Bally Studios Best Albums Of 2013
Although it sounds quite obvious, the whole reason why Bally Studios was originally set up, and the reason why the people that work there do so, was because we really, really, really love great music. And I mean, we really love it! Really, we do! Anyway, seeing as one of us, (Jimmy), had to gather together his favourite albums of the year for the various magazines he works for, we thought that we would create a Spotify Playlist of these albums, so that the people who come to us could check out the albums that were particularly excellent this year. We even created a sampler playlist too, so that you could hear one track from all 40 albums in less than 2 hours 19 mins.
1) No submitting an album until it has been listened to 5 times. (This year, 397 different albums, all released in 2013, reached this criteria. Over 1000 were listened to more than once.)
2) No “bumping” of albums of bands that we liked from previous years, and no elevating albums of bands that come to the studios. Each album is considered on it's own merits.
If there are any band that come to the studios that have released any albums, please leave us a note in the comments, and we will check them out with glee, and if there are any other albums that anyone thinks we have missed out, let us know also, and we will give then our full attention. It will give us something to do while making cups of tea and fixing snare stands. smile emoticon
(On another note, excellent work by Bally regulars “Allo Darlin”, who brought the band who is at #1, Les Sueques, to our attention. They supported them at their Barcelona Guitar Festival Show.)
1 – Les Sueques – Creme Les Perles
2 - The Virgins – Strike Gently
3 - Arctic Monkeys – AM
4 - Caitlin Rose – The Stand In
5 – Eels – Wonderful Glorious
6 - Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of The City
7 - Of Montreal - Lousy with Slylviabriar
8 – Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
9 - Laura Marling - Once I was An Eagle
10 – Jagwar Ma – Howlin
11 - Paul McCartney - New 12 - Arcade Fire - Reflektor 13 - Devendra Banhart – Mala 14 - Kanye West – Yezus 15 - Anna Calvi – One Breath 16 - Neils Children – Dimly Lit 17 - Primal Scream – More Light 18 - She & Him – Volume 3 19 - Haim – Days Are Gone 20 - Jake Bugg – Shangri La 21 - The Avett Brothers – Magpie and the Dandelion 22 - Camera Obscura - Desire Lines 23 - Noah And The Whale – Heart Of Nowhere 24 – Chvrches – The Bones Of What You Believe 25 – King Khan and The Shrines – Idle No More 26 - Kings Of Leon - Mechanical Bull 27 - Steve Mason – Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time 28 - Kurt Vile – Walkin On A Sunny Daze 29 - Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II 30 - BabyShambles – Sequel to the prequel 31 – Savages – Silence Yourself 32 - Elvis Costello and the Roots - Wise Up Ghost 33 – Bill Ryder-Jones – A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart. 34 - Antlered Man – The Devil Is Them 35 - Joanna Gruesome – Weird Sister 36 – Foals – Holy Fire 37 – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Specter At The Feast 38 - Darren Hayman - Bugbears 39 - James Skelly & The Intenders – Love Undercover 40 - The Dirtbombs – Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-Blooey.
