How to Unblur Pitchfork Scores: Just Add 'ss' to the URL

Pitchfork started blurring their review scores behind a paywall. You pull up a review, scroll to the number, and it's a gray smudge. You want the score. You don't want to pay Condé Nast ten bucks a month to see a number.

Here's the trick: add "ss" to the front of pitchfork.com.

That's it. Change pitchfork.com to sspitchfork.com in the URL bar, hit enter, and you'll see the score immediately. No extension. No login. No subscription. Works on any browser, any device — phone, laptop, iPad, whatever.

The Fastest Way to See a Pitchfork Score

Open the Pitchfork review with the blurred score.
Click the URL bar.
Type two letters — ss — right before pitchfork.com.
Hit enter.

So pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fiona-apple-fetch-the-bolt-cutters/ becomes sspitchfork.com/reviews/albums/fiona-apple-fetch-the-bolt-cutters/. You land on the score instantly.

Why Are Pitchfork Scores Blurred?

Pitchfork put review scores behind their paid subscription. Free readers see the review text but the number is censored with a blur. The idea is that the score is the thing most people actually come for, so making it paywall-only is supposed to push people to subscribe.

It turns out most people don't want to pay to see a number out of 10.

How Does sspitchfork Work?

sspitchfork.com is a free tool built by Rate.fm, a Letterboxd-style app for rating music. We host every Pitchfork review score in our database. When you swap pitchfork.com for sspitchfork.com, we look up the same album on Rate.fm and redirect you straight to the page that shows the score.

You get the number, the release year, the genre, and the rest of the album context — without the blur and without paying.

Does This Work on My Phone?

Yes. Works on iPhone, Android, iPad, Mac, Windows, everything. It's just a URL change. There's nothing to install.

If you're on iOS Safari and you've got the Pitchfork review open, tap the address bar, tap the pitchfork.com part, type ss in front of it, and go.

Does It Work for Every Pitchfork Review?

It works for the vast majority of reviewed albums. Rate.fm has imported Pitchfork's full review history, so almost every album Pitchfork has ever scored is in there. If a review is brand new and hasn't synced yet, you'll land on a search page where you can type the album name and find it in one tap.

Is sspitchfork Legal / Safe?

Yes. It's a redirect to a public score lookup on Rate.fm. We're not scraping blurred content, bypassing DRM, or serving pirated articles — we're just showing you the score, which is a single number that was publicly posted on Pitchfork before they decided to hide it. No login, no tracking, no ads, no malware.

Do I Need to Install Anything?

No. Unlike the Chrome extensions and Firefox add-ons you might have seen ("Fix Pitchfork", "Pitchfork Review Score Hider", etc.), sspitchfork doesn't need an extension. It's a URL trick. Just two letters.

This also means it works in browsers where extensions don't — mobile Safari, in-app browsers (Twitter, Reddit, Discord), work laptops with locked-down Chrome, Kindles, whatever.

What If I Want More Than Just the Score?

If you liked this, you'll probably like the thing that powers it. Rate.fm is a free iOS app where you can rate albums, write reviews, follow friends, and see what everyone's listening to. It's like Letterboxd but for music. Every Pitchfork review is already in the app, so you can browse by score, by year, by decade, or look up any album in one tap.

TL;DR

Pitchfork paywalled their scores. To see any score for free, change pitchfork.com to sspitchfork.com in the URL. Two letters. That's the whole trick.