Weighing Up the 'Best Alternative Album' Grammy Nominees

When not rewarding Katy Perry's insidious novelty-song "I Kissed A Girl" with accolades, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences deigned to dole out a list of nominees for 2008's Best Alternative Albums. Overlooking critical favorites like Fleet Foxes and TV on the Radio, the Grammy voters instead settled on a strange list.

The nominees are: Radiohead (pictured), who totaled seven nominations overall; Death Cab for Cutie; My Morning Jacket; Beck; and Gnarls Barkley, the soul-pop concoction who, whilst seeming particularly out-of-place in this category, actually won it in 2006. Read my full-blown run-down of the nominees, their albums, and their apparent appeal to the Grammy voters.