[insert lame joke substituting 'BRIT' for 'SHIT']

The BRIT Award nominations are in, and as always there are niggles to be had. Here are ours:

Pixie Lott - British Female Solo Artist, British Breakthrough Act, British Single
Correct us if we're wrong, but we thought the 'BRIT' Awards were about celebrating the best in music, not just 'who sold the most'. We mean, Björk has won four 'gongs', Bat For Lashes was nominated even before she was having top 5 albums and Kate Bush has 10 nominations to her name. We realise 'good' is entirely subjective, but COME ON. PIXIE LOTT? She makes Duffy look like an artist of unquestionable quality.

The Absence of Little Boots
We realise her album didn't sell nearly as well as people expected, and we realise she never bagged that number 1 single people predicted but again: COME ON. No matter how you feel about Boots as a person (and we've wavered) you absolutely cannot deny her album was a fizzy, glittery synthpop FEAST: imaginative, great fun and hugely promising. It was miles ahead of a hell of a lot of lesser shit that was nominated and it's a total insult to snub her on the basis of 'expectations' or 'sales'.

Mika - British Male Solo Artist
We know we said these awards should have nothing to do with 'expectations' or 'sales' but REALLY. What HAS Mika done this year (other than terrify us all by dancing around in his underwear)? To be honest, there were worse 'people' making worse 'music' nominated in this category but what we're really trying to say is: where was Patrick Wolf's nomination? Again, say what you will about him, but he released the best British Male Solo Artist Album in 2009.

Others Missing In Action
Of course Little Boots wasn't the only stellar act snubbed this year. Others include: The xx, Blue Roses, Imogen Heap, Speech Debelle, Frankmusik, VV Brown, White Lies, Alexandra Burke (she's only nominated by default in the Best Single Category), Emmy the Great, Paloma Faith, Jordin Sparks, Röyksopp, Regina Spektor, Tori Amos, Dragonette, Vienna Teng, Gossip, Metric, Dan Black, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amanda Blank, The Mummers, Fever Ray, Kelly Clarkson + Peaches. All too good, obviously.

On a more positive note:

• Well done Lady GaGa.
• Well done Rihanna.
• Well done Shakira.
• Well done Bat For Lashes.
• Well done Ladyhawke.
• Well done Animal Collective.
• Well done Florence + the Machine.
• Well done La Roux.
• GOOOOOO SPICE GIRLS.

Full list here.