Q 50 Albums of 2013

Oh my god... aliens!!

Arctic Monkeys top the Q chart of 2013, out on the #330 issue of the magazine. We also start to see some frequent high flyers: Vampire Weekend, David Bowie, Daft Punk, John Grant. No Arcade Fire here: did Q staff deeply hate Reflektor or did they simply make this chart before its late october distribution? If they care for this kind of lists, I guess artists should start considering never releasing an album later than september/october. Finally, Pearl Jam are in here, too. Old Seattle boy in me is happy.

Enjoy.

P.S. Other end-of-2013 playlists (Mojo, Zane Lowe, Revolver Mag, Rough Trade Shops, Amazon...): are here.

Q 50 ALBUMS OF 2013

(full albums, from #1 to #50)

(3 tracks each album, from #1 to #50)

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Full list

Strikethrough albums (3/50) are not available on Spotify. Bill Callahan and My Bloody Valentine are the usual spotimissing acts from this batch of end-of-year lists. Prefab Sprout and Primal Scream are not available in some countries (like Italy), but should be available in others (they are in the playlists).

1. Arctic Monkeys - AM
2. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
3. David Bowie - The Next Day
4. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
5. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
6. Manic Street Preachers - Rewind the Film
7. Cass McCombs - Big Wheel and Others
8. Bill Ryder-Jones - A Bad Wind Blows
9. John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts
10. Haim - Days Are Gone
11. Jagwar Ma - Howlin'
12. My Bloody Valentine - mbv
13. Steve Mason - Monkey Minds in the Devil's Time
14. Queens of the Stone Age - …Like Clockwork
15. Foals - Holy Fire
16. Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon
17. Matthew E White - Big Inner
18. Laura Marling - Once I Was an Eagle
19. Factory Floor - Factory Floor
20. Biffy Clyro - Opposites
21. Palma Violets – 180
22. Suede – Bloodsports
23. Disclosure – Settle
24. Empire of the Sun – Ice on the Dune
25. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
26. Kanye West – Yeezus
27. Bill Callahan – Dream River
28. Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
29. Daniel Avery – Drone Logic
30. Pet Shop Boys – Electric
31. Janelle Monáe – The Electric Lady
32. Savages - Silence Yourself
33. Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
34. Prefab Sprout – Crimson/Red
35. Devendra Banhart – Mala
36. Kurt Vile – Wakin on a Pretty Daze
37. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
38. Goldfrapp – Tales of Us
39. AlunaGeorge – Body Music
40. Run the Jewels – Run the Jewels
41. Neon Neon – Praxis Makes Perfect
42. These New Puritans – Fields of Reeds
43. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual
44. Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt
45. Sigur Rós – Kveikur
46. James Blake – Overgrown
47. The Strokes – Comedown Machine
48. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum
49. Primal Scream – More Light
50. Mazzy Star – Seasons of Your Day

Zane Lowe (BBC1) 100 Hottest Records of 2013

Would you buy a used car from this man? Maybe not.
But honestly, why would you look for a used car on a Spotify website? 
(image source)  

Something different! This playlist is not based on a printed or online magazine critics' list. It depends on the 100 hottest songs of 2013 according to Zane Lowe. The BBC Radio 1 dj has published the whole list, alphabetical, not ranked, on BBC Radio 1 website. You can go there and choose your favourite one, until 8.00 pm (UK time, I suppose) on Friday the 6th december. From 16th december to 19th december, Zane Lowe will countdown the resulting chart on air. What better than a Spotify playlist to wisely choose your #1?

Enjoy.

P.S. Here you can find other Spotirama end-of-2013 playlists (Mojo, Amazon, Jazzwise, Rough Trade Shops, Revolver Magazine...) 

ZANE LOWE (BBC RADIO1) 100 HOTTEST RECORDS OF 2013

(from A to Z)

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Full list

Strikethrough songs (8/100) are not available on Spotify. A couple of songs are not the actual versions chosen by Zane Lowe (he picked Radio1 Session of Kings of Leon's Beautiful War and Madeon Mix of Muse's Panic Station: I just found the original studio versions).

A$AP Rocky – Wild for the Night (feat. Skrillex & Birdy Nam Nam)
AlunaGeorge – Attracting Flies
Angel Haze – Echelon (It's My Way)
Arcade Fire – Afterlife
Arctic Monkeys – Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?
Bipolar Sunshine – Love More Worry Less
Bombay Bicycle Club – Carry Me
Bring Me The Horizon – Shadow Moses
Brookes Brothers – Carry Me On (feat. Chrom3)
Catfish and the Bottlemen – Rango
Cerebral Ballzy - Be Your Toy
Chase & Status – Lost & Not Found (feat. Louis M^ttrs)
CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share
Circa Waves - Get Away
Crystal Fighters – You & I
Daughter – Human
Deap Vally – Baby I Call Hell
Disclosure – White Noise (feat. AlunaGeorge)
Disclosure – You & Me (feat. Eliza Doolittle) (Baauer Remix)
DJ Fresh & Diplo - Earthquake (feat. Dominique Young Unique)
Drenge – Bloodsports
Eminem – Headlights (feat. Nate Ruess)
Empire Of The Sun – Alive
Enter Shikari – The Paddington Frisk
Fall Out Boy – The Phoenix
FIDLAR – Awkward
Frank Turner – Recovery
Fryars – Cool Like Me
Gesaffelstein – Hate Or Glory
Gorgon City - Ready For Your Love (feat. MNEK) 
Haim – The Wire
Half Moon Run – Call Me In The Afternoon
Hot Natured – Isis (feat. The Egyptian Lover)
I See MONSTAS – Messiah
Jagwar Ma – Man I Need
Jake Bugg – What Doesn't Kill You
James Blake – Retrograde
Jay-Z – Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
Joel Compass – Run (feat. Pusha T)
Joey Bada$$ – My Yout (feat. Maverick Sabre)
John Newman – Love Me Again
Josh Record – The War
Katy B - Crying For No Reason
King Krule – Easy Easy
Kings Of Leon – Beautiful War
Knife Party – EDM Death Machine
Laura Marling – Master Hunter
Lewis Watson - Calling
Lil Silva – Salient Sarah (feat. Sampha)
London Grammar – Strong
Lonely The Brave – Backroads
M.I.A. – Bring The Noize
M83 – Oblivion (feat. Susanne Sundfør)
Mallory Knox – Beggars
Marika Hackman – Bath Is Black
Metronomy – I'm Aquarius
Miles Kane – Don't Forget Who You Are
Muse – Panic Station
Nine Inch Nails – Came Back Haunted
Noah And The Whale – There Will Come A Time
Palma Violets – We Found Love
Peace – Follow Baby
Phoenix – Entertainment
POLIÇA – Chain My Name
Queens Of The Stone Age – My God Is the Sun
Rudimental – Waiting All Night (feat. Ella Eyre)
Ruen Brothers – Walk Like A Man
Saint Raymond - Young Blood
Sam Smith – Nirvana
Sampha – Too Much
Savages – She Will
Sebastian Ingrosso & Tommy Trash – Reload
Showtek – Booyah (feat. We Are Loud & Sonny Wilson)
Sia – Elastic Heart (feat. The Weeknd & Diplo)
Skream – Rollercoaster (feat. Sam Frank)
Sub Focus – Turn It Around (feat. Kele)
TC – Get Down Low
The 1975 – Chocolate
The Child of Lov – Fly
The Killers – Shot At The Night
The Naked And Famous – Hearts Like Ours
The Strokes – One Way Trigger
The Strypes – Blue Collar Jane
The Vaccines – Melody Calling
The Weeknd – Kiss Land
The Wombats – Your Body Is A Weapon
The xx – Sunset (Jamie xx Edit)
These New Puritans – Fragment Two
Tinie Tempah – Children Of The Sun (feat. John Martin)
Tom Odell – Hold Me
Twenty One Pilots – Holding On To You
Two Door Cinema Club – Changing Of The Seasons
Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
Warpaint – Love Is to Die
White Lies – There Goes Our Love Again
Wilkinson – Afterglow
Wretch 32 - Blackout (feat. Shakka)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Sacrilege
You Me at Six - Lived a Lie
Yuck – Middle Sea

Amazon (US) Best Songs of 2013

We already looked at the best of 2013 according to some historical record shops (Rough Trade), now let's jump the digital shark and go Amazon. The king of ecommerce - American side - published its choices in six different charts: Best Albums (CD), Best Albums (MP3), Best Songs, Best-selling CDs, Best-selling MP3 albums and Best-selling Songs. You can browse all them here. I decided to spotify only the Best Songs list: a rather colourful (not ranked) mix of mainstream pop, hip hop, EDM and alternative rock, collecting quite everything from Arctic Monkeys to Avicii, from Daughter to Jay-Z, from Haim to Lorde, from Justin Timberlake to The National, from Lana Del Rey to Phosphorescent, from Miley Cyrus to Pissed Jeans. Maybe not the best mixtape of the year, likely the more accurate airplay soundtrack of it.

Enjoy.

(full list of Spotirama end-of-2013 Spotify playlists is here)

AMAZON (US) BEST SONGS OF 2013

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Full list

Strikethrough songs are not available on Spotify. Extravagantly, Amazon list includes 97 songs and not 100: Ancient Gods of Round Numbers won't be pleased.

alt-J - Breezeblocks
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?
Autre Ne Veut - Play by Play
Avicii - Wake Me Up
Banks - Warm Water
Bastille - Pompeii
Born Ruffians - Needle
Boy - Little Numbers
Capital Cities - Safe and Sound
Charli XCX - Stay Away
Chela - Romanticise (Original Mix)
Chris Young - Aw Naw
Churchill - Change
Chvrches - The Mother We Share
Cold War Kids - Miracle Mile
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Daughter - Human
Diane Birch - Speak A Little Louder
Disclosure - Latch (feat. Sam Smith)
Drake - Started From The Bottom
Drgn King - Wild Night
Empire Of The Sun - Alive
Fitz & The Tantrums - Out Of My League
Flume - Holdin On
Foals - Inhaler
Foxygen - San Francisco
Foy Vance - Closed Hand, Full of Friends
French Horn Rebellion - Girls (feat. JD Samson and Fat Tony)
Ghost Beach - Been There Before
Great Good Fine OK - You're the One for Me
Grouplove - Ways To Go
Haim - Falling
Hanni El Khatib - Penny
Icona Pop - I Love It (feat. Charli XCX)
Jagwar Ma - What Love
James Blake - Retrograde
Jamie N Commons - Rumble And Sway
Janelle Monáe - Primetime (feat. Miguel)
Jason Isbell - Elephant
Jay-Z - Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake)
Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments
Johnnyswim - Heart Beats
Junip - So Clear
Justin Timberlake - Mirrors
Kacey Musgraves - Blowin' Smoke
Kanye West - New Slaves
Kings Of Leon - Supersoaker
Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness (Lana Del Rey vs. Cedric Gervais) (Cedric Gervais Remix)
Laura Mvula - Green Garden
Lee Dewyze - Silver Lining
Lightning Dust - Diamond
Little Daylight - Overdose
London Grammar - Wasting My Young Years
Lorde - Royals
Luke Bryan - Crash My Party
M.I.A. - Bring The Noize
Maggie Rose - I Ain't Your Mama
Magic Trick - Invisible at Midnight
Mariah Carey - #Beautiful (feat. Miguel)
Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball
Neko Case - Calling Cards
New Politics - Harlem
Olympic Ayres - Magic
OneRepublic - Counting Stars
Papa - Young Rut
Parmalee - Carolina
Phoenix - Trying to Be Cool
Phosphorescent - Song For Zula
Pickwick - Hacienda Motel
Pillowfight - Used to Think
Pissed Jeans - Bathroom Laughter
Portugal. The Man - Purple Yellow Red and Blue
Randy Houser - How Country Feels
Rhye - Last Dance
Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines (feat. T.I. & Pharrell)
Russian Circles - 1777
Rykka - Blackie
Said the Whale - I Love You
San Fermin - Sonsick
Smallpools - Dreaming
Strange Talk - Cast Away
Tegan and Sara - Closer
Telekinesis - Wires
The 1975 - Menswear
The Arrows - Slow Motion
The Colourist - Little Games
The Head and the Heart - Shake
The National - Pink Rabbits
The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather
The Problem - Like Whaaat (feat. Bad Lucc)
Thee Oh Sees - Toe Cutter - Thumb Buster
Tim McGraw - Highway Don't Care (feat. Taylor Swift, Keith Urban)
Vampire Weekend - Diane Young
Walk Off the Earth - Red Hands
Washed Out - It All Feels Right
Young Galaxy - Pretty Boy
Zendaya - Replay

Mojo Top 50 Albums of 2013

Heavyweights are coming. British monthly magazine Mojo just put online its Top 50 Albums of 2013, published on #242 / January2014 issue. Predictably, it's a strong one. I'm very happy to find a lot of my personal favourites: Daft Punk, David Bowie, Arctic Monkeys, Queens of the Stone Age, Arcade Fire, Laura Marling, Manic Steet Preachers, These New Puritans, Julia Holter. #1 is Bill Callahan's Dream River: sadly, one of the very few albums missing from Spotify (detailed data are under the playlists).

As usual, I made two spotilists: the former is with full albums, the latter with 3 tracks each album.

For a complete list of Spotirama playlists based on end-of-2013 charts, check here.

Enjoy.

MOJO TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2013

(full albums, from #1 to #50)

(3 tracks each album, from #1 to #50)

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Full list

Strikethrough albums (3/50) are not available on Spotify. Prefab Sprout's and Primal Scream's albums are not available in Italy, while they are maybe available in other countries (both are in the playlists).

1. Bill Callahan – Dream River 
2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
3. David Bowie – The Next Day
4. Arctic Monkeys – AM
5. John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts
6. Deerhunter – Monomania
7. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City
8. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy Lavalle – Perils From The Sea
9. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away
10. John Murry – The Graceless Age
11. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
12. Prefab Sprout – Crimson/Red
13. My Bloody Valentine – m b v
14. Holden – The Inheritors
15. Queens Of The Stone Age – ...Like Clockwork
16. Factory Floor – Factory Floor
17. Charles Bradley – Victim Of Love
18. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
19. Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon
20. Pet Shop Boys – Electric
21. Mavis Staples – One True Vine
22. Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle
23. Earl Sweatshirt – Doris
24. Eleanor Friedberger – Personal Record
25. James Blake – Overgrown
26. Villagers – {AwayLand}
27. Disclosure – Settle
28. Manic Street Preachers – Rewind The Film
29. Jon Hopkins – Immunity
30. Primal Scream – More Light
31. Elvis Costello And The Roots – Wise Up Ghost And Other Songs
32. Glenn Jones – My Garden State
33. Billy Bragg – Tooth & Nail
34. Karen Gwyer – Needs Continuum
35. Midlake – Antiphon
36. Low – The Invisible Way
37. Cate Le Bon – Mug Museum
38. Kanye West – Yeezus
39. Roy Harper – Man & Myth
40. Black Sabbath – 13
41. Goldfrapp – Tales Of Us
42. Paul McCartney – New
43. Haim – Days Are Gone
44. Johnny Marr – The Messenger
45. These New Puritans – Fields Of Reeds
46. Foxygen – We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic
47. Julia Holter – Loud City Song
48. The Flaming Lips – The Terror
49. Tim Hecker – Virgins
50. Time Is A Mountain – Time Is A Mountain

Jazzwise Top 20 New Releases 2013

Wayne Shorter (source: www.wayneshorter.com)

A bit of contemporary jazz. Rather incomplete, since I just found 11 albums out of the 20 charted by jazzwise magazine. It's available in two forms: full albums for completists and 3-tracks-each-album for quicktasters.

Enjoy.

(a complete list of Spotirama end-of-2013 spotiplaylists is here)

JAZZWISE TOP 20 NEW RELEASES 2013

(full albums, from #1 to #20)

(3 tracks each album, from #1 to #20)

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Full list:
(strikethrough albums not available on Spotify)

1. Wayne Shorter Quartet – Without A Net
2. Kenny Garrett – Pushing The World Away
3. Stan Tracey – The Flying Pig
4. Sons Of Kemet – Burn
5. Terri Lyne Carrington – Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue
6. Rudresh Mahanthappa – Gamack
7. Geri Allen – Grand River Crossings
8. Kairos 4tet – Everything We Hold
9. Kenny Wheeler/Norma Winstone – Mirrors
10. Cecile McLorin Salvant – WomanChild
10. Ralph Alessi – Baida
10. Jaimeo Brown – Transcendence
13. Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow – Trios
13. Liane Carroll - Ballads
15. Quercus - Quercus
15. Dave Holland - Prism
17. Gregory Porter – Liquid Spirit
18. Craig Taborn – Chants
18. Wallace Roney – Understanding
(missing #20)

NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

The old and dusty U2 fan in me is screaming like a screamapillar. How could someone dare to pick just one U2 record in a Top 500 albums of all time chart? Relegating it at #424? And it's not even Achtung Baby! Well, that's not the only blasphemy of this NME Top 500, a very recent chart (october). So recent that it even already includes some 2013 albums, like Arctic Monkeys' AM and Daft Punk's Random Access Memories.

NME staff made some very different choices from the famous Rolling Stone's Top500 (spotified a long time ago, I should update it...) and from any usual strongly-sixties-oriented all time list: here we have far more British artists, more contemporary bands and some really bold moves, like putting Rolling Stones out of the Top 20 (and Arctic Monkeys, Strokes, Arcade Fire, Pulp, PJ Harvey and My Bloody Valentine in).

At the end, I kind of like it. You may not agree with NME choices (I don't agree with many of them...), but this list has the pleasant sound of a kill-the-old-idols manifesto. In a retromaniac world like the one we're living in, filled with oh-so-boring voices repeating that 60s and 70s were better and that we're all doomed, it's good to meet a different vision of the things. So, at least for one playlist (a 374-hour long one), fuck the screamapillar and welcome to a Britannia-ruled fantasy.

Enjoy (below the playlist, I put some more data, stats and comparisons between NME and RS chart)

NME'S THE 500 GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME

(5854 tracks, 374 hours, 470 albums available on Spotify, from #500 to #1)

EXTRA DATA AND STATS

You can browse the full NME 500 list here.

How many albums NME Top500 share with Rolling Stone Top500?

The full charts, I don't know. But in first 50 positions I counted just 18 shared superclassics: 

Revolver by The Beatles

Velvet Underground & Nico by Velvet Underground & Nico

White Album by The Beatles

Horses by Patti Smith

Nevermind by Nirvana

It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public Enemy

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust... by David Bowie

Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones

What's Going On by Marvin Gaye

Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

Abbey Road by The Beatles

Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan

Forever Changes by Love

Never Mind the Bollocks... by Sex Pistols

London Calling by The Clash

Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Innervsions by Stevie Wonder

Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.

And they definitely do not agree on the #1: Rolling Stone picked The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (#87 on NME chart), while NME chose The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead (#218 on Rolling Stone's).

Further visual evidence of the difference between the two charts: albums distribution by years (Top100).

Rolling Stone Greatest 500 (top 100 albums)

NME Greatest 500 (top 100 albums)

Finally, NME500 albums I haven't found on Spotify: 

#492 Hidden (These New Puritans)
#443 Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (Bill Callahan)
#401 20 Jazz Funk Greats (Throbbing Gristle)
#386 Revival (Gillian Welch)
#373 There's No Place Like America Today (Curtis Mayfield)
#372 Big Black (Atomizer)
#365 Fresh Fruit For Rotten Vegetables (Dead Kennedys)
#337 The Grey Album (Danger Mouse)
#297 Ege Bamyasi (Can)
#279 Trout Mask Replica (Captain Beefheart & His Magical Band)
#264 Please Please Me (The Beatles)
#253 Exile On Main St. (Pussy Galore)
#231 The Chronic (Dr. Dre)
#227 Imagine (John Lennon)
#197 Back In Black (AC/DC)
#195 A Hard Day's Night (The Beatles)
#191 Elastica (Elastica)
#173 Led Zeppelin III (Led Zeppelin)
#169 Don't Stand Me Down (Dexys Midnight Runners)
#142 Histoire de Melody Nelson (Serge Gainsbourg)
#138 Illinois (Sufjan Stevens)
#133 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band)
#120 3 Feet High and Rising (De La Soul)
#106 Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin)
#87 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)
#83 The Band (The Band)
#59 In Rainbows (Radiohead)
#43 Rubber Soul (The Beatles)
#34 Abbey Road (The Beatles)
#9 White Album (The Beatles)

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Time Out Los Angeles' 100 Greatest Songs for an Epic Party

(source)

Carly Rae Jepsen, Rick Astley, Erasure, Wham!, Vanilla Ice, Psy, Ke$ha, Right Said Fred...

I know that for this one I will go to hell.
But at least it will be funny.

Or maybe I've already been punished, in discovering - just after having picked the songs - that Time Out Los Angeles had already made its own Spotify playlist of its chart.

Well, what's done, is done...

... musical spectrum here is wide (Nirvana and Sean Paul, The Clash and One Direction, Blur and Lionel Richie, Paula Abdul and Devo in the same playlist: iconoclast!)...

... and, btw, Take On Me is undoubtedly a great song.

Enjoy.

P.S. Just two songs missing: Poison (Bel Biv Devoe, #9) and Jump (Kriss Kross, #66). Spotify has a secret dirty party soul.

TIME OUT LOS ANGELES' 100 GREATEST SONGS FOR AN EPIC PARTY
(from #1 to #100)

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MOJO 20 - Best of 1993-2012 (Top20 & Top100 albums, voted by readers)

Sometimes you meet a list that mirrors who you are. It doesn't happen very often. Here at Spotirama, it's easier that I make playlists based on artist/genres I don't know or that just marginally/partially fit with my preferences. This is one of the rare occasions I do like (and feel musically represented by) almost all the music I put in a playlist. Thanks to Mojo, the brit magazine, that just turned 20 and published a special issue celebrating the event.

Some lists are in the magazine. The first one collects The 20 Greatest Albums of Mojo's Lifetime, as voted by readers. The second one includes the runners up, too: 100 albums, five per year. I spotified them: just one album is missing from the Top 20 (In Rainbows by Radiohead, #14), while five more are out of the big one: Wrecking Ball (Emmylou Harris), Rounds (Four Tet),  Sometimes, I Wish I Was An Eagle (Bill Callahan), Have One On Me (Joanna Newsom) and El Camino (Black Keys). 

I do love this music, especially albums from the 1990s (most of them I voraciously consumed in the pre-Internet era). 

Happy birthday Mojo... and enjoy.

TOP 20 ALBUMS OF MOJO's LIFETIME

(1993-2012, voted by readers, ranked from #20 to #1)

(source & full list: Mojo)

100 ALBUMS THAT SHOOK THE LAST 20 YEARS

(voted by Mojo readers, chronologically from 1993 to 2012)

(source & full list: Rocklist.net)

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Rough Trade Shops' Top 100 Albums of 2013

Trust me, John: you are #1

John Grant's Pale Green Ghosts is Rough Trade Shops album of the year. You can find the whole list (100 albums) here. Top 10 includes Savages, Matthew E. White, Daniel Avery, Thee Oh Sees, Jon Hopkins, Valerie June, Moderat, Parquet Courts & Jessica Pratt. These ten albums are all available on Spotify, while I haven't found other twelve records in the list: mbv (My Bloody Valentine, #13), Caramel (Connan Mockasin, #14), 02 (Satellites, #37), More Light (Primal Scream, #39), Swisher (Blondes, #40), Amok (Atoms For Peace, #47), Long Distance Song Effects (Goldheart Assembly, #53), Dream River (Bill Callahan, #55), Understated (Edwyn Collins, #72), Apocalypse (Thundercat, #80), Water On Mars (Purling Hiss, #82), Beautiful Rewind (Four Tet, 100).

Two playlists available: full albums and 3 tracks each album.

Enjoy.

Previously on the End of Year 2013 series:
Pretty Much Amazing (best 50 songs and 40 albums)
Renowned For Sound (best albums)
Revolver Magazine (top 20 albums)

ROUGH TRADE SHOPS' TOP 100 ALBUMS OF 2013

(full albums, from #1 to #100)

ROUGH TRADE SHOPS' TOP 100 ALBUMS OF 2013

(3 tracks each album, from #1 to #100)

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Revolver Mag Top 20 Albums of 2013

Sometimes they come back. Well, in rock music, many times they come back. But not often old and honourable acts from the XX century have the quid Black Sabbath showed in their comeback album 13. A quid that allowed Ozzy & C. to rule the Top Albums of the Year chart by Revolver Magazine. #2 is occupied by Deafheaven's Sunbather, #3 by Avenged Sevenfold's Hail To The King. Choices reflect the metal/rock orientation of the magazine. All 20 albums are available on Spotify and they are collected - #20 to #1 - in this playlist.

Enjoy.

REVOLVER MAG TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2013

(from #20 to #1)

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Renowned For Sound's Best Albums of 2013

Slowly but steadily, end-of-year lists are starting to flow from around the world. This come from australian-based website Renowned For Sound. It's not a chart, but a list of 50 albums published in 2013. A strange one. Likely one of the few that will put together Miley Cyrus and Laura Marling, Arcade Fire and Turin Brakes, Icona Pop and Queens of the Stone Age. And so on. On Renowned For Sound, you can find some explanations about why every single album was picked. Here you have the full list (on the bottom) and the two usual playlists: full albums & 3 tracks each album (picked by Renowned For Sound, too).

Enjoy.

RENOWNED FOR SOUND'S BEST ALBUMS OF 2013

(full albums)

RENOWNED FOR SOUND'S BEST ALBUMS OF 2013

(3 tracks each album)

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THE LIST
(source: Renowned For Sound)
Strikethrough albums are not available on Spotify (3/50)

A Day to Remember: Common Courtesy
Alison Moyet: the minutes
AlunaGeorge: Body Music
Amos Lee: Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song
Arcade Fire: Reflektor
Arctic Monkeys: AM
Charli XCX: True Romance
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories
David Bowie: The Next Day
Dido: Girl Who Got Away
Ellie Goulding: Halycon Days
Eminem: Marshall Mathers LP 2
Fall Out Boy: Save Rock and Roll
Forest Fire: Screens
Franz Ferdinand: Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Goldfrapp: Tales of Us
Haim: Days are Gone
Icona Pop: This is Icona Pop
Jimmy Eat World: Damage
John Newman: Tribute
Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience Part 2
Kanye West: Yeezus
Katy Perry: Prism
Lady Antebellum: Golden
Lady Gaga: ARTPOP
Laura Marling: Once I Was An Eagle
Lisa Loeb: No Fairy Tale
Little Scout: Are You Life
Lorde: Pure Heroine
Luscious Jackson: Magic Hour
Miley Cyrus: Bangerz
Moby: Innocents
Moderat: II
Neko Case: The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
Newton Faulkner: Studio Zoo
Paul McCartney: New
Paula Cole: Raven
Phoenix: Bankrupt
Queens of the Stone Age: …Like Clockwork
Robin Thicke: Blurred Lines
Shane Filan: You and Me
St Lucia: When the Night
Tegan and Sara: Heartthrob
Texas: The Conversation
The Fratellis: We Need Medicine
Tina Arena: Reset 
Tonight Alive: The Other Side
TRAAMS: Grin
Turin Brakes: We Were Here
VV Brown: Samson & Delilah

The 100 Best and Absolute Greatest Heavy Metal Albums in the World Ever

About 20 years ago, at high school, under request, a friend of mine made me a "best of heavy metal" tape. I remember the sense of epic I felt listening for the first time to Iron Maiden's The Trooper. God, that was music! Actually, my metal epiphany lasted a couple of weeks. In that same tape, that friend of mine put some Pearl Jam and Nirvana songs. And I picked the grunge road.

This amazing anecdote is to say heavy metal is another of the infinite music genres I'm rather ignorant about. Ignorant, but voraciously curious. Even if I'm not in high school, anymore. So welcome to the lovely and humbly named "The 100 Best and Absolute Greatest Heavy Metal Albums in the World Ever" Spotify playlist, based from the book of the same name.

With the like of Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Danzig, Deftones, Dream Theater, Guns n'Roses, Iron Maiden (The Trooper included, yes!), Judas Priest, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Mastodon, Metallica, Motley Crue, Neurosis, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, Sepultura, Slayer, Slipknot, System of a Down, Van Halen, White Zombie and many more.

Full list is below the playlists. Plural: one playlist with complete albums and the second one with three tracks each album.

Loudly enjoy.

THE 100 BEST AND ABSOLUTE GREATEST HEAVY METAL ALBUMS 
IN THE WORLD EVER

(full albums)

THE 100 BEST AND ABSOLUTE GREATEST HEAVY METAL ALBUMS 
IN THE WORLD EVER

(3 tracks each album)

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The full list (source).

In alphabetical order, by artist. Strikethrough albums (9/100) are not available on Spotify.

Accept, 'Balls To The Wall' (1983)

AC/DC, 'Highway To Hell' (1979)

AC/DC, 'Back In Black (1980)

Alice Cooper, 'Billion Dollar Babies' (1973)

Alice In Chains, 'Dirt' (1992) 

All Shall Perish, 'The Price Of Existence' (2006) 

Anthrax, 'Among The Living' (1987) 

Arch Enemy, 'Burning Bridges' (1999) 

At The Gates, 'Slaughter Of The Soul' (1995) 

Behemoth, 'Demigod' (2004) 

Benighted, 'Icon' (2007) 

Black Label Society, 'Hangover Music Vol VI' (2004) 

Black Sabbath, 'Black Sabbath' (1970) 

Black Sabbath, 'Paranoid' (1970) 

Black Sabbath, 'Heaven And Hell' (1980) 

Bruce Dickinson, 'The Chemical Wedding' (1998) 

Candlemass, 'Nightfall' (1987) 

Cannibal Corpse, 'Tomb Of The Mutilated' (1992) 

Carcass, 'Heartwork' (1993) 

Cradle Of Filth, 'Damnation And a Day: From Genesis To Nemesis' (2003) 

Danzig, 'Danzig' (1988) 

Dark Tranquility, 'The Gallery' (1985) 

Death, 'Human' (1991) 

Deicide, 'Deicide' (1990) 

Despised Icon, 'The Ills Of Modern Man' (2007) 

Deep Purple, 'Machine Head' (1971) 

Deftones, 'Around The Fur' (1997) 

The Dillinger Escape Plan, 'Miss Machine' (2004) 

Dimmu Borgir, 'Death Cult Armageddon' (2003) 

Dio, 'Holy Diver' (1983) 

Dream Theater, 'Images And Words' (1992) 

Entombed, 'Wolverine Blues' (1991) 

Exodus, 'Bonded By Blood' (1985) 

Gamma Ray, 'Land Of The Free' (1995) 

Godsmack, 'IV' (2006) 

Gojira, 'The Way Of All Flesh' (2008) 

Guns N' Roses, 'Appetite For Destruction' (1987) 

Helloween, 'Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt ll' (1988) 

Hammerfall, 'Legacy Of Kings' (1998) 

The Haunted, 'Made Me Do It' (2000) 

In Flames, 'Whoracle' (1997) 

Iron Maiden, 'The Number Of The Beast' (1982) 

Iron Maiden, 'Piece Of Mind' (1983) 

Iron Maiden, 'Powerslave' (1984) 

Isis, 'Panopticon' (2004) 

Judas Priest, 'British Steel' (1980) 

Judas Priest, 'Painkiller' (1990) 

King Diamond, 'Abigail' (1987) 

Killswitch Engage, 'The End Of Heartache' (2004) 

Kiss, 'Kiss' (1974) Kiss, 'Destroyer' (1976) 

Korn, 'Korn' (1994) 

Korn, 'Follow The Leader' (1998) 

Kreator, 'Pleasure To Kill' (1986) 

Lamb Of God, 'Sacrament' (2006) 

Machine Head, 'The Blackening' (2007) 

Marily Manson, 'Antichrist Superstar' (1996) 

Mastodon, 'Leviathan' (2004) 

Mayhem, 'Wolf's Lair Abyss' (1997) 

Megadeath, 'Rust In Peace' (1990) 

Mercyful Fate, 'Don't Break The Oath' (1984) 

Meshuggah, 'Destroy Erase Improve' (1995) 

Metallica, 'Ride The Lightning' (1984) 

Metallica, 'Master Of Puppets' (1986) 

Metallica - '...And Justice For All' (1988) 

Metallica, 'Metallica' - aka The Black Album - (1991) 

Monster Magnet, 'Powertrip' (1998) 

Morbid Angel, 'Blessed Are The Sick' (1991) 

Motley Crue, 'Shout At The Devil' (1983) 

Motörhead, 'Ace Of Spades' (1980) 

Napalm Death, 'Utopia Banished' (1992) 

Neurosis, 'The Eye Of Every Storm' (2004) 

Nightwish, 'Once' (2004) 

Opeth, 'Blackwater Park' (2001) 

Ozzy Osbourne, 'Blizzard Of Ozz' (1980) 

Ozzy Ozbourne, 'Bark At The Moon' (1983) 

Paradise Lost, 'Draconian Times' (1995) 

Pantera, 'Vulgar Display Of Power (1992) 

Queensryche, 'Operation: Mindcrime' (1988) 

Rage Against The Machine, 'Rage Against The Machine' (1992) 

Rainbow, 'Long Live Rock 'N' Roll' (1978) 

Rammstein, 'Mutter' (2001) 

Sepultura, 'Chaos A.D.' (1993) 

Saxon, 'Strong Arm Of The Law' (1980) 

Skid Row, 'Skid Row' (1989) 

Slayer, 'Reign In Blood' (1986) 

Slayer, 'Seasons In The Abyss' (1990) 

Slayer, 'God Hates Us All' (2001) 

Slipknot, 'lowa' (2001) System Of A Down, 'Toxicity' (2001) 

Testament, 'The Legacy' (1987) 

Tool, 'Xenima' (1996) 

Trouble, 'Manic Frustration' (1992) 

Type O Negative, 'October Rust' (1996) 

Van Halen, 'Van Halen' (1978) 

Venom, 'Black Metal' (1982) 

W.A.S.P, 'W.A.S.P' (1984) 

White Zombie, 'Astro Creep: 2000 (1995) 

Yngwie Malmsteen, 'Rising Force' (1984) 

Unearth, 'lll: In The Eyes Of Fire' (2006)

Uncut's 50 Greatest Singer/Songwriter Albums

(Uncut Editor's Diary)

Take a guitar, write a song, tell a story. You may end in the future versions of this sweet anthology, filled with soulseeking campfire lullabies and rather surprising choices (Bruce Springsteen pick is... Tunnel of Love?).

Order is chronological, just like a history of songwriting from Tim Hardin (1966) to Laura Marling (2013), going through Leonard Cohen & Nick Drake, Laura Nyro & Joni Mitchell, Neil Young & Bob Dylan, Lou Reed & John Cale, Elvis Costello & Nick Cave, Elliott Smith & Beck, Amy Winehouse & John Grant... The full list is here.

Missing in Spotify action are John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon, #6), Empty Glass (Pete Townshend, #25, four songs missing), Music For a New Society (John Cale, #26) and Don't Stand Me Down (Dexys Midnight Runners, #29).

Two playlists available: a huge one with complete albums, and a slim one with three songs each album.

Enjoy.

UNCUT'S 50 SINGER/SONGWRITER ALBUMS

(full albums)

(3 tracks each album)

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Pretty Much Amazing's Best 50 Songs and 40 Albums of 2013

Uhm, maybe it's a little early. Anyway, Pretty Much Amazing has already published its end-of-year lists: Best (50) Songs of 2013 and 40 Best Albums of 2013. Here they are, in Spotify version. First playlists of many, I guess. Enjoy!

P.S. Lists are from #1 to #40 (or #50). Top 10 albums are not ranked (they're in alphabetical orders). Missing albums from Spotify are Acid Rap (Chance the Rapper, #13), mbv (My Bloody Valentine, #30), demos (Jai Paul, #34) and After Dark 2 (Italians Do It Better, #37). Missing songs are Track 2 (Jai Paul, #15), Chain Smoker (Chance the Rapper, #16), All Night (Jai Paul, #39)

PRETTY MUCH AMAZING'S ALBUMS OF 2013

PRETTY MUCH AMAZING'S SONGS OF 2013

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Reflektor: The Matrix

What does it happen when you check dozens of critic reviews for Arcade Fire's Reflektor, take note of all the references to artists, albums and songs who (maybe) influenced it, mix them with your personal preferences and put them in a 100-track spotibox? It happens something like this playlist.

Ingredients:
- 13 Reflektor songs
- some more AF past trails

- multiple tracks from often-cited references (Achtung Baby, Kid A, Remain In Light, Sandinista!, Bowie & LCD Soundsystem...)

- isolated & not always predictable musical spices from everywhere

Enjoy!

(there's a glitch in the matrix and the embed code doesn't work: let's go old style with a http playlist link)

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The Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2013 playlist

It's the weekend of Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris. It started yesterday à la Grand Halle de la Villette and it will end tomorrow with a full night schedule. For those who are there, and especially for those who are not (like me), I made this playlist. It's based on songs by the 33 artists scheduled at the festival (just one missing: Sky Ferreira). I think it's a good way to catch the young sound of modern times according to Pitchfork. Well, at least the European-oriented canon: more indie-electro, less hip hop.

Three tracks each artist. To keep it truthful, I picked songs the artists should actually play in Paris (after a quick look on setlist.fm). To keep it colourful, when possibile I picked songs from different albums. 

Enjoy!

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