Albums released between October 2007 and the end of September '08 can be taken into account, so while will.i.am's Songs About Girls is ineligible, the Soulja Boy full-length is ready to receive the accolades it so richly deserves.

Here's the list Martens came up with:

Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple

Lupe Fiasco, The Cool

Sheryl Crow, Detours
Alicia Keys, As I Am
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Mariah Carey, E=MC²
Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Al Green, Lay It Down
Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
Beck, Modern Guilt
Portishead, Third
Rhymefest, Man in the Mirror
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III

Martens' picks make sense in one way or another, although Rhymefest's album in particular is a pipedream (a mixtape offered free online recieving a Grammy nod?), and Nick Cave probably shouldn't go picking out a tux for Grammy night just yet, either. And even if Lil Wayne is managing to keep the business afloat alongside Coldplay this summer, Tha Carter III might be a little out there for Grammy voters. Martens isn't re-listing acts he already profiled in his Best New Artist preview, in particular Duffy, but there are a few omissions that would be hard for Grammy voters to pass up: Bruce Springsteen's Magic, or possibly even the Wal-Mart-only Eagles disc.

It's hard for me to imagine the award going to anyone but Al Green, but sadly, it wouldn't surprise me if Sheryl Crow walked away with the small gold-plated phonograph either. Or Alison Krauss, who probably has a wing of her house just for Grammys. This might be a relatively complete list, since there aren't many other award-ready albums coming out before the deadline, unless you count Death Magnetic (I don't.) Which means that next year's Grammys might shape up to be one of the more depressing Grammy Awards ceremonies in recent memory, and that's saying a lot.

Grammys midway Part 3: An early look at the albums of the year [LA Times]
Grammys midway Part 4: Is this Coldplay or Mariah Carey's year? [LA Times]

• "The star turns spice up an 11-song collection that stand up pretty well without. Green does pretty well on his own, particularly on the neo-soul of 'All I Need,' with its cascading vocals, another tasteful string arrangement by Larry Gold and Adam Blackstone's deep funk bass line. Green has made no secret of his intentions to spread his message of love to a younger generation with Lay It Down. Maybe it'll work. Maybe it won't. But one thing's for sure—he lays it down in a way; the right way—that any generation should be able to appreciate." [El Paso Times]

• "Other new-schoolers—John Legend on 'Stay With Me (by the Sea)' and Corinne Bailey Rae on the languorous throwback 'Take Your Time'—also do an admirable job of lightly putting their stamp on songs, but have the wisdom to mostly stay out of Green's way. With his fan club members backing him, Green's growls and precious high notes on the steady groove of 'Just for Me,' the tortured love song 'Too Much' and the sumptuous title track recall the material of 1971's Al Green Gets Next to You and 1972's I'm Still in Love With You and find the soul great fully of fire and brimming with youthful energy." [Washington Post]

• "Green's effortless yet ever-astonishing vocal flexings are, again, wrapped around some fabulous co-written songs. The title track, 'No One Like You,' and the nimble 'Just For Me' are exquisitely seductive. On 'What More Do You Want from Me,' meanwhile, Green makes romantic desperation sound like a rather alluring condition. Now 62, Green has musical powers that still verge on the magical. Whatever the commercial outcome, we have a five-star Al Green album on our hands." [The Telegraph]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Lay It Down, produced by ?uestlove and James Poyser, has been a hotly anticipated album for a while now—and thankfully, it's pretty good. It's sort of a strange listen, as the tracks that lack neo-soul guest stars sound like they're lifted directly from the Willie Mitchell/Hi Records era that Green is most widely known for. The nearly ever-present Dap-King Horns? Check. Solid session guys on guitar and bass? Yep. I could have lived without John Legend's cameo or the duet between Green and Corinne Bailey Rae, although Anthony Hamilton's appearances were welcome.

Maybe it's the long lead time stoking my anticipation, but Down didn't have many "Wow" moments—it's a good album, but one that may be a little forgettable in the long-term. Closing track "Standing In The Rain" is the closest to a real highlight; it's upbeat and layers some hot guitar licks over the swelling horns. It seems wrong to complain about a solid Al Green album (and maybe I'm preparing myself for the stampede of critics ready to proclaim Lay It Down the album of the year), so I'll just say that in the end, I'm happy to hear Al returning to his classic sound—even if the results might be a bit too safe.

Lil Mama, VYP—Voice Of The Young People
Release date: April 27.
Reasons for delays: Less-than-stellar performance of second single "G-Slide/Tour Bus"; unsuccessful search for a title that is at least a little bit better than VYP.
Odds that this album will get bumped back in the near future: 9-1. If Jive is smart, they'll accelerate their timetable so America's Best Dance Crew, which features the lip-gloss-loving star as a judge, is still fresh in peoples' minds when they stumble across VYP on the way to the Wii aisle at Best Buy.

Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Release date: May 13.
Reasons for delays: "I'm taking my time with it," Wayne told Billboard. "And I'm giving artists I respect and people I want to do songs with—not songs the label fixed—an opportunity to collaborate." And hey, the Kanye track did come through, so...
Odds that this album will get bumped back in the near future: 3-1. Weezy works on his own timetable.

Al Green, Lay It Down
Release date: May 27.
Reasons for delays: Probably something to do with Green and ?uestlove perfecting the blend of "fresh milk from the cow's titty" that Green has said Lay It Down will contain.
Odds that this album will get bumped back in the near future: For the love of God, and people who need new baby-making music, I'm going to make them long. Please, Blue Note, don't prove me wrong.

[Photos: AP]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Sit Down Stand Up has the first taste of the ?uestlove-produced Al Green album that we drooled over back in September and that's still untitled and without a firm release date. As a friend just said, "the Rev has gotten back to his roots... getting fools laid." Over the kind of long, winding, minimal bass-and-live-break groove familiar from Soulquarian productions like D'Angelo's Voodoo—which drew plenty of its hazy, "you're listening to an LP with a fuzzy needle" vibe from classic Green sides like The Belle Album in the first place—Green takes the wayback machine straight to his mid-'70s sound, the song eventually breaking down into a gloriously loose vamp with plenty of gravelly asides and playful falsetto interjections (that say "sex me, please" more than "you know, I really love Jesus") dancing 'round the prickly funk guitar and organ. And with that, I am beyond psyched for this record.

LISTEN: Al Green - "Thought It Out" (Produced By ?uestlove) [Sit Down Stand Up]

Al Green - "People Get Ready" [YouTube]
Al Green - "A Change Is Gonna Come" [YouTube]

"It's been putting gray hair in my afro," 'Love laughed. "I'm not producing, I'm reducing it. I'm trying to take him back to 1974 — very dry, very dirty, very grassroots sound. One of the biggest mistakes of modern technology, it doesn't sound gritty, doesn't sound raw. A lot of the favorite records we sample from today, those were recorded in studios that were very lackluster. Those weren't the best studios in the world. Pretty much, I want this album to sound very cheap, very dirty ... the vibe the Amy Winehouse album gave you. More than just the song, the creative aspect. I wanted the engineering to feel like it was made 30 years ago."

I don't normally give a shit one way or the other about Jack White-style big-dick retro-studio talk about the purity of analog and the grime you can only get from a dusty mixing desk and yadda yadda. And this is the kind of dream line-up that will eventually get compromised—the label will stick on a cameo from Young Jeezy, or ?uestlove will draft his boyfriend John Mayer. But screw it, it's Al Green: I'm going to officially get excited for this, especially after how good that last Roots album came out.

Justin Timberlake In Talks To Appear On Al Green Album [MTV]