So I wanted to know, and at that point she had not been in touch with Shameika. When we talked later in the summer—I think it was mid-August—she told me, “Shameika found me.” And my jaw dropped. I was not…
A Guide to Michigan Rap, 2020’s Most Exciting Regional Scene
In familial terms, when it comes to Michigan’s rap scene, Detroit is the older sibling with trophies on the shelf, and Flint is the step-sibling who rips the heads off Barbie dolls, feeds junk food to the pets, and skips…
The Best Music of 2020: Pitchfork Readers’ Poll Results
A few weeks ago, we launched the Pitchfork 2020 Readers’ Poll, in which we asked you to tell us your favorite songs and albums of this crazy year. Thousands of you did. (Thank you!) Below, find the results, and compare…
The 30 Best Electronic Music Releases of 2020
It is hard to imagine electronic music experiencing a stranger and more unsettling year than this one; only something like the collapse of the internet, or the electrical grid itself, might inflict even more damage than the pandemic has wrought…
The Year Megan Thee Stallion Became a Symbol
Several decades later, “empowerment” has lost its teeth in the context of development and even more so outside of it. “[T]he crucial part about ‘political mobilization’ has been excised. This depoliticized ‘empowerment’ serves everyone except the women it is supposed…
The 50 Best Albums of 2020
Listen/Buy: Rough Trade | Apple Music | Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal 4AD 24. Grimes: Miss Anthropocene Grimes embodies the unhuman on Miss Anthropocene. Her fifth album’s title is a personification of the anthropocene, a theorized geological epoch in which civilization…
Fiona Apple on How She Broke Free and Made the Album of the Year
I loved Desire so much—I mean, Christ, it was probably even my first small education into racial injustice because of the song “Hurricane.” And on the song “Isis,” he sort of gave me my sexual awakening a little bit. When…
The 100 Best Songs of 2020
Listen: Cakes Da Killa / Proper Villains, “Don Dada” Atlantic/Sugar Trap 84. Rico Nasty: “IPHONE” The first single off of Rico Nasty’s raucous album Nightmare Vacation considers the peaks and valleys of romantic love as analogous to our unhealthy relationships…
Staff Picks: The Year in Rock and Rap
For me, that’s what the charm of this band is. It’s really aggressive music, but it’s also very happy music. It’s cheerfully scummy, I guess. Puja Patel: It does feel cheery. EM: The other thing I love about this band…
Elvis Costello on the Music of His Life
I saw John last year, and he was just great. We had supper, and I’m very grateful for that night. We went and sat for the evening to tell stories, and then John’s jukebox caught on fire, which seems like…