• Record Label: Downtown
  • Release Date: Apr 29, 2008
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 27
  2. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    91
    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]
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. In spite of the infamy, however, she has delivered a remarkable and assured album.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 80
    Santogold bursts with the arrogance of a world-beating hip-hop debut while thriving on vulnerability.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. White purveys prickly electro-pop that is disarmingly infectious, if you can get past her yap of a voice.
  17. 80
    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.
  18. Mojo
    80
    The whole record's buzzy, hat-wearingly trendy; but also irresistible, and almost boundlessly exciting. [July 2008, p.104]
  19. Santogold ultimately sounds like her own damn movement.
  20. Santogold might try to separate formula and art, but her album catches fire when she blasts that distinction into irrelevance.
User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 70 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 70
  2. Negative: 6 out of 70
  1. Dec 15, 2022
    10
    This is the only thing I like. Unfortunately, that sentence was only 30 characters.
  2. May 16, 2012
    8
    Santigoldâ
  3. Aug 13, 2010
    10
    Santigold did a perfect job on this album, combining perfectly and mergers distant sounds amazing, fun melodies and a very particular depth inSantigold did a perfect job on this album, combining perfectly and mergers distant sounds amazing, fun melodies and a very particular depth in her voice and lyrics, without a doubt one of the best alternative albums of the decade and one of the best voices of the moment, Creator and LES Artistes are masterpieces! i really enjoy her music! Full Review »