Leave the Door Open

Silk Sonic and Jon Batiste swept up the 2022 Grammys, the two's vintage-sounding music safe — and honestly unsurprising — Academy choices.

In its attempts at trying to be unpredictable by giving Black artists its biggest awards, the Grammys were still predictable, betting on safe and more traditional-sounding music over something more modern. Paired with the timely subject matter explored on the album — from reflecting on the pandemic to his involvement in Black Lives Matter protests amid the deaths of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor — and We Are makes absolute sense as a Grammys darling: an album with musicianship and a socially conscious message all tied together by a sound the academy is all too familiar with. The album wasn’t a commercial success and wasn’t widely covered when it was released in March last year.