M.I.A. - KALA

I'm having a hard time getting used to her out of tune shrieking - so much so that I listened to Arular again and I found it hard to like anew too, even. :-/

The show was *really good*!

Seconded.

I can't have been the only one to notice the "straight to hell" riff at the forefront of Paper Planes, can I?

OMG. What a way to end a set! I just checked this thread to see what that song was called. Also, did she do the full lyric to "Where is My Mind?" I could only decipher the chourus. And the slowed-down "Blue Monday" bassline sounded so good it makes me wonder how nobody's thought of it before.

this album is the absolute shit.

this is shaping up to be the most postively talked-up ilm record so far this year amirite?

man. this is amazing. huge respect.

on a couple of listens last night this sounded fantastic - i'm wary of the whole reviewing the album 10 minutes after the leak thing, but most of the complaints i've seen about this have been claiming that it lacks tunes/dancibility, which seems like nonsense to me.

Didn't like Bamboo Banga. Haven't hear the rest yet.

its not flawless

but fuck me if this album does not shit on the competition from a great height

i call it "bhangra space crunk"

amen

I am also having douchebaggy troubles with getting my stolen album to play. Won't import into iTunes, Windows Media Player won't have it, can't even import it into Audacity.

Any suggestions, anyone?

yes. stop calling yourself 'BIG HOOS'.

World Town is the best song of the bunch. I am so loving this.

yes. stop calling yourself 'BIG HOOS'.

-- ^@^, Tuesday, July 31, 2007 10:33 PM

Feel free to change your perspective.

GET A MAC

and anyway, big hoos aka the steendrive= the best handle on ilx.

Eighty eighty.

ilx: the new class

I really wish M.I.A. wasn't touring with Bjork. I'm not interested in Bjork at all and it probably means the tickets are way overpriced.

ok, it finally clicked after four listens. and I like arular again too. I don't usually need this much time to get back into something I liked before.

Didn't she use to have a colorful and vibrant site? What happened?

http://www.miauk.com/

I really wish M.I.A. wasn't touring with Bjork. I'm not interested in Bjork at all and it probably means the tickets are way overpriced.

-- filthy dylan, Wednesday, 1 August 2007

she's doing some support slots, afaik she isn't "touring with" her. ffs if it's too much, don't go and quit whining about it. MIA's tickets will be just as expensive if anyone even still cares about her in ten years time.

Listened to most of it on the way to work this morning, sounds great. Got so excited when I saw it leaked last night. The Where Is My Mind? and Roadrunner lifts are cool, as is the sheer fun factor.

Jesus Christ, how good is XR2?!

Now that I am actually listening to this it's not really doing anything for me.

I'll let it sink it before I comment though.

Def like "Pickle Down River"

Haha, that's the one song I skip.

She'll have to go a long way to top that terrible clunky Bjork lyric about the suicide bomber though.

Hmm???

I like the "Paper Planes" chorus - "Rumpshaker" with gun shots is somehow less dumb than with zubba zoom zoom (and a boom boom).

Pleasantly surprised by how strong this album is; no sophomore slump in evidence.

This album is unbelievable great.

Found the first album (and her in general) fucking annoying, vocally UNBEARABLE, trite, insanely overpraised, barely worth the repeat playthroughs and a model demonstration of everything bad about indie/internet hype. A few good tracks and an awful lot of BS.

Liking a LOT of this a LOT. Opener just smokes (then Bird Flu... is what skip buttons what were invented for) and there's other great stuff here, if this was instrumental (which at times I kind of wish...) it'd actually probably hold it's own next to Panda Bear or something just on gloriously messy inventiveness. Quite the pleasant surprise, I'm still on the fence about some of it/her, but going less immediately, graspingly pop, it's worked for her big time.

Album of the year.

for me

Will definitely buy it on vinyl.

Switch's influence is actually good. Much better than I had predicted.

How the hell did she end up in Wilcannia?

I *love* Boyz, Jimmy, XR2 and Paper Planes, kind of undecided about the rest of it.

I'm a little disappointed so much of it is so mid-paced. As Dan pointed out a few months ago, her voice and delivery really require an active beat - the reason Arular and the best tracks here work so well is that she's totally propelled along on the momentum of the track and you don't really notice her vocal limitations. When things slow down a little there needs to be a melodic cushion there (Amazon, Paper Planes). When she's going "hustle hustle hustle, cry cry cry" over a sparser arrangement it just sounds kind of bored and empty.

I'm reserving judgement on the thing as a whole for now, but on the first couple of listens it doesn't have the initial wow factor that Arular held for me.

Oh Bird Flu is great as well but I'm not really sure why people are hating on the Timbaland track over everything else here.

Re: XR2 - I felt my spine tingle at the opening "where were you in '92?" bit as my head went "okay, you KNOW what happens now". The inevitable maximalist all bells, whistles and sirens blog house remix is going to be incredible.

this is some serious shit.

she out-Bjorked Bjork on this one.

How the hell did she end up in Wilcannia?

She didn't, Morganics did, about four years ago. (Probably ignore the Diplo guess in that link though.)

Oh! I read this thread but I missed that - thx!

I haven't heard the full album but have a feeling I'll agree with Matt DC - I like M.I.A. when she's going for all-out maximalist assault ("Boys" is definitely one of my absolute favourite things of the year for this reason), but quickly find her tiresome when she's getting all sparse/spartan/worthy.

I just reversed $20. It sounds cool; she's whispers propaganda.

I like M.I.A. when she's going for all-out maximalist assault

^ this

"Boyz" might be my fave song by anyone this year

does this one also sound like it was made on mario paint?

i really like this.

that's all for now.

The best things about Boyz are a) the cheering and the crowd clapping and the fanfares that accompany it and b) the fact that it comes straight after Bamboo Banga and Bird Flu and the cumulative effect is this constant ramping up of deafening drums.

I'm sold on all of this now except for Mango Pickle Down River, and Hussel isn't great, especially Afrika Man's verse. Although the bit when they loop his "you think this is hard, come to Africa" line and there's this enormous bass synth stab absolutely rules.

Also "when I'm dogging on the bonnet of your bright red Honda" WTF?!

WAIT I GET IT "DICK" "WOOD" "JOHNSON"

I used to know a guy called R1ch4rd Fa11as actually. Oh the hilarity that caused when we were 15.

What do we think of "Down River"/"World Town"(?)/"Bucky Done Gun v2"? I think it rivals Boyz for the best song on the album...

sort of what matt dc said, except i was never blown away by arular, and i'm loving most of this. jonathan richman shout out is crazy way to open an album - wonder if Radio 1 will get this made into an updated jingle based on the original :-) :-)

Jimmy and Paper Planes,plus all the stuff i've already heard (XR2, Boyz, already featured on FT podcast, yay) instantly lovable. others are a bit hrm so far. the mango pickle one sounds like an extended skit off a DJ Yoda mix. which, to me, is a good thing.

i cant believe more people aren't loving $20

Boyz would sound so great on a street carnival sound system.