron Maiden – “Blood Brothers”
Lamb of God – “Ghost Walking”
Marilyn Manson – “No Reflection”
Megadeth – “Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)”

Best Rock Song
Jack White – “Freedom at 21”
Mumford & Sons – “I Will Wait”
The Black Keys – “Lonely Boy”
Muse – “Madness”
Bruce Springsteen – “We Take Care of Our Own”

Best Rock Album
The Black Keys, El Camino
Muse, The 2nd Law
Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball
Jack White, Blunderbuss

Best Alternative Music Album
Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Bjork, Biophilia
Gotye, Making Mirrors
M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Tom Waits, Bad As Me

Best R&B Performance
Estelle – “Thank You”
Robert Glasper Experiment feat. Ledisi – “Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.)
Luke James – “I Want You”
Miguel – “Adorn”
Usher – “Climax”

Best Traditional R&B Performance
Anita Baker – “Lately”
Beyonce – “Love on Top”
Melanie Fiona – “Wrong Side of a Love Song”
Gregory Porter – “Real Good Hands”
SWV – “If Only You Knew”

Best Urban Contemporary Album
Chris Brown, Fortune
Miguel, Kaleidoscope Dream
Frank Ocean, Channel Orange

Best R&B Album
Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio
Anthony Hamilton, Back To Love
R. Kelly, Write Me Back
Tamia, Beautiful Surprise
Tyrese, Open Invitation

Best Rap Performance
Drake feat. Lil’ Wayne – “HYFR (Hell Ya F—ing Right)”
Jay-Z & Kanye West – “N—as In Paris”
Nas – “Daughters”
Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz – “Mercy”
Young Jeezy feat. Jay-Z & Andre 3000 – “I Do”

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Flo Rida feat. Sia – “Wild Ones”
Jay-Z & Kanye West feat. Frank Ocean & The Dream – “No Church in the Wild”
John Legend feat. Ludacris – “Tonight (Best You Ever Had)”
Nas feat. Amy Winehouse – “Cherry Wine”
Rihanna feat. Jay-Z – “Talk That Talk”

Best Rap Song
Nas – “Daughters”
Wale feat. Miguel – “Lotus Flower Bomb”
Kanye West Featuring Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz – “Mercy”
Drake feat. Lil’ Wayne – “The Motto”
Jay-Z & Kanye West – “N—as In Paris”
Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa Featuring Bruno Mars – “Young, Wild & Free”

Best Rap Album
Drake, Take Care
Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1
The Roots, Undun
Nas, Life Is Good
Rick Ross, God Forgives, I Don’t
2 Chainz, Based on a T.R.U. Story

Best Country Song
Carrie Underwood – “Blown Away”
Ronnie Dunn -“Cost of Livin’ ”
Alan Jackson – “So You Don’t Have to Love Me Anymore”
Eli Young Band – “Even If It Breaks Your Heart”
Eric Church – “Springsteen”

Best Country Solo Performance
Dierks Bentley – “Home”
Eric Church – “Springsteen”
Ronnie Dunn – “Cost of Livin’ ”
Hunter Hayes – “Wanted”
Blake Shelton – “Over”
Carrie Underwood – “Blown Away”

Best Americana Album
The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter
John Fullbright, From the Ground Up
The Lumineers, The Lumineers
Mumford & Sons, Babel
Bonnie Raitt, Slipstream

Best Blues Album
Shemekia Copeland, 33 1/3
Dr. John, Locked Down
Ruthie Foster, Let It Burn
Heritage Blues Orchestra, And I Still Rise
Joan Osborne, Bring It on Home

An eclectic range of artists battle for lead nominee, spanning from the indie-rock and folk genres of Fun., The Black Keys and Mumford & Sons to the hip-hop contenders of Frank Ocean, Jay-Z and Kanye West.

Regardless of the end result, the 2013 Grammys guarantee a myriad of categorical diversity, showcasing a bevy of talented performers truly deserving of such musical recognition.

>> Make sure to tune into CBS on February 10, 2013 at 8/7 c to follow the winning results of your favorite artists! <<

The days of getting lost in an album have passed me by. This year, I really tried to rekindle that lost listening art of playing entire albums – instead of compiling playlists in iTunes. It hasn’t been easy. I think the ease of digitally downloading albums has dried up the sense of anticipation that used to come with a purchase of a physical copy of an album at a record store. Now, the record store is just part of the millions and billions of distractions that await you on the Internet – much of it for free.

Now, I don’t mean to go on a diatribe against the devaluation of music because of the Internet, but one thing that has occurred because of the sheer plethora of music available with one click of your mouse is a kind of ADD when it comes to listening to music. My colleague both here and at Popdose (that would be Jeff Giles) has written about it more eloquently than I can, but the sentiment is very much the same: because of the volume of music that is available in downloadable form, it’s difficult for me to form a deep connection with an entire album. If we could flash back 20 years, it would have been a different story to feature 10 albums. Nowadays, it’s rare that an entire album can hold my attention.

But, never say never, right?

What you will find here are mostly my favorite songs of 2010, but occasionally you’ll find entire albums. I know, after all that “downloadable music is ruining my attention span� crap, I say that there were some albums that really captured my attention. But like I said, I’ve tried to rekindle the art of listening to entire albums, and while I feel I’m losing that battle, I haven’t entirely lost the war. So, here we go with my top 10 of 2010!

10. Paper or Plastic, “The Honest Man�
Every now and then a link arrives in my inbox that lives up to the hype. Case in point is the New York group, Paper or Plastic, who has a kind of Ben Folds thing going on with “The Honest Man.� The song is an example of some very lovely power pop, and you’ll find yourself humming the chorus after a few listens. The band is giving away their EP Ron Save the King on their website. Get it, if only for “The Honest Man.�

9. Somebody’s Darling, “Lonely�
In my review of this album, I was upfront about my allergy to country music – even if it’s alt-country. But Somebody’s Darling has enough rock-n-roll in them to make the musical waters safe for a guy with my particular affliction. “Lonely� is by far my favorite track on the album, and it’s not difficult to hear why. The song is just one big fireball of energy with a great driving beat and some wailing guitars. But it’s the full-throated vocals from Amber Ferris that takes this song from good to great.

Read the rest after the jump...

When looking for the 10th song to round out my first collection of Quintessential Songs of the ’00s — by the way, I’m dubbing this playlist “The Rock Set” — I had a few different contenders, but settled on OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again” which typified the decade in that it became a hit after the band posted its unique video (a.k.a. “The Treadmill Video”) on YouTube.

The video became an internet sensation (even spawning this rendition from a group of industrious students at a high school talent show) and it doesn’t hurt that the song is catchy as hell, either.

According to the song’s wiki page, it took 17 takes to finally nail the video.

So that wraps up the first Quintessential Songs of the ’00s set. Here’s an overview:

1. The White Stripes: “Seven Nation Army”
2. Franz Ferdinand: “Take Me Out”
3. Modest Mouse: “Float On”
4. Jet: “Are You Gonna Be My Girl?”
5. Kings of Leon: “Use Somebody”
6. The Killers: “Mr. Brightside”
7. The Strokes: “Last Night”
8. Spoon: “The Way We Get By”
9. The Hives: “Hate to Say I Told You So”
10. OK Go: “Here I Go Again”

See all 10 posts here.

It was early 2002 and the “The” bands (The White Stripes, The Strokes, etc.) were taking the U.S. by storm. This track from The Hives was actually first released in late 2000 and re-released about a year and a half later.

From the song’s wiki page:

In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 54 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The chord structure bears a strong similarity to The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night”. It also lists at 244 on Pitchfork Media’s Top 500 songs of the 2000s.

The song peaked at #86 on the Hot 100 and #6 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, and is known for its opening riff.

More Quintessential Songs of the ’00s.

This is the first track on my Quintessential Songs playlist that doesn’t have its own wiki page or a songfacts page. Sigh.

Luckily, I interviewed Britt Daniel a while back and he had this to say about the track:

That one came really fast and it was another one of those that was sort of like, “I’ll just throw down and idea. It probably isn’t going to work.� But once I sang that chorus the first time and got it on tape, I kind of knew it was going to be a good one.

According to Last.fm, this is easily the most played song in the Spoon catalog and it’s certainly one of the catchiest. In that interview, Daniel said it was one of the most “immediate” of the band’s songs. This Kill the Moonlight track put the band on my radar, and was prelude to the brilliance on display on their next album, Gimme Fiction.

More Quintessential Songs of the ’00s.