More on: Santogold

Label: Atlantic
Release Date: 12/05/08
Rating:

With Mystery Jets as our guest editors, guitarist William Rees is our album reviewer, offering his opinion on Santogold's debut.

Earlier in the year, when photographs of Santogold were appearing in the press and on blogs, it was very easy for me to write her off as an M.I.A. copyist, a musician who'd come over from the States, stealing the Sri Lankan singer's wardrobe and a handful of her producers. This irked me. Call me a snob, but when I get a whiff of something and it's obviously a direct reference to another artist (current or not) who I love, then I can hardly be expected to take to it with massive enthusiasm. Still, it wasn't long before the cut-up/collage image of her first 12 inch gleamed down at me from a shelf in the record shop, the loose change in my pocket, seemingly preordained as the exact amount for its purchase, jostled in my fingers and the firm advice of the record store owner - "selling like hot cakes mate" - combined to offer a vinyl I could not refuse. I had to buy it, even if it was just to prove whether my suspicions were true. Buy it I did, and after several spins of 'L.E.S. Artistes' it became clear how I'd been wrong about her.

Santogold is a songwriter - in the traditional sense. She deals with melodies and lyrics that you can follow and draw meaning from, and this had me surprised. Despite the leopard skin leotards and global anarchist look, here was a song that had a beauty, a tenderness; it wasn't created from samples and fragmented words, it was more rocky and traditional, with chugging basslines and a distinct TV On The Radio feel to it.

As vague as this might sound, Santi White is a real singer, in a way that M.I.A. could never be. But don't get me wrong, I don't prefer one over the other, I just find it interesting how two women in their early thirties, using the same producers and a similar dress code, have ended up making music that subtly winks to the other but essentially comes from a very different place. In M.I.A. we have a clever thief, someone who gathers sounds from across the globe, blending together musical cultures that would never normally belong and re-creating elements of classic songs that form the foundation for her words and production fireworks to ride upon. In Santogold we have someone who works with the traditional band setup (mostly) writing songs with an autobiographical edge - 'L.E.S. Artistes' is about her father. You can imagine Santogold sitting down at the piano, writing her songs from the ground up, songs from the heart. And there we have the difference....almost.

Digging deeper into the Santogold album, you could say that tracks like 'Creator' and 'Starstruck' are direct references to M.I.A.'s work, these being production-led tracks using samples and bizarre electronic sounds to conjure something more dubby and urban in feel, but what still manages to mark the difference is Santi's singing and lyrics. There's less chaos in the delivery of her message and it makes the interest and chaos of the production still feel like good songwriting. Her album is an interesting one, a bit of a journey you could say - it's definitely a grower and one you won't get tired of after a few spins. Should you go and buy it? Definitely. Is it the album of the year, the one we've all been waiting for like a bunch of evangelicals for the second coming of Christ? No, that's our album 'Twenty One', but I still recommend it - highly.

William Rees

Santogold Official Site
Santogold Myspace