Santigold Returns With 'Spirituals' & Visuals

Photo Credit: Little Jerk Records

Things have been relatively quiet for singer-songwriter Santigold over the past few years. That all changed in May, however, when she teased that something new was on the way via Instagram before dropping a short vignette for the single “High Priestess” and announcing that a new album was on the horizon. Santi has satisfied fans' curiosity and hunger with the recent release of her fourth studio album, Spirituals.

The album features the genre-bending artist doing what she does best, drop-kicking her way out of any type of box. She describes the album as being uniquely personal, explaining, “It’s an album about the process of creating — a testament to the spiritual quality of creation and its deliverance." She goes on to reveal that the album isn’t spiritual in name only.

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“If I had to sum up the experience of this record in one image, it would be ushers at a church, dressed in white from head to toe, and I’m the churchgoer who they fan and support, crowding around me as I shake, thrash, and speak in tongues as I take off and then I’m gone. Ascended. And then I realize that all the ushers were me,” she explained in a statement.

She carries that imagery of a spiritual experience throughout the vignettes she’s released from the album. “Shake” features Santigold dressed in all white, dancing against a white wall with a tambourine in hand, all while being hosed down. The scene is reminiscent of the protests of the civil rights era when hoses were used to attack the protestors. Just like then, Santi soldiers on, continuing to dance and beat her tambourine all while repeating, “Gotta keep on, gotta keep on moving.”

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Meanwhile, “High Priestess” features the genre-bending artist walking and dancing down the street covered in neon lights as if she’s on her way to the dopest rave ever. Clocking in at only 1:17 minutes, Santigold explained her decision to go with a shorter vignette over a traditional full-length music video.

“I wanted my art to be free of a prefab structure, and the short felt more powerful to me because it lets you catch a feeling, just for as long as it takes to get there, and then you’re off to somewhere else. Like entering another dimension, another world, tuning in to the emotion, the urgency, the hardship, the beauty, and then before you know it you’re into the next,” she wrote on Instagram.

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"Fall First," the most recent video released from the album, feels most like Santigold's earlier projects. The song finds the singer and her band performing in an empty parking lot. Though the track on the album is over four minutes long, sticking to the vignette-style of the project's previous releases, the video is only 1:45 long. Simple in concept, the clip proves two things: 1) that Santigold clearly hasn't aged a single day, and 2) that she's still got it. Even in its shortened state, "Fall First" feels like the grungy angsty music of the early aughts. 

Spirituals is the first album released on Santigold’s own label, Little Jerk Records, with distribution by Secretly Distribution. The album’s release is a springboard for what's next from the innovative artist. The Spirituals experience will also include an upcoming tea collection and small-batch natural skin-care products. She also has plans to launch a podcast, along with other literary, film and various projects as part of the Spirituals brand. Delve into the first part of Santigold’s Spirituals journey and see if it leaves you feeling transformed. 

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