Bigger Than the Sound likes Eminem, Florence and the Machine, others to take home Grammys. By James Montgomery Eminem Photo: John Shearer/ WireImage This Sunday, the titans of the music industry will convene on the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the 53rd annual Grammy Awards , the annual celebration of back-slapping, glad-handling and, of course, melisma . And while most of you are probably just tuning in for Recording Academy President Neil Portnow’s annual keynote address, I’ll be watching this year’s Grammys largely for the same reason I’ve watched them every year: to see if my predictions come true. See, for just about as long as I’ve had this column, I’ve been making Grammy picks . It’s an annual tradition, mostly because I love the Grammys — just about as much as I love gambling. And with a field of nominees that includes everyone from Eminem to Pinetop Perkins — not to mention a few of my favorite artists (Yay Robyn! Yay Arcade Fire!) — this year’s Grammys are shaping up to be the wildest in recent history. And when you couple that fact with my insatiable, downright destructive desire to wager, well, let’s just say this column practically wrote itself. Of course, since there are something, like, 4,236 Grammy categories (approximately), I’m once again forced to limit my picks to the so-called Big Four: Album, Record and Song of the Year, plus Best New Artist (but just in case you’re wondering, Amy Hanaiali’i and the Slack Key Masters of Hawaii are my lead-pipe lock in the “Best Hawaiian Music Album” category). So here, for your betting pleasure — and my own personal demons — are my picks for the 53rd Grammys: Album of the Year
