Brought to you by the music critics at Pitchfork, The Pitchfork Review is a show for music fans/obsessives who can’t wait to talk about the latest releases. Hosted by Pitchfork editor-in-chief Puja Patel, this podcast pulls back the curtain on our reviews and scores, dives deep into new music, and gives an expert guide to what's exciting, what’s great, and what’s just plain terrible.

Everything else aside, 2020 was a banner year for music. In addition to some truly stellar albums and songs, there was also plenty of sillier stuff to dig into: misguided anthems about the pandemic, casual covers and collaborations, good and bad tweets galore, and of course, Bernie Sanders introducing the Strokes and Soccer Mommy. On this episode, Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel is joined by Associate Editor Anna Gaca and News Editor Matthew Strauss for a senior superlatives-style rundown of the best and worst in these categories and more. Thanks for listening to the Pitchfork Review this year! We’ll be back with new episodes in 2021.

Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters isn’t just the best album of 2020, it’s the sort of masterpiece that defines an entire era. On this episode, Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel is joined by Contributing Editor Jenn Pelly, who wrote Pitchfork’s 10 Fetch the Bolt Cutters review and spent the year in communication with Apple for a series of follow-up pieces, and Features Editor Ryan Dombal, who wrote Pitchfork’s previous 10 review a decade ago—for Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy—and worked closely with Pelly on her Apple coverage. The three discuss the brilliance of Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and Apple’s unorthodox approach to making it; as well as the process of deciding that an album should receive a perfect score, and what a 10 really means. 

In the latest installment of our year-end podcast coverage, we’re talking about 2020’s best rock and rap albums. Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel is joined by News Editor Evan Minsker, Contributing Editor Jayson Greene, and Staff Writers Alphonse Pierre and Madison Bloom, who argue in favor of their personal favorites, from Yves Tumor and U.S. Girls to Westside Gunn and Jay Electronica. They also get into some broader discussions about the state of the genres more generally, including: Which old heads or new kids ruled rap in 2020? And what does “rock” even mean these days?