Posted on: February 26, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

V/A – 2008 Grammy Nominees / 2008 Hip-O / 21 Tracks / http://www.grammy.com /

 This compilation CD covers a wide set of genres and styles of music, and as one can probably guess, consists of those tracks that have been nominated for a Grammy. It is also easy to assume that individuals have heard most of these tracks a number of times; this CD looks to capture what were the most important movements in music for the year of 2007. Justin Timberlake starts up the CD with eir “What Comes Around Goes Around”, runs its course, and allows Amy Winehouse to move into eir “Rehab”. The two “surprise” tracks that are present on the discs (and are really not that surprising, given the iron grip that the songs had on their respective charts) are Herbie Hancock’s “River” (featuring Corrine Bailey Rae) and Vince Gill’s “What You Give Away” (featuring Sheryl Crow).

While I feel that the Ultimate Grammy Collection discs provide individuals with a more “tuned-in” sound to the genre of their choosing, the blend of sounds and styles on “2008 Grammy Nominees” provides the individual with a snapshot of what was popular at that period of time. Where else will individuals find Paul McCartney (“Dance Tonight”) and Christina Aguilera (“Candyman”) one after another?

What may be an interesting thing for Hip-O to do on subsequent versions of this disc would be to include some bonus content, such as a track or two from 10 or 20 years before. I know that I would like to hear the track that won the Grammy for 1998 and 1988, and the songs are sufficiently old enough that the rights to acquire them should not break the bank. The disc does better than the Now series of CDs because songs that are nominated for Grammys are not necessarily those that have got the most in the way of airplay. This means that Green Day’s “Working Class Hero” and Nelly Furtado’s “Say It Right” are present instead of “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Maneater”. “2008 Grammy Nominees” does not scrimp and save on their packaging or the acquiring of songs, either: the disc’s 79:57 runtime only allows for 3 seconds of extra room. I would like to see subsequent versions of this disc released each year around this time, and perhaps 3 or 5 year collections of this CD being bundled at a value price. The price of this single CD is very affordable (Amazon has it going for $10), so anyone that would like to have this blend of songs should seriously consider picking it up.

Top Tracks: Feist – 1234 , Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah

Rating: 7.0/10

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