Blogarhythms

In this era of dumbed-down lyrics, light weight content and repetitious hooks perpetrated by disposable idols jockying for a position in the media’s popularity contest, good songwriters don’t get a lot of shine. This was the case back in 2001 when I discovered a female singer, ostensibly presented to the public as an R&B artist, named Res and her debut album How I Do. I went out and copped it after hearing her single “Ice King” sandwiched alongside Mystic’s “The Life” between random Hip-Hop tunes on a college radio station in Connecticut. The song’s rich lyricism and heavy subject-matter defied nearly every convention of modern-day R&B and left me floored. I was similarly impressed with the remainder of the songs on her LP, which I was to find out were all written by Santi White, a woman I knew absolutely nothing about at the time but was to become more and more familiar with in the ensuing years.

Digging the aspects of New Wave, Rock and Punk that crept into the atypically adventurous (and criminally slept-on) How I Do, I was psyched when Santi’s band project Stiffed came to my attention. Songs from their 2003 EP Sex Sells and 2005 full-length Burned Again popped up regularly on my mixtapes and in my radio show playlists. I think I might have left a few comments pledging my undying love for Santi on their MySpace during that time. Then, as their still-current MySpace headline reads, “Stiffed broke up” and I wasn’t sure when I’d next hear from the talented vocalist and songwriter. During this time, as the Post-Punk/Disco-Punk renaissance grew into a full-fledged Electro revival and Punk kids like Jesse F. Keeler from Death From Above 1979 started making crunchy Dance beats flavored with Rock grit, I wished more than a few times that Santi would get back with Res, write some tunes and hook up with somebody like Keeler’s current duo MSTRKRFT to make a dirty Electro-Punk record.

Then I learned of Santi White’s new recording alias Santogold, and heard what her new material sounded like, and I felt like my wishes had, at least partially, come true.

The dude’s from MSTRKRFT are nowhere to be found, but Santogold’s self-titled full-length debut (out next Tuesday, April 29th) is for the most part the exact kind of record I’ve wanted this lady to drop for years. The more straight-ahead Rock tracks are what Stiffed at their best should sound like now, were they still together. While the cuts that delve into different styles of Electronica push Santi into foreign territory as a vocalist, performer & songwriter, and give her a whole new platform for exhibiting the personality, mental acuity, lyrical realism and chops we always new she had in new ways. Nothing’s as different as the explicit raps she kicked on Bangers & Cash’s “B-O-O-T-A-Y” last year, but the synth-driven first single “Creator” was a great way to get listeners ready for the changes she had in store. And I can’t get enough of the others songs like it — particularly the Dirty-South-meets-Lap-Pop beats of “Starstruck,” the M.I.A.-ish “Unstoppable,” and Switch & Sinden’s buzz-and-blip-laden banger of a remix of “You’ll Find a Way” — that populate the album.

Santogold “Starstruck”

The Rock tracks — which come off tough, slick, smart, sneeringly confident, melodic and catchy — on the other hand feel like the culmination of Santi’s musical output to this point. They’re examples of an artist who’s fully come into her own and making the music she’s always intended to. The resultant tunes, for the most part frenzied, pretty & poppy, stand at a point of convergence (which I never had reason to believe existed) between the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, No Doubt, Chrissy Hynde, the Go-Go’s and a whole host of old-school Pop-Punk, arty New York Punk & Post-Punk and New Wave bands. My absolute favorite of these tracks is “Lights Out,” a dreamy midtempo chugger whose beautiful vocal harmonies and steady groove reminds me of a sing-a-long hit from the Smashing Pumpkins that never was.

In 2008 Santogold defies expectations the same way How I Do did in 2001. It’s Rock, it’s Pop, it’s Hip-Hop, it’s Electro and it’s soulful, even if it’s not Soul. It’s an artist doing them, genres, labels, scenes and expectations be damned. And while heads slept back then, I think the time is finally right for Santi White to get the recognition she deserves simply for being who she is.

- El Keter