MIA

that's hot.

When did people stop liking noisy, abbrasive, anti-everything music that you can actually mosh or dance to?

when did i ever start liking that bullshit!

(strike out the dance bit, i assume not even maya's staunchest defenders are arguing that)

(i don't think being noisy or abrasive is this album's problem, it's hardly extreme sonically. it's just boring and she doesn't sound into it.)

when did i ever start liking that bullshit!

man, your ears must've been burning from that thread where people are saying that you have a difficult time accepting other people's taste in music...and apparently, issues with accepting the existance of others.

Lex, there's totally danceable stuff here. It's not necessarily of a piece with ARULAR's Baltimore club/baile funk fusion or KALA's dancehall/reggaeton/rave world beats, but it's danceable...

XXXO, Teqkilla, Lovalot, basically the whole first half of the LP is pretty dancey for me in a clattery sort of way. The middle reggae/slow jam/ballads/whatever section is a lull, to be sure, and Born Free/Meds and Feds are too extreme for the club, but there's a decent amount to move to on /\/\ /\ Y /\.

Y /\/\ /\/\ \/, of course.

like, why do you think it's good and not a meandering, plodding mess of nonsense?

― FUCK YOU I'M BLACK (HI DERE), Thursday, July 22, 2010 1:49 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

well, at risk of stating the obvious, it's catchy and fun, in a trivial, summery kind of way. though it's far from my favorite track on the album, i liked it immediately and can easily understand why some might prefer it to anything else on offer here. it's generous, lighthearted and inviting in a way that the rest of the album just ... isn't. reminds of "the tide is high" or something.

Yes. After an opening stretch in which MIA sounds surly, paranoid and obnoxious, it's a useful change of pace to hear some warmth and charm from her. I see the whole album as a tug between the political and the personal, aggression and vulnerability, so songs like this and Space are a vital counterpoint. I really like Diplo's production as well.

Yeah that's exactly it, overall I think it's a very jaded-sounding record especially the opening section, and I actively dislike most of the production so I don't think I'm going to be giving this more time.

fwiw, i initally had a huge problem with the "jaded-sounding" aspects of this record, too. i think the sequencing is almost suicidal. it offers up this huge block of bored, tired, fuck-you right off the bat, and by the time people are done choking that down, i'm not surprised that little else on the record (excepting "it takes a muscle") appeals to some. i didn't come to appreciate the record until i'd resequenced it and listened to it a bunch of times. my intro version cut the more bored & paranoid shit entirely and pushed the aggro stuff to the back. helped me get a feel for what maya was getting at, and now that i'm on board with the record as a whole i understand why it ended up sequenced that way.

makes me think about how artists maybe loose sight of what they're saying/giving when they're buried in the process. cuz it's a fantastic set of songs, but the presentation all but dares you to write it off.

Some songs didn't actually make much sense to me until I got them onto a better sound system; the bass in "Steppin' Up" is MONSTROUS for example but doesn't actually register on my headphones.

it offers up this huge block of bored, tired, fuck-you right off the bat,

"steppin up" is a lot of things, but bored and tired would not have occurred to me.

I recognize there's some thinness in "Steppin' Up" sonically and the coda for "Teqkilla" is probably a minute too long but things don't get boring until "Story To Be Told" IMO.

I can't actually articulate my huge problem with Stepping Up and Teqkilla except to say that they're a horrible fucking racket that I find physically unpleasant to listen to. Which obviously will strike some people as a recommendation.

Some songs didn't actually make much sense to me until I got them onto a better sound system; the bass in "Steppin' Up" is MONSTROUS for example but doesn't actually register on my headphones.

This. Took until yesterday for me to realize how much of a wobbly banger it is.

lol

http://hypnagogics.com/questo/#MIA

that is fucking great

holy crap! just listened to this for the first time on CD--played on a cheap sony blaster at that; no high-end stereo shenanigans for me thanx--and IT IS MASSIVE! every fucking track sounds sooooooo much fuller/denser/better than it did on the shitty mp3 versions i'd been listening to over the past week or two--and just hit wayyyyyy deeper (emotionally/aesthetically/whathavu) overall. word.

Is there a thread for ?uestlove's celebrity stories, because many of them are hilarious

"steppin up" is a lot of things, but bored and tired would not have occurred to me.

― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Friday, July 23, 2010 6:37 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

no, you're right. it's loud and brash, so's tekquilla. "the message", "lovealot" and especially "story to be told" are the tracks sound bored and tired. a little of that vibe even creeps into "xxxo", though it's generally a very pop/accessible song. my initial problem was the oppressive combination of hostility, defensiveness, paranoia and disinterest that those 1st six tracks cumulatively generate. after which, "it takes a muscle" feels like an oasis of sunshine.

UH OH

http://threeroomspress.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-mia-fizzles-out-in-2010-stage.html

Her mic was still out for song two: "Bucky Done Gun" from the 2005 release "Arular." And by then the ninjas and others had left the stage, so it was just two women bouncing around in front of lights and projections, and only one of them could be heard, atop a muddy sound mix.
By song three, they were turning laser lights on the audience, and MIAs mic started making some noise. "Lovalot" came next, and little had improved. MIA kept going into the night. And the crowd started heading en masse for the boat home: exhausted and sorely disappointed.

acc to tweets the show got cut off for rain not long after

upstaged by die antwoord. the ironing.

the dancehall sample in "lovalot" is so fucking sick

after playing it 3 times I fucking love it except for maybe "tell me why". bonus tracks fall kinda flat tho

One of the albums of the year.

it is an album and it came out this year but that's where our opinions diverge

I'm listening to this right now and I'm not really hearing any bad tracks...it's a bit of a curveball after Kala, not quite on that level, but it's hella solid, which is not the impression you would get from surfing the Net for a couple of hours...

...or from reading this thread.

I'm digging "Tell Me Why" more although I still hate the chorus. Still not really warming to "It Takes a Muscle" or "It Is What It Is".

weed helps.

i love both those songs and do not weed

I'm not having any truck with the "OMG I listened to it on a proper sound system and bass is HUGE!" crew here because massive wobbly bass is kinda the bare minimum you expect when you get Rusko in on a track. It's not making me feel any more affection towards the songs.

xpost

yeah, was kidding there. I don't really see how you couldn't enjoy "It Takes A Muscle", which is the closest thing to a chart "hit" on the album.

it keeps getting better with every play for me; bass to the treble, treble to the bass. heck, there's so much sonic detail to get lost in here, that i'm almost inclined to call it her Sgt. Pepper in that respect. or maybe it's only her DSOTM? ^_^

dude

there are so many mustaches in the photos for the Killers' Sam's Town that I like to call it their Sgt Pepper in that respect.

yeah, but where does the The Black Parade fit in?

my 5-yr-old, who was a big fan of kala, has started to warm to maya after some evident early uncertainty. the third time he heard "teqkilla" in the car, he started banging in time on whatever was in reach from his car seat. he likes "lovalot" too.

(i'm just hoping the vocals are obscured enough that he's not going to show up in kindergarten saying "i run this fucking club")

club-a-club-a-club-club club-a-club-a-club-club

Street Sweeper Social Club covering "Paper Planes"!

http://www1.rollingstone.com/hearitnow/player.php?xmlData=streetsweeper/streetsweeper.xml

thx a lot guyz im tryin 2 watch me spendin' and all yer talk about M.I.A. got me curious and I bought Kala and really liked it hope you're happy now i'm filing for bankruptcy

All I wanna do is [bang bang bang bang]
And a [ka-ching]
And take all your money

otm

i walked past m.i.a in dalston last night!

felt 'relevant' etc

late pass non-groundbreaking album discussion

i actually like most of the music on this but the lyrics are among the worst i've ever heard

Really? Which in particular? I've heard a lot of lyrics worse than this.

We gotta love one another
That's what the good man says
But i got too much trouble
Going on in my head

from it takes a muscle... everything just seems so trite, i mean i guess the problem is that there's very little originality in there?

tweeting me like tweetie bird on your iphone... really? what makes it worse is that xxxo is probably my favourite song on the album.

It Takes a Muscle is a cover version of a song by a Dutch band singing in a second language so that's not the best example to pick.

i like some of her lines, but in general m.i.a.'s lyrics have never functioned very well outside the music. which is ok by me, that's true of lots of people.

She always reminded me of Missy Elliott in that respect (lots of rappers, obviously, but her especially). I love Missy's music but I'm not in the market for a slim hardback volume of her lyrics.