FEATURE: The BRIT Awards 2021: My Predictions

FEATURE:

The BRIT Awards 2021

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Mix are nominated in the British Group category

My Predictions

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I have held back a little bit…

IN THIS PHOTO: Arlo Parks is nominated in the Mastercard Album (for Collapsed in Sunbeams), Female Solo Artist, and Breakthrough Artist categories

as it has been a few days now since the nominees for this year’s BRIT Awards. This year’s ceremony occurs on 11th May and, whilst it will be a different-looking ceremo0ny to year’s past, the nominees are very strong. Although the BRITs is not my favourite ceremony, I like to cover a lot of music award shows as they combine so many different artists and albums. As The Guardian reported, there is greater gender (and sonic) balance this year:

“After last year’s male-dominated Brit awards entrenched the clear gender disparity in British pop, this year’s nominations go some way to redressing the balance.

Dua Lipa, Arlo Parks, Celeste, Joel Corry and Young T & Bugsey lead this year’s awards with three nominations apiece. The British album category also features four out of five female nominees for the first time in Brits history, with the aforementioned women joined by Jessie Ware and J Hus – a marked improvement on 2020, when the category featured no women.

“Women have always made great music and wonderful albums, but this is the first time in the entire Brits history that we have dominated the best album category,” said Jessie Ware. “The time is now – albeit long overdue – to start respecting and appreciating the vital role women, and their music, play in the British music industry.”

Out of 176 eligible albums, 121 were made by men or all-male groups, 55 by women or groups featuring women, and one by a non-binary artist, Sam Smith.

Ten British female artists were recognised across 25 slots in mixed-gender Brit categories, up on last year, when only one – Mabel – featured.

More than half the nominees for British album, female solo artist, male solo artist, breakthrough artist and single are non-white, reflecting the enduring dominance and evolution of British rap and R&B, as well as the diversity of the Brit Academy. With approximately 1,500 members, including artists, managers, promoters, media figures and label staff, this year’s voting body achieved gender parity and 26% Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation”.

With each of the categories boasting some great talent, I am running down each category and predicting who I think will win on 11th May. I am usually okay when it comes to predicting winners, through the BRITs this year could throw in some surprises! Here are my picks regarding BRIT Award winners: one of the most important ceremonies…

IN THIS PHOTO: BTS are nominated for International Group

ON the British music calendar.

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Mastercard Album

Arlo Parks - Collapsed in Sunbeams

Release Date: 29th January, 2021

Producer: Gianluca Buccellati

Label: Transgressive

Standout Tracks: Hurt/Caroline/Black Dog

Review:

“With each song shrouded in a mist of melancholia and coming-of-age confessions, Arlo’s breathy vocals soften, and make palatable, the often harsh and uncomfortable realities of life. The use of metaphors and images of nature, nourishment, filmography and friendship offer vignettes of reality that is so near-perfect, you can almost taste it.

From feel-good ’90s R&B which is used to disguise the reality of what it’s like being with someone who is in denial about how they feel about you (‘Too Good’) to the hazy neo-soul in ‘Bluish’ and a multitude lo-fi indie bangers that dive into the friction and dark side of companionship, and with a healthy dose of spoken word littered throughout, ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’ is testament to Arlo’s mission statement of not pigeonholing herself so early on in her career.

As a debut, it is a sublime body of work from the kind of artist who is meticulous in all aspects of her craft. To put it simply — in the artist’s own words — she is “making rainbows out of something painful”, and we’re just so lucky enough that everything she touches turns to gold” – DORK

Key Cut: Hope

Celeste - Not Your Muse

Release Date: 29th January, 2021

Producers: Jamie Hartman/John Hill/Josh Crocker

Labels: Both Sides/Polydor

Standout Tracks: Strange/Love Is Back/A Little Love

Review:

“Most of the record’s emotional beats come from the raw, husky voice of Celeste herself -- it’s why 2019’s “Strange” is still so affecting over a year later. The single -- which ultimately propelled her to win BBC’s Sound Of and the Brits Rising Star award last year -- is sparse and reserved, held through a rasping curiosity for a failed relationship. In “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” Celeste exemplifies her anxieties with booming instrumentation. “Everyday it gets so loud / Everyday I can’t turn around,” she wails over a crescendoing big band, pinpointing her struggles through an auditory lens.

Elsewhere, Celeste croons and sighs through pleas to damaged connections, desperate to make her feelings known on songs like “A Kiss” (“Bit your lip and left you swollen”) and “Beloved” (“If I had my way / You’d be here to stay”). On the sultry “Love Is Back,” she flirts with the idea of diving “head first” into a new crush. Even though her sense of self seems diminished here, there is still power to be had in taking charge of romantic fervor, whether it be healthy or not.

Coming as a high point, the titular track is where the ethos of Celeste’s body of work shines through. Starting quietly on whispers and plucked guitar strings, she admonishes a lover for not accepting her true self. “I’ll let you know when I need you to liberate me” she knowingly sings, as if she’s held this power inside her for a lifetime. The track creeps to a frightening crescendo, ethereal screeching surrounding the might of her confidence. “I’ll hold my pose / But I’m not your muse,” Celeste proclaims, rising high above a wave of criticism and judgement, showcasing the truest form of herself, and the care that it deserves” – The Line of Best Fit

Key Cut: Stop This Flame

J Hus - Big Conspiracy

Release Date: 24th January, 2020

Producers: J Hus (exec.)/Jae5 (also exec.)/IO/Levi Lennox/Maestro/Nana Rogues/Scribz Riley/Sunny Kale/TSB

Label: Black Butter

Standout Tracks: Big Conspiracy/Repeat/No Denying

Review:

“Big Conspiracy is more introspective and subdued than its predecessor. The distorted vocals on Fortune Teller snarl, but there’s nothing here quite as upfront and raw as Common Sense’s Clartin. The lyrics, too, frequently suggest a man who’s had a considerable amount of time on his hands with not much to do but think. There’s a lot of contemplative stuff about knowing yourself – “how do you live your life when your life’s a facade?” he ponders, backed by melancholy piano chords, on Deeper Than Rap – and references to a grab-bag of spirituality that ranges from the aforementioned juju to Rastafarian ideas about the “Babylon system”. Then again, not everything on Big Conspiracy deals with an ascetic life of contemplation. There’s a fairly phenomenal amount of shagging involved too, not least on Play Play, his collaboration with Nigerian star Burna Boy.

What hasn’t changed is his ability to switch between an array of musical styles – the Afrobeats-flavoured Love Peace and Prosperity; Repeat’s collaboration with current dancehall queen Koffee; the mesh of live guitar and bass that underpins Helicopter. More impressive still is that the album’s musical transitions never jar. As on his debut, they feel natural and unforced, an expression of growing up in London surrounded by an array of different cultural influences, tied together not just by J Hus’s flow, but his pop smarts – he has an unfailing ability to come up with earworm choruses. The latter skill is among his more overlooked, but it means that no matter how sombre his meditations on race, crime and identity get, virtually everything here feels like a single. The latest one is No Denying, and the ability to make something radio-friendly out of samples of high-tension soundtrack strings, scrabbling sax improv and divebombing bass is not to be sniffed at” – The Guardian

Key Cut: Must Be

Jessie Ware - What's Your Pleasure?

Release Date: 26th June, 2020

Producers: Benji B/James Ford/Joseph Mount/Kindness/Morgan Geist/Matthew Tavares/Midland

Labels: PMR/Friends Keep Secrets/Interscope/Virgin EMI

Standout Tracks: What's Your Pleasure?/Ooh La La/Mirage (Don't Stop)

Review:

“Rhapsodic dancefloor intimacy became a new specialization for Jessie Ware with "Overtime," the first in a wave of tracks the singer released from 2018 up to the June 2020 arrival of What's Your Pleasure?, her fourth album. Other than "Adore You," a chiming glider made with Metronomy's Joseph Mount, each one in the series was either produced or co-produced by James Ford, consolidating and rerouting a partnership that started during the making of Tough Love. Unlike Ford and Ware's collaborations on that 2014 LP, the new material didn't merely simmer. Hottest of all, "Mirage (Don't Stop)" worked a ripe disco-funk groove with Ware's opening line, "Last night we danced, and I thought you were saving my life" -- sighed in a Bananarama cadence -- a sweet everything if there ever was one. The loved-up energy was kept in constant supply with the dashing "Spotlight," the Freeez-meet-Teena Marie-at-Compass-Point bump of "Ooh La La," and the sneaky Euro-disco belter "Save a Kiss." All but "Overtime" are included here. That makes the album somewhat anti-climactic, but there's no sense in complaining when the preceding singles keep giving and the new material is almost always up to the same standard. Among the fresh standouts, the bounding Morgan Geist co-production "Soul Control" and the dashing "Step Into My Life" recontextualize underground club music with as much might and finesse as anything by Róisín Murphy. Stylistic deviations are few, well-placed, and maintain lyrical continuity with references to the senses as they relate to emotional and physical connection. "In Your Eyes" recalls Massive Attack's "Safe from Harm" with its hypnotizing bassline, subtly theatrical strings, and aching (if less desperate) vocal. Moving in gradually intensifying and similarly slow motion, "The Kill" enables Ware to let down her guard for an unassured lover. "Remember Where You Are," a stirring finale, takes a little trip to cherish the daybreak in Minnie Riperton and Charles Stepney's chamber folk-soul garden, replete with a goosebump-raising group vocal in the chorus. One can almost smell the baby's breath” – AllMusic

Key Cut: Remember Where You Are

My Pick

Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia

Release Date: 27th March, 2020

Producers: Jeff Bhasker/Jason Evigan/KozIan Kirkpatrick/SG Lewis/Lindgren/The Monsters & Strangerz/Stuart Price/Take a Daytrip/TMS/Andrew Watt

Label: Warner Records

Standout Tracks: Don’t Start Now/Physical/Levitate

Review:

“You’ve probably already heard singles “Don’t Start Now” and “Physical” – the new single that drop-kicks the Lycra-bounce of Newton-John’s 1981 hit of the same name into the 21st century. Back in the day, Newton-John was understandably uncomfortable about how her song’s unabashed sexuality – “There’s nothin’ left to talk about unless it’s horizontally” – would affect her good-girl image. Today, Lipa stares straight down the camera at us as she takes charge in her exercise video. “Hi. I’m Dua, and I’ll be your instructor today…” The husky mezzo that kept her out of the school choir (there were tears) is muscular with authority and doesn’t stand for any melismatic shilly-shallying. Each note gets down and gives her 20.

She keeps a leather-driving-gloved command over the wonky synths of “Levitating” and “Hallucinating” and the spacey spangle glitter gel noises of “Cool” – on which she sings of “burning up on you/ In control of what I do/ And I love the way you move.”

It’s invigorating to hear her use samples like barbells – lifting and flexing with them, not dancing around them like ornamental handbags. Best is her use of White Town’s 1997 “Your Woman” on “Love Again” – perhaps the most romantic song we’ve heard to date from a woman whose name actually means “love” in Albanian. White Town’s bedroom-made chart-topper (which itself sampled a 1930s song) was one of the first to flip the singer’s gender (a man sang he would “never be your woman”), and Lipa adds to the sense of head-messing by stirring strings into the mix while confessing she’s sinking her “teeth into disbelief”.

But I also love her use of the sexy-stuttering riff from INXS’s booty-call classic “Need You Tonight” on “Break My Heart”. You can picture whole families dancing to this together as kids’ and parents’ musical coordinates intersect” – The Independent

Key Cut: Break My Heart