M.I.A. - KALA

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

m.i.a. comin back wit powa powa

a bit tyma

its a bamboo bhanga

bidtg

yea i'm nocking on the doahs uv ya hamma hamma

what a mormon look like
she a dead ringa

she said nutler that's hellerious

M.I.A. Retires

M.I.A.Cult British/Sri Lankan star M.I.A. has announced her retirement - at the age of 30. After canceling her European tour last week due to exhaustion, the hitmaker took to the stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on Friday and told fans it was her final show.

Three times during her set at the Tennessee festival, M.I.A. said "This is my last show," adding at one point, "... and I'm glad that I'm spending it with all my hippies!"

Midway through her high-energy set, fans climbed over barriers at the front of the audience to join M.I.A. onstage, where they stayed for much of the rest of her set.

After the devotees were kicked off, M.I.A. closed her gig with hit Paper Planes and ended her performance by stating, "Thanks for coming to my last gig."

M.I.A., real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, has been a cult live act since 2004 when her first releases turned her into a controversial star.

She has put out two critically acclaimed albums, Arular and Kala - which was named Album of 2007 by both Rolling Stone and Blender. M.I.A. has been nominated for two Shortlist Music Prize honors and was on the shortlist for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize in her native Britain.

I've seen lots of bands play the last gig of a particular tour and refer to it as simply "our last show" without qualifier, seems entirely possible people are flying off the handle.

it sounds like she was joking

hell by the time sinead o'connor was 30 i think she'd already retired twice.

Ozzy Osborne has been on his final tour -- off and on -- for 15 years.

RIP big man

terrible news

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

looks so peaceful

services to be held tomorrow says nme.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/06/27/gal_funeral7.jpg

Guardian and Pitchfork journalists all made it out for the funeral, at least.

http://weblog.ceicher.com/bigsuit.jpg

(xpost)

farc fuck tha world

when you're burnt out at the end of a tour and you don't want to even listen to music, it's best to chill out for a couple of weeks before announcing the end of your career? but what do i know.

http://deadcantrant.com/shared/images/photo.matthew_lesko.gif

Lame.

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee196/Gotterdun59/Rob_4.jpg

^^^ rly needs to be a better 'pour one out' gif

I love how at any given club at any given time almost zero people will know the lyrics to a song with 'gunshot' SFX in it but they will know EXACTLY when the gunshots sound out. Paper Planes is a jam, really love Boyz and Jimmy

maybe she's just retiring the MIA persona, like in the Pennebaker Ziggy Stardust...

here ya go

http://misterirrelevant.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/pouringforseantaylor.jpg