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The Quietus
@thequietus.com
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Black Sky Thinking since 2008.

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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 28d
Hark! The Quietus Albums of 2025 chart is here! Prepare to be astounded, thrilled and (potentially) perplexed. tQ subscribers can also dive into selections from all 100 albums in our bumper 9-hour playlist. #tQCharts

What have been your top picks of the year?

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thequietus.com
'Blue Jam had a languid quality with comforting received pronunciation accents. This is one of the reasons it took a while to acclimatise to it and to realise how deeply, existentially malignant it was'

Quietus Best of 2025: Darran Anderson on Chris Morris’ Blue Jam

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Slightly scary, wide-eyed face with uneven teeth and a tear trickling down.
December 29, 2025 at 9:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Shrugs off the trip hop label with a collection of submerged torch songs, jittery exotica and heavily sedated R&B which rubs shoulders with minimalism, collagism and ambient'

Leila - Courtesy Of Choice… Asides And Besides is No 64 in tQ's Reissues etc of 2025

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Leila - Courtesy Of Choice… Asides And Besides album cover. A piece of circuit board arranged with some leaves and twigs.
December 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM
thequietus.com
Stevie Chick talked to Bob Mould and Greg Norton about blazing a trail in hardcore, the uneasy switch from independent to major label and their complex relationship with Grant Hart

Quietus Best Of 2025: Hüsker Dü Interviewed

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Hüsker Dü by Daniel Corrigan
December 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
thequietus.com
'A different beast to the group’s posthumously released live album Copenhagen altogether, showcasing a band enjoying their first flush of success and playing their most important NYC gig thus far'

Galaxie 500 – CBGB 12.13.88 is No 91 in tQ's Reissues etc of 2025

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Galaxie 500 – CBGB 12.13.88 album cover. Black and white photograph of the band on stage.
December 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Slayer created a shadow world – a dark mirror to reflect the most horrifying elements of humanity. This three-album run ripped heavy metal out of its moorings and threw it into the fire'

Quietus Best Of 2025: How 20th Century Metal Never Bettered #Slayer’s Unholy Trilogy

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Slayer's Reign In Blood (1986), South Of Heaven (1988) and Seasons album covers. Quietus Three Album Run lead image.
December 29, 2025 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
"On the cover there's a Jackson Pollock painting. I thought that was perfect, because as Jackson Pollock was trying to reinvent painting, so Ornette was doing a similar thing with music"

Quietus Best Of 2025: Ron Mael on Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation

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Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation album cover. A Jackson Pollock painting on the right, with lettering (in gold, silver and black) on the left.
December 28, 2025 at 11:10 PM
thequietus.com
'RS&L turned tradition on its head in a manner a generation better acquainted with punk than Alan Lomax’s field recordings understood immediately'

Quietus Best of 2025: The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy & The Lash at 40

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The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy & The Lash cover. Painting of shipwreck survivors clinging to a makeshift raft.
December 28, 2025 at 9:05 PM
thequietus.com
The implacable Ron Mael talked Jeremy Allen through his 13 favourite albums, from fiery free jazz to cutting edge J-pop, via militant hip hop and Bach

Quietus Best Of 2025: Ron Mael of Sparks’ Favourite Albums

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December 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
thequietus.com
'Awash with her usual engrossing Americana touches, it’s a sweeping, heart-rending piece of pop music that tells the parting tale of the titular Henry and his protagonist cowgirl.'

Lana Del Rey - ‘Henry, Come On’ is No 13 in The Quietus Tracks of the Year 2025

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December 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Russell’s music contains a lot of very deep emotions, often several at once, and like no-one before or since he is the absolute master of evoking them for the listener.'

#ArthurRussell - Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In And Out is No 9 in tQ's Reissues etc of 2025 Chart

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Arthur Russell - Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In And Out album cover. Photograph of the artist in silhouette, his features blanked to a red haze by the sun setting behind him.
December 28, 2025 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Oasis in the 2000s settled into a loose-fit arena psychedelia with all the mind-enhancing possibilities of a HMRC self-assessment form...'

Quietus Best Of 2025: Some Might Not Say - What a Glut of New Oasis Books is Leaving Unwritten

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Collage of books about Oasis.
December 28, 2025 at 9:38 AM
thequietus.com
'With the sleeve illustration based on the found art of a packet of fireworks, hand-made collage ran through much of their work, but also reflected their combinations of contradictory styles of music.'

The Beta Band - The Three E.P.’s is No 62 in tQ's Reissues etc of 2025 Chart

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December 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Coil felt dangerous. Not with just the standard fear that your parents would hear the lyrics through the floorboards but rather that you the listener would unlock forbidden irreversible things.'

Quietus Best Of 2025: Coil’s Scatology Revisited

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Coil Scatology album cover. Text, with a type of black chaosphere at the centre.
December 27, 2025 at 2:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Full of pounding beats, pitch-shifted voices and crispy-fried synth textures, this nightmarish banger is liable to send you spiralling direct from the dancefloor to the nearest k-hole'

Carmel Smickersgill - ‘Build The Habit’ is No 11 in The Quietus Tracks of the Year 2025

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Carmel Smickersgill - Unsolicited Advice album cover. Pink against dark green abstract shapes, with title and artist's name in white lettering.
December 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
thequietus.com
Peter Wilkinson and Michael and John Head discussed the surprise return of Shack, processing the death of their drummer, newfound sobriety, and why they've never paid much mind to the misfortune that's plagued their career thus far

Quietus Best Of 2025: An Interview with Shack

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Shack, photograph by John Johnson.
December 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
thequietus.com
'Is there a more consistent singer-songwriter operating today than Bill Callahan? 'Lonely City’ is yet another melancholy masterpiece.'

#BillCallahan - Lonely City is a Quietus Track of the Month for Nov/Dec

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December 26, 2025 at 8:00 PM
thequietus.com
To celebrate the 50th birthday of Death Race 2000, Mat Colegate charted a multimedia genre which would spawn Mad Max, Alita: Battle Angel and Grand Theft Auto, and makes more sense today than it did in 1975

Quietus Best of 2025: Celebrating Half a Century of Violent Future Sports

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Death Race 2000 poster, with David Carradine's character at the wheel.
December 26, 2025 at 5:34 PM
thequietus.com
tQ spoke to hometown heroes Moe and Andrew, the incendiary songwriting duo behind Dearborn, Michigan's up-and-coming noise rock quintet, Prostitute

Quietus Best Of 2025: Prostitute Interviewed

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Prostitute, photograph by Trevor Naud.
December 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
thequietus.com
'Guest spots from Björk and Yves Tumour only add to the considerable power of ‘Berghain’, contrasting not only that classical elegance but juxtaposing with one another'

Rosalía - ‘Berghain’ feat. Björk & Yves Tumor is No 1 in The Quietus Tracks of the Year 2025

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December 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
thequietus.com
Aya Sinclair talked to John Doran about giving up drink & drugs; reckoning with her emo, metal & IDM past and found time to pass on some tips for those wanting to fill their mouths with live earthworms

Quietus Best of 2025: An Interview with Aya

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Colour photograph of Aya Sinclair with a reddish tint to it.
December 26, 2025 at 11:00 AM
thequietus.com
'Imagine my surprise to realise, from the perspective of middle age, the real heroes are the Leadbetters. The real monster is Tom Good, a man who inflicts his midlife crisis not merely on his wife, but on everyone else they know'

Quietus Best of 2025: Jonn Elledge on The Good Life

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Scene from The Good Life, with both couples - The Goods and the Leadbetters.
December 26, 2025 at 9:02 AM
thequietus.com
'The serpent is a rare, bizarre looking and sounding tube instrument, part of the family of early trumpets and cornets. It is snake-like in shape, with a large trombone-like mouthpiece'

London Serpent Trio – We Wish You A Merry Christmas - LC's Guide to Early-ish #ChristmasMusic

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London Serpent Trio – We Wish You A Merry Christmas image. Thumbnails of the three players against a Christmas tree background.
December 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
thequietus.com
“There is a cosmic force at play with this band!” Hey Colossus – never doing anything the easy way – have just announced their new album on Christmas Day, via a mini documentary. Pre-sale goes live on Jan 1

You can watch it via link below. Happy Christmas to all of our readers!

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Hey Colossus - Heaven Was Wild album cover. A collage of hand drawn animal faces, mostly cats in indigo ink on a yellow background with band name and album title in red.
December 25, 2025 at 8:15 AM
thequietus.com
'I hadn’t realised how much of a medieval cult the Baebes are. The singers, lighting, cloaks and fire ritual procession [of their festive performance] make it a magical alternative'

The #MedievalBaebes – ‘Coventry Carol‘ - Laura Cannell’s Guide to Early-ish #ChristmasMusic

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December 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
thequietus.com
'His performance was a study in frustration and bravery (the stuff of everyday disabled life). Gone was the clown prince of darkness - in place of such slapstick was an intensity never seen before.'

Quietus Best of 2025: #BlackSabbath Live at Villa Park

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Ozzy Osbourne seated on his dark throne, at the final Black Sabbath performance.
December 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM