Anyway, here’s this year’s nominees, with my thoughts on each one and photos of who I think ought to win (to give me something fun to look at while I decide)

British male solo artist
Jamie T
Mark Ronson
Mika
Newton Faulkner
Richard Hawley

I almost like Jamie T but something about his songs makes me never want to listen to them ever. I played Mark Ronson’s Version album quite a bit over 2007 and didn’t get tired of it. Mika’s a turd with a side of twat dressing. I don’t know who Newton Faulkner is. [pause while I look him up online] Oh my God how dreadful. I like the Richard Hawley album quite a bit too, but I’m going to say that Ronson deserves to win this one.

British female solo artist
Bat For Lashes
Kate Nash
KT Tunstall
Leona Lewis
PJ Harvey

Bat For Lashes put out a good Sinead O’Connor-esque album with one super-duper-amazing song on it. Kate Nash annoys me. KT Tunstall annoys me too. I’ve never actually heard Leona Lewis. [To the Youtube-mobile!] Oh, she’s not actually that bad. Definitely no PJ Harvey, though. Still, I think this was a bigger year for Bat For Lashes.

British group
Arctic Monkeys
Editors
Girls Aloud
Kaiser Chiefs
Take That

Arctic Monkeys have always been good–or, you know, been good for two years or so–but they don’t deserve any Best Group awards. I got the Editors CD months and months ago and still haven’t felt compelled to listen to it. Girls Aloud did the theme to St Trinian’s, which I and exactly zero other Americans got really excited about. The Kaiser Chiefs album was half-decent, half-dullsville. Take That don’t need to be back. It’s a weak category, so I’m going to have to pick Girls Aloud in this one.

British album
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
Leona Lewis – Spirit
Mark Ronson – Version
Mika – Life In Cartoon Motion
Take That – Beautiful World

The only one of these I actually heard in its entirety is the Ronson one, but it was one of the albums I played most all year, so I say he should win. Especially because I doubt any of the others are actually any good.

British breakthrough act
Bat For Lashes
Kate Nash
Klaxons
Leona Lewis
Mika

Bat For Lashes had the best video of the year, and her album was more than a one-trick pony, even if it does periodically steer a little too close toward the land of wizards and fairies. Kate Nash annoys me. Klaxons are pretty good but don’t really wow me. I’ve had Leona Lewis’s Myspace player on for about five minutes now and I’m kind of bored by her Mariah Carey inclinations. Mika’s a douche on a sesame seed bun. Bat For Lashes it is!

British live act
Arctic Monkeys
Kaiser Chiefs
Klaxons
Muse
Take That

I’ve never seen any of these people live, so I can’t say, I guess. That, and the Best British Act I saw live last year was probably Bert Jansch. Or MIA, who didn’t get nominated for anything, for some reason.

British single
Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love
Mika – Grace Kelly
Take That – Shine
Mark Ronson Ft Amy Winehouse – Valerie
The Hoosiers – Worried About Ray

This Hoosiers song is actually good, although hardly the best British single of the year. Leona Lewis is kinda humdrum, I’ve decided.  I don’t think I like her after all. Mika is lamer than a gimp wearing a fannypack and manpris. The Mark Ronson song is good, but I much prefer the single off the album with Lily Allen. So, I guess I’m going to vote for the Hoosiers here.

International male solo artist
Bruce Springsteen
Kanye West
Michael Buble
Rufus Wainwright
Timbaland

Springsteen’s always good. Kanye’s always awful. Michael Buble’s always awful but not as awful as Kanye. Rufus is generally good but not so much in Y2K7. Timbaland’s fine. In fact, I’m going to vote for Timbaland here, even though as an artist (and not a producer) Springsteen should probably get the award. But, you know, he’s sort of losing relevance these days.

International female solo artist
Alicia Keys
Bjork
Feist
Kylie Minogue
Rihanna

No One, Earth Intruders, 2 Hearts, and Umbrella all made the top half of my favorite songs of the year list, but Rihanna’s really the only one that I needed more than one single by. Also, as much as I liked the last Broken Social Scene record, I got tired of Feist as soon as everyone I know put that silly Mushaboom song on their Myspace profiles three years ago. Rihanna it is!

International group
Arcade Fire
Eagles
Foo Fighters
Kings of Leon
White Stripes

The Arcade Fire. No question. And I don’t even particularly like them.

International album
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Eagles – Long Road Out Of Eden
Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Kings of Leon – Because Of The Times
Kylie Minogue – X

I haven’t actually heard any of these, except for the Arcade Fire one for the week or so last month when my roommate was suddenly really into them. But I bet I’m not missing much with the Eagles and Foo Fighters records.

Critics’ Choice Award: Adele

Really? Really?

Outstanding contribution to music: Sir Paul McCartney

Outstanding contribution to music up until about forty years ago, when his contribution to music suddenly got very very terrible, is what they should change the name of this category to.

I also can’t say I think much of Missy Elliott’s 3-D video. 3-D is cool and all but it’s probably the least visually interesting video she’s ever done. (Also, whatever happened to Alyson Stoner?)

I think the new Goldfrapp video is dumb, too. Leaf-monsters are fine, but it would be better if they were moving around to a song that didn’t sound like it was written specifically to appear in an episode of One Tree Hill.

On a brighter note, the new Girls Aloud is pretty good, though in the grand scheme of powdered wigs it’s hardly the best video. (That’s a tossup between Sweet’s 1973 Ballroom Blitz and Annie Lennox’s affair with Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich.)

And, though I never thought I’d say this, I like the new Kanye West video. Especially with the volume down so you don’t have to hear is annoying-ass voice. The sky is pretty awesome-looking, and, you know, I’ve often fantasized about being that lady. In the sense that I’ve wanted to beat him with a shovel, not in the sense that I want ginormous ta-tas.

This mix has a few things of note: one is that it’s sort of deliriously happy, which is mostly in response to the fact that a) there’s a frigging monsoon going on outside, and b) I have to work in a little while because my employer doesn’t consider Presidents’ Day a holiday. Also, some of the songs refer to things I haven’t had a chance to write about yet, like seeing Calvin Johnson for the first time on Saturday or buying The Best of Stevie B at the Funk-O-Mart in Philadelphia last weekend, or going to the Sex Workers’ Art Show last night, where some lovely person before the show started played both the Toni Basil and Machine songs on today’s mix. I really didn’t think anybody knew There But For The Grace of God, and anybody I’ve ever played it for has poo-pooed it. But, I’m sorry, I just get a little bit teary-eyed when the family leaves New York to get their daughter away from the blacks or the Jews and the gays, only to have her run back to the city and live on the streets, with the family realizing finally that “too much love is worse than none at all.” Also, that epic song breaks this site’s five-minute rule, so take note if you’re hooking while you’re listening.

As always, if you like the music, go out and buy it. In a real store, preferably, just like Erykah does:

1. Calvin Johnson And Mark Pickerel, Sand
2. The Delays, Bedroom Scene
3. Sweet, Teenage Rampage
4. Operator Please, Crash Tragic
5. Syreeta, Your Kiss Is Sweet
6. Toni Basil, I’m 28
7. Machine, There But For The Grace Of God
8. Stevie B, I Wanna Be The One
9. Supremes, Bits And Pieces
10. Rachel Stevens, Some Girls
11. Clinic, Cement Mixer
12. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Young Shields
13. France Gall, Das war eine schöne Party
14. These New Puritans, Elvis
15. Yoko Ono, Sisters, O Sisters
16. Rhea, Dont Let Go
17. Saint Etienne, Everything I Touch Turns To Gold

This week, a song about how it’s the middle of the nineties, my favorite ever Aretha Franklin song, something folky and Welsh, a song from the soundtrack to the most depressing movie ever, and a song by the Eels, the kooky and underrated nineties hitmakers who just put out a best-of a couple of weeks ago.

If you like the songs, buy them properly with some of your hard-earned hooking money.

In RAR format for easy playlisting: Side A/Side B

1. Natural Calamity, As You Know (Dust Bros. Remix)
2. The Long Blondes, Platitudes
3. Eartha Kitt, I’d Rather Be Burned As A Witch
4. Delta 5, Shadow
5. The Dentists, Spaceman
6. Peach Union, On My Own
7. Stars, This Charming Man
8. Eels, Flyswatter
9. Momus, Folk Me Amadeus
10. Continental Co-Ets, Let’s Live For The Present
11. Duffy, Mercy
12. Tuscadero, Hollywood Handsome
13. The Raincoats, No Side To Fall In
14. Oh Susanna, Forever At Your Feet
15. Aretha Franklin, Tracks Of My Tears
16. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Sbia ar y seren
17. Kula Shaker, Hey Dude
18. The Butchies, Sex (I’m A Lesbian)
19. The Primitives, Baby I Don’t Care

The mix is also a little bit eighties, what with the Thompson Twins, Falco, my all-time favorite Tom Waits song, and, um–well, maybe it’s not so eighties besides that, unless you count New Order side project Monaco, who came out in 1997. The Remi Nicole song comes from the soundtrack to the St Trinian’s remake, which I’m totally itching to see even though it looks a little bit dumb. Who knows if it’ll ever be released in the US.

As always, if you like the mixes, buy the albums. At a real record store, preferably. I’m thinking about posting links to record stores in my mixtape posts, just because seriously, they need your money, so if there’s any in your part of the world that you think are good e-mail me and let me know. In the meantime, if you don’t care about real objects, there’s always the Amazon mp3 store, which is marginally less lame than itunes.

Zipped up for your convenience: Side A/Side B

1. Plus Device, Sell This For Drug Addiction
2. Thompson Twins, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
3. Tom Waits, Hang Down Your Head
4. Remi Nicole, Teenage Kicks
5. Monaco, What Do You Want From Me?
6. King Of Prussia, Misadventures Of The Campaign Kids
7. Chris Clark, Love Gone Bad
8. Ladyhawke, Paris Is Burning
9. Bows, Sleepyhead
10. Scary Mansion, Captin
11. Margaret Berger, Seek I’ll Hide
12. Falco, Der Kommissar
13. The Hundred Days, Benefactor
14. Peggy Honeywell, Birthday Boy
15. Telenovela Star, Dr Who
16. Made In, I Hope You Came Prepared
17. The Coral, Jacqueline
18. Catherine Wheel, Lifeline