Stream Santigold 99 Cents
Santigold announced her new album 99¢ last fall, and has had a nice rollout leading up to its release next week. She’s shared four fun, bouncy tracks off the album and given two of them the visual treatment. Today, the whole genre-defiant, ferociously joyous thing is streaming in its entirety over at NPR.
It’s impossible to not move to this album. There’s a wide array of rhythms, grooves, and sensibilities pulling from dancehall, soca, hip-hop, trap, and electro, but it is never overwhelming or underwhelming because it is balanced so well. The album is like pre-packaged diet meals in that respect, because there is just enough to fill you up and keep your senses engaged, but the artistry is in the portion control because it could easily be too much to handle. Santigold’s vocals vary as well, employing rap cadences, holding notes a bit longer for effect, leaning toward a Caribbean accent in spots, and scaling back for harmonies with other artists. The seemingly standard four-year hiatus she takes between albums is justified when it comes out sounding like this. Listen.
99 Cents is out 2/26 via Atlantic.