Grammy Album of the Year Award Winners and Nominees

1961 nominee

1961 nominee

1961 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

2026 nominee

1960 nominee

1960 nominee I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed this album. But I really liked it. I see why Come Dance with Me won, but I think this is my favorite from this year’s nominees. I’ve always thought classical music was somewhat boring, but this album is making me question everything. I could see myself listening to this again. I’ve been surprised at how good the recording of the live albums have been thus far (both on this album and the Live at Carnegie Hall albums) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

1960 (nominee) Honestly, I’m surprised this album was nominated. The Music from Peter Gunn album that won 1959 made sense to me, but in comparison, I didn’t think this album was nearly as good. Especially considering the other albums that were nominated for this year (this year’s selections felt much higher quality to me than 1959’s). It was a fine listen, just not as tight of an album. For the most part it just felt like background music - im guessing it made a great soundtrack for the Peter Gunn tv show, I just didn’t think it was anything special on its own. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

1960 (nominee) this is the most rough and ready album on this list so far, and I REALLY enjoyed that. It felt like the songs had more texture and he does some interesting sounds with his voice. This was a departure from the smooth and, I don’t know, polite sounds from all of the albums that were nominated in 1959. I thought it was a good choice to leave in the bits where he talked to the crowd. I personally preferred the first half of the album, but considering this isn’t the kind of music I would generally listen to, I really enjoyed it and was delighted by some of the unexpected moments in the songs. I think this absolutely earned its place in the nominees for this category. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1960 winner First win for Ol’ Blue Eyes. This felt much more like what I expect from Frank Sinatra. Still not my favorite vibe - there are so many kitschy lyrics and cliches. But it was definitely fun dance music. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

1959 (nominee) This was such a breath of fresh air after three very slow albums. There were parts of it that felt a bit clunky (feels weird to give Tchaikovsky notes), but then there were also a few moments that were breathtaking. This has made me more open to listening to 20-minute-long songs in the future. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1959 (nominee) Props to the chairman of the board for getting nominated twice in one year! Truly impressive. However, again, the tempo just felt horribly slow. I liked the sad vibes, but I thought it was a bit overly sappy (which is shocking, considering how much emo I listen to 🖤). It felt a little phony to me. ⭐️⭐️

1959 (nominee) The song, “All By Myself” low key reminds me of “Mandy” from White Christmas. Ironically, “Heat Wave” was actually in White Christmas.

Her voice is so beautiful and well controlled, but the tempo always seems to be dragging a little bit. I was bored by this album as well. ⭐️⭐️

1959 (nominee) I liked that every song was travel themed. Otherwise, I expected to enjoy this album, but I found it fairly boring and slow tempoed. ⭐️⭐️

1959 winner The first ever album of the year winner. It’s interesting that the first winner was an instrumental album. I liked the sneaky, sleuthy vibes, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Was this what set the tone for private-eye movies going forward, or was that already an established sound? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️