Co-hosted by Editor-in-Chief Puja Patel and Reviews Editor Jeremy D. Larson, and featuring guest critics and contributors, our weekly podcast includes in-depth analysis of the new albums we find extraordinary, exciting, and just plain terrible. This week, Features Editor Ryan Dombal stops by to peer into a crystal ball and discuss a few releases due early in the year by 100 gecs, Caroline Polachek, Fever Ray, as well as what we hope to hear as 2023 unfolds: The next chapter in Beyoncé’s Renaissance saga? Frank Ocean? Sky Ferreira?! Rihanna?!?!
Listen to this week’s episode below, and follow The Pitchfork Review here. You can also check out an excerpt of the podcast’s transcript below.
Puja Patel: Let’s talk about the things that are rumored to happen, and our hopes and aspirations for big releases for this year. I’ll get it out of the way: Beyoncé’s Renaissance Act 2. Rumors are that it’s going to be a country album. I would love a Deep South, Louisiana blues Beyoncé album.
Jeremy D. Larson: I don’t know if I want that.
Patel: The other rumor was that Act 3 is like a straightforward pop/R&B album.
Ryan Dombal: I mean, I’m excited.
Larson: I’m excited, I’m not gonna lie. I just have reservations about the idea of a Southern country album from Beyoncé.
Dombal: I’m most excited for her tour—although I’m not excited for the guaranteed shit show that is going to be trying to get a ticket. But I’m ready to see all these songs.
Patel: I’m also going to get the other big hitter out of the way, which is the Rihanna album. Who knows if it’s going to show up next year, though she is playing the most-watched show on television; arguably the biggest live music event of the year will be Rihanna at the Super Bowl. And there is a history of huge pop artists playing the Super Bowl and announcing something.
Rihanna was rumored to be making a dancehall album, which would be so sick. Will it happen? Hard to say. She is quite literally worth a billion dollars now. So does she need to make it happen?
Dombal: Unfortunately, no.
Larson: She doesn’t need to do anything.
