Hello blog, I'm back! I have hopefully survived my final exams. Let's go.

Best Adult Contemporary Album
Neil Finn & Paul Kelly - Goin' Your Way: Not sure if live albums should count but this was one of my favourites from this year. It's even better with the video.

Best Female Artist
I hope Sia, but Iggy has a chance too. Wow, I'm usually so into this category but this year has been a bit meh. Sarah Blasko should've been nominated, but I guess she released it way too early. Maybe she dissed the Australian music industry. That tends to kill your awards/radio career.

Best Group
Anything except Sheppard, please. Man, I thought Of Monsters & Men had unbearably watered down the whole Mumford & Sons sound but this is next-level insipid. Thanks, Brisbane.

Best Independent Release
As above. Maybe Violent Soho should get it.

Best International Artist
Lorde is international now? I mean, Kimbra is from NZ but managed to get Best Female Artist back in 2011. Guess we can't get away with stealing people from them forever.

Best Male Artist
I'm not a fan but Vance Joy seems popular.

Best Pop Release
Sia or 5SOS are acceptable, though I think 5SOS will get it.

Best Rock Album
Ball Park Music - Puddinghead: This is a rock album? OK. This isn't their best but I think they deserve to get something at some point.

Best Urban Album
No real opinion from me, but I think Iggy might get it. Or maybe not, if they couldn't get her to perform.

Breakthrough Artist
5SOS obviously, you can tell that they're going for the mainstream audience this year. They're actually properly successful overseas and stuff too.

Song Of The Year
My vote goes to Chandelier. I actually like that song (7/10), and not just in the "well it's pretty good for something on Nova I guess" way. Fancy and She Looks So Perfect (5/10) would be acceptable too.

Album Of The Year
Sia? She's supported by both mainstream and jjj. I don't think Chet Faker and Dan Sultan were pushed that hard. Where the heck is Total Control?

Didn't see this on television, because I was actually at the damn thing. I don't know anybody who watched it (except my parents, but their "watched TV" is really more "slept on couch"). My best guess at what was televised comes from this Pedestrian article.

Radiohead: Went to the concert. I learned that if you don't like Radiohead, you're not listening to it loudly enough. Hipsters were reluctant to dance, despite the amount of beer I saw them with. The stage lighting was great, with The National Anthem being particularly seizuretastic.

Spotify: Some person has been playing the Radiohead setlist on repeat since the concert. I guess they went too. I know that feeling; most of the 2000 plays I have for Muse were racked up the week after the concert.

J Awards: Tame Impala for AOTY, obviously. I'm surprised that they've actually heard of Kirin J Callinan. Of course, The Rubens will win Unearthed.

Sarah Blasko: The new album is... meh. It's okay, but it's not the step forward that everybody says it is. Everybody's all "OMG orchestra!!1!", but it's mostly string section, and strings are used in everything so it's not particularly special. I feel like a lot of people shout "innovative" when they enjoy a work but can't think of anything insightful to say about it.

Lana Del Rey: Paradise EP is out. They're sticking with the dark, heavy production, which is a shame. A lot of people who are fans of her actually seem to see "Video Games" as her worst song, so I guess they'll be sticking with this direction.

Of Monsters & Men: "Little Talks" sounds like Edward Sharpe's "Home", and it's now popular enough to get played on Nova. Is it going to top the Hottest 100? I'm not sure if it's any better than Mumford & Sons.

Violent Soho: Still can't decide if they're too much of a Pixies ripoff to be good. Like what Silverchair were to Nirvana.

Courtney Barnett: I am really enjoying History Eraser.

Last.fm: Upon hearing an incredibly irritating track on the radio, I Googled it (Mystery Jets - Greatest Hits) to see if anybody else hated it and its egregious name-dropping. Apparently not, but I discovered this Last.fm account, whose usefulness makes up for having to listen to that song.

Triple J: Oz music month or something happening. I'm ready to tut tut at the J Award. Here's a somewhat worrying article that pretty much confirms my theory that they promote Australian crap that just sounds like better overseas bands. Edit: Yay, they're playing a Royal Headache song.

Spotify: A guy in my feed seems to be listening to some kind of "A-Z of Pitchfork". In alphabetical order, even. Sometime last week he started listening to Arcade Fire, then Bon Iver, Cults, Death Cab, and Grimes. After that, it seems that he gave up and listened to Marina and the Diamonds. More entertaining than my Facebook feed!

Philip Glass: I listened to Music In 5ths. I don't think I will ever need or want to listen to it again.

Ben Salter: His album won Album of the Year at the QLD Music Awards. I finally got around to listening the whole thing, and yes, it deserves it. (I feel like I don't say that often.)

Homebrand 1: Hey, remember them? They released a new song. No oohs + no Mumford = a step in the right direction. But the glock reminded me of another song by a guy who went to our odd network of schools. He's doing pretty well now, with this song winning a QLD Music Award.

Kyle Quarles - Indictment of the designation of classical music as “relaxing”
"It’s because when we use the word relaxing, we’re describing the effect of listening to non-sensical syntax." THISTHISTHIS. It applies to other kinds of music as well, of course. I used to fall asleep to Kid A because it sounded like nonsense to me. I know people who can't sleep with any music at all because they absolutely must analyze it.

James Rhodes - At last: the Classic Brit Awards exposed as a sickening crime against classical music 
Interesting to see that awards shows are crap for all kinds of music. I tried listening to some of that popera stuff, and it made me realize that I've been too harsh on everything else. I'm sorry, ARIAs. You're all right. (And apparently my dislike of Einaudi is not unreasonable.)

ABC Classic 100 - Music of France
This is happening this week. I think I've missed all the good stuff that normally hangs around the lower end of these countdowns.

Everywhere else I've seen on the internet about this has the same typos and missing track and album names, because they just copy/pasted from the ARIA Twitter. They've also left out the Fine Arts winners. Get it together, Australians. (Though I am not bothering with artisans because eh.) So here you go, all on one page. I will listen to all of it. ALL OF IT. Then I will return and add appropriate notes to this entry.

FINE ARTS WINNERS
Best Classical Album: Sydney Symphony & Vladimir Ashkenazy – Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
Best Jazz Album: Sarah McKenzie - Close Your Eyes
Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album: Triple J – Tribute To Nick Cave (4/10)
Best World Music Album: Joseph Tawadros – Concerto Of The Greater Sea (7/10)

So I can look back and laugh at my piss-weak prediction skills.

• What if Julia Stone wins Best Female Artist and Angus Stone wins Best Male Artist? I'd love to see the reaction to that.
• Best Female Artist noms: Missy Higgins, Kimbra, Lisa Mitchell, Catcall
• I continue to not give a crap about male artists. Sorry. Uhh... Gotye and Guy Sebastian? Some rapper?
• Album of the Year probably hasn't been released yet. Matt Corby?
• Temper Trap and Hilltop Hoods will probably be nominated.
• If the new Tame Impala is good, it will be nominated but not win anything.
• Sarah Blasko album release is poorly timed, becomes irrelevant
• San Cisco for Breakthrough!
• Best of Go-Betweens for Album Art!
• Timomatic will be the token mainstream dance artist at the ceremony. Also Pop Release, but he'll be beaten by some indie act.
• Highest Selling Whatever: Karise Eden

Only listened to Pop and Album of the Year because they're mostly on Spotify. Complete list of nominees over here. Might do the rest later.

Pop:
Busby Marou - I Still Don't Believe
Music by sensitive guy aimed at indie girls? The word "indie" is even in there. It's a folk-pop song. It's pleasant, and I know lots of people who are into this kind of thing.

Cub Scouts - Do You Hear
Reminds me of an Andy Bull song. Otherwise, it's not very memorable.

Kate Miller-Heidke - I'll Change Your Mind
That key change at the end automatically makes the worst song of the lot. Sorry. Not to mention that super-heavy shiny production is really not in at the moment. They could've picked a better song from the album.

The Jungle Giants - Mr Polite
Oh, I know this song! Sure is catchy. Will probably win due to being played on the radio the most. This is how these things work, right?

Lazy entry while procrastinating on maths.


(OH WELL) THAT'S WHAT YOU GET (FALLING IN LOVE WITH A COWBOY - Lanie Lane
I've only heard this a few times, but I haven't got anything against it. Spaghetti Western is a bit overdone by now though, isn't it? I wish Australians could invent their own Australian-y sound. The closest thing to that I can think of is Paul Kelly's voice.

BROTHER - Matt Corby
Woo-oo-oo! It's like, engineered to appeal to the JJJ crowd. Never mind the fact that he's an ex-Idol dude remade into a sensitive beard-folk hipster. This song just isn't very good. Sure, there's that big vocal hook, but the whole thing is kind of a melodramatic mess. Feeding Line is similar, but slightly better.

CAMEO LOVER - Kimbra
Reminds me of the J-Pop that I used to listen to. Saw someone post it on the resident weaboo's Facebook saying that it reminded them of her, so I'm not alone. It's catchy and has a retro sound, like how a lot of Asian pop is stuck twenty years ago. Hallyu?

SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW - Gotye Ft. Kimbra
I don't listen to the radio or go to supermarkets, so I still don't hate this song. It's such an unlikely hit that it must be doing something right. This is going to win, isn't it?

YOU SHOULD CONSIDER HAVING SEX WITH A BEARDED MAN - The Beards
This is a joke band with a novelty song! It's not a good song. It's not a good song even by my low, mainstream-pop standards. It's not even funny! If I had a beard, I'd be more embarrassed about this song than the fact that I were a girl with a beard.

Only the categories that I actually can have an opinion on. Might be updated as I get around to listening to them. Brought to you by my music teacher's campaign to convince me that there is good Australian music.

Edited on 13/10/11. Mr H completely disregards country, and we both laughed at the Adult Contemporary category's nominations, except for one, who was some guy from Hunters & Collectors. Also, I should check out something from the Fine Arts categories.

Edited on 1/12/11 to add winners and some comments, because I was too busy to do it on the night.