I didn’t expect R.E.M. to head the list of Grammy nominees this week. I gave up expecting the awards to truly reflect what’s good in music a long time ago.

But nothing? Not a single mention for Accelerate? Not one middling crumb of recognition for an album that spent 20 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 and received consistently positive reviews from critics?

What makes this more maddening is the fact that Judas Priest received nominations in both the Best Hard Rock and Best Metal categories. And Metallica was nominated for Best Metal Performance, but Best Rock Album? When the voters have such inconsistency, you have to wonder if the awards are true reflections of the music of 2008 or just some sort of poularity contest.

Maybe the voters thought R.E.M.  did a nice job cranking out a new album, but wanted to punish them for the inconsistency of their previous work. When AC/DC – and I love AC/DC, but think the new stuff I heard was nothing special – gets a nomination because their first album in eight years sells a lot and Judas Priest gets recognized for a barely noticed concept album, maybe it’s a sign that it’s better to break up and make a come back than it is to work your way through your problems and emerge with a sound that resonates with your fans.

EDIT: I never pay attention to these things ahead of time. Today is Peter’s 52nd birthday. Happy birthday, Peter.