Savoring the best

Album of the Year

Foo Fighters, “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace”

Vince Gill, “These Days”

Herbie Hancock, “River: The Joni Letters”

Kanye West, “Graduation”

Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black”

This startlingly diverse list suggests behind-the-scenes power plays (Nashville wants more acknowledgment for its elite, like Gill), lifetime achievement gestures (for Hancock and maybe the Foos) and a great uncertainty about the legacy of this moment in pop. Winehouse’s heart-wrenching, highly crafted effort has a chance, but her pile of scandal may have turned off some voters. More likely is a race to the finish between the Foos, still holding the torch for good ol’ fashioned rock, and West, an undisputed genius whose arrogance turns people off. “Graduation” was the kind of album people who “don’t get rap” like, so West will likely walk away with the swing vote and the award. He deserves it too.

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-- Ann Powers

Pop Collaboration With Vocals

Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera, “Steppin’ Out”

Beyonce and Shakira, “Beautiful Liar”

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)”

Gwen Stefani and Akon, “The Sweet Escape”

Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, “Give It to Me”

Genres and generations jostle in this category, with rock and pop patriarchs and a bluegrass princess joining the wired kids in a wackily eclectic party. If collaboration means joining spirits and not just sharing disc space, we can show Bennett-Aguilera and Timbaland’s team the door. Stefani and Akon’s rocking shuffle has that bracing harmony and sweet feel, and Beyonce and Shakira muster imposing star power as they gang up on a two-timer. But it’s that dusty, rootsy couple Plant and Krauss, with their Everly Brothers song and T Bone Burnett guitar, that steals this show.

-- Richard Cromelin

Rap Album

Common, “Finding Forever”

Jay-Z, “Kingdom Come”

Nas, “Hip Hop Is Dead”

T.I., “T.I. vs. T.I.P.”

Kanye West, “Graduation”

Having snared trophies in this category for both 2004’s “The College Dropout” and 2005’s “Late Registration,” Kanye West would have been a lock even if the rest of the field hadn’t been so lackluster. But this competition is particularly laughable, with the nominating committee apparently tabbing tepid efforts from veteran artists for name recognition alone. Indeed, even Common, Jay-Z, Nas and T.I. die-hards would be hard-pressed to deny that these efforts rank among the worst in each artist’s discography. Conversely, “Graduation” represents a career summit for West, an artistic and commercial triumph that deserves the award and is likely to get it, even from the often off-base Grammy voters.

-- Jeff Weiss

Metal Performance

As I Lay Dying, “Nothing Left”

King Diamond, “Never Ending Hill”

Machine Head, “Aesthetics of Hate”

Shadows Fall, “Redemption”

Slayer, “Final Six”

Slayer should be disqualified for double-dipping: “Final Six” is a bonus track off the 2007 re-release of 2006’s “Christ Illusion,” from which the Grammy-winning “Eyes of the Insane” was drawn last year. As I Lay Dying’s song, hooky by modern-metal standards, rocks with a tough riff. The Shadows Fall number offers few ambitions beyond retooling Metallica, and the King Diamond cut is just an above-average revisiting of his shrieking ‘80s-style power metal. All those end up sucking the exhaust of Machine Head’s “Aesthetics of Hate,” which rides a deeply felt rage through a hallucinatory production and an epic structure that builds like a storm front.

-- Greg Burk

Hard Rock Performance

Evanescence, “Sweet Sacrifice”

Foo Fighters, “The Pretender”

Ozzy Osbourne, “I Don’t Wanna Stop”

Queens of the Stone Age, “Sick, Sick, Sick”

Tool, “The Pot”

In a great industry tradition, Ozzy released one of the worst songs on his album as a single, and the Queens did the same. Tool, for its drop-forged groove and Maynard James Keenan’s despairing vocal, deserves this one.

-- G.B.