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Craig Jenkins

Music Critic
See all their articles from across New York Magazine
@CraigSJ
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Craig Jenkins is a critic who writes about music and television and comedy and video games. He was a 2021 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism.

  1. quarantuning
    An Accurate Representation of Quarantine Brain in One Music Video645AR’s “Yoga” video looks like what watching the news off a tab of acid feels like.
  2. song review
    Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion Just Brought Back the Lost Art of a Killer RemixIt’s so rare in this era for a remix to feel like an event and not just a few new words plopped onto an existing song.
  3. vulture lists
    Fiona Apple Has Never Made a Bad Album. But Which Is Her Best?Let’s argue.
  4. album review
    Rina Sawayama’s Debut Album Might Make You See the 2000s Much DifferentlySawayama is an exercise in making pop out of not-so-popular 2000s nostalgia.
  5. quarantuning
    The Rolling Stones Have Arrived Right on TimeMick and Keith didn’t write “Living in a Ghost Town” about the current crisis, but astute poets can smell a bad time coming.
  6. chat room
    Mike Dean Wants to Put Kanye’s G.O.O.D Fridays Songs on Streaming This Year“We’re both a little bit crazy.”
  7. album review
    Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters Is the Album She Deserved to Make All AlongThe singer-songwriter has had a breakthrough.
  8. close reads
    Final Fantasy VII Remake’s New Midgar Eerily Reflects Our Crumbling SocietyThe question here isn’t whether or not Final Fantasy VII could happen to us but, rather, how much of it already has.
  9. obits
    John Prine Was One of the Great American Songwriters. He Was Also All of Us.His music was a celebration of the fullness and the randomness of life.
  10. remembrances
    Remembering Bill Withers’s Singular VoiceBill Withers was a straight shooter as a singer, sort of like a church pastor in the sense that really, he was just talking to you.
  11. album review
    The Weeknd and Partynextdoor’s Dirtbag R&B Is Hard to BeatTwo of our finest R&B villains are at it again on After Hours and Partymobile.
  12. a long talk
    Nerding Out With ThundercatOn his new album, losing Mac Miller, and the Evangelion dubbing controversy.
  13. song review
    Bob Dylan’s New JFK Assassination Epic Couldn’t Be More PrescientThe Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Dylan in 2016 remains in good hands.
  14. album review
    Dua Lipa’s Here to StayFuture Nostalgia is one of the best pop albums of the young year.
  15. quarantuning
    The Internet Is Now the World’s Biggest Music FestivalOne of the rare pleasures this week has been watching DJs and singer-songwriters spring into action to help people fill up the hollow days and nights.
  16. solitude
    Relishing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, an Anti-Anxiety OasisThe game runs refreshingly against the rising tide of bad, dark news.
  17. book excerpt
    Kenny Rogers Was Never Just One Kind of ArtistPop-country owes a debt of gratitude to the late singer and his debut hit “Lucille.”
  18. quarantuning
    10 Songs to Get You Through This Anxious, Lonely SpringWe’ve got upbeat jams about spooky premonitions and quiet songs about how spring sorta sucks and a psych-rock epic about the apocalypse.
  19. radio vulture
    ‘Donald Glover Presents’ Only Makes Him Even More of an EnigmaWas this thing supposed to come out or not?
  20. radio vulture
    Coronavirus Should Be a Turning Point for the Music IndustryIt’s the nightmare scenario that calls the viability of the whole business structure into question.
  21. album review
    Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake Should Have the Competition Taking NotesHe’s a rare rap star in a rare lane.
  22. radio vulture
    Why Shouldn’t Megan Thee Stallion Take What’s Hers?The idea that it’s too soon for Megan Thee Stallion to want a more fair deal is a fault in our own thinking, not hers.
  23. album review
    Bad Bunny Is Breaking All the Rules, and It’s a Thrill to WatchYHLQMDLG is an expression of Bad Bunny’s freedom both in the title and the music.
  24. song review
    Lady Gaga’s Message Remains Clear on ‘Stupid Love’: Just DanceGaga knows her audience too well.
  25. encounters
    What Happens When a Wunderkind Grows Up?King Krule talks his new album Man Alive!, mostly avoiding the music industry, and how fatherhood changed him.
  26. album review
    Is Grimes an Anti-Hero or Villain?Her new album, Miss Anthropocene, doesn’t make the question any easier.
  27. album review
    Tame Impala and Justin Bieber Return 5 Years Later Changed MenThe Slow Rush and Changes are dispatches about married life, each from different vantage points.
  28. song review
    Billie Eilish and James Bond Are a Perfect Marriage“No Time to Die” is possibly the quietest Bond song ever, and one of the few times you get to hear Eilish raise her voice to a shout.
  29. radio vulture
    The Tide Has Rapidly Turned on Billie EilishIt’s hard not to view Billie Eilish’s remarks about hip-hop through the prism of the long history of white people turning their noses up at rap.
  30. super bowl 2020
    For 15 Minutes, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez United the MassesThe message was loud.
  31. album review
    Kesha’s High Road Is the Freest She’s Ever SoundedKesha has crafted her most upbeat, free-spirited batch of songs in almost a decade.
  32. radio vulture
    Taylor Swift Finally Invites You Into Her Narrative on Miss AmericanaMiss Americana peels away some of Taylor Swift’s complexities to reveal even more complexities.
  33. grammys 2020
    The Grammys Can’t Go On Like ThisThe show needed to be caustic and political, but calamity had other plans.
  34. going solo
    Hayley Williams’s Solo Debut Was Worth the 15-Year WaitI would’ve guessed the Paramore front woman’s first solo single would be a full-tilt pop-radio assault. I’m happy I was wrong.
  35. as told to
    I Had to Do Right by Mac MillerProducer Jon Brion on the gutting task of completing the rapper’s final album after his sudden death.
  36. album review
    Mac Miller Leaves Us His Most Compelling Artistic Statement on CirclesHis posthumous album is a stab at the caliber of songwriting achieved by titans of the form.
  37. profile
    The PerfectionistIn honor of Mac Miller’s posthumous album, Circles, we’re republishing our profile, which originally ran just before his death in 2018.
  38. song review
    Drake and Future Are Way Too Good at Memeing ThemselvesThe video seems destined to live as a constellation of GIFs.
  39. album review
    Selena Gomez Returns Unbothered and at Her Best on RareIt’s a whole album’s worth of “I still got it.”
  40. appreciations
    Clare Torry’s Voice Is Seared Into Your Brain Whether You Know It or NotHer performance on Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky ” manages to express the full range of human emotion without relying on words.
  41. coming attractions
    32 Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2020You know, besides Rihanna.
  42. song review
    R&Bieber’s Back, for Better or WorseThe pivot back to R&B is a fascinating one for Justin Bieber, if you remember what happened the last time he tried it.
  43. album review
    Harry Styles’s Sound Could Still Use a Bit of Fine-tuningFine Line goes where it pleases, for better or worse.
  44. radio vulture
    We’re Losing Another Rap Generation Right Before Our EyesThe question of the moment is the question of the decade: Are things just always bad, or are they historically bad?
  45. what were the 2010s?
    ‘I Don’t Know What Myself Is’Pharrell explains why he’s better when he’s making music for other people, and his songs that defined the decade.
  46. album review
    Camila Cabello’s in Love … and Not Much ElseLike the performances of “Señorita” we’ve seen all fall, Romance generates heat and not enough fire.
  47. best of 2019
    The Best Albums of 2019This year should be remembered as a bridge between music’s past and future.
  48. baby it’s cold outside
    Where to Even Begin With 2019’s Never-Ending New (and New-ish) Christmas MusicYou guide to the best of the crop, some quality cash grabs, and a few delightfully boring ones.
  49. a long talk
    Little Brother Can’t Be ErasedThe beloved rap duo on reuniting, how the 2010s changed the music industry, and why their influence on Drake isn’t up for debate.
  50. album review
    Don’t Look Now, But Coldplay Are Good Again Everday Life is a big bang for a band believed to be dead or dying.
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