Fresh off his Monterey debut, Beck scores first ever Album of the Year Grammy.

As expected, the 57th Grammy Awards was a big fat waste of time for the most part—British pop singer Sam Smith won big (four Grammys total). 

Beyoncé and Jay Z won (not sure if the award was for anything other than the hip-hop power couple just showing up), Pharrell Williams also won and Miranda Lambert took home a Grammy for best country album.

In between all the annoyance—like Kanye making fun of the embarrassingly stupid theatrics he pulled a couple years back after Taylor Swift won an award—there was one ray of sunshine that brightened the overall experience: After more than 20 years in the biz, Beck took home his first Album of the Year Grammy for his deeply personal, independently-made Morning Phase. 

It was nice to see Sam Smith, who was also up for Best Album, get shafted.

It was also nice to have Prince present the award, and pronounce, "Albums are like books and black lives, they matter."

Morning Phase also scored in the Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical) category and Best Rock Album.

It's his overall fifth win (he took home Best Alternative Music Performance awards for the albums Mutations and Odelay and a Best Male Rock Vocal Performance award for the song “Where It’s At.")

It was the third time Beck received a Grammy nod in the Album of the Year category. In 1997, Odelay picked up a nomination for Album of the Year, as did Midnite Vultures in 2000.

While the introspective, restrained and delicate Morning Phase exemplifies some of the Beck's best songwriting through and through, it was almost like the Grammy win was an apology from the Grammys for overlooking Beck's masterpiece, Sea Change, a decade ago. 

But, a win is a win. And it comes six months after Beck's Monterey debut.

Last August, the elfin musical genius with rosy cheeks delivered an engagingly energetic headlining set to close Day 1 of the second (hoping it is annual) First City Festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. 

In between “The New Pollution” and “Beercan,” Beck unleashed a mini acoustic set, featuring a few songs off his outstanding Morning Phase—including the intricately-orchestrated “Wave”—and his Sea Change favorite “Lost Cause.”

Read more about the standout show in Monterey that led to Beck's Grammy for Album of the Year.

Other wins worth noting: Jack White won Best Rock Performance for "Lazaretto"; "Weird Al" Yankovic's Mandatory Fun received Best Comedy Album; Third Man and Revenant Records' box set The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume Two (1928-1932) (under Jack White's leadership) won Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package; the outstanding John Coltrane's Offering: Live at Temple University picked up Best Album Notes; Alexandre Desplat won Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for Grand Budapest Hotel score; Tenacious D won Best Metal Performance.