Dynammy Award Winners

Well, the first annual Dynammy Awards have come and gone, and the excitement surrounding them was truly overwhelming. For those of you who couldn't get tickets and didn't catch the simulcast on CBC, ABC, BBC2, or MTV Europe, let me just say that the gala awards ceremony was stupendous. And very gala. The red carpet, the flashbulbs, the celebrities... wow! It was just like the Grammys, except all in my mind. The red carpet was just an old wine stain, the flashbulbs were actually the onset of a migraine, and the only celebrity who showed up was Paris Hilton, which was awkward. Still, it was all very gala.

But the Dynammys are not about champagne and gift baskets. No, the Dynammys are all about the music. And so, without any further ado, here are the winners.

Album Of The Year: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81

In the fall of 2007, I wrote a review of Baby 81 on Amazon.ca and said that it was my favourite disc of the year so far, and that time was running out for any album to come along and replace it. Even though other albums came very close, and I did debate giving the award to Iron & Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog, my earlier conviction held true and BRMC’s latest remained my favourite of the year. As I said in that review, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club aren’t trying to re-invent the wheel, merely perfect it. And on most of these tracks, they succeeded.

Song Of The Year: LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great

The sheer volume of great songs this year made it very difficult to single out just one track, but in the end I chose the six-minute album version of Someone Great because it follows a template that’s worked for me in the past. Some of my favourite songs of all time are ones that combine a sad, poignant lyric with uplifting, infectious music, whether it be the Cure’s In-Between Days, Big Country’s Chance, or Someone Great. These songs acknowledge that there is pain and suffering in the world, but the inspirational music is a way of saying “Don’t let the world drag you down” or “Fight on to live another day.” These types of bittersweet songs are very cathartic to me and have helped me through some tough times, and you can’t ask more than that from a piece of music.

Group Of The Year: LCD Soundsystem

This was another tough choice since all five nominees were very worthy, but LCD Soundsystem produced not one but two well-received albums this year, and that pushed them over the top. Sound Of Silver quite rightly made the top ten lists of many critics, but later in the year the band also released an EP called 45:33 to critical acclaim, which was surprising since the album had been originally commissioned by Nike for a promotional tie-in. The anal-retentive indie hipsters among needn't bother writing comments pointing out that 45:33 was digitally released on iTunes in late 2006, long before the physical disc hit stores, so it shouldn't qualify for a Best Of 2007 list, because that won't stop me from using the EP as a tie-breaker in this tough decision. For managing to turn a corporate marketing tool into art, for the sheer audacity of releasing a 45 minute track, and for the uniformly excellent Sound Of Silver, LCD Soundsystem deserves to be rewarded.

Male Artist Of The Year: Steve Earle

After several tough choices, it was nice to finally have a no-brainer. I wasn’t overwhelmed by the efforts of the other nominees this year, but Steve Earle has been an icon of mine for more than a decade, and his latest album Washington Square Serenade didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t the best album of his career, but it was easily my favourite album released by a male solo artist this year.

Female Artist Of The Year: Feist

After compiling the list of female artists, I realized that I’d omitted Loreena McKennit, who probably should have been in the top five. After Amy Winehouse skanked her way out of contention, that left Feist and Lily Allen as my top two choices. In the end, I relied on the old adage “When in doubt, choose the Canadian.” That isn’t really an old adage, BTW. I just made it up.

Breakthrough Artist: Feist

Before writing this blurb, I decided to sit down and finally watch the video that made Feist a star among the YouTube generation. For an evil empire bent on world domination, Apple does manage to choose some decent music for its iPod commercials, and 1234 was no exception. For her sudden explosion in popularity, Feist seemed like the obvious choice for this award, and any artist who can get kids listening to banjo music is all right in my book.

Comeback Of The Year: Smashing Pumpkins

The Police and Led Zeppelin were certainly the highest profile reunions of the year, but it doesn’t count as a proper reunion for me unless you go back into the studio and record new material. That narrowed the field to Crowded House and Smashing Pumpkins, and of the two I thought the Pumpkins’ Zeitgeist was a slightly better album, ergo the award.

Best Sound Quality: Queens Of The Stone Age – Era Vulgaris

This is one of those albums that reminds people it’s possible to make a hard rockin’ record while leaving lots of room in the mix for the various instruments to breathe. Throw in plenty of interesting sonic quirks, and what you have is the best sounding album of the year, as far as I’m concerned. Yes, it’s mastered too loud, leading to clipping, which is pretty much a given these days, but there wasn’t any noticeable distortion once I used MP3Gain to bring the volume down. (PS - If you're not using that program to normalize the volume of your MP3 collection, you really should be.)

Worst Sound Quality: Bruce Springsteen – Magic

The other nominees all sucked for various reasons, but I expect horribly compressed sound from major label mainstream music like KT Tunstall and Mika, so it’s hardly worth mentioning how awful their albums sounded. I was also tempted to throw Radiohead’s In Rainbows on this list for not mentioning beforehand that the MP3s they were selling were encoded at 160k. But Springsteen’s Magic easily won the dubious distinction of being the worst sounding album of the year because it was shocking to hear such horrific sound on an album by such an industry icon. The distorted, compressed sound actually works on Radio Nowhere, making it sound like classic garage rock, but the rest of the album is an example of the sound quality being completely inappropriate for the type of music being presented. But don't just take my word for it. Just skim through some of the reviews on Amazon.com.

As for the People's Choice Awards, I'm sorry to say that the number of votes was a little underwhelming, so the final results weren't all that meaningful, statistically. Instead, I decided that since I'm randomly choosing a voter to win a t-shirt and Amazon gift certificate, I may as well post their choices as the winners of the People's Choice Awards.

So, the winner of that highly coveted t-shirt and $25 gift certificate is...

Will Hodgins from somewhere in Canada.

I'll be emailing Will to let him know about his prizes, and here are Will's selections for the People's Choice Awards.

Album Of The Year: Myth Takes - !!!
Song Of The Year: Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire
Group Of The Year: Iron & Wine
Male Artist Of The Year: Bruce Springsteen
Female Artist Of The Year: Feist
Breakthrough Artist: Feist
Comeback Of The Year: Led Zeppelin
Best Sound Quality: LCD Soundsystem – The Sound Of Silver
Worst Sound Quality: Wilco – Sky Blue Sky

All excellent choices.

To those of you who voted, better luck next year. The inaugural Dynammys were something I threw together at the last minute and didn't have much chance to promote, but I plan to do it again next year, and hopefully it'll be bigger and better. I can't promise a lavish ceremony, but I'll definitely run another People's Choice Award and honour the music that moved me the most in 2008.