Understanding Pitchfork Album Scores: A Guide to Our Ratings

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. We have a saying here at the office: “6.8, good not great.” However, if you would like a more detailed breakdown on how to use the Pitchfork rating system, here is a scoring rubric we use to help guide our thinking behind scoring albums on a 101-point scale. A masterpiece, one of the best albums of all time. Will be culturally and aesthetically important many years from now in some way. A monument, an instant classic. Sounds ahead of its time, sounds timeless, immediately belongs in the canon. Entire genres could be created in its wake. A major statement, worthy of your time and energy, no matter your taste. Transcends genre, claims new ground, a total and intentional work of art, possesses an aura that makes it vital to its genre, its era, or the artist’s career. Essential listening, among the best records of the year. Shows a mastery of craft or taps into the sublime, feels a part of the zeitgeist, steps out of its genre, takes big risks that pay off. Excellent record, highly recommended. “Best in class” for its genre. Not a bad song on it. Very good record, recommend checking it out. Hardly a dull moment, a great hang, maybe plays it safe but executes everything very well, maybe takes some risks but doesn’t land everything perfectly. Good record, a few issues, but worth your attention if you’re into the band or genre. Maybe starts strong and fades a little by the end, includes a few songs that don’t move the needle, but also has a handful of outstanding moments. Pretty good, not great, some unavoidable issues, but interesting. Fans of the band or genre will get the most out of it. Decent record, a few things going for it, but a handful of major issues overwhelm the experience. Not very good, but not a total disaster. Pretty bad. Really bad. Incompetent and thoughtless. Terrible. Terrible and symptomatic of some kind of larger problem in music or the world. Worthless.