Grammy Album of the Year Award Winners and Nominees

1962 nominee “Genius+Soul=Jazz” and stage actual nomination, but it’s only available on YouTube.

1962 nominee

1962 nominee

1962 nominee

1962 nominee

1962 winner

1961 nominee

1961 nominee

1961 nominee

1961 nominee

1961 nominee This was a great album. This was really similar to his first Carnegie Hall album, but I’d say I like this one even more. I slightly preferred the music selection in this album, and he felt looser and more fun when he took breaks to chat for a bit. I think this would have been my choice for winner this year.
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1961 winner This is just so weird that this won the category. The album had funny moments, and I love his dry humor. I would guess that this might have been pretty cutting edge humor for the early ’60’s. It felt more pinpointed and cutting than other comedy I’m familiar with from the time (I Love Lucy, Burns and Allen, etc.) If this dropped today, it would feel pretty boring and dated, but for a ‘60’s comedy album, I thought he did a good job.
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2026 nominee I’m not very up to date on JB lore, so I think some of this is going over my head. But I thought it was hilarious that he referenced his standing on business fiasco 🤣 Overall, I thought the album was fine, it just didn’t really hold my interest (which was s pretty much par for the course for me when it comes to his music).
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2026 nominee I have nothing to say about this album. I listened to it multiple times, and even in the middle of listening to it, I forgot what it sounded like. This had no handle for me to hold on to. ⭐️

2026 nominee The throwback idea for this album was fun (zombie boy sent me), but it ultimately fell flat for me. I can see this being really fun for little monsters, but if I wanted to listen to og Gaga, I would turn to her old albums, not this. The nostalgic take was fun, I just wished it would have been infused with something more fresh. Instead, I spent most songs slightly annoyed, trying to figure out what this song reminded me of.
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2026 nominee this wasn’t exactly groundbreaking, but Sab did find a unique sound that matched her theme, and she carried both through the album beautifully. This felt like a natural progression from Short n Sweet, and it dovetailed with the persona she’s already created for herself quite well. My only complaints are that it didn’t feel quite New enough after short n sweet. Allll of the sexual innuendo felt a bit stale and over the top for me in this album. I felt like she was beating a dead horse with this one. The album overall is fine, but I probably wouldn’t listen to the whole album through. She really does carefree, “got along without ya before I met ya, gonna get along without you now” exceptionally well, and that’s a glorious, good time any time it comes up in her music. Looking at you “Goodbye”, you fabulous album closer, you.
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2026 nominee I was floored by how much I enjoyed this. Definitely not a perfect album, but I enjoyed it a lot. Like, enough that I’ve done some looking into clipse, spent time thinking about the lyrics, and I’m interested in hearing more by clipse/registering to the album. I think this would have been my choice for winner. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2026 nominee I wanted to like this more, but I just didn’t really. I don’t really like his voice, and I don’t like the vibe of so many diss tracks. I can see why he would be so popular, again, this just isn’t a vibe that enjoyed. The rapping was good, production was good, and the music was reasonably compelling, so it’s definitely not trash garbage level, but I really didn’t enjoy it. ⭐️⭐️

2026 winner I liked this album. I’m not sure I would want to intentionally listen to it again, but I generally enjoyed it. I obviously didn’t follow the lyrics, and there were times when I got a bit bored since it’s such chill music, but overall I liked it more than I expected since this isn’t a style of music I generally enjoy. This feels like a low rating, but because of my personal taste: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

2026 nominee I was surprised (and delighted) by how much I liked this album. It didn’t feel particularly groundbreaking, but I enjoyed it and Tyler the Creator has been making quite a splash this year, so this feels like a solid nominee for this category. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1960 nominee This was the soundtrack for a docuseries (which was later also turned into a documentary) that set the tone for how world war 2 has been documented in American culture. They did a great job making it sound like music from the 1940’s, and I’m guessing it probably blended really well with the show. But like the other soundtracks I’ve heard so far on this list, it still felt like a background album, not something I would expect in the album of the year category. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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. For this year, I think this would have been my choice for the winner. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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. ⭐️⭐️.5

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.
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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.
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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?
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