The Top 33 Albums Of 2013

She did it.

Any album with ‘Without The Love’ on it would have to end up somewhere in the Top 10.

Even when you discount the shock and awe release strategy this is still a monster. As good as it is, though, we’d still love to hear the one she was due to release earlier in the year.

Gaga used to make being amazing look easy. These days she makes it look like hard work, but she still gets there in the end.

Disco bells.

In comeback terms this makes the whole Lazarus thing look like someone going down the shops for a pint of milk and a packet of Quavers.

On the first few listens we mourned the absence of obvious bangers. Gradually, we began to realise that ‘Prism’ was the defining Superstar Pop record of a very pensive year in music.

You could listen to this album and this album alone for days on end, couldn’t you? That’s a rhet­or­ical question by the way: we did, and it was one of the best days-on-ends of our 2013.

The song­writ­ing is exquisite, the pro­duc­tion com­pletely breath­tak­ing, the overall vision both flaw­lessly plotted and mag­ni­fi­cently executed. And it's the only album on this list without a single dud track.