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Against the Extra Long Pop Album
When I was a kid, my dad tasked my brother and I with a fun challenge: edit The White Album to fit onto one CD. That meant shaving off about 14 minutes, down to a cool 80. Which songs you selected...
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Pinegrove on How Being a Good Artist and a Good Person Are the Same Thing
Our interview series Icebreaker features artists talking about things—some strange, some amusing, some meaningful—that just might reveal their true selves. This edition features Evan Stephens Hall,...
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12 Pitchfork Staffers on Their Favorite Lyrics of 2016
We’ve collectively spent the last few weeks slicing and dicing the year in music every which way, from the obviousstuff to the morebizarremoments. But after taking on 2016’s best exhaustively as a...
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5 Essential Sets from the Haçienda’s Resident DJs
It’s difficult to imagine a better Christmas gift for an older dance-head than a ticket to Sankey’s in the UK this December 27, where a full-on Haçienda reunion will take place. The Factory...
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The Best Underground Garage Punk Albums of 2016
Shake Appeal is Pitchfork deputy news editor Evan Minsker’s survey of loud, gnarly, garage-style rock‘n’roll. Back in the summer, he listed 20 favorites from the first half of the year. Here’s some...
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Pitchfork’s Favorite (Non-Pitchfork) Music Writing of 2016
We’ve collectively spent the last few weeks slicing and dicing the year in music every which way, from the obviousstuff to the morebizarremoments. But after taking on 2016’s best exhaustively as a...
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7 Great Music Movies from 2016 to Stream Over the Holidays
Parties, presents, and family togetherness aren’t the only reasons to (ostensibly) look forward to the holidays. Especially at the end of a year like the one we just survived, they give us the...
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George Michael Was a Master of Covers. These Are 10 of His Best.
George Michael wasn't just a brilliant purveyor of pop—he was a scholar of it, studying the ins and outs with a keen eye and taking those lessons to heart in the studio and on the stage. As he told...
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A Thank You Note to Everyone Who Didn’t Release an Album in 2016
Dear Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Nicki Minaj, Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Lorde, Haim, Sufjan Stevens, the National, Taylor Swift, St. Vincent, Jay Z, Grizzly Bear, the xx, Fleet Foxes, Tame Impala,...
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10 Great New Tapes that Set a Mood
In 1980, the psychologist Robert Plutchik attempted to categorize the entire spectrum of feelings into a simple and colorful diagram now known as Plutchik's wheel of emotions. Shaped like a flower, the...
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Coachella 2017: On Music’s Most Controversial Poster Hierarchy
The lineup for Coachella 2017 arrived today, and at first blush the biggest surprise may have been just how unsurprising it was. In late November, speculation started circulating that this year’s...
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Butch Vig on Why Music Must Keep Building DIY Spaces
If you’re looking for DIY heroes, look no further than Butch Vig, the glue behind Nirvana’s Nevermind, the instigator (and drummer) for Garbage, and one of the only people Billy Corgan seems to like....
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Relapse’s Matthew F. Jacobson on Becoming More than a Metal Label
During the course of its 26 years, Relapse Records has become one of the most respected American labels to specialize in metal. Last year alone, it put out praised albums from Inter Arma, Cough, and...
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Coachella’s Controversial Owner: What You Need to Know
Founded in 1981, Los Angeles concert promotion company Goldenvoice organized more than 50 punk shows in its first two years, and it went on to help introduce audiences to the then-edgier sounds of...
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8 Songs That Borrow from the xx’s Playbook
During the summer of 2009, two seemingly unrelated and almost contradictory musical events occurred. The Black Eyed Peas wrote the song of the summer with the gratingly catchy and hyper-positive “I...
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Sharon Van Etten on How Opening for Nick Cave Led to Her Role in “The OA”
As Sharon Van Etten was promoting her last album, 2014’s Are We There, she realized she had reached two diverging paths. One led to more of the same: a life spent on the road nine months out of the...
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U2 Are Finally Acting Their Age
The past few years have not been particularly kind to U2. Sure, the the Dublin quartet’s live show has remained a blockbuster—their Innocence + Experience Tour raked in $133.6 million, making it the...
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The John Williams of Japan: Joe Hisaishi in 9 Songs
Some of the greatest moments of anime film history—Chihiro falling from the sky with Haku in Spirited Away, the fight between Ashitaka and the demon in Princess Mononoke, the first time we see Totoro...
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Musicians Are Rallying to Save Obamacare
Before 2010’s Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, Kelley Deal didn’t have health insurance. As someone with a pre-existing condition, getting insured was prohibitively expensive for the...
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Human After All: On Janelle Monáe in Hidden Figures and Moonlight
Janelle Monáe tends to dream big. So it’s fitting that she would make her acting debut in not one but two of this year’s most celebrated feature films: the feel-good period drama Hidden Figures and the...
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