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Santogold
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 49 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Downtown
Release Date: 29 April 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Dance
Summary
The debut full-length album for the alternative rock artist has Spank Rock and Trouble Andrew as featured guests.
Also On The Web: Santogold @MySpace
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly
The album is hardly flawless, but in an era that retro-fetishizes rock and whitewashed pop, Santogold feels both raw and real. [25 Apr/2 May 2008, p.119]
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Though at times it threatens to become overbearing in its eclecticism, Santogold's solid lyricism and pop sensibility keep the album from disappearing up its own ass.
Read Full Review >MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
Right now her main message is just to do all this. If enough people like it, she has the aura of someone who might push the envelope.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
This album is a place to crash, boots to wear, pepper spray to fight back with and charcoal to dirty your hands. If the struggles of urban artists sound like this, these 12 anthems ensure that starving will never go out of style.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
Santogold is sure to be one of the year’s best albums, with only one near-miss (“My Superman”), an album that may become unavoidable in coming weeks and months.
Read Full Review >Mojo
The whole record's buzzy, hat-wearingly trendy; but also irresistible, and almost boundlessly exciting. [July 2008, p.104]
Billboard
Santogold pours all that experience into a bracingly eclectic set full of fuzzy New Wave synths, sticky avant-soul melodies, busted-laptop beats and sing-song vocal chants inherited from the likes of Neneh Cherry and Björk. If you've managed to avoid her until now, you won't be able to for much longer.
Read Full Review >Spin
Combining new wave, ska, dub, grime, Baltimore club, and hip-hop in an ear-warping wash of 21st-century psychedelia, Santogold takes listeners on a trip to a hidden black America, where White acts as tour guide through the alleyways of her mind and undoubtedly excellent iPod.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
White, a Wesleyan graduate, takes the best elements of punk, new wave, dub reggae and electronica and fuses them into an utterly arresting sonic pile-up different from anything else around.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe
Part of the appeal as with M.I.A.--is the attitude and defiant urban undertow that draw you in, and, while not immediately accessible, it's ultimately irresistible.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
No Doubt-esque ska-pop forms the record's core, but her belting vocal hooks really come into their own on the robotic indie numbers.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express (NME)
An eclectic album for Right Now, which shows what it means to be a modern pop star, and reveals a glittery crazy-paved path towards a brave new musical future.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
White purveys prickly electro-pop that is disarmingly infectious, if you can get past her yap of a voice.
Read Full Review >Blender
Santogold bursts with the arrogance of a world-beating hip-hop debut while thriving on vulnerability.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
This is music that looks outward at the pan-continental landscape while staying firmly adherent to and respectful of its deeply American roots; this is the emerging--and hopeful--face of the new millennium, and an altogether shining accomplishment.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
In spite of the infamy, however, she has delivered a remarkable and assured album.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Through all her riffs and rhythms Ms. White comes across as both a scrappy underdog and a girlish cheerleader for everyone who feels like one.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
With her eponymous debut's deft mix of dap, punk, rock, pop, house, reggae, and hip-hop, she won't completely live down associations with the famous Sri Lankan (whom she also counts as a friend), but the result emerges as much more than a mere imitation.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Santogold might try to separate formula and art, but her album catches fire when she blasts that distinction into irrelevance.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
Tunes-wise there’s some strength in depth here but it’s telling that, in spite of the lip service being paid to various left-of-centre influences, Santogold feels a strangely conservative listen, in danger of satisfying neither fans of M.I.A.’s wild stylistic forays nor the bubblegum masses thirsting after their latest dose of content-free self-assertion.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
An album frontloaded with highlights, and probably too self-consciously cool to charm the mainstream, even when the energy fades there's still enough diversity here for most people to find a favourite. [June 2008, p.146]
Dot Music
Santogold, then, is a great 21st century cut and paste pop record: self-conscious, referential and catchy as hell. Buy it, love it...then chuck it away and buy a newer model.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
Ultimately, this is less a fully-formed debut than the tentative first few steps of a promising artist still finding her way.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Despite Santogold's bloggorific buzz, her eponymous debut, while diverse, is no revolution.
Read Full Review >Uncut
White is undoubtedly talented, but neither she nor her record company seem to know what to do with her. [July 2008, p.100]
Under The Radar
Variously hailed as the future of pop music, the next M.I.A., and the culmination of punk, New Wave, and electronic pop, the most remarkable aspect of Santogold’s debut is how ordinary most of it is. [Summer 2008]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 49 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Raph S. gave it a7:
Is it me or does this feel like a recycled version of bloc party's silent alarm with r'n'b twangs added to make it a bit different. it's still pretty good but only as an IT album. Don't expect fireworks. more like a 6.5.
Levi S. gave it a9:
I think it's a great, versatile album. There is not a single track on it you'd want to skip when listening.
Aaron F.r gave it a10:
This isn't usually my sort of music so I was pleasantly surprised by this as it is one of my favourite albums of the year now.
Gary M. gave it a9:
In my opinion, this is the best album of 2008 I have listened to, so far. It's truly amazing. Purchase this album, if you're interested.
Mark S. gave it a9:
Soulful electro dancing queen music for hipsters of all ages that computes in a worldly way - hey, hey, my my!
Mark S. gave it a9:
Weird but wonderful with at least three gems on there that are 'first time lovers'.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
It's a short message, English is not my native language This is not Hip-Hop/R&B/Rap, so there isn't actually decent music coming from there :) This is dub/new wave/electronic. And dudes, besides being black, SHE IS A LADY :) I hope this is the beginning of the end of (c)rap music, sexism and denigration of black women!
