Santogold – Santogold

Having read the 3 step guide to singing modern indie, Santogold realises she read the copy for men.

This is quite a confusing album because she sets out to break in to a genre very much dominated by white people and fails very badly with it, although when it comes to the songs which are more reggae and hip hop influenced, they are very good. Even though she says she “has made a point of not performing R&B or rap like other “brown girls”, saying she is “not like Ciara.” Wiki
These are some of the best songs on the album, and it also sounds a bit pretentious, why can’t she just do it and not mention race?

The indie based songs are bad, it sounds forced and not very good. It’s like the male singer of some naff indie band has had his balls chopped off. Every song that isn’t grouped into this genre is exceptionally good.

‘Shove it’ which has some reggae sounding influences is very enjoyable, ‘Creator’ which is very hip hop had me dancing in my seat and ‘My Superman’ which sounds more like something Goldfrapp would produce is lovely.

Overall, this album is good once you cut out the indie bits, all the other stuff is really very good. Some interesting influences are brought in to play in the album and more than a couple of times i was jigging away to her tunes.

While trying to pic some samples to put below here, I found myself wanting to put most of the songs on, so that goes to show that there must be a good few worthy of putting up., I was just very put off by the indie.

Listen to this album: Covering your ears when she tries to do indie.

Rating: 80%

Extracts from ‘Shove It’, ‘Say Aha’, ‘Creator’ and ‘My Superman’

‘L.E.S. Artistes’

B52s – Funplex

Cheesy, Zany, unapologetically brilliant.

From ‘them who did loveshack’ and the ‘ones who did Rock Lobster that was on family guy’ comes a new album, with more cheese than a cheese pizza with extra cheese and more cheese being eaten by Bob Fosse.

Mr and Mrs Talky-Shouterson are back!

It just fun and filled with shouty mayhem.

“Keep doing what we’re doing ’cause we’re doing it right. Keep doing what we’re doing ’cause it’s what we like” and this is true. I do like it. It’s a style that only the B52s seem to be able to perform well and they continue to do so. There’s nothing shockingly innovative about this album in contrast to their others, but because nobody else is even trying to do the same things, it’s still sounding as refreshingly new as it did when they first came out in the 80s.

Listen to this album: With a huge hat on

Rating: 84%

Extracts from ‘Ultraviolet’ and ‘ Deviant Ingredient’

“Funplex”