Best Albums of 2005
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
BeCommon and Kanye West at the height of their powers: eleven songs, forty three minutes, and not a wasted bar.Read the review
The DocumentaryMore than half a million copies in its first week and the West Coast back in the national argument.
Late RegistrationThe best built record he ever made, with strings and mallets and a chamber orchestra doing the work of a hook.
Modal SoulThe record that a million study streams are trying and failing to be.
Tha Carter IIThe purest rapping he ever did, before the syrup and the guitar and the endless mixtapes.
The BreakthroughA colossal commercial comeback with one of her three or four best singles at the front of it.
The MassacreMore of everything, hooks included, at a length that dilutes the venom. Still holds three or four monsters.