Do you ever feel like the pace of conversation around new releases moves way too fast? Are you a listener who likes to sit with a record for a while, and thus misses out on the most avid discussion upon debut? Or are you just concerned about how our brains are being rotted to not being able to focus on something for longer than fifteen minutes (at best)?

Well, Popheads has noticed this trend too. And we’re setting out to change the culture – at least in our corner of the internet. That’s why we’re very excited to introduce our new community project: Popheads Quarterly.

What is Popheads Quarterly?

As the name implies, Popheads Quarterly (or PHQ) will be a quarterly zine reflecting on the music releases we’ve experienced within the last three months. We’re hoping this will be a fun, engaging, and organic way to reignite conversation around new releases past their initial release week, while also revisiting other initiatives, events, and highlights from the sub.

While this project is still in its infancy and likely to evolve, already planned features within the zine include:

• Reflections on the releases of the quarter (more on that below)
• Results from the recent Rates
• Highlights from AMAs and other subreddit events

At the core of this project, however, is our effort to reimagine and reframe conversation around album reviews… 

Including putting our own Popheads stamp on how records are received. Sure, Pitchfork may say one thing, Rolling Stone another, but it’s time to explore the only rating that really matters: the Popheads Gradebook.

The World According to Popheads

Every quarter, we’ll open up a submission window for users of the Popheads community to share their opinions and reflect upon the biggest releases of the period. This participation from you all is broken down into four different categories.

🧮 ALBUM SCORES

Each period, 10 - 15 of the biggest and buzziest releases will be open for scoring from the community. This will often be the big-name drops, but also records that garnered a notable amount of acclaim or interest within Popheads. For each record, a user may submit a score from 1 - 10 (decimals permitted), and then provide commentary on why they scored the way they did after having some time to sit with it.

Once the submission window closes, the mod team will tally up the scores from all users who participated, which will then generate a relative “grade” from A - F. These grades will be revealed in the release of the Quarterly, alongside select commentary from those who submitted.

Note: The goal of this initiative is to remind all of us that the most important judgment when listening to music is our own. The averaged Popheads grade will be a reflective, collective community sentiment, but aims to be more nuanced and reflective than a straightforward numerical score. This is about retrospection and celebration, not competition.

📮 ALBUM COMMENTARY

The noteworthy releases that weren’t curated for the Gradebook to be scored will still be included in the Quarterly, under the Commentary feature. This allows us to revisit and discuss a larger swath of albums from the period, but they will not receive a grade. However, it is possible that these albums could be PH graded at a later time.

📡 SHOUT-OUTS

Similar to Commentary, the shout-out submission allows our users to submit their thoughts on a project released within the quarter that we didn’t highlight. 3 - 5 of these will be featured in the Quarterly, based on the quality of the write-up, so make your case a good one!

📻 THROWBACKS

Another subset of commentary, this submission allows users to reflect upon reissues that came out during the period. This could include deluxes, remixes, anniversaries, etc.

So What’s Next?

Following this introduction post, our inaugural submission period for Q1 2026 will run from Thursday, April 16 - Saturday, May 16. Keep an eye out for the call for submissions post for more details on how to chime in with your thoughts, reflections, and scores.

This is just the beginning of this new journey, and we hope you’ll come along for the ride! Lots more tricks up our sleeve here… but we’re looking forward to reflecting on what 2026 has offered us so far together.

Stay tuned!

– Your PHQ Staff