loading . . . One of the scant benefits bestowed by editing a countercultural magazine born in a time of great financial turmoil is that you eventually develop a state of permanent readiness for the next disaster. In the very early days of the Quietus, when my good friend Luke Turner and I were first unceremoniously shown out of the start up office door onto the street in 2008 – thanks Global Financial Crisis! – our magazine was just a matter of weeks old. We had barely established ourselves in a proper headquarters when we realised our existence was to be one of indefinite threat thanks to constant external crisis: from the web 2.0 pivot to video to the artificially weighted stranglehold of search engines to the algorithmic enshitification of social media platforms to the collapse of digital advertising to the creative knotweed choke of the streaming monoliths to the privations dished out by COVID.
In recent years the most imposing ghoul rattling its gore-streaked chains at us has been Artificial Intelligence. As a result we have been considering the implications of SUNO-style music generation software for our cultural ecosystem. But already it seems to me that this tech has done little other than create a gigantic contemptible Ouroboros of cow dung, responsible solely for derivative, easy to spot, idiot-dazzling slop, that has little effect on the wider culture than breeding even further creative bankruptcy and depression in people who use it. After all it takes an unusually enthusiastic slurper of tech bro snake oil to hit a button which crimps out some synthetic anhedonic “jazz” porridge – that the show runners on _Frasier_ would have turned down for being too beige – only to announce that he’s created something indistinguishable from John Coltrane’s _A Love Supreme_.
As I write this introduction today, a new “battlefront” in the AI conflict has just opened up however. It turns out we’ve just crossed the threshold where more features on the internet are now produced by AI than by humans. I have already seen other digital outlets acting in a knee-jerk tabloid journalistic way, trying to generate clicks by creating panic via overexaggerating the negatives and glossing over the less depressing aspects to this story. But there’s no evidence to show that many people end up reading AI copy or are fooled by it, plus the number of these articles seems to have plateaued well over a year ago and they tend not to be picked up by Google anyway. But I wanted to say clearly and unambiguously: despite the pearl clutching elsewhere, despite the faux terror, and despite the genuine future implications, this is something we are not afraid of.
We have a deep and personal relationship with our writers – some of whom I’ve been working with for a quarter of a century now, some only a matter of months – so ideas are incubated and propagated, they are talked over at length, often face to face or on Zoom, and we only ever progress to the commissioning stage when we know we can offer you – our readers – something new, something provocative, something enthralling, something that will hopefully temporarily allow you to see the culture as with completely fresh eyes… and certainly not something that has been generated by a few bored prompts typed into a digital slurry machine.
Our guarantee is that you will always be safe in the knowledge that whatever you read on the Quietus has been commissioned, written and edited by humans who are passionately committed to the culture you love, and the culture you will come to love.
It is only with this dedication to the Quietus principle of Organic Intelligence – human creativeness – at the very core of our philosophy that we can hope to do justice to the untamable, life-changing, pulse-quickening music that populates this Albums Of The Year Chart.
But we cannot do this without you. It is both time and money consuming to build up creative relationships with the type of writers who will never submit generic copy to us, to help train them on the job when necessary. At the moment our most up to date analytics show that only 0.54 per cent of our regular readership contributes to the running of the site in terms of a subscription and we feel that in order to guarantee not just our survival but our commitment to Organic Intelligence, we need to get this figure up to 1 per cent. Will you help us do that by taking out a subscription?
In just over nine months’ time, this site will turn 18. Like anyone facing this milestone, we are slowly starting to consider what our long term future might look like. We hope some of you at least can help us prepare for the serious business of what lies ahead.
I hope you enjoy this chart – which was compiled by me, built by Patrick Clarke and Christian Eede and voted for by our staff, columnists and core writers – as much as I do. Just look at that top 20… what an absolute smasher! Do have a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful new year.
_John Doran_
100.
## Moundabout _Goat Skull Table_ Rocket Recordings
<a href="https://moundabout.bandcamp.com/album/goat-skull-table">Goat Skull Table by Moundabout</a>
Moundabout came out of a megalithic roadtrip through the Irish Midlands to see Nurse With Wound, via the many stone circles, pillars and passage tombs that mark transition points between one world and the next. _Goat Skull Table_ is a trance album, but not as we know it. The opening chant is followed by two shorter tracks, like squeezing through the tight entrance to a tomb, before it spreads out into an inner space with two ten-minute dream-state tracks. ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Am I Not’ are summoning songs, played on acoustic guitar, blurring the distinction between life and death. ‘Blood On My Blanket’ and ‘Wagon’ go full fugue, spinning layer upon layer of repetition and shift. They are ecstatic pieces. If any album can succeed in breaking through the veil, this is surely it.
_Tom Bolton_
Read Review|More on Moundabout|Buy from Norman Records
99.
## Amelia Cuni _Melopea_ Black Truffle
<a href="https://cunidurand.bandcamp.com/album/melopea">Melopea by Amelia Cuni</a>
Listened to this three times on a long train journey, I couldn’t get enough of the tooth and drone of the strings on ‘Melopea’. It turns out these came out of an instance when Amelia Cuni and her partner Werner Durand superimposed the former’s dhrupad singing onto a performance of Éliane Radigue’s _Occam River II_ (for violinist Silvia Tarozzi and cellist Deborah Walker). It worked so well that they asked Tarozzi and Walker to collaborate properly, and the string players went off and made a new recording for Cuni. The result is a stunner, a hybrid of deep traditional vocal technique and the precision of strings players used to microtones and partials. ‘Bhoop-Murchana’ is a richer and more lyrical affair, expansive and fluid in its movements, with Anthea Caddy on cello and Durand on soprano saxophone, and Cuni’s tanpura occasionally breaking the surface.
_Jennifer Lucy Allan_
More on Amelia Cuni
98.
## Real Lies _We Will Annihilate Our Enemies_ Tonal
<a href="https://real-lies.bandcamp.com/album/we-will-annihilate-our-enemies">We Will Annihilate Our Enemies by Real Lies</a>
From benders in Seven Sisters and the smell of petrol stations off the North Circular, to mourning drifting friendships and ‘what could have been’, Real Lies’ critically acclaimed 2015 debut saw the electronic duo oscillate between the existential and the quintessential at whim. Similarly, 2022’s _Lad Ash_ featured a delicate balance between nostalgia-laden reflections (queues outside the fish shop and post-rave disorientation) with musings on self-expression. With _We Will Annihilate Our Enemies_ , Kev Kharas and Pat King continue to carry the torch for modern angst, and learning to love it in the process – pulling from an even broader palette of influences to create their most mature, refined work yet.
_Lina Adams_
Read Review|More on Real Lies|Buy from Norman Records
97.
## Rien Virgule _Berceuses des Deux Mondes_ zamzamrec
<a href="https://zamzamrec.bandcamp.com/album/berceuses-des-deux-mondes">Berceuses des deux mondes by Rien Virgule</a>
Here’s a perfect record to complement the winter gloom, if you’re willing to lean into it. Trio Rien Virgule have followed up their hulking 2021 release _La Consolation Des Violettes_ , their first following the tragic loss of fourth member Jean-Marc Reilla, with an album that sounds even more labyrinthine (in fact the superb closing track is called ‘Labyrinthes’). It’s also less like something that’s dragged itself out of a dank basement but the band’s uncanny power hasn’t been diminished; there’s a crisp, sci-fi sheen to the twelve tracks here but they still amalgamate Eastern European folk, goth or metal-like minor chords, naïve synths, abstract noise, dramatic percussion, spring reverb pings and pops and a sensibility that’s attuned to Lovecraftian cosmic terror and the mood of the darkest fairytales.
_David McKenna_
Read Review|More on Rien Virgule
96.
## Holden & Zimpel _The Universe Will Take Care Of You_ Border Community
<a href="https://jamesholden.bandcamp.com/album/the-universe-will-take-care-of-you">The Universe Will Take Care Of You by Holden & Zimpel</a>
The debut full length from long-time sonic adventurers James Holden and Wacław Zimpel is a set of focused improvisations striking out for the cosmic zone, for inner space, the weightlessness of trance. Holden & Zimpel are explorers, chasing the ego death, when the music starts to make itself, melting time. This transcendental impulse reaches beyond language, making it tricky to write about. Consider how the word trance feels worn down and sticky. _The Universe Will Take Care Of You_ is a helpful signpost of a title. Its music calls for colours and nature metaphors, animal spirits and the movement of the heavens.
_Jared Dix_
Read Review|More on Holden & Zimpel|Buy from Norman Records
95.
## Pulp _More_ Rough Trade
<a href="https://pulpmusic.bandcamp.com/album/more">More by Pulp</a>
Songs on Pulp’s first album in over two decades contain a series of wistful and not-so-wistful memories, such as a pratfall-strewn trek to Spike Island to see The Stone Roses – which actually is a second-hand memory, given that it all happened to co-songwriter and Jarv Is… collaborator Jason Buckle. ‘Tina’ returns like an apparition, being followed around by a soundtrack that sounds like Ennio Morricone at his warmest. Tina is a girl who Jarvis Cocker remembers seeing around Sheffield whose appearances took on a significance even though they never spoke. ‘Grown Ups’, meanwhile, is perhaps an answer to 1998’s ‘Help The Aged’, seen through the prism of experience rather than supposition.
_Jeremy Allen_
Read Review|More on Pulp|Buy from Norman Records
94.
## Facta _Gulp_ Wisdom Teeth
<a href="https://facta.bandcamp.com/album/gulp">GULP by Facta</a>
Facta’s sophomore album includes some of the most intricately produced music in the Wisdom Teeth catalogue. That in itself says a lot. Comprising only seven tracks, diverse in atmosphere, tone and energy, it grows on you instantly. Its eclectic tracklist provides a surprisingly cohesive listening experience with a clear sense of direction. The patina of Facta’s productions is reminiscent of an orchid – fragile, graceful and complex, as illustrated in the dawn song ‘Terminal’, bristling with shimmering pads and cicadas’ rhythmical ticks. ‘Laguna’, a dubby micro-tech nod to his companion K-LONE’s _Cape Cira_ era, and Balearic ballad ‘settle’ similarly pull at your heartstrings. Everything in-between is pure class, a bonanza of crystalline hi-hats and snares, hefty kicks, beautiful modulated synths, fragmented voices and pads as gentle as an evening breeze.
_Jaša Bužinel_
Read Review|More on Facta
93.
## Orcutt Shelley Miller _Orcutt Shelley Miller_ Silver Current
<a href="https://orcuttshelleymiller.bandcamp.com/album/orcutt-shelley-miller">Orcutt Shelley Miller by Orcutt Shelley Miller</a>
Speaking to _The Wire_ this year, Bill Orcutt seemed to be almost as surprised as anyone that he’s recorded something quite so “conventional” with _Orcutt Shelley Miller_. The ex-member of Harry Pussy is known for his improv-prone guitar work and regular cacophonous duo sets with drummer Chris Corsano. Recently, Orcutt found himself hankering for another way of making a rumpus. “I wanted a band where they’re the backing track and you’re on top of it,” he explained. Talk about a rhythm section with pedigree: Ethan Miller of Howlin Rain, Comets On Fire etc. is on bass. At the drum stool is Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley. Those two cats provide the bouncy basis over which Orcutt shreds like a man possessed. Captured at a concert in Los Angeles, the set opens with the fast and fiery ‘A Star Is Born’. Next up is ‘An LA Funeral’. It’s mellower and soulful, in the tradition of Eddie Hazel when he was laying back and staring at the ceiling. ‘Unsafe At Any Speed’ has a twang to it, as if the trio are aspiring for Delta Blues at a punkier pace. Listening to ‘Four-Door Charger’ and ‘A Long Island Wedding’ any sensibly minded person will be hoping Neil Young hires these three righteous goons as his next festival backing band.
_JR Moores_
Read Review|More on Orcutt Shelley Miller|Buy from Norman Records
92.
## Lucy Liyou _Every Video Without Your Face, Every Sound Without Your Name_ Orange Milk
<a href="https://lucyliyou.bandcamp.com/album/every-video-without-your-face-every-sound-without-your-name">Every Video Without Your Face, Every Sound Without Your Name by Lucy Liyou</a>
At what point does absence become its own memory? Liyou’s latest probes the uncertainty of this question, via a stunning inversion of her past work. Where she once juxtaposed knife-sharp scenes of familial tension and closeted transness against ambient landscapes, _Every Video_ is achingly direct yet spare in its vocal/piano-forward explorations of love and distance, contrasting its emotive sharpness with a pronounced negative space—sonically and contextually. Like the breathtaking closing track—an evocative exercise in radical elision—it’s a record that implores you to dig alongside Liyou in making meaning out of what is left unresolved, unspoken, undocumented.
_Natalie Marlin_
More on Lucy Liyou
91.
## Messa _The Spin_ Metal Blade
<a href="https://messa.bandcamp.com/album/the-spin">The Spin by Messa</a>
Italian doom quartet Messa are looking beyond the organic 70s vibes of their stunning 2022 opus _Close_ on latest record _The Spin_ , which self-consciously harks back to the glitzy synthesisers and heavily gated snares of the 80s instead – and if that admission just filled you with the same dread I got upon initially reading it, then fear not, as not only do the band wear this sound well, it’s resulted in perhaps their most focused, punchy album yet. There’s a strong goth influence throughout, readily apparent from both the spidery guitar twangs, crepuscular keys and pulsating bass lines that kick off both opener ‘Void Meridian’ and the stomping Siouxsie-fronted Killing Joke-isms of ‘At Races’.
_Kez Whelan_
Read Review|More on Messa|Buy from Norman Records
90.
## Anna Von Hausswolff _Iconoclasts_ YEAR0001
<a href="https://annavonhausswolff.bandcamp.com/album/iconoclasts">ICONOCLASTS by Anna von Hausswolff</a>
With her sixth studio album, the first with full band arrangements since 2018’s beloved drone opus ‘Dead Magic, Swedish organist Anna von Hausswolff reinvents herself as a purveyor of tilted, autre pop music. Touches of macabre jazz and splinters of almighty drone, as well as features from Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain, punctuate this gothic art-pop opus, but the real star is Von Hausswolff herself – her voice a visceral, operatic force of nature, and her organ an Earth-shaking wayback machine.
_Cal Cashin_
More on Anna Von Hausswolff|Buy from Norman Records
89.
## Neptunian Maximalism _Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu_ I, Voidhanger
<a href="https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/le-sacre-du-soleil-invaincu">Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu by NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM</a>
Recorded in London’s church of St. John on Bethnal Green, _Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu_ is centred around three Indian classical ragas, which serve as a launch pad for Neptunian Maximalism’s heady free-form jamming. The first of which, ‘Raag Marwa’ (or alternatively, ‘At Dusk’), really hammers home the group’s drone metal origins, as intoxicating Eastern licks gradually spiral out of thick, cavernous Sunn O)))-esque tones, before erupting into a grandiose horn-backed dirge that sounds a bit like Celtic Frost’s ‘Innocence & Wrath’ played at the wrong speed after a heroic dose of psychedelics. This segues smoothly into ‘Raag Todi’ (AKA ‘Arcana XX’), which begins with a lengthy surbahar (also known as a bass sitar) intro, before erupting into perhaps the album’s most hyper-kinetic passage, as jittering drumming and swirling bursts of searing psych rock guitar dance around an ominous vortex of deep, droning bass. ‘Raag Bairagi’ (or ‘At Dawn’) makes for a suitably climactic finale, as flowing licks straight out of the Mike Vest school of feedback drenched guitar freakouts gradually evolve into thunderous doom metal riffage, bringing the whole thing to a rapturous finish.
_Kez Whelan_
Read Review|More on Neptunian Maximalism
88.
## Jade _That’s Showbiz Baby!_ RCA
The ex-Little Mix star turns out a genuinely eccentric solo debut with witty, maximalist takes on classic 00s pop. She’s frank about pop stardom but this is no woe-is-me post-girlband confessional.
_Claire Biddles_
More on Jade
87.
## The Necks _Disquiet_ Northern Spy
<a href="https://thenecksau.bandcamp.com/album/disquiet">Disquiet by The Necks</a>
Recording music on a regular basis for 36 years, as Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck and Lloyd Swanton have done as The Necks, is not in itself exceptional. It is however _deeply_ uncommon for a group’s release this far down the line to stand as the ultimate expression of their craft. And yet there is a strong case for _Disquiet_ , the 19th studio album by these tenacious Australians, being just that. Running to over three hours, with the longest of four pieces weighing in at 74 minutes alone, find here shimmering vistas of elegantly stuttering drums/bass/keys jazz minimalism recorded in exquisite detail.
_Noel Gardner_
More on The Necks|Buy from Norman Records
86.
## Worldpeace DMT _The Velvet Underground & Rowan_WPDMT
<a href="https://worldpeacedmt.bandcamp.com/album/the-velvet-underground-rowan">The Velvet Underground & Rowan by Worldpeace DMT</a>
Little known, but extremely good, Worldpeace DMT are a “shapeshifting acoustic project” – whatever the fuck that means – sprung from London’s largely annoying underground scene. Their shows involve cocaine use, cowboy chords and cunty (bad cunty) looking men in shirts emblazoned with “2007”. If you’re lucky, you might even catch Bobby Gillespie’s talentless children at one of them. But Worldpeace don’t really deserve to be defined by London, because they’re just miles better than lots of its bands. On _The Velvet Underground & Rowan_ (which should be number one for album name alone), Leo Fincham and Rowan Miles (of fellow Londoners The Femcels) splice together brass, 8-bit ploinks and burp samples for an album of endless whimsy and genius facility for melody. Start with the Sugarcubes/ Cohen-esque duo ‘Love Yourself’. End with this live recording of the unreleased ‘Year of the Dragon’ at the scene’s renowned Old Street flat venue. London’s music scene has a lot of problems right now but, thankfully, Worldpeace DMT aren’t one of them.
_Archie Forde_
More on Worldpeace DMT
85.
## Throwing Muses _Moonlight Concessions_ Fire
<a href="https://throwingmuses.bandcamp.com/album/moonlight-concessions">Moonlight Concessions by Throwing Muses</a>
Acoustic guitars are layered up “to the point where they’re almost unrecognisable as guitars” on _Moonlight Concessions_ , and the wonderfully atmospheric cello of Pete Harvey, and focus on concise and gritty storytelling, make for a powerfully emotive and cinematic experience. This is an invigorating reinvention of Throwing Muses’ sound when compared with the fuzzed electric guitars of the album’s also excellent predecessor, _Sun_ _Racket_. It is also a testament to the power of creativity in transmuting difficult experiences into honest and empathic art, since these songs derive from a time Kristin Hersh spent living amongst the homeless and displaced of Moonlight Beach, Encinitas, California. That Hersh can continue to transform her music yet retain its power in those different guises throughout a career lasting over four decades, just goes to show how truly essential and unique her art remains.
_Sean Kitching_
Read Review|More on Throwing Muses|Buy from Norman Records
84.
## Gelli Haha _Switcheroo_ Innovative Leisure
<a href="https://gellihaha.bandcamp.com/album/switcheroo">Switcheroo by Gelli Haha</a>
Like an electroclash party inside a kids TV studio, Gelli Haha’s debut album, _Switcheroo_ , is characterised by playfulness with a hedonistic, sometimes sinister bent. Gelli Haha is the pseudonym of LA-based artist Angel Abaya, who released a decent indie rock album, _The Bubble_ , under her own name in 2023. She’s since eschewed this more conventional aesthetic to establish ‘the Gelliverse’ – a high-concept theatrical world of play from which the character of Gelli Haha emerged, an amalgamation of Pee Wee Herman, Marina Diamandis’ _Electra Heart_ and a 00s electroclash party girl.
_Claire Biddles_
Read Review|More on Gelli Haha
83.
## Rafael Toral _Travelling Light_ Drag City
<a href="https://rafaeltoral.bandcamp.com/album/traveling-light">Traveling Light by Rafael Toral</a>
A frequent criticism I have for contemporary ambient music is that much of it feels like soundtrack-bait, utilising big, dramatic crescendos to force a sense of catharsis into the music that doesn’t feel genuine, and rather feels designed to manipulate the emotions of the listener. The six pieces on _Travelling Light_ are, in fact, unabashedly _cinematic_ , but in the same sense that Robby Müller’s film work is cinematic. Both works occupy a medium between the everyday and some unknown force, one which can perceive an overwhelming beauty and strangeness in, say, a long walk home. In this sense, Rafael Toral evokes such sweeping visions not by bashing his listeners over the head with his pathos, but through a sense of comprehensive listening that identifies the full cosmic scope of these standards.
_Levi Dayan_
Read Review|More on Rafael Toral|Buy from Norman Records
82.
## Melvin Gibbs _Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2_ Hausu Mountain
<a href="https://music.melvin-gibbs.com/album/amasia-anamibia-sessions-2">Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 by Melvin Gibbs</a>
If Melvin Gibbs wanted to live in the past, he would certainly have plenty to work with. As a member of Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society, Power Tools, and Sonny Sharrock’s band, Gibbs’ electric bass work was often the glue holding together the heaviest jazz-rock groups of the era. His latest album, _Amasia: Anamibia Sessions Vol. 2_ , owes its origins to a prompt from legendary video artist Arthur Jafa to have a group of musicians work off of Miles Davis’ _Bitches Brew_. However, in no way is this yet another electric Miles tribute project. On _Amasia_ , Gibbs merely uses the insular creative framework that Miles and producer Teo Macero mastered in the 70s as a jumping-off point for an entirely different planet of strange.
_Levi Dayan_
Read Review|More on Melvin Gibbs|Buy from Norman Records
81.
## MIKE _Showbiz_ 10k Projects
<a href="https://mikelikesrap.bandcamp.com/album/showbiz">Showbiz! by MIKE</a>
_Showbiz!_ opener ‘Bear Trap’ lays the groundwork for MIKE’s characteristically laid-back tone, a soulful vocal sample and shimmering piano floating unassumingly behind the track’s resonant bass. But at two minutes, the vibe shifts, picking up speed and rhythm, as if to introduce an entirely new point of view or to suggest a kind of levelling up. Instead though, we’re led into ‘Clown Of The Class (Work Harder)’, returning the timbre to the earlier serenity of MIKE’s nonchalant delivery. A similar effect occurs on ‘Artist Of The Century’, which switches up halfway, drifting away to nothing before the start of ‘What U Bouta Do? / A Star Was Born’. It has a hypnotic feel, as if you’re being teased in and then gently pushed out by MIKE’s lo-fi delivery.
_Arusa Qureshi_
Read Review|More on MIKE|Buy from Norman Records https://thequietus.com/tq-charts/albums-of-the-year/best-albums-of-2025/
