Pitchfork is honored to host one of our favorite bands- Mandy, Indiana-to kick off our inaugural reader Q&A series. Starting right now, you can post your questions for guitarist and producer Scott Fair, and synth player Simon Catling to talk about their outstanding record, Fair's solo project set dressing, or whatever else you want to ask them about the joys and difficulties of music, Manchester, and making art.
The night before Music's Biggest Night, Pitchfork continued its streak of ringing in the new year with fun, undeniably risk-averse things we've never done before. At El Cid, a historic open-air venue in LA, we threw our first-ever Best New Music party in collaboration with Hennessy. Co-hosted by PinkPantheress, FKA twigs, Kaytranada, Perfume Genius, and Pitchfork editor Mano Sundaresan, the party brimmed with talented artists shaping the future of music.
There is a new Pitchfork subscription -only costs $5 a month-that gives readers the ability to score albums, comment on our reviews, and chop it up with our writers, editors, and one another. With the power to score albums now firmly in your hands, it's only fitting that we try to give you a better understanding of how we rate albums.
Like they did on their song list, Pitchfork ranked Cameron Winter's December 2024 solo album Heavy Metal and Geese's 2025 album album Getting Killed separately here, though neither made #1. Both made the top 25 though, as did Bad Bunny, Rosalía, Dijon, Smerz, Wednesday, Addison Rae, PinkPantheress, Nourished by Time, billy woods, Sudan Archives, Earl Sweatshirt, aya, Oklou, Amaarae, Alex G, Water From Your Eyes, Blood Orange, and more.
Right now, Pitchfork's editors are furiously debating the ranking of our year-end best albums and songs lists, which we'll be bringing to you soon. But first, we'd like to invite you to share your picks. Today, we're opening the 2025 Readers' Poll. Which albums and songs were your favorite? Tell us below. To make sure your vote is counted, please submit it by Sunday, November 30 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
In addition to commenting, you will also have the opportunity to add your own score to an album review using Pitchfork's rating system. This score will be shown next to your comment and will be aggregated with other readers to form a "reader score" alongside Pitchfork's official score.
Since Pitchfork started publishing album reviews nearly 30 years ago, two things have remained constant: no comments section, and no second opinion. That is about to change. Coming in 2026, as Pitchfork celebrates its 30th anniversary, we're finally planning to add a comments section to all of our album reviews. That's over 30,000 pieces of music criticism on which you'll be able to leave your own Pitchfork review for the very first time. We can't wait for your takes to be on our website.
