Pitchfork Downgrades Grimes, Daft Punk and More

Legendary music publication Pitchfork has reviewed their album reviews, and re-issued scores for many iconic albums. Most went up, but a few went down. 

Pitchfork said “But then, sometimes, our feelings change. Our precious fickle little feelings! The truth is we are always litigating how we feel about a piece of music, revising opinions based on context, culture, who we’ve become, who we once were.”

A few albums finally got the recognition the deserved, including Born To Die by Lana Del Rey which was dumped up from a 5.5 to 7.8.

Anna Gaca of Pitchfork said “But late one night that summer, I set out for a long drive, slid a burned CD in the player, and realised the open road feels like Born to Die, all smooth glossy surface and the riskiest danger around, the kind where you’re the victim. The future looks pitch black and you glide right in.”

Hyper-pop princess and future icon Charli XCX also finally got the recognition she deserves.

The Vroom Vroom EP was bumped up from a 4.5 to a 7.8.

The review starts with “To a certain, very melodramatic, very online type of Twitter user, there was nothing more homophobic than our humble publication giving a 4.5 to Charli XCX’s Vroom Vroom EP” and ends with “nowadays, it doesn’t seem that extreme. And when you don’t think too hard about it, it’s pretty fun.”

In short, Charli was too ahead of her time for Pitchfork to understand.

Controversially, Grimes’ Miss Anthropcene was downgraded from 8.2 to 6.9.

“On the subsequent Miss Anthropocene, she sounds like a carbon copy of herself—faded and less defined.” said Madison Blood of Pitchfork.

Daft Punk’s 2013 album Random Access Memories was also downgraded.

“RAM has some jams, but it doesn’t feel pivotal in the same way that Discovery [their first album] did. It didn’t push pop music forward; it merely opened the door for countless Moroder cameos and convinced Pharrell that what the world really needed was a 24-hour “Happy” video,” according to Philip Sherburne of Pitchfork.

Many have taken to social media to frantically discuss the upgrading and downgrading, including Kid Cudi;

Pitchfork has never givin me good ratings, and here we are, years later and im still here. Its ok man. They dont need to change it. The entire world knows, even my haters, that this album was the one that changed hip hop forever. https://t.co/NBbSg0uMoY

— The Chosen One : I ? YOU FRESHIE 4EVER (@KidCudi) October 5, 2021

With some even poking fun at Pitchfork themselves.

honestly the Pitchfork score I’d most like to retroactively change was my starting salary lmao

— Lindsay Zoladz (@lindsayzoladz) October 5, 2021

Popular opinion is divided over whether there was really any point in Pitchfork doing this, but at least some incredible albums get the appreciation they always deserved.

You can find more celebrity news on our website.