5pm_weds | one-hundred-one. (Reply)

Disparate Youth
Santigold
Master of My Make-Believe
2012

♥: I'm sure you know this song, and I know my posting it now is another example of being late to the game -- but for the first song of the new year, I want to post something that isn't new or hip or current, because I want to come into music, this year. That doesn't make a lot of sense but suffice to say: I want to experience music the way I used to, when I had all the time and active communities in the world to inspire me, introduce me to new artists and styles. I don't want to care about what's currently cool or brand spanking new, because I want my experience of music to be really mine.

Santigold, back when she was Santogold, is one of those artists I've always liked the idea of, but whose music itself I could never really get into. I never skipped a song when it shuffled up, but nothing ever struck me hard enough to stop my tracks or have to restart it and memorize the title for later. No ledge on which to get my footing, I guess: no starting point. But for every great artist (and many good or so-so ones), there are a few accessible, palatable tracks by which initiates start climbing...

I had my iPod on shuffle over the break for the first time in ages (and've had Master of My Make-Believe on my iPod since it leaked), but nothing was really grabbing me. But! "Disparate Youth" started, and it was instant. The Santigold track I'd been waiting for. How had it taken this long for me to hear something so spectacular?! (And it's moments like those you wonder what else you've missed, in the hordes of unlistened-to-albums reluctantly deleted from an iPod to make room...)

The song speaks for itself. All the things I love about music, incarnate: synth, hook-y melody, layers, instrumentation, a terribly witty title as a bonus, and lyrics:

Don't look ahead there's stormy weather
Another road block in our way
But if we go, we go together
Our hands are tied here if we stay
Oh we said our dreams will carry us
And if they don't fly, we will run.

Beautiful.
That sold me.
Santigold (and 2013 generally): my ears are ready for you!