Ten Best Songs of 2008 – #8

It’s a testament to what a strong year for music 2008 was that Santogold’s self-titled debut album didn’t manage to crack my top ten. I feel like it deserves to be there, but looking at the list I’m not willing to drop anything else to make room for her.

Santogold is a delirious blend of M.I.A. and an 80s new wave band, equally at home rapping and delivering a sugar sweet chorus. I considered several songs on her album, including ‘I’m a Lady,’ which I featured on the blog back in August but eventually settled on the lead-off song ‘L.E.S. Artistes.’

I love when an album starts off with a song that makes a real statement, both musically and lyrically. Halfway into this song, I knew Santogold was something new and exciting and I couldn’t wait to hear the rest of her album.

The song is about personal discovery, about breaking away from the constraints put on you by the place you come from and the people you know. “L.E.S.” stands for Lower East Side, where Santgolod grew up, and it’s pretty clear she felt a need to break away from that scene.

One line in particular makes me think this song is also about the struggle for a black woman in the music industry to forge a path outside certain pre-determined genres: “I want to get up out of my skin / Tell you what, if I can shake it, I’m ‘a make this something worth dreaming of.”

She seems up to the challenge on not just being a great new artist but a trailblazer as well.