The Quietus Albums of the Year 2025 (In Association with Norman Records)
Here are our favourite albums of the last 12 months, as voted for by tQ staff, columnists and core writers
A Quietus Interview
Conversational Improvisational: Stewart Lee & EarthBall get Free
EarthBall's Outside Over There is one of this year's best albums. Because it opens with a sample of Stewart Lee talking about pear cider, it felt only right to introduce both parties for a feature. But then a breakdown in communication led to a gloriously unexpected meditation on the nature of improvisation...
Music of the Month
Music of the Month(s): The Best Albums and Tracks of November and December 2025
Our final round-up from 2025 is the best from November and December, as selected by tQ's listmas-addled staffers
Reviews
Mark S Williamson
folklore, facts and fables 6: three days to find out
A charming record pays tribute to cult TV archeological programme Time Team
Black Sky Thinking
Why Reports of the Death of UK Nightlife are Greatly Exaggerated
From venue closures to VAT, conversations around the UK’s beleaguered nightlife sector have struck a singularly gloomy tone for more than a decade. But has that pessimism become part of the problem? Ed Gillett asks whether our eulogies for the late-night scene have outlived their usefulness.
Reviews
Review Columns
Cassettes
Spool’s Out: Cassette Reviews for November by Daryl Worthington
From radical dance music to triumphant, intricately layered synth pop and a levitating collaboration between a Ugandan embaire ensemble and a Japanese dub producer, Daryl Worthington finds rays of joy on cassette to blast away the impending winter entropy this November
Baker’s Dozen
Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives
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Low Culture Essay
Low Culture Essay: Tariq Goddard on Jeremy Brett, the Perfect Sherlock Holmes
Tariq Goddard declares that in Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective, the actor delivered one of the greatest TV performances of all time – one that was so total, it arguably destroyed him
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News
Anniversary
Been Around The World: The Magical Odyssey Of The Avalanches’ Since I Left You
A concept album that transcended its concept, a stealth mix-CD, global disco, sampledelic exotica, yacht rock by other means: the Australian group’s debut was many things, writes David Bennun - and above all it was, and remains, a joy. This article was first published in 2020
The Portal
Explore 15 Years Of Cultural Wayfinding
Each week we conjure up a miscellany of tQ writing from the mists of time for you. Most often random. Sometimes themed. Always enthralling.
Explore The Portal
Beyond The Hits
Aphex Twin: Quietus Writers Select Their Deep Cuts
With new album Syro just announced Dale Berning Sawa, Joe Banks, Emily Bick, Charlie Frame, Joe Clay, Tristan Bath, Ned Raggett, John Doran and Cian Traynor select their favourite album cuts, side-project tracks, collaborations, b-sides and rarities
Culture
Books
Schattenfroh: A Fable About Totalitarianism Written in Brain-Fluid
An interview with the book’s author Michael Lentz and its translator, Max Lawton, about the German cult novel Schattenfroh, a bizarre and troubling novel for our bizarre and troubling times, and its timely appearance in an English-language edition
Books
The Lodger In Me: Bid from The Monochrome Set on the Aneurysm that Changed His Life
In an exclusive extract from his new book, Strange Young Alien, the founder member and principal songwriter of the Monochrome Set discusses the ruptured cerebral aneurysm that changed the way he thought about music and the creative process
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