Over what has already been many years, and will likely be a few more, I’ve been ranking and reviewing the top 5 albums - plus a fair few extras - according to users on rateyourmusic.com (think IMDB for music) from every year from 1960 to the present. If you want to know more, I wrote an introduction to the ‘challenge’ here. You can also read all the other entries I’ve written so far by heading to the lovely index page here.

And so we arrive in 2006: the year Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet, Italy won the World Cup after Zidane’s infamous headbutt, Montenegro declared independence, Twitter launched, and Tony Blair began edging towards the end of his premiership. Music wise, here’s what rateyourmusic.com users rate as the year’s best albums:

#1 J Dilla - Donuts
#2 Joanna Newsom - Ys
#3 Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
#4 My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
#5 Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

And here’s a bunch more, because I can’t help myself.

#6 Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet
#8 The Roots - Game Theory
#9 Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
#10 Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
#17 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
#71 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
#265 The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Let’s go.

“The Crane Wife is the fourth studio album by American indie-rock band the Decemberists. Inspired by a Japanese folk tale, the record features two song cycles: “The Crane Wife” and “The Island,” the latter drawing on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. NPR listeners voted it the best album of 2006.” - Wikipedia

The Decemberists are a band I feel should have an album I absolutely love: literate, folky, melodic. The Crane Wife starts beautifully, with that lovely sense of myth and melancholy they do so well. It never steps in the mud as such over the rest of the record, but, for all its craft, it doesn’t make a particularly engaging display of staying on the grass. It’s very pleasant, often handsome, but not quite enticing enough to pull me fully in.

6.5/10

“Harmony in Ultraviolet is the fourth studio album by Canadian electronic musician Tim Hecker. The ambient and experimental album combines processed electric guitars, pipe organs and keyboards with distortion and samples. Its cover depicts the Monument to Fallen Partisans, an anti-fascist memorial in Bologna, Italy.” - Wikipedia

A landmark in Hecker’s catalogue, Harmony in Ultraviolet helped cement his reputation as one of ambient music’s great architects of beautiful unease. As always, Hecker’s aural world is enveloping, intricate, epic, and amorphous, all glowing static, distant collapse, and cathedral-sized fog. This one just didn’t grab me quite as much as some of his other work, though. Impressive, epic and immersive, but I was waiting to be swallowed whole, and it never quite happened.

7.5/10

“Ashes Against the Grain is the third studio album by American metal band Agalloch. Incorporating elements of post-metal, folk metal and black metal, the album places greater emphasis on electric guitars and heavier textures than its predecessor, The Mantle. It received widespread critical acclaim and was Agalloch’s final album for The End Records.” - Wikipedia

A post-rocky metal bombardment, Ashes Against the Grain is an absorbing and engrossing listen. It balances weight and atmosphere beautifully, with riffs that feel both windswept and punishing. There is a real sense of scale to it too - the album never just bludgeons, it stretches out, broods, and pulls you further into its glowing grey world.

8/10

“Back to Black is the second and final studio album by English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. Produced by Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, the album blends the sound of 1960s pop and soul groups with contemporary R&B and neo-soul. Its songs explore guilt, grief, infidelity, heartbreak and romantic trauma. With more than 20 million copies sold worldwide, it is one of the best-selling albums of all time.” - Wikipedia

This is just really good songwriting, spot-on production, and timeless vocals. It’s all there, from the smoky, late-night feel to the sharp, economical arrangements, and her voice carries it with ease. You can hear exactly why it’s held up the way it has.

Something still keeps me at arm’s length, I find myself appreciating it more than connecting with it, but I don’t think there’s any denying this is great.

8/10

8. The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance

“The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. It is a concept album centred on “the Patient,” a man with terminal cancer reflecting on his life as he approaches death. Its music encompasses emo, alternative rock, pop-punk, hard rock, punk rock and glam rock. The album received generally favourable reviews and reached number two in both the United States and the United Kingdom.” - Wikipedia

Memories of nights at the rock focused night-club at university flood my brain whenever I put this on: every melody belted out as if the world is ending, every chorus arriving with full ceremonial thunder. It is a well-crafted, epic journey of an album, and the sense of drama is palpable throughout, but it’s also just a little too theatrical for my tastes. That footballer who is beautiful to watch, but then dives over-dramatically.

8/10

7. Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not

Arctic Monkeys

“Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not is the debut studio album by English rock band Arctic Monkeys. Combining indie rock, garage rock and post-punk revival, its songs depict British nightlife, pub culture and young romance. The record became the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history and won both the 2006 Mercury Prize and the Brit Award for Best British Album.” - Wikipedia

There is bias here, no point pretending otherwise. I have lived in Arctic Monkeys’ native Sheffield for years now, and Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not was woven right through a lot of my formative sixth form years (though I didn’t live in Sheffield then).

That closeness probably makes it impossible for me to hear this album cold, but maybe that is part of its power. It still feels immediate: all cheap nights, bus rides, queueing outside clubs, street-corner observations and the cocky, funny, hyperlocal detail that made Alex Turner sound like he had nicked a notebook straight from the northern British youth culture I grew up in. Even now, it has a charge to it that most indie rock debuts never manage.

It is sharp, restless and vivid, and the songs come barrelling out with the kind of confidence bands spend whole careers chasing.

9/10

6. The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

Brand New

“The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is the third studio album by American rock band Brand New. Recorded with producer Mike Sapone, it marked the band’s major-label debut and a departure from its pop-punk origins towards alternative and indie rock. Its lyrics address existentialism, death, depression and religion. The record received positive reviews and has since been regarded as one of the most influential emo albums.” - Wikipedia

This one suffers a little from being so closely tied to a period of my life I don’t often want to revisit. Its explosive peaks and half-mumbled troughs soundtracked some real darkness, but that is also why it still lands with such force. Few albums make catharsis feel this raw.

There’s a constant push and pull, like the band can’t decide whether to whisper in your ear or knock the door off its hinges. When it swells, it’s tidal; when it shrinks back, it feels like the room’s gone oddly small. It keeps you on edge in a way that’s addictive.

Sometimes it’s nice to circle back, knowing you came out the other side intact. There’s something quietly satisfying in meeting those moments again and not flinching, like the album’s still screaming into the void but you’re no longer shouting with it, just nodding along.

A classic for me, even if it comes with some memories I’d rather leave boxed up.

9/10

“Game Theory is the seventh studio album by American hip-hop band the Roots. Their first release for the label, it adopts a darker and more stripped-down sound than the group’s previous work. Its lyrics address sociopolitical issues and pay tribute to the late hip-hop producer J Dilla. The album received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.” - Wikipedia

Here it is: my favourite Roots album, or at least so far. Game Theory feels alive in the moment, but never so burdened by its politics or mood that it forgets to move. It’s that politically aware, hyper-intelligent guy at the party who is pragmatic enough to still have, and be, a good time. Game Theory gets into your system through rhythm first, then lingers through atmosphere and detail.

The wholesome bass sound is a huge part of it. The whole record has this rich, warm low-end that gives even its darker tracks a kind of solidity and body. Around it, The Roots sound locked in and purposeful as always, pulling together neo-soul, jazz rap and a harder, more nocturnal edge without ever losing their groove.

A razor-sharp, deeply musical record that hits both the head and the body.

9/10

“Hell Hath No Fury is the second studio album by Virginia hip-hop duo Clipse, released in 2006 after several years of delays. Produced by The Neptunes, it was widely acclaimed for its dark, spare sound and sharp focus.” - Wikipedia

This is some of my absolute favourite hip-hop production: lively, strange, skeletal and luxurious all at once. The beats don’t just sit underneath the rapping; they stalk around the room, tapping glass bottles, slamming locker doors and occasionally doing something deeply unnecessary with a synth just because they can, and I love that.

Pusha T and Malice are excellent throughout, even if the rapping and lyrics don’t quite reach the gold-standard perfection of something like Illmatic. That’s no great insult, given very little does. What Hell Hath No Fury shares with Nas’s masterpiece is a certain soul: not in the warm, cosy sense, but in the feeling that every sound has been chosen with absolute purpose. It’s sharp and addictive.

The result is a record that feels endlessly replayable. Hip-hop as high-end machinery, polished until it gleams, then scraped along the tarmac.

9/10

“Donuts is the second studio album by American hip-hop producer J Dilla and the final album released during his lifetime. Stones Throw Records issued it on 7 February 2006—his 32nd birthday and three days before his death. The instrumental hip-hop album comprises 31 short, interconnected tracks built from samples of rock, jazz and soul recordings. Acclaimed for its dense and inventive sampling, Donuts is regarded as J Dilla’s defining work and one of hip-hop’s most influential albums.” - Wikipedia

Donuts feels like rifling through J Dilla’s impossibly cool musical notebook, only every half-finished thought turns out to have better rhythm than most people’s completed masterpieces.

It’s a sketchbook of soulful hip-hop ideas: brief, warm, strange, funny, mournful, and constantly inventive. Nothing hangs around too long, but almost everything leaves a little fingerprint on the brain. The whole thing is perfectly mixed and performed, full of tiny loops and chopped-up moments that seem casual until you realise how precisely they’ve been placed.

It works beautifully as background chill, the sort of record that can make washing up feel 68% cooler, but it also stands up to proper attentive listening. Lean in and there’s a whole miniature city of beats, samples, textures, and emotional left turns ticking away under the surface.

9/10

“Ys is Joanna Newsom’s second studio album, produced by Newsom and Van Dyke Parks, with orchestral arrangements by Parks. Made up of five long, intricate songs, it blends harp, voice and sweeping arrangements into something closer to progressive folk theatre than standard singer-songwriter fare.” - Wikipedia

Ys can be irritating unless you meet it on its own terms. The dynamic volume changes, unpredictable pitches and winding song structures make it a difficult album to half-listen to; put it on in the background and it might feel like someone has released a harp-playing woodland oracle into your kitchen. Give it proper attention, though, and it opens into a spectacular and unforgettable journey.

Part of that’s because attentive listening forces you to listen to the lyrics: they’re dense and poetic, but not just for show; they give the album its pulse, turning each song into something like a miniature play. But it’s also because it takes attentive listening to realise just how in the moment and alive Newsom’s vocal performance is here. Ys isn’t easy, and it doesn’t in any way demand to be liked, but there’s a huge reward in leaning in. A challenging record, but absolutely worth the effort.

9.5/10

1. Boys and Girls in America

The Hold Steady

“Boys and Girls in America is the third studio album by American rock band the Hold Steady. Preceded by the single “Chips Ahoy!”, the album brought the band wider prominence and received widespread critical acclaim. Its title comes from a lyric in “Stuck Between Stations,” which references Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On the Road.” - Wikipedia

The Hold Steady take their barroom mythology widescreen here, turning messy youth, bad decisions, and half-remembered nights into something triumphant and glossy.

This feels like a natural partner to Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Where that album is quintessentially British in its presentation of nightlife, parties, girls, cheap drinks, and pavement-level chaos, this one is very American: big, bold choruses, bar-band riffs, open-road romanticism, and the sense that every night out is the last of your life.

It helps that the playing is so full of life. Franz Nicolay’s sparkling piano is some of the most joyful instrument work of the decade, tumbling through the songs like someone has wheeled a pub piano into a college party determined to add even more energy to the already energetic proceedings. Craig Finn’s Kerouacian lyrics and gritty, half-spoken delivery blend perfectly with the more standard rock arrangements, giving the album a rough surface without sanding away its pulse.

It doesn’t have the serrated edge of Separation Sunday, but its smoothness fits the story perfectly. This is less a scrape along the kerb and more a glorious stumble down the boulevard, arms around your friends, shouting along to songs you all understand and feel completely. Another masterpiece.

9.5/10