Billboard Names Hamilton Second Best Album of 2015

Credited to "Billboard Staff," the list is headlined "Billboard.com's 25 Best Albums of 2015: Critics' Picks."

No other cast album made the list.

The magazine wrote, "A Broadway cast album featuring diverse hip-hop, R&B, rap, and Broadway pop numbers about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton? Safe to say few people expected it to work. But work—or, to borrow the parlance of the show, werk—it does, even without the benefit of watching the performance. Because Hamilton is sung/rapped-through, essentially the entire show is on the two-disc album, allowing fans to fully experience the breadth of the immersive and cohesive music by creator/star Lin-Manuel Miranda."

The album was also the first Broadway cast album to land in the #1 spot on the Billboard rap chart.