Last month, genre-bending electro-inspired singer/producer Santigold announced that her third record, 99¢, would drop early 2016 (it’s since been delayed from its original date – it’ll now see the light of day on February 26). The album will be a follow-up to 2012’s Master of My Make-Believe, though she’s also done some soundtrack work for Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Paper Towns in between. But a brand full-length Santi album?
Sign. Me. Up.
When both of her albums dropped, they easily made my top lists for their respective years (Santogold released in 2008). Her beats are consistently sick, she’s got a killer flow, and her creativity is as colorful and artistic as the new album cover.
“The record cover is a picture of me basically in a bag shrink-wrapped with a bunch of items, random clutter from my life. So it’s like me and my life in this bag, shrink-wrapped, and there’s a 99-cent sticker on it,” Santigold said of the album title. “Everything is a product at this point, including people and relationships, and everything’s about marketing products. So, I’m a product. And also, everything is undervalued, so I thought 99 cents is a good price for me and my life and all my hard work.”
Two new songs have been released, the first of which is the feel-good lead single “Can’t Get Enough of Myself.” It’s warm and upbeat, off-setting the sometimes bleak (yet hopeful!) tracks from the former album, like “Disparate Youth” and “God From the Machine”. It’s the perfect auditory experience that will keep us thinking of spring throughout the cold, harsh winter.
The second track, the better of the two, is “Who Be Lovin’ Me,” a collaboration with ILOVEMAKONNEN, who Santigold met last year at the Mad Decent Boat Party. The track is produced by Zeds Dead, who deliver a hypnotic, lulling beat for Makonnen and Santi to decimate. And that they do.
Santigold’s vibe and energy are eternally shifting. She bounces in between genres, tones and tempos like she’s simply trying on a new pair of shades – as if she’s feeling it out and seeing how she can get it to conform to her. That’s why everything she does is so uniquely Santigold.
Hear the swoon-worthy new tracks here:
99¢ Tracklist:
01. Can’t Get Enough of Myself (feat. B.C.)
02. Big Boss Big Time Business
03. Banshee
04. Chasing Shadows
05. Walking in a Circle
06. Who Be Lovin Me (feat. ILOVEMAKONNEN)
07. Rendezvous Girl
08. Before the Fire
09. All I Got
10. Outside the War
11.Run the Races
12. Who I Thought You Were
