Album of the Year

Nominees:

The Black Keys El Camino
Label: Nonesuch

Fun. Some Nights
Label: Fueled by Ramen

Mumford & Sons Babel
Label: Glassnote 

Frank Ocean Channel Orange
Label: Def Jam

Jack White Blunderbuss
Label: Thirdman/Columbia Records

Predictions: 

Lauren: Frank's Channel Orange. As a whole, El Camino wasn’t as great as Thickfreakness, and Channel Orange was so cohesive—if only Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City was up this year. But Mumford & Sons had a big year. I’m rooting for Frank. No one cares about the rest of Fun.’s album, and Jack White’s Blunderbuss was not as strong as his other work.

Foster: The last time Album of the Year was a single-gender category with an R & B outlier, it was 1999, all women (or women-lead) acts, and the R & B outlier (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill) beat out the four rock/adult contemporary acts (Garbage, Shania Twain, Madonna, Sheryl Crow). Not only should Frank O get this, but I think he may actually get it. And yes, Fun. is adult contemporary. That shit is Drug Store Soundtrack Music in two years.

Ernest: So, Frank Ocean had a big enough year to take this one. And the record’s unimpeachably good. It’ll be like when Arcade Fire won for The Suburbs.

David: Fun.’s label is called “Fueled by Ramen”? Gross. I can’t front like I know which of these is “best,” I am purely being a genre partisan and saying that Channel Orange is the one.

Insanul: Again, Channel Orange is my favorite of this category but I got my money on Fun.

Should Win: Channel Orange

Will Win: Channel Orange