Chvrches have topped the ‘Album of 2013’ poll as voted for by the BAMS. 40 writers from Scottish Blogs and Music Sites nominated their favourites from last year, and the final chart read as follows:

1. CHVRCHES – The Bones Of What You Believe (Virgin) 224.2
2. Frightened Rabbit – Pedestrian Verse (Atlantic) 186.6
3. Adam Stafford – Imaginary Walls Collapse (Song, By Toad) 184
4. Rick Redbeard – No Selfish Heart (Chemikal Underground) 133.6
5. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp) 117
6. The Pastels – Slow Summits (Domino) 115
7. The National – Trouble Will Find Me (4AD) 101
8. Steve Mason – Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time (Domino) 98.6
9. Kid Canaveral – Now That You Are A Dancer (Fence) 92
10. Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus (ATP Recordings) 90

The Glasgow-based three piece followed in the footsteps of Meursault, The National, The Phantom Band, and Moffat and Wells, in taking the prize (a celebratory vintage bottle of tonic wine, no be awarded to the band when they return from Australia. However, Manicpopthrills, who took on the bulk of the BAMS work (with support from Jockrock, and founder Peenko), was able to grab some words with the band across the ether.

Congratulations , you are this years’ winners of the Scottish BAMS award, how does it feel?
“Thanks, guys. We are not normally ones for prizes / shiny things, but it’s dead nice to know the bloggers enjoyed the record. You can all get a blast of the Buckie.”

2013 seems to have been a pretty exciting year for the band, what’s been your personal highlights of the year?
“It was a busy year for us but we were really lucky to get the amount of support we did from people, and to play as many different gigs in as many different places as we did. Supporting Depeche Mode and releasing the record were probably the pinnacles.”

When you’d finished recording the album, how did it match up to your expectations?
“Since we self-record and self-produce everything, we didn’t sign off on anything until we were 100% happy with it, so I guess that means the album meets our expectations completely.”

How important do you feel that the support of music blogs has been to the band?
“Without blogs and social networks, it is really unlikely that people would have heard of our band so quickly, and that is definitely one of the reasons we have been able to play so many different shows so early on in our career. Thanks, bloggers – see you for Album Two.”

More on the BAMS chart at Manicpopthrills