Santigold’s Spirituals Belongs in the Creative-Reset Kit

Sometimes the thing we need is not another productivity tip. Sometimes it is Santigold.

Spirituals, released September 9, 2022, emerged from a period when Santi White was raising three children through the pandemic and trying to reconnect with her creative self. In her track-by-track conversation accompanying the album, she describes work made partly in a cabin outside Vancouver, with collaborators including Rostam, Illangelo, SBTRKT and Nick Zinner.

“High Priestess” is a useful doorway. White’s explanation points toward futuristic punk and the pleasure of bringing unlikely ingredients together. That is more interesting to us than the idea that an artist must choose one lane and politely remain there.

The record’s ten-song, half-hour shape also makes it a practical answer to a scattered afternoon. Give it the time you were about to spend moving between apps. Read the artist’s notes after a first pass and see which choices you want to hear again.

We are returning to a 2022 record because the problem behind it has not expired: how do we keep making things when everyday life takes up all the available space?

Santigold’s example is not a neat little instruction manual. It is something better for our purposes—a reminder that strange combinations, big feelings and a stubborn creative impulse can belong in the same room.

Official Santigold release/promotional artwork. Image source.

Bubbling Box Team

The Bubbling Box Team curates quick reads, release briefs and daily world headlines with clear attribution and direct links to the original reporting. Original reviews, interviews and commentary remain credited to Chetuno or Leah.