M.I.A. - KALA

i prefer the bun b/rich boy remix anyhow bcuz her verses are pretty boring i think

ftr i'm a j>>>paper planes

The "melody isn't really anything special" was more in response to Alfred's post that anything. I don't really go to her looking for great melodic hooks, which isn't to say she doesn't have any. "Production curlicues" = little unique bits in the production. I guess what I'm saying with that is the production is boring.

I'll take a listen to the Clash song.

xp to HOOS: It's a good idea, it just doesn't really work. I'm not sure how that's a difficult concept.

this is why pretty much all the remixes are better than the original. better rappers, less boring production (although i do like the loop...never heard the clash tune, i'm dl'ing now).

i guess the sample is a pretty straight rip, huh? clash tune is cool, though.

Clash tune is cool. The sampled part sounds much better there. I have to note that M.I.A. slowed it down by 5-10 bpm, presumably to make it drag more.

if "hit that" replaced the timbaland track, this might have been better than arular.

I think I'm the only person who likes that Timbaland track (except for his vocal part).

I even like his vocals.

I like the Timberland track if it was by itself or a b-side or something, but it's incongruous on the album. Finishing with Paper Planes would have made a more consistent, cohesive whole, I think.

i still lol @ the teepee bit

The Timbaland track is fine musically. I think his verses about coming on to MIA don't work well though - the chemistry doesn't seem to be there.

^^^^ OTM. And it's totally out-of-context for the song, which is vaguely political and threatening when MIA's singing (then Timbaland's awkward, clumsy come-on changes the entire feel of the song).

after falling out love with this album a while back i am back in love with it. the production on here is fucking retardedly good.

xpost - timbos verses were stupid.

lol @ M.I.A.'s verse being "vaguely political" when she's basically speaking gibberish. you guys...

Yeah, that's true. That's why I said "vague."

she can be vaguely political despite talking a lot of gibberish. what dyou want? the redskins to be her ghostwriter?

I'm bored of eating banana
I want guanabana
I wanna warm my buns this summer summer summer summer
Now I'm sittin' down chilling on some gun powder
Strike / match / light / fire
Who's that girl called Maya?
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)

Vaguely political/mostly gibberish.

its good sloganeering.

jimmy, boyz and paper planes are pretty blissful.
everything else is at least completely listenable
i don't understand types who find this music irritating or obnoxious. i'm totally happy to pop it on in the backdrop without it getting under my skin in the wrong ways.

not as good as arular, for me.

i have to give arular a more thorough listen. kala jumped out at me more initially, but many people have advised me that overall it's not as good.

I still haven't found much worth grabbing on to on Kala. Paper Planes, Jimmy and Boysz are def good, but the rest sort of blend together for me. Arular seemed much more distinctive.

This completely blows Arular out of the water on every front possible.

i still totally love the album. and the first four tracks have become my 3-yr-old's preferred dancing-around-manically-before-bed soundtrack. especially "bird flu" and "boyz."

This completely blows Arular out of the water on every front possible.

I'm not sure this is true (tho both discs are great). There's an intensity in songs like Amazon and Galang and that hidden track at the end of Arular that might be matched by the songs on Kala, but not bettered.

There's certainly an energy to Arular that feels largely absent on Kala, once you get past the first few tracks. But the songs are better on Kala, even if Arular doesn't have anything as bad as that godawful Wilkannia Mob track. I'd say they're on a par.

My previous comment was fueled by my fervent belief that "Bamboo Banger" is far and away the best thing she's ever done.

That's one of my least favorite songs on the disc. It's good, but I think it pales in comparison to Paper Planes and (I know no one will agree with me on this) Come Down, sans Timbaland's awful "rap." I would have included Jimmy, too, but the music is pretty much lifted from that Bollywood song.

Wow, I don't get that at all. The production details alone in how all the extra snippets/samples/vocal lines are interwoven are completely enthralling and breathtaking to me.

FWIW, my wife -- who is smarter than me on this and all other fronts -- loves Bamboo Banger. I'm re-listening to it again now to see if time has changed my impressions.

haha i finally got this album this week. it's really really good. i can't get "bamboo banga", "bird flu", "boyz", "hussel", "$20", "xr2" or "paper planes" out of my head ... that's a lot of standouts ... i'd have cut out the blaqstarr and timbaland tracks, though. and probably "jimmy" also.

this album just makes arular sound so ... pedestrian.

this is the best record in a while, someone finally break out of the hipster scene. she's hard but soft. creativity sells.

once she gets some good tracks she'll be unstoppable. i wish i could help her. i got these so so nice the holy mountain samples. they sound perfect,a i gottem spinning. too damn bad she's so pop now. i could'v writ her sucha dope mixtape

she gets more love than wayne. her depth of lyricality is some prizmic

her mind is love but it has its folly-traps and that's like stepping back as an artist, but at least diplo isn't cuffing her to bullshit anymore

i luv the girl for real. her lyrics are trife as life

^posts of missing luriqua

ive not listened to this in ages but i saw the vid for galang the other day which ive never seen and it reminded me that i quite fancy her.

I like M.I.A., and I generally could give a shit about "sellout"/OMG-they're-using-WHO-in-a-McDonald's-AD?, but - really? - Marc Jacobs ads?

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7391/marcjacobsdx3.jpg

http://stylebubble.typepad.com/style_bubble/images/2007/12/26/miamj1_2.jpg

I'm sort of the opposite. This whole new indie rock "it's not selling out, nothing is selling out, it's getting the music heard that's why we're in volvo commercials" attitude typically bothers me to shit but I don't mind this MIA ad. I can't explain why. I guess because she looks really good. And it's not like she's tying her song to a brand and ruining the song, she's just acting as a model for clothes, and she wears them well.

que the link to that car commercial that uses galang

I found this album a few weeks ago and it blew my mind on multiple levels.

I don't know - I can barely get myself worked up about it; the whole thing's exhausting. I just can't reconcile "pull up the people / pull up the poor" with hawking fucking $1500 handbags.*

(* literally - look at this monstrosity):
http://shop.harveynichols.com/pws/images/catalogue/products/217847/large/217847_1.jpg

I'm just being naive, I know; I just find it kind of depressing. I'm the asshole who still thinks Fugazi were really onto something, I guess.

i get 1 down in a svernyme(n)tal way

100 MILES PER HOUR
WITH YOUR RADIO ON

word one-uh word one-uh
witcha radio ooohan

world one-uh one-uh one-uh
going under miles per hour

an wier hittin on rackets like
and the germans do the shit
like the macarena 7^9

7^89

it's a jungle banga
i said COLE jamma nol