the quietus : the new look

With like a line of text for each album

I wonder what Adrian Utley's 50 favorite sneakers are

Dudes,

We do this like once a month. Come on, fucking cut me some slack - I have to pay my rent. We don't do advertorial like most of the other sites, we don't do skins or band take overs or have massively intrusive campaigns. Or take money of petrol and car companies and all that stuff.

If you don't want to click a button 13 times don't do it but don't be giving me grief like you have to face the two stone guardians one who always lies and another who always tells the truth before casting the ring into Mount Doom to find out.

And Jed - since when has Beth Gibbons ever done press? It's like complaining about us not getting a JD Salinger interview.

We beg, we plead, we fucking wheedle with all these people to let us interview them properly but some - for whatever reason - won't, they insist on doing it themselves. And then, despite the fact that we've asked for a minimum of 200 words on each record, they come back, like one nonesensical sentence. And do you know why? Because the request will go through a bare minimum of two other people before it gets to the band and I have no idea whether my full message gets passed on or not.

At the end of the day though, I'm still pathetically grateful. We've run about three really lengthy, in depth features on Portishead on the site, and you could just go and read those instead if you wanted - I just wanted to do something different this time.

Speaking personally there were two albums on the list that I've never heard of and I'm going to check out.

You know, if I was less of a man, I'd say fuck the lot of you to everyone who has depressed more than 13 keys to whinge here on a public forum.

But I am a big man. And I have nothing but love for all of you.

I will try as I do every day, to make my site better. Just for you four.

I was actually talking about the FACT list but thanks!

Ha ha. Ok, sorry. I'm sat dandling my son listening to Val Doonican. I'm actually in a very good mood.

With love baby. With love.

Doran, sorry man, i know these things can be tough to arrange. keep on doing it and i'll shut up. although i would be more interested in the beth's choices just saying that, i've read and seen her interviewed although much less frequently than the other two and even when she is to say that she plays her cards close to her chest would be a huge understatement. all the best.

Well, I'd attempt to be first in line to interview her if the chance ever arose but it's very much unlikely unfortunately.

I think the main focus of the group not doing interviews is actually quite good from the band's POV - creates mystery and desire - but not so good from my POV unfortunately.

And yeah, she's not Thomas Pyncheon but there again we're not MOJO or Rolling Stone either and just wouldn't get any time with her.

Doran we've had a few convos about site design like this before (especially on the rap threads since sites like Complex tend to be the worst offenders with clickthroughs on their rap listicles) -- i'm just reposting something i said on the matter once as food for thought, not to argue with you because honestly it is nice to at least have someone from a site that trades in this practice defend it in somewhat understandable terms:

borkslovethewu (some dude) wrote this on thread DJ QUIK - THE BOOK OF DAVID - 2010 on board I Love Music on Apr 10, 2011

like if you want people to consume your work in a way that financially benefits you, then there's kind of a social contract that demands you not be too obnoxious about making them jump through extra hoops to get it

Doran, having run a site very similar to yours in America, I can def empathize with artists coming back with short or terse answers to questions or requests. You shouldn't be faulted for that, and anyone who blames you for not talking to Beth Gibbons is an entitled idiot.

However, honestly, pushing some nickel-and-dime clickthough scam over the readability of your website is just straight clowning your readers, it makes US do the work.

It was a very cool article, though, and I was happy to read it. Sorry if I'm bumming you out. :/

im surprised you guys are selling ads on clicks and not uniques!

Whiney and all: Well it's a fair cop. When we get someone like Chino Moreno or Morrissey telling us his 13 favourite albums it can really give us some breathing space to not have to hit targets with extra reviews and mad news stories or competitions that keep us in the office past midnight or whatever.

We know that you lot are in the right as regards to the letter of the law but we'd like to see it as a very, very minor transgression. Ideally we won't always do stuff as a click through but for now, once in a while we don't mind.

We're in the middle of saving to get the site redesigned, which will make the gallery feature a lot nicer. Basically it works on thumbnails but it's better than that makes it sound.

I mean, after all we did our first end of year lists as a click through gallery and we deserved the bollocking we got for that. It was bloody chicanery, pure and simple.

My bottom line is that we're obviously on a different side of the fence from all the click fodder music sites like Clash and Artrocker or whatever.

That said, if this is GENUINELY becoming some kind of ideological thing then I will think about stopping doing it sooner rather than later.

No one's bumming me today. I'm full of coffee and the joys of late Summer.

Max: Our advertising - which is the bane of my life - is always in a state of flux and we sell on a number of different ways. None of them are click throughs per se but some of them are done on page impressions instead of unique users.

bet that's the first time anyone's ever used the phrase "someone like Chino Moreno or Morrissey"

I'll bet Iron Maiden have said it to their manager recently: "What's all this about Metallica and Lou Reed... We should do this... Can't you get us someone like..."

POWERSMITH

this thing abt a 'social contract' still seems weird to me. if you dont like it, dont read it

Doran - love Thequietus, really appreciate the balance between my old punk/post-punk faves and new artists. I'd gladly spend some dosh to support the site, why don't you offer up some compilation CDs or something?

Cheers dude! Much appreciated.

We're actually going to do a thing with limited run vinyl next year but we've got to wait until we can do a really good job of it.

We'd love to do an annual or a quarterly but again, we'd only do it if we could put out something really well produced.

'Girlfriend In A Medieval Torture Instrument'

Okay this is now the second thread in which we've been creating Morrissey/Maiden song titles in the last two days. Impressive ILM.

It'll never happen. Bringing your daughter to the slaughter is death for no reason, and death for no reason is murder.

Run To The Hillside Desolate

When did Thequietus do away with comments? Was there something that precipitated it or just an acknowledgement that they weren't very useful?

I just noticed that today. Maybe it's still available if you have an account? There are 56 comments for this recent article but I can't see them since I'm not logged in.

For good? Recently. Within the last fortnight. Nothing in particular. It was essentially left to me to moderate them and after a decade of near constant unpleasantness and tons of spam I'd just had enough.

We had a trial run a couple of years ago and I outlined the reasons for a short piece in the Guardian.

We've had a few ideas on how to improve the situation but for all the effort it's going to take I just don't see the point.

maybe i don't visit often enough but this is an... odd review right?

http://thequietus.com/articles/24917-drake-scorpion-album-review

yeah that is odd. Tommy Monroe's two other reviews are equally strange, not sure what the deal is

bring your kid to work day was my first guess

huh...

that was too harsh of me but just seems very off the house style

loool, i smell jolly japes here tbh

Terrible review. Sounds like the writer is describing a can of Pepsi they’re drinking. Absolutely tells you nothing about how it sounds or content etc

Finally, early Pitchfork reviewing is back in vogue

that's a joke guys

if it's a joke, they've been playing the long con https://twitter.com/TommyMonroe_

Men that allow other men walk through the door first are the real gentlemen.

— T O M M Y (@TommyMonroe_) July 16, 2018

:D

Pusha T has a discography filled with lyrics about drugs. On “The Game We Play,” he gives a shoutout the drug dealers—the people behind the scenes— “the names they fade”. This song is for people like El Chapo. ”This is the drug money your ex nigga claim he made” will have many girlfriends asking their man why he isn’t making drug money. With the message behind this song, he shows respect for drug dealers, and the profession (Yes, the profession) of drug dealing.

i was certain it was a joke but reading through his twitter TL it really seems like a long and weird way to go for some simple-ass parody

it would usually have to be funny to be a successful parody really

As The Quietus sometimes does Mr. Agreeable reboots it's no surprise that it's intended humour has a tendency to leave one's sides intact

back with a banger...

Travis Scott invites a league of top-rate collaborators to the album. Unlike most artists who would like to utilize featured guests to the maximum, Scott takes a different approach. There are many contributors on the album, some even unmentioned. The interesting thing about his approach is, on songs like ‘Stop Trying To Be God’, ‘Skeletons’, and ‘Yosemite’ for example, not all the guests play major vocal roles in singing as they might usually do. This genius approach by Scott leads to a blend of so many sounds, vocals that act as condiments on these songs.

http://thequietus.com/articles/25096-travis-scott-astroworld-review

this guy keeps following and unfollowing me on twitter and i'm like......my dude

http://thequietus.com/articles/25121-graham-lambkin-interview

nice write up on Graham Lambkin

Happy 10th Anniversary!
The Top 100 Albums Of The Quietus' Existence, As Picked By tQ's Writers

Nothing Important is in my decade top 2 as well! Good shout Quietus

superb stuff; great list and an awesome number 1

looking forward to delving into all the records i hadn't heard b4 (after revisiting field of reeds first :) )

interesting list at the very least with the occasional completely bizarre pick, like i would have never imagined the quietus would rep for travis scott's birds in the trap sing mcknight, of all things?

agree with a lot on the list but the travis pick is ludicrous, especially considering all the artists he ripped off have made better albums/tapes. the us rap picks being kendrick/kanye/travis/death grips is so "i don't like rap but _____", really just missing run the jewels.

great site for 10 years

ah reading again this list was voted on by everyone who's ever contributed to the site, unlike the end of year lists which are compiled only by the 5 core staff. that explains why it's in some ways a lot less distinctive than i would have expected for a quietus list, but still doesn't explain travis scott showing up