Photo: Isabelle Lumpkin
As Out's dauntless music editor, I manage to survive a number of brutal aural assaults every month (as well as a deluge of follow-up e-mails, where publicists ramble on about their European vacations like we're close chums, then finally ask me if I had a chance to check out the new Whitesnake: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 album -- "Trust me, Jason, it's got massive gay appeal!"). But I'm not perturbed.
As the mountains of music climb higher and higher, threatening to bury me alive, I stay intact by reminding myself that for every emerging-but-already-tired lesbo "neo-folkie" (whose album cover looks like a Summer's Eve ad), there is revitalizing talent like Brooklyn-based, hip-hop–inspired Santogold (real name: Santi White). The cover for her upcoming self-titled debut, designed by Isabelle Lumpkin, is the best to grace my desk in ages (see above).
I mean, upchucking glitter? Who does that? Consider this brilliantly lowbrow, dazzling display a tip-off: Like its artwork, Santogold's record (out next Tuesday, April 29) is raw and unruly, a surprising standout among 2008's offerings to date. Perhaps the puke-inspired cover art is prescient of the inevitable comparisons Santogold will earn: You're going to read she's "this year's M.I.A." ad nauseam -- just like you're going to hear "it's this year's Juno" about every quirky indie movie with a female lead.
Yet in the course of these 12 genre-clashing tracks, Santogold, who worked with M.I.A. producers Switch and Diplo, summons everyone from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O (on the galvanizing "L.E.S. Artistes") to the Clash and the Specials (on the reggae-flavored "Shove It") to -- no lie! -- an edgier Cyndi Lauper (on the itchy, self-assured "I'm a Lady"). Spewing out a socially astute, crowd-pleasing fusion of bhangra beats, new wave keys, electrifying ska horns, and in-your-face punk, Santogold is the defiant, dance floor–bound act you'll be gushing over this summer. That is, until you discover that new Whitesnake: Greatest Hits album.
-- JASON LAMPHIER
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