CD of The Week

It's been four long years since Santigold made a mark with her eclectic, song-for-every-commercial-possible debut album. She's even had to change names in the interim, for crying out loud. With all the waiting and whispers and promises of new material since then, to say the follow-up comes highly anticipated would be an understatement. It would also undermine what was so great about its predecessor: that it was so utterly unexpected and unpredictable. Though one could argue for more cohesiveness, the songs on that record and the way they played out dazzled with spontaneity as well as craft.

If one complaint could be lobbied against Master of My Make Believe, it's that the unpredictability has worn off a bit. After four years, everyone knows who Santi White is, and this album delivers exactly what one would expect from a Santigold album. Fortunately, most if not all of us were expecting good stuff. "GO!" opens the record with a lumbering swagger, with Santi boasting how much everyone else wants that swagger and hasn't been able to replicate it. Fittingly, her closest contemporary in that field, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O, drops by to get in on the action. Single "Disparate Youth" follows, with a swooning, skittering ska production that pays fitting homage to White's punky roots.

From there, highlights remain numerous if subtle. "God From The Machine" and "The Riot's Gone" mirror each other's martial beats but provide backbone balladry for both halves of the record. "Fame" may be a little on the nose with it's "We don't want none" chorus but sounds likely to start a number of backyard dance parties this summer, while "The Keepers" is a tantalizing tribal stomp.

Like her first, formerly self-titled record, Make Believe is top heavy, but you'll be hard pressed to find anything here that could constitute "filler." However long it took to deliver, Santigold still sounds like she means it on every song here, making the title somewhat ironic. There's nothing pretend about her passion or her skill.

Catch Santi's return to her Philly home turf next Tuesday night, May 8th at The Trocadero.