Wiki
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Release Date
29 April 2008
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Length
12 tracks
Santogold is the debut studio album by American artist Santigold (real name Santi White, who performed under the moniker Santogold at the time of the album's release). The album was released on April 29, 2008 in the United States and May 12 in the United Kingdom, on Downtown Records and Atlantic Records, respectively.
Blending a variety of musical genres ranging from new wave to alternative rock and reggae, the album was very well received by critics upon release and was noted for its "cross-genre confidence". It earned multiple spots on 'top albums of the year' lists from major music periodicals such as NME, Rolling Stone, and Spin,and was positively compared to the likes of several other artists, including Debbie Harry, Pixies, M.I.A., Goldfrapp, The Go-Go's, Joe Strummer, and The Slits. White, who was admittedly influenced by '80s new wave rock, based the music of "My Superman" from the song "Red Light" by Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The album spawned four singles, most notably "L.E.S. Artistes" and "Creator", and features appearances and/or production work from Bad Brains' Chuck Treece, Clifford Pusey of Steel Pulse, Diplo, Disco D, Freq Nasty, Spank Rock, Radioclit, Sinden, Switch, and Trouble Andrew.In addition to vocals, Santi White played guitar and keyboard on several songs on the album.The music video for the album's lead single, "L.E.S. Artistes", is an homage to the 1973 Alejandro Jodorowsky art film, The Holy Mountain.
Santogold's goal of the album was to "help break down boundaries and genre classifications" and show that she wasn't just "a black woman singing R&B." "The cool thing is that I was able to work with all these genres that are typically sub-cultural, like dub or punk or something, and then, by writing in a way that had hooks, made it accessible to everyone."When Santigold had signed to Atlantic Records, the album was "pretty much done and they already loved it. They asked me not to change anything on it." The writing and recording process took eight weeks.Santigold had tried to work with her friend Mark Ronson, whom she collaborated with for his album Version, but "it wasn't possible timing-wise."
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