Staff Reviews

Santigold - 99 Cents

Review by Lee Adcock

The brightest and biggest album she’s ever made»

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Santigold releases her third studio album '99 Cents' through Atlantic Records. '99 Cents' explores the commercial nature of our world and the ways in which we package ourselves and our lives for consumption. Santigold commented - "We have no illusion that we don't live in this world where everything is packaged. People's lives, persona, everything, is deliberate, and mediated. It can be dark and haunting and tricky, and freak us out, but it can be also be silly and fun and we can learn to play with it." She also explores our fascination with perfection and our inherent inability to attain it. The use of playful satire, social critique, and self-examination to explore these themes is reflected in the album's cover art; a collaboration with photographer Haruhiko Kawaguchi, that finds Santigold shrink-wrapped amongst her cluttered possessions ready for the store shelves. On '99 Cents', Santigold wanted to explore new corners of her sound and different ways to convey her vision and political commentary. She worked with long-time collaborators John Hill, Dave Sitek, and Doc McKinney and collaborated with artists she hadn't worked with previously, including Patrik Berger, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Hit Boy, Justin Raisen, B.C., ILOVEMAKONNEN, and Sam Dew. The result is the bright and big sound of '99 Cents' that takes the genre-defying fearlessness Santigold has become known for to new places.
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