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Santogold - Santogold
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The path to the midway point of the year is littered with Next Big Things. Duffy and Adele have fulfilled promise but may just have rushed their get-rich-quick schemes, while Foals and These New Puritans have pleased the critics but remained on the shelves. As we wait for results from the sluggish Ting Tings, it’s time for Philadelphia’s Santogold to face the music.
The word on Santogold has been all about comparisons and influences: she’s new-wave, she’s ska, she’s nu-rave, she’s the new MIA. So is she simply a hotchpotch of styles, an amalgam of all that’s hip in 2008? Is she even herself?
Santi White vomits gold glitter, that much we can tell from the album cover, and the record itself sparkles, whether seen through the lens of her forebears or approached fresh. Heralded last year by the bleepy, grimy squall of ‘Creator’ (the most obvious MIA touchstone) and the more friendly Blondie pop of ‘L.E.S. Artistes’ (now a single in its own right), Santogold finally arrives as vindication of all that sweaty excitement.
Like MIA, a feisty character makes itself felt on the above tracks and elsewhere, whether through the tribal punk chants of ‘Say Aha’ or the more direct “Shove your hope where it don’t shine” of ‘Shove It’’s clattering dub beats. But there’s a softer side to White too, with the warm, almost Altered Images-style new pop of ‘Lights Out’ and some kittenish asides on the bouncy punk of ‘You’ll Find A Way’. Above all, the songs are as catchy as a sticky Frisbee.
Despite valiant attempts, Santogold is not easily pigeonholed. There’s a melding of fashionable styles here (as well as a fondness for dubby sounds) that recalls Primal Scream’s Screamadelica – an album that wasn’t so much seminal as a snapshot of what was crucial at the time. Like Screamadelica, Santogold deftly gathers markers of disparate cool to form an attractive pop whole.
Matthew Horton
