What we’ll be watching for

Album of the year

Missy Elliott: “Under Construction”

Evanescence: “Fallen”

OutKast: “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below”

Justin Timberlake: “Justified”

White Stripes: “Elephant”

The OutKast and White Stripes entries are both so boldly satisfying that a victory by either deserves our applause, yet “Elephant” holds a slight advantage because it is such a concise and urgent mixture of rock aggression and vulnerability that it feels uplifting and soothing.

-- Robert Hilburn

Record of the year

Beyonce featuring Jay-Z’: “Crazy in Love”

The Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake: “Where Is the Love”

Coldplay: “Clocks”

Eminem: “Lose Yourself”

OutKast: “Hey Ya!”

It’ll be hard not to share the love if a record as infectious as “Hey Ya!” wins, but Eminem has been passed over twice in the best album category and “Lose Yourself” is such a glorious expression of self-affirmation that it even carries an Oscar stamp of approval.

-- R.H.

Song of the year

Linda Perry: “Beautiful” (Christina Aguilera, artist)

Richard Marx and Luther Vandross: “Dance With My Father” (Vandross, artist)

Avril Lavigne and the Matrix: “I’m With You” (Lavigne, artist)

Jorge Calderon and Warren Zevon: “Keep Me in Your Heart” (Zevon, artist)

J. Bass, M. Mathers and L. Resto: “Lose Yourself” (Eminem, artist)

Some strong entries, and some tough tests of will. The toughest: trying to separate the impact of Zevon’s death and Vandross’ debilitating stroke from the emotional force of their songs. In the end, it’s a faceoff between “Lose Yourself” and “Beautiful” -- a referendum on cutting-edge versus classic. In this case, the storytelling by Mathers (a.k.a. Eminem) and company is too compelling to ignore.

-- Richard Cromelin

Female vocal country performance

June Carter Cash: “Keep On the Sunny Side”

Patty Loveless: “On Your Way Home”

Martina McBride: “This One’s for the Girls”

Dolly Parton: “I’m Gone”

Shania Twain: “Forever and for Always”

Cash’s vocal is the least showy in a field overshadowed by brassy, note-perfect performances from Twain and McBride. Yet her quiet tremulousness communicates a bounty of feeling, and the extra layer of sentiment from the fact that she recorded it just a few months before she died should give her a lock on a posthumous trophy.

-- Randy Lewis

Rap/sung collaboration

Beyonce featuring Jay-Z: “Crazy in Love”

The Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake: “Where Is the Love”

LL Cool J featuring Marc Dorsey: “Luv U Better”

The Neptunes featuring Pharrell Williams & Jay-Z: “Frontin’ ”

Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell Williams and Uncle Charlie Wilson: “Beautiful”

Rap still carries a negative connotation because of the thuggish image many of its stars present, but this knockout grouping features artists insightfully discussing everything from love to war. Snoop Dogg’s dynamite ode to his wonderful woman deserves the nod, but in this strong category, everyone save LL Cool J stands a legitimate chance at the trophy.

-- Soren Baker

Jazz vocal album

Kurt Elling: “Man in the Air”

Shirley Horn: “May the Music Never End”

Aaron Neville: “Nature Boy -- The Standards Album”

Dianne Reeves: “A Little Moonlight”

Luciana Souza: “North and South”

With no breakout album (read Diana Krall) in the category, the field is wide open. Souza’s CD isn’t as worthy as her previously nominated “Brazilian Duos,” but in this grouping it would be a deserving winner, the product of a luminous star in the making.

-- Don Heckman

Contemporary folk

album

Rosanne Cash: “Rules of Travel”

Emmylou Harris: “Stumble Into Grace”

Tom Paxton: “Looking for the Moon”

Lucinda Williams: “World Without Tears”

Warren Zevon: “The Wind”

Some heartwarming moments run through several of these albums, but “World Without Tears” is the most complete package, songs about romantic obsession that step beyond even the cold realism of Williams’ past work to touch new nerve endings.

-- R.H.

Latin rock/alternative

album

Akwid: “Proyecto Akwid”

Cafe Tacuba: “Cuatro Caminos”

Gustavo Cerati: “Siempre Es Hoy”

El Gran Silencio: “Superriddim Internacional, Vol. 1”

Molotov: “Dance and Dense Denso”

Yerba Buena: “President Alien”

There were thrilling high moments from all of the contenders, four veterans from Mexico and Argentina and two U.S.-based upstarts. But Monterrey’s El Gran Silencio surpasses the pack with a vibrant, confident concept album grounded in rootsy Mexican street sounds with seamless grafts of hip-hop and ragamuffin.

-- Agustin Gurza

Producer of the year, non-classical

Nigel Godrich

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis

The Matrix (Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards and Scott Spock)

The Neptunes

OutKast

Godrich is god to Radiohead fans, but that’s his only credit. The sometimes intriguing Matrix team is inconsistent, and Jam-Lewis simply hasn’t had much impact. The Neptunes, whose credits last year ranged from Timberlake’s “Justified” to Jay-Z’s “Excuse Me,” have the high profile, but they’re uneven too. Even if it’s essentially for one album, the year clearly belongs to OutKast.

-- R.C.

Classical

Britten: Violin Concerto/Walton: Viola Concerto: Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor, London Symphony Orchestra

Mahler: Symphony No. 3: Pierre Boulez, conductor, Vienna Philharmonic

Mahler: Symphony No. 3; Kindertotenlieder: Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor, San Francisco Symphony

Rorem: Three Symphonies: Jose Serebrier, conductor, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Schumann: Symphonies 1-4; Manfred Overture, Etc.: Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor/piano, the Philadelphia Orchestra

Two CDs stand out and both are performances of Mahler’s expansive, pantheistic Third Symphony. To choose anything else for best classical recording would be meaningless, but giving preference to either Boulez’s luminous Mahler Third or Tilson Thomas’ compellingly expressive one would be absurd. It’s a Grammy pickle souring the whole classical contest.

-- Mark Swed