Craig Jenkins

Music Critic at New York Magazine

Music Critic at Vulture

Music critic at @Vulture/@NYMag, 2021 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism

Articles

It’s Nice to See Lorde Moving On

2 weeks ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

The pen-pal relationship Lorde manages through her email newsletter gives off a pronounced old-soul air. Her prose scratches at the colorful candor of letters exchanged between 19th-century authors. “It might seem funny or be easy to forget,” a missive from 2023 about heartbreak exclaimed, “but I make records because I need to.
Sinners’ Music Goes for the Jugular

3 weeks ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

The most absurd sequence in Ryan Coogler’s new film upends what we’ve come to expect from stories about the blues. Ryan Coogler’s Sinnersflexes a modern disregard for categorization, exploring the ghastly inequities of the Jim Crow south through luridly competing genre lenses.
Lorde - Vulture

3 weeks ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins |Jason Frank |Bethy Squires |Jennifer Zhan

Displaying all articles tagged: song review 1:45 p.m. Even if her new single feels a bit last decade. and now it’s time for a breakdown 1:02 p.m. Lorde’s new song, “What Was That,” is full of self-referential lyrics. Let’s break them down. my single is dropping 12:08 a.m. Lorde Summer starts early. what was that Apr. 22, 2025 Police said she didn’t get a permit before inviting fans to Washington Square Park for a (delayed) pop-up. live laugh lorde Apr.
The 50 Best Storytelling Rap Songs

4 weeks ago | complex.com | Craig Jenkins

The mark of a good rapper is the ability to string words together into captivating rhymes, but the mark of a great one is the ability to weave those rhymes into stunning narratives that grip and maintain the listener's attention through the end of the song. As hip-hop has matured as an art form, writers have come along who have taken the craft to new heights with their storytelling talents.
Justin Vernon Exits the Woods

4 weeks ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

On Sable, Fable, Justin Vernon is committed to having a better time. Justin Vernon was weeping onstage, his signature falsetto warbling just out of control, when he realized it was time to rethink Bon Iver. The song he was performing that day in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2023 — “715 - CRΣΣKS” from 2016’s 22, a Million — is an agonizing vocal-loop routine that asks a lot of the artist.
‘We Created a Pitchfork Fest for Trans Rights’

1 month ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

“It ultimately came down to curating what a truly inclusive trans-forward music festival could look like,” says Jael Holzman, seen here with her punk trio Ekko Astral. “Also I wanted it not to suck.” Jael Holzman writes and speaks with locomotive urgency, as a political and climate reporter as well as a co-founder of the Washington, D.C., punk trio Ekko Astral.
Everyone Can Pay a Little More

1 month ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

I went to the Nintendo Switch 2 premiere event in New York City this week thinking about New Donk City. That uncanny-valley microcosm of the Big Apple was valued real estate at the 2017 Nintendo Direct where the original Switch’s blockbuster launch title, Super Mario Odyssey, was revealed. The company mascot burst forth from a pothole to do what he tends to do at such showcases. Dodging cabs and scaling skyscrapers, Mario gracefully expressed how the new system outpaced the last one, the Wii U.
Skrillex Fell in Wub Again

1 month ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

A certain flavor of enthusiast will argue that Skrillex Has Saved Dubstep. Skrillex is a master of misdirection whose trickster tendencies inform everything from his restless, global production purview to loopy release strategies. In 2014, fans playing a mobile game were treated to tracks from the forthcoming Recess as rewards. F*ck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol But Ur Not!! <3, his latest album, was dispensed via Dropbox link sent to attendees of a recent show.
Joey Bada$$ Has No Problem Partnering With Columbia Right Now

1 month ago | ourcommunitynow.com | Craig Jenkins

Share Save this article to read it later. Find this story in your account’s ‘Saved for Later’ section. Last week, I received an email announcing the start of Joey Bada$$’s artist-in-residence engagement with Columbia University. He had already done a bit of press about the opportunity, highlighting how it plays into his history of university lectures and men’s mentorship initiatives, but not the elephant in the room.
Joey Bada$$ Has No Issue Partnering With Columbia Right Now

1 month ago | vulture.com | Craig Jenkins

“I got way too many allies on the west to just be like, ‘Yo, eff the West.’” Last week, I received an email announcing the start of Joey Bada$$’s artist-in-residence engagement with Columbia University. He had already done a bit of press about the opportunity, highlighting how it plays into his history of university lectures and men’s mentorship initiatives, but not the elephant in the room.