M.I.A. - KALA

I like the queasy vibe of "The Turn" but I don't always want to hear it; when I'm in the mood, though, those quavery tremolo filters on the synths shoot right through me.

The track I always skip:

Jimmy

This is the only song on the album that's any good!

"Jimmy" is a total chik song. i can tell, i'm a chik. She's smart though, she keeps the guys interested by bringing girls up on stage to dance during live performances.

a Frankie Knuckles remix that does something with the Bollywood hook would sound incredible.

Jimmy used to bother me a little, but it's really grown on me. Overall, I think this is one of the most perfect albums of the last few years.

i like paper planes and jimmy, but the rest didn't grab me so much.

she really is our Gavin Rossdale

does that make diplo gwen?

-- lex pretend, Thursday, August 14, 2008 11:03 AM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

either that or Albini

Weird year for 'internet hype acts hardly anyone in the real world likes'. MIA in the US top five, Wiley and Dizzee both with massive hits in the UK, when did With Every Heartbeat come out again?

There's a four or five-year lead time on these things presumably.

ILX: so far ahead of time its parents haven't even met yet

"Jimmy" rules, but I like the original better ("Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" by Parvati Khan, which is the exact same song without M.I.A. on it). I've yet to figure out if there are other Bollywood tracks out there that are such good catchy disco numbers. Any recommendations?

HANDS UP
GUNS OUT
REPRESENT
THE WORLD TOWN

There is so much awesome sloganeering on this album.

that chorus is just a reworked version of a Baltimore club song ("hands up/thumbs down/represent that d-town").

if i want to hear anything, it's just the first three tracks

I'd extend this out to four, but this is def. no Arular

that chorus is just a reworked version of a Baltimore club song ("hands up/thumbs down/represent that d-town").

Oh okay, I hate the song now.

i was just saying, jeez.

i think that's the reason i don't get into jimmy that much, it just feels jacked.

I don't get into "Jimmy" because that's the song where her voice is the most irritating.

I love it when her voice is straining to hit those notes on the last verse!

A masterpiece, IMO. The only two records better than this are the White Album and Pink Flag.

^^^ link to your old-skool sockpuppets

Thanks in part to the movie soundtrack placement, "Paper Planes" and the various "Swagger Like Us" remixes are everywhere---I keep hearing it in the background at the Tampa Rays stadium during their baseball playoff games, "Paper Planes" is the # one song on one of D.C.'s r'n'b /rap stations, and it's been all over the top 40 pop station too. Wayneandwax.com linked to the remixes awhile back.

update on ongoing toddler appreciation: the other night i was putting him to bed, and sometime between where the wild things are and lights out, he started chanting, "ussell ussell ussell, grine grine grine..."

http://hotbiscuits.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/best-paper-planes-remix-by-far/

Oh here it is, Sean F. at Vibe posts some of "Paper Planes" remixes

http://blogs.vibe.com/rapidshare/2008/09/this-paper-planes-thing-is-way-out-of-control/

But you've probably heard 'em all by now anyway

My meathead post-frat downstairs neighbors who have no taste in music (they usually don't listen to it, just have whatever ball game on), had a party last night and I heard M.I.A., Yeah Yeah Yeahs and MGMT. Friggin weird. I wonder if Kala will climb back up to the top 50 and push it to over 500,000.

I hope so, it feels like such a zeitgeisty album its a shame only losers like us know about it!

paper planes peaked at #4 on the billboard hot 100. i don't even know what those charts mean anymore, but i found that bizarre and actually sorta heartening.

i find this woman irritating beyond all explanation

bun b briiiiiiiiiiiiings it

Any further word on her retirement/non-retirement?

I heard she's currently recording with Blaqstarr a Tom Waits cover of 'way down in the hole'.

The retirement is/was temporary. She's currently expecting.

They reissued the album this week with a bonus disc containing 5 or 6 extra songs - not just remixes. Anyone know what those are?

1 Bamboo Banga
2 Bird Flu
3 Boyz
4 Jimmy
5 Hussel - MIA & Afrikan Boy
6 Mango Pickle Down River - MIA & Wilcannia Mob
7 20 Dollar
8 World Town
9 Turn
10 XR2
11 Paper Planes
12 Come Around - MIA & Timbaland
13 Paper Planes (Allstars mix) - MIA
14 Boyz (Akon mix) - MIA
15 Shells - MIA
16 Get It Up - Radioclit & MIA/Santogold/Gorilla Joe
17 Far Far - MIA
18 Big Branch - MIA
19 What I Got - MIA
20 Sound of Kuduro - Bukara Som Simesta & MIA

lol gorilla joe

http://static.flickr.com/46/167402212_c29e4d861a_o.jpg
i keep the purp by the pound

he's a hood figga

what're you gonna do

She was repping dancehaller Ward 21 in an ad I saw in a LA Weekly a friend brought me

So that Tom Waits cover has leeked already. Here's the video:

It sounds to me like some lost recording from Tricky's Maxinquaye. Can't say if this means I find it dated but Maxinquaye is a great album so I suppose it's a good thing.

ok I love this

Me too. Neat idea for the video too.

THE WIRE SEASON 6

nice, but it sounds kinda like an outtake from Blowback to me.

I'll see if I can find it again. There is an instrumental of "Paper Planes" around, so maybe someone just used that to do a version -- still, it would be kind of a weird choice for a west-African vocal group to sing over, and it appears that the instrumental Diplo put out there still has M.I.A.'s chorus on it, which this one didn't (though obviously they could just loop the verses) ... I should just track this thing down again.

― nabisco, Thursday, November 29, 2007 5:34 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

real late to the party here but did you mean this joint

nice

thank you, ethan :-)

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/danny-boyle-on-slumdog-millionaire-and-the-smell-of-india/5013

You asked M.I.A. to do a song for the film?
We asked her if we could use “Paper Planes”, and she watched the movie and she was very generous, gave me very smart notes. I said we were going to do the music with A.R. Rahman, and when she was growing up, he was one of her heroes, so she sang on one of his tracks.

huh! tried to see that Sat. night but it was sold out (it's only on one or two screens in nyc so far)

that Esau Mwamwaya youtube is sweet

Okay I think "The Turn" is maybe an order of magnitude better than everything else on this album.

btw I was amazingly rong about this