Best Albums of 2006
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Back to BlackThirty five minutes, not a wasted bar, and a voice that makes sixties soul sound like breaking news.Read the review
Hip Hop Is DeadA great title, a real argument, and a record that keeps stumbling over the thesis it wants to prove.
Tha Blue Carpet TreatmentThe last time he sounded like he was making a rap album rather than a lifestyle.
Beach HouseAn organ, a slide guitar and a drum machine in a basement. The blueprint arrives fully formed and very small.
Doctor's AdvocateThe follow up made without Dre, and it spends most of its length telling you that Dre is gone.
Taylor SwiftA sixteen year old writing better than the Nashville machine around her, on a record that sounds exactly like 2006 Nashville.
IdlewildA soundtrack to a film neither of them needed to make, and the end of a partnership by attrition.
Kingdom ComeThe comeback nobody needed, made by a man with a corner office and nothing left to write about.