Priya Ragu – Santhosam
Priya Ragu's Santhosam is a self-assured debut of an artist who has fully arrived and is ready to carve out a distinctive space of her own
Santhosam (Tamil for ‘happiness’) oozes with feel-good beats and energy, a testament to finding your own joy and inner contentment in this world. 'Let’s take it to the dancefloor,' Priya Ragu sings over disco-tinged beats on One Way Ticket – and on her striking debut she does just this. High tempos and short track lengths allow for the vast influences Ragu draws from – R'n'B to funk, Tamil music to dancehall – to shine.
School Me Like That sees Ragu rebelling against external expectations to infectious tabla beats, while Black Goose is an impassioned call of solidarity and resistance in the wake of 2020’s BLM protests: 'They will try to bring us down / I don’t care what they say', she raps over dholak and dancehall stylings. The latter half of Santhosam delves deeper into the inner work of finding contentment; Escape is a fitting parallel to lead single Vacation – here, Ragu sings breezily of living her truth and creating joy where she’s at.
Overall, Santhosam has the fresh vibrancy of a mixtape, but with the smooth cohesiveness of an album – it’s the self-assured debut of an artist who has fully arrived and is ready to carve out a distinctive space of her own.
Listen to: Black Goose, Adalam Va!, School Me Like That