Dynammy Award Winners 2012

After learning the Bon Iver had declined to perform at the Grammy Awards, I felt a little better about the long list of artists who turned down an opportunity to perform at the Dynammy Awards.

The Fleet Foxes wouldn't return my phone calls, Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio's only comment was "How did you get this number?", while the Mumford Brothers refused to attend until I stop getting them mixed up with Avett & Sons.

Bon Iver also declined to perform at the Dynammy ceremony, which may have something to do with the fact that he wasn't actually nominated for anything, and that I had asked him to perform a duet with Lana Del Rey.

So the actual Dynammy Award ceremony wasn't exactly a star-studded affair and consisted of me alone at home in my bathrobe, but I did present a broken bowling trophy to a cardboard cutout of Dolly Parton, so that's something, right?

Since Billy Crystal is back hosting the Oscars this year I'll spare you the video footage of my song and dance number. No one does them better than Billy, except maybe Martin Short, plus Billy looked like he was about to have a heart attack the last time he performed one, so I was quite tentative because I didn't want to mess up my trick knee. Ever since that tennis injury my dance moves are limited to biting my lower lip while I shimmy.

So that means it's time to hand out some virtual hardware.


Song Of The Year: The Decemberists - Don't Carry It All

When the latest Decemberists album arrived in January of last year, it was the opening track Don't Carry It All that started the album and the year off with an enthusiastic bang. I had been underwhelmed by the first single Down By The Water, but the opening notes of Don't Carry It All grabbed me straight away and, twelve months later, the song still hasn't let go. Other songs came close to matching the brilliance of Don't Carry It All, including several other songs from this album, but I'm always a sucker for a fervent anthem that draws on Celtic and folk-rock roots. Combining the best of Bob Dylan and the Pogues,  Don't Carry It All also provided the year's most hilarious mis-heard lyric: "Let the yolk fall from our shoulders."

Runners up: Cut Copy - Need You Now, Handsome Furs - Repatriated


Album Of The Year: The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Handing the album of the year award to The King Is Dead is one of the easiest choices I've ever had to make in the history of the Dynammy Awards. One of the simplest ways to judge a strength of an album is to count the number of songs you wouldn't dream of skipping over, or in my case, the number of songs I try to fit into the rotation. In addition to Don't Carry It All, I also had January Hymn and All Arise! in heavy rotation, and if I'd had more room for more Decemberists tracks I also would have had Calamity Song, June Hymn, and a few others in heavy rotation as well. And you know an album is truly special when the band follows it up six months later with an EP of b-sides and castoffs (Long Live The King) that's better than most of the proper albums released that same year.

Runners Up: TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light, The Cave Singers - No Witch


Best Sound Quality: Elbow - Build A Rocket, Boys!

Elbow also could have earned the worst grammar award for the lack of a comma on the album cover, but Dynammy Awards season is time to focus on the positive, so congratulations to Elbow for delivering an album  that was both clean and lively with lots of headroom and dynamics. This is the one category where the Decemberists didn't triumph this year because, even though their album sounded great once I performed my usual volume tweaking, the actual CD only had average sound quality, and only by today's questionable standards. I've read that the vinyl sounded better, but Elbow's CD, and both the runners-up, sounded much better right out of the box.

Runners Up: PJ Harvey - Let England Shake, Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

Unfortunately, I didn't receive enough votes in the Listener's Choice Awards to make the results meaningful, so I don't have any results to post there. Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote, but there were ties across the board in all categories, so no clear consensus could be reached in any category.

So, that wraps things up for another year. I hope you enjoyed this music as much as I did this year, or that these awards will help you discover some great music that you and the Grammys have overlooked. Lady Gaga doesn't need any more money or attention, but I think these artists I've highlighted definitely deserve your support.

And I hope you're still tuning in this time next year when I recap my favourite music of the coming year.