Santigold - Disparate Youth

Back in 2008, Santigold looked like the kind of artist that was going to really go places. You’d have bet money on it. Indeed, she even nabbed weighty nominations from the likes of the BRITs and Q magazine for her debut album, a glitter-dusted collection of quirk-pop tunes so warm in their appeal you wanted to run up and embrace them. But despite a sea of rapturous reviews, commercial success was only middling. But now Santigold is back, with second LP Master of My Make-Believe scheduled for later this year. The lead single Disparate Youth is a jaunty, reggae-tinged number – big beats and sun-spilling piano stabs. It’s a bit like Rihanna, if she built her tracks on a strict DIY ethic.

And while I still get confused about whether she’s currently Santigold or Santogold (clearly one vowel makes all the difference), Disparate Youth sounds really promising. The current market might be awash with indie-pop types in a similar vein, but Santigold seemed, at the crux of her LES Artistes days, like the artist most singularly encapsulating of the sound as a whole. Disparate Youth feels like the kind of track that could not only recapture that, but go one further, and push Santigold into the mainstream success she so clearly deserves.

Disparate Youth is released on the 9^th April.