According to John Koblin of The New York Observer, the main candidates for the now-vacant pop critic job at the New York Times are Jon Caramanica (who is departing his post as Vibe’s music editor this week) and Jody Rosen of Slate (and, frequently, Blender), though there are others allegedly in the offing: Sam Sifton, the paper’s culture editor, says he’s “looking at a lot of candidates.” Still, Sanneh’s departure to The New Yorker (he’ll be a culture writer there, not the pop critic–that’s still Sasha Frere-Jones’ job) hasn’t made him lose any perspective, as he tells Koblin, “It’s also a job that’s impossible to complain about, partly because it’s the opposite of boring, and partly because no sympathy will ever be offered to someone who goes to concerts for a living.” [NY Observer]