Album Review: Santigold - Master Of My Make-Believe

Santi White has returned with her first official album in four years, and her first album after a lawsuit threat changed the vowel in her name, but it turns out the wait has been well worth it.

Master Of My Make-Believe's production sounds impressive, unsurprisingly considering Diplo, Switch, Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Q-Tip and Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) are amongst those at the controls. Song-wise, the album starts off strong with GO!, featuring Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. White sounds a lot more confident on this album – the first line of GO! tells listeners how “people want [her] power.” She continues the pace with current single Disparate Youth, which juxtaposes a hugely catchy beat with pretty serious lyrics. This is followed up by the beat-heavy Fame, perhaps the album's best. While the rest of the album flows on from there a little too easily at times, there are still a few beauties left such as the reggae/dub-inspired Pirate In The Water and closer Never Enough. The only huge misstep is second-last track Look At These Hoes, White coming across like a watered-down Nicki Minaj: it sounds ridiculous and juvenile compared to the rest of the album, though you just know there's those out there that are bound to lap it up.

Master Of My Make-Believe sounds like it has been timed to be released for the northern hemisphere summer – a lot of these tracks would fit perfectly chilling on the beach with a beer. While the album has nothing as catchy as L.E.S Artistes, from her 2008 debut Santogold, it's definitely a release worth checking out.