The Grammys Said I Should Listen to This - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's "The Heist"

One of my resolutions when I started this blog was to remain open-minded about the albums that I set out to cover—I try to go into the record without the expectation that I will or will not like it.  For the most part, I have selected records that I have had a genuine interest in experiencing and have ended up enjoying immensely, but I understand that this positive experience may not always be the case.  Inevitably, I knew that I would stumble upon a record that I had heard fantastic things about, but for whatever reason I simply did not find enjoyable in the least.  When the idea for the recurring feature about Grammy winning records occurred to me, I accepted the fact that the likelihood of listening to records that did not appeal to me was a big part of the territory.  It has always been my understanding that the Grammy Awards is based on album sales, radio/MTV play, the results of executive circle jerks, etc. and not on the, y’know, actual merit of the work; so in that regard, I have never picked up an album simply based on the recommendation of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.  Please don’t get me wrong though, I am certainly not the type that avoids music simply because it is popular—I am quite fond of Eminem’s latest record, for example—but I have also found that there is zero correlation between the popularity of an artist and the quality of that artist’s output.