The Best Albums of 2006
Twenty years on, the albums 2006's critics argued over are due a recount, and your vote is the recount. Four 2006 year-end lists count, not later retrospectives: Rolling Stone (by 14 December 2006), NME (9 December), Pitchfork (19 December) and Pazz & Jop (6 February 2007). A list counts for a record if it named it, or had it in its home market (America; Britain for NME) before publishing, or no market date is found; entries state the count. Studio albums first released anywhere in 2006 are in when at least half those lists, and at least one, name them, barring live sets, compilations, box sets, EPs and reissues; an act with two keeps the more-named, neither on a tie. The upper of two tiers holds albums three or four lists named; each opens in an editor's order that votes rearrange. A passing record Spotify cannot play is left off: on 7 October 2026, Joanna Newsom's Ys. Links take Spotify's oldest copy matching the 2006 track count and titles, ignoring printed years; items name any track a carrier adds or lacks.
Ghostface Killah — Fishscale (2006) is #1 on “The Best Albums of 2006”.
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Ghostface Killah — Fishscale (2006)
Def Jam released it on 28 March 2006, and Rolling Stone, Pazz & Jop and Pitchfork make three of its four eligible lists. An MF Doom production, Charlie Brown, was cut when its Caetano Veloso sample was never cleared, and J Dilla's two beats here also turn up on Donuts. Spotify's carrier runs to twenty-four tracks and finishes on Three Bricks, the first of the three bonus cuts Wikipedia lists after the original twenty-three.
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Bob Dylan — Modern Times (2006)
Dylan produced it under the alias Jack Frost and cut it in February 2006 at Clinton Recording in New York, after his touring band rehearsed at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie. Pazz & Jop put it first on 1,123 points, Rolling Stone also put it first and NME 45th, so it holds three of its four eligible lists. Ain't Talkin' is the 8:48 finale.
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TV on the Radio — Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)
Four of its four eligible lists name it, and in Pazz & Jop it drew 99 mentions, the most of any album in that poll, while its 1,109 points left it fourteen short of Modern Times. Gerard Smith plays keyboards on a TV on the Radio album for the first time here, in 2005 sessions at Stay Gold and Head Gear in Brooklyn. Spotify spells the closer Wash the Day Away, where Wikipedia's listing has Wash the Day.
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The Hold Steady — Boys and Girls in America (2006)
John Agnello produced it at Water Music in Hoboken and Atomic in Brooklyn, the first of two albums he made with the band, and Franz Nicolay is credited as a writer alongside Craig Finn and Tad Kubler. It took 983 points for fourth in Pazz & Jop, one of three of its four eligible lists. Dana Kletter sings backing vocals on Chips Ahoy, which Spotify prints without the exclamation mark Wikipedia's track list gives it.
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Arctic Monkeys — Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
The title is a line from Alan Sillitoe's novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and the cover shows their friend Chris McClure at the Korova bar in Liverpool. NME named it the best album of 2006, and it placed with Pazz & Jop (sixth) and Rolling Stone (17th), so three of its four eligible lists carry it. It won the 2006 Mercury Prize, it is the only album with Andy Nicholson on bass, and Mardy Bum sits ninth of thirteen.
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Clipse — Hell Hath No Fury (2006)
Pazz & Jop, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork each placed it seventh, and those are three of its four eligible lists. Wikipedia gives 28 November 2006 for the release and a Billboard 200 debut at fourteen, and Pharrell, credited with background vocals on five songs, is also the named guest on Mr. Me Too and on the closer, Nightmares, where Bilal joins him.
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Cat Power — The Greatest (2006)
It is named by four of its four eligible lists, with Rolling Stone highest at sixth. Stuart Sikes produced it at Ardent in Memphis in May 2005, Teenie Hodges played in the Memphis Rhythm Band behind her, and Chan Marshall wrote all twelve songs. It won the 2006 Shortlist Music Prize, and Wikipedia records her as the first woman to win it. Love & Communication is the twelfth, at 4:34.
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The Knife — Silent Shout (2006)
Rabid released it in Sweden on 17 February 2006, Britain had it in March and America on 25 July, early enough for all four lists, and three of its four eligible lists name it, Pitchfork at the head of its fifty. The duo recorded it in Stockholm between March 2004 and November 2005, drawing on the animator Oskar Fischinger and Charles Burns's comic Black Hole. Still Light is the last of eleven.
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My Chemical Romance — The Black Parade (2006)
Reprise issued it in Europe on 23 October 2006, with 24 October the official date, and it holds three of its four eligible lists: NME tenth, Pazz & Jop 17th, Rolling Stone 20th. The band recorded most of it at the Paramour Mansion, and Liza Minnelli sings on Mama. The linked carrier keeps all fourteen, ending on Blood - Hidden Track, and Wikipedia lists a 20th anniversary deluxe edition for 23 October 2026 that the link stays clear of.
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Sonic Youth — Rather Ripped (2006)
Rolling Stone ranked it third, Pazz & Jop 12th and Pitchfork 43rd, three of its four eligible lists. It finished the band's contract with Geffen, and they made it at Sear Sound in New York, where they had cut Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, with John Agnello engineering on J Mascis's recommendation. Thurston Moore wanted their version of Blondie's Parallel Lines, and Or brings it to an end at 3:31.
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The Decemberists — The Crane Wife (2006)
The band's first record for Capitol, produced by Tucker Martine and Chris Walla, opens with The Crane Wife 3 and saves parts one and two for track nine. Pazz & Jop had it 13th, with Rolling Stone and Pitchfork making three of its four eligible lists. The 2006 album had ten tracks; Spotify's eleven add Culling Of The Fold, a Tower Records bonus. NPR's listeners picked it as their album of that year.
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Hot Chip — The Warning (2006)
Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard recorded it at the band's house in Putney, mostly in Goddard's bedroom, and most of it on a Casiotone MT-70. NME placed it fourth, and with Pazz & Jop and Pitchfork it reaches three of its four eligible lists. EMI's British edition came first, on 22 May 2006, with the Astralwerks one following in June. Won't Wash, hidden on the CD, is track twelve on Spotify.
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Show Your Bones (2006)
NME had it second, and Pazz & Jop and Rolling Stone bring it to three of its four eligible lists. Early in 2005 the band threw out every song written for it so far, then recorded at Stay Gold, Dave Sitek's studio in Williamsburg, that July and August. Spotify's eleven match the American CD and close on Turn Into, while the British edition added Deja Vu as a twelfth.
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Justin Timberlake — FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006)
Terry Richardson shot the cover of Timberlake stomping a disco ball, and sessions ran through nine studios from October 2005 to June 2006. Losing My Way, the one song with a choir arrangement, grew out of a documentary about crystal meth addiction. Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and Pazz & Jop placed it 25th, 26th and 28th, three of its four eligible lists. Spotify cuts the two-part songs at different points but keeps twelve tracks.
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Yo La Tengo — I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (2006)
Rumour has the title paraphrasing the NBA's Kurt Thomas, caught on MSG Network video arguing with teammate Stephon Marbury during a game. Roger Moutenot produced, and the record runs 77:41, opening and closing on songs past ten minutes. Pazz & Jop had it 18th, and three of its four eligible lists name it. The 11:49 closer is The Story Of Yo La Tango, the band's name deliberately misspelled.
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The Raconteurs — Broken Boy Soldiers (2006)
Every microphone on it was a Coles 4038, and Autumn de Wilde took the cover photograph. Britain had it on 15 May 2006 and America a day later, and it reached number two in the UK and seven in the US. NME placed it 21st, Pazz & Jop 26th and Rolling Stone 28th, three of its four eligible lists. Blue Veins runs 3:52, and the Japanese edition added The Bane Rendition.
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Lupe Fiasco — Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor (2006)
Chicago's corner stores are often called Food and Liquors, hence the title. The whole album leaked in April 2006 and was shelved while he recorded more, and it came out on 19 September. Jay-Z signed on as an executive producer after hearing Lupe on Kanye West's Touch the Sky. Rolling Stone 16th, Pitchfork 32nd and Pazz & Jop 34th are three of its four eligible lists, and Hurt Me Soul is track eleven of sixteen.
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Thom Yorke — The Eraser (2006)
Yorke began it as laptop instrumentals, many made in hotel rooms on Radiohead tours, and Nigel Godrich encouraged him to sing over them. XL released it on 10 July 2006, about a month after it leaked. NME 15th, Rolling Stone 34th and Pazz & Jop 40th, the last of its published forty, make three of its four eligible lists. Stanley Donwood's linocut on the cover shows a flooded London, and Cymbal Rush closes the nine.
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Beck — The Information (2006)
Nigel Godrich produced it in sessions from 2003 to 2006, some of them in Beck's garage, and Beck called making it painful. The sleeve came blank with one of four sticker sheets, which led the UK Official Charts Company to bar it from the album chart. Rolling Stone 24th, Pazz & Jop 33rd and NME 43rd make three of its four eligible lists. The Horrible Fanfare / Landslide / Exoskeleton ends it at 10:36.
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Lily Allen — Alright, Still (2006)
Its British release came on 17 July 2006 through Regal, and Capitol held America back until 30 January 2007, which puts Rolling Stone's December list out of reach; Pazz & Jop, Pitchfork and NME all named it, three of its three eligible lists. She had been posting demos on MySpace since November 2005. LDN is third of the eleven, and Spotify's carrier matches the British sequence without the American edition's two extra tracks.
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Girl Talk — Night Ripper (2006)
Gregg Gillis built it from more than 300 samples and Illegal Art cleared none of them, so eMusic and iTunes pulled it, and Wikipedia records at least one CD plant refusing to press it. No lawsuit followed, which Gillis called liberating. Rolling Stone 22nd, Pitchfork 34th and Pazz & Jop 39th give it three of its four eligible lists, and the sixteen tracks run out with Peak Out.
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Gnarls Barkley — St. Elsewhere (2006)
With 791 points, Pazz & Jop put it fifth and NME sixth, two of its four eligible lists, while Pitchfork and Rolling Stone left it off. Britain got it on 24 April 2006, and Crazy became the first UK number one on downloads alone. Danger Mouse produced every track; Go-Go Gadget Gospel opens on a Nicolas Flagello sample, and Smiley Faces is fifth on a carrier whose Spotify page prints 2007.
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Amy Winehouse — Back to Black (2006)
NME ranked it 16th, the one list able to: Island released it in Ireland on 27 October 2006 and in Britain three days later, but America waited until 13 March 2007, after all three American lists had closed. NME is therefore its only eligible list, a count of 1 of 1, and Rolling Stone placed it on its 2007 list instead. Spotify's linked copy follows the British sequence to Addicted, the eleventh song, which the American edition left out.
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The Chicks — Taking the Long Way (2006)
Pazz & Jop gave it 314 points, enough for 20th, with Rolling Stone's 19th making two of its four eligible lists. Not Ready to Make Nice, track three, was the first physical single, in March 2006. Sheryl Crow co-wrote Favorite Year and Linda Perry co-wrote Voice Inside My Head, with Benmont Tench on keyboards and Chad Smith on drums, and it sold 526,000 copies in its first American week.
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Scott Walker — The Drift (2006)
Walker's first studio album in eleven years, after Tilt in 1995, took seventeen months at Metropolis in Chiswick, while the orchestra was recorded in one day at AIR in Hampstead. Two of its four eligible lists rank it: Pitchfork tenth, Pazz & Jop 31st. Clara runs 12:43, with Vanessa Contenay-Quinones voicing Clara Petacci, and 4AD put it out on 8 May 2006.
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Belle and Sebastian — The Life Pursuit (2006)
Tony Hoffer's sessions at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles made it, and Rough Trade's UK edition beat Matador's American one by a day, 6 February 2006 against the 7th. Pazz & Jop's 14th and Pitchfork's 30th are two of its four eligible lists. It reached number eight in the UK, the band's best showing to that point, and Act of the Apostle returns as a second part before Mornington Crescent wraps up the thirteen.
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Band of Horses — Everything All the Time (2006)
Phil Ek produced it with the band at Avast in Seattle, and it carries new versions of five of the six songs from their Tour EP. Mat Brooke, Chris Early and Tim Meinig play on no other Band of Horses album. Pitchfork had it 12th and Pazz & Jop 23rd, two of its four eligible lists, and St. Augustine is track ten, 2:42 long.
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J Dilla — Donuts (2006)
Stones Throw released it on 7 February 2006, and Pazz & Jop and Pitchfork, at 30th and 38th, make two of its four eligible lists. Its 31 tracks run as a loop, the last leading back into the first, and the cover is a still from a 2005 videotape shot at MED's Push video. Time: The Donut of the Heart turns up again, extended, under the Roots' Can't Stop This on Game Theory.
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The Roots — Game Theory (2006)
The Roots' first album for Def Jam after leaving Geffen was made between March and May 2006, mostly in GarageBand, and its track numbers pick up from The Tipping Point at 114. Rolling Stone's 18th and Pazz & Jop's 25th account for two of its four eligible lists. Atonement samples Radiohead. Spotify's fourteenth track, Bread And Butter, is the bonus that British, Japanese and iTunes buyers got.
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Neko Case — Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
Pazz & Jop's critics gave it 645 points for eighth and Rolling Stone ranked it 45th, two of its four eligible lists. Most of it was cut at Wave Lab in Tucson, though John Saw That Number begins in a stairwell at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, and Garth Hudson of the Band is among the guests. The linked id is the Bonus Track Version, which adds Behind the House (Demo) as a thirteenth track.
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Mastodon — Blood Mountain (2006)
Their first album on a major label, Reprise, came out in Britain and America on 12 September 2006, and Rolling Stone ninth plus Pitchfork 42nd make two of its four eligible lists. Like Leviathan before it, it is a concept record, this one about climbing a mountain, and Josh Homme sings on Colony of Birchmen. On CD the closer stretched to 22:16 with a hidden message after the silence; Spotify's 50:56 carries none of it.
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Bruce Springsteen — We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
His first album of entirely other people's songs grew from a 1997 We Shall Overcome cut for a Pete Seeger tribute; Colts Neck sessions followed in 2005 and 2006. It ranks 19th in Pazz & Jop and 29th at Rolling Stone, two of its four eligible lists. Spotify's thirteen print 1998 and drop the title's colon, and two carry tags the album never had: Jesse James (Just Ask) and Jacob's Ladder - Excerpt, at 4:25 to Wikipedia's 4:28.
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T.I. — King (2006)
Named after his son, Clifford Joseph Harris III, it debuted atop the Billboard 200 on more than 522,000 American sales. Pitchfork 19th and Pazz & Jop 29th make two of its four eligible lists. Spotify's seventeen leave out the 2006 track seven, Breakup Skit with Mike Epps, and title I'm Straight and Goodlife without their skit halves, in line with Wikipedia's note that later pressings removed the skit sections; Bankhead (feat. P$C and Young Dro) still ends it.
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The Rapture — Pieces of the People We Love (2006)
Paul Epworth and Ewan Pearson produced most of it, with Danger Mouse on the title track and Calling Me, in sessions that spring at studios including Eastcote in London and Glenwood Place in Burbank. Rolling Stone 27th and NME 18th give it two of its four eligible lists. Bassist Mattie Safer sings lead on several songs, and Live In Sunshine closes the ten.
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Destroyer — Destroyer's Rubies (2006)
Recorded on and off between 20 May and 23 July 2005 at JC/DC in Vancouver, with John Collins and David Carswell producing, it opens on the 9:25 Rubies. Dan Bejar said he wanted it to sound like a band playing in a room. On two of its four eligible lists, Pitchfork at 18th and Pazz & Jop at 35th, and the record finishes on Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever.
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Regina Spektor — Begin to Hope (2006)
Co-produced by Spektor and David Kahne in the summer of 2005, at SeeSquared and New York Noise, it came out on Sire on 13 June 2006. Rolling Stone ranked it 21st and Pazz & Jop 36th, which is two of its four eligible lists. It first charted at 70 on the Billboard 200 and climbed to 20 later on the strength of Fidelity. Peter Gabriel covered Après Moi in 2010, and Summer in the City is the final song.
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Phoenix — It's Never Been Like That (2006)
The band produced it themselves between August and November 2005, at Planet Roc in Berlin and Acousti in Paris. Its UK date, through Virgin, was 15 May 2006, with Astralwerks following on 23 May in the US, and Pitchfork 13th with Rolling Stone 50th make two of its four eligible lists. Spotify's carrier adds an eleventh track, Diet of the Heart, the 63-second iTunes bonus.
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The Long Blondes — Someone to Drive You Home (2006)
Made at Konk in London in July 2006 with Steve Mackey producing, it came out on Rough Trade on 6 November. NME placed it seventh and Pitchfork 48th, two of its four eligible lists. Kate Jackson painted the cover, Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde with a Mark 3 Ford Cortina, and Dorian Cox wrote ten of the twelve songs. The last song, A Knife For The Girls, runs 5:08.
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Be Your Own Pet — Be Your Own Pet (2006)
XL's British release on 27 March 2006 beat Ecstatic Peace!'s American one, on 6 June, by about ten weeks, and Pitchfork 21st and NME 37th give it two of its four eligible lists. Fifteen songs pass in 33:27, and the opener, Thresher's Flail, nods to Coleridge's Kubla Khan. The closer, printed OUCH on Spotify, took its cue from George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead.
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The Coup — Pick a Bigger Weapon (2006)
Epitaph released it on 25 April 2006, and Pazz & Jop 38th and Rolling Stone 49th make two of its four eligible lists. Boots Riley produced with Organized Elements. Black Thought and Talib Kweli rap on My Favorite Mutiny, and Tom Morello plays guitar on Captain Sterling's Little Problem. The Stand closes the seventeen at 6:38.
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Brightblack Morning Light — Brightblack Morning Light (2006)
Matador's release date was 20 June 2006, and Rolling Stone 47th and Pitchfork 36th put it on two of its four eligible lists. Star Blanket River Child runs 10:29. Spotify's carrier runs eleven tracks, the count of the vinyl edition, which alone had Miwok Shapes; the CD ran ten. The 5:39 We Share Our Blanket With The Owl comes last.
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Peter Bjorn and John — Writer's Block (2006)
Wichita's UK edition arrived on 14 August 2006, but the US one waited until 6 February 2007, the date of the Pazz & Jop results. That leaves NME, on market grounds, and Pitchfork, which ranked it regardless; Pitchfork's 24th makes one of its two eligible lists. The title track is sixteen seconds of found sound with the Young Folks melody underneath, and Victoria Bergsman sings on Young Folks itself. Poor Cow, 4:46, is the closer.
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Albert Hammond Jr. — Yours to Keep (2006)
Its UK date was 9 October 2006, on Rough Trade, and the North American one 6 March 2007, after the American lists; its sole eligible list is NME, which ranked it 34th. Sean Lennon contributed, and the title borrows a Guided by Voices song from Bee Thousand. Everyone Gets A Star was a download-only single; Spotify's copy runs the British ten but uses the American titles 101 and Hard To Live In The City.
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The Automatic — Not Accepted Anywhere (2006)
Its British release, through B-Unique and Polydor, was 19 June 2006, and America had no edition until June 2007, so NME, the only eligible list, carries it alone, at 42nd. The Welsh band cut it in six weeks across four studios, Stir in Cardiff among them, and the title plays on MasterCard's Accepted Everywhere slogan. Monster, about binge drinking, is fifth, and Rats twelfth.
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The Pipettes — We Are the Pipettes (2006)
Memphis Industries had it in British shops from 17 July 2006; the American version, remixed by Greg Wells with two new songs, came on 2 October 2007. Pitchfork is eligible through its own 44th-place naming rather than the market, and with NME, which passed on it, that is one of its two eligible lists. The album shares its name with the group's theme song. Spotify's fourteen are the British original, which ends on I Love You.
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Forward, Russia! — Give Me a Wall (2006)
Dance to the Radio, the band's own label, issued it at home on 15 May 2006; the American release fell on 19 December, the day Pitchfork's list ran, so Pazz & Jop and NME were the lists able to rank it, and NME's 35th makes it one of its two eligible lists. Every title is a number, the order the song was written in, and the album ends with the 7:29 Eleven.
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