M.I.A. - KALA

"I don't read, I just guess" = Mondays, right?

Interesting Xgau album review from the new Rolling Stone:

Careerwise, the recent album M.I.A.'s Kala recalls is Kanye West's Late Registration -- an unexpectedly sure-footed follow-up to a brainy beat-adept's can-you-top-this debut. And though West is the more universal musician, especially as Americans conceive the universe, there are also musical similarities: Both albums challenge sophomore slump by risking pretension. But where West hired classically trained Jon Brion, the Sri Lankan-British rapper spread out and bent down low. Originally she'd hoped to trade the grimy beats of 2005's Arular for the more radio-friendly dirt of Timbaland. That plan fizzled, for two reasons -- not just the feds' refusal to let M.I.A. re-enter the U.S., but her instinctive reluctance to turn into Nelly Furtado once the chance was in her lap.
Plus, though she's polite about it, a sneaking suspicion that maybe Timbo wasn't all that -- that there were edgier beat-makers all over the place. With visa madness blockading her new Brooklyn apartment, she turned world traveler, pulling in multiple Indian musics and encompassing Jamaican dance-hall moves,Indian-Trinidadian multicontinental mash-up, Liberian vibes, a British-Nigerian rapper, Australian aboriginal hip-hop, Baltimore hip-hop, Jonathan Richman, the Clash and a bonus afterthought from Timbaland's solo album. Though she claims this record is more personal and less political than Arular, that's misleading. The political was all too personal on an album obsessed with her long-lost father, a player in Sri Lanka's terrorist-revolutionary Tamil Tigers. Here, that conflict-ridden relationship is behind her. Star access enables a woman who grew up an impoverished refugee to observe the outcomes of similar histories in immigrant and minority communities worldwide. If you don't think that's political, ask your mama -- or hers, who's named Kala.

Arular was about M.I.A. -- her ambition, her education, her contradictions, her history of violence. Kala is about the brown-skinned Other now obsessing Euro-America -- described from the outside by a brown-skinned sympathizer who's an insider for as long as her visa holds up. It opens with the uninvitingly spare "Bamboo Banga," which samples Indian Tamil filmi composer Ilayaraja and bends the lyric of Richman's "Roadrunner" so it celebrates a kid running alongside a Third World tourist's Hummer and banging on its door. "BirdFlu" disses dogging males everywhere -- "selfish little roamers" -- over another filmi sample and a barely synchronized four-four on some thirty deep-toned urmi drums. Also on "BirdFlu," high kiddie/girlie interjections add a cuteness that's sustained pitchwise on "Boyz," with its video of synchronized Kingston rudies shaking their moneymakers for the Interscope dollar. Only with "Jimmy," a Bollywood disco number a kiddie M.I.A. used to dance to for money at Sri Lankan parties, does a conventional song surface.

You've probably gathered that unlike Late Registration, Kala is less pop-friendly than its predecessor. It's heavier, noisier, more jagged. Timbaland might conceivably have found a hit for M.I.A.; London-based "dirty house" producer Switch, credited on eight of twelve tracks, will not. The eclectic world-underclass dance amalgam M.I.A. has constructed is an art music whose concept recalls the Clash as much as anything else -- the aggression of the early Clash and the reach of the late (who she samples). But soon enough, the music does soften and, occasionally, give up a tune. There's melancholy melodica, Sri Lankan temple horn, the eighteen-year-old rapper Afrikanboy describing his hustles, and several child choruses, notably on "Mango Pickle Down River," where preteens rap about bridges and fridges to rhyme with the didge -- didgeridoo -- that provides their groaning bass.

But none of these pleasures comes as easy as the high spirits of M.I.A.'s debut album seemed to promise. And in the end, that's why Kala strikes deep. There's a resolute sarcasm, a weariness and defiant determination, a sense of pleasure carved out of work -- articulated by the lyrics, embodied by the music. A riot of human, musical and mechanical sounds bubbles underneath these tracks. Not a white riot, that's for sure, and not a dangerous one either -- unless you believe every Other wants what you got and has nothing to offer in return. Kala proves what bullshit that is. The danger is all the evil fools who aren't convinced.

ROBERT CHRISTGAU

Man that's a long review from him.

(or did he have to pay for webspace when it was on his site, and now he's paid by wordcount?)

what's the guardian on about here? :

It was US bloggers who gave her a leg up, after the British media initially found her too hipster..
__

http://music.guardian.co.uk/urban/story/0,,2150297,00.html

running around in '92 going to raves and doing pills = SHE IS 35 YEARS OLD

i mean credit to her because she looks and acts ten years younger really

The eclectic world-underclass dance amalgam M.I.A. has constructed is an art music whose concept recalls the Clash as much as anything else

I think this is interesting.

I was thinking the other day while listening to Straight to Hell that I couldn't think of anyone who really addressed globalisation in their lyrics at the moment, which seemed odd given that it seems a more prominent concept than it would have been when the Clash wrote those lyrics. Maybe I just haven't heard stuff, though.

I mean there must be a million people whose biography reflects the rupture and dislocation and exploitation that global capital has brought about and also have access to the equally global means of distribution of music or whatever. I'm surprised there isn't more stuff documenting/evoking all this, especially from that perspective, rather than from the other end, although it doesn't seem to be that big a lyrical topic even for your Coldplay types.

Again, probably my ignorance.

And M.I.A. has a Straight to Hell-sampling song... THE CIRCLE IS COMPLETE

(Haven't heard new album, just thinking aloud)

Yeah, well that's what got me thinking ...

I guess it's not even worth mentioning at this late date, but I *wish* Timbaland didn't have to take a verse. "Come Around" could've been the best track-- take out that middle portion and get a little focus/extend on the outro and it would've been a banger. At the same time, I think the album turned out great w/o Diplo/Timbaland/Big-Name producer stamps all over it. Great album either way. She does a fabulous job floating in her lyrics on "Paper Planes."

Is there any over-arching connection with the song-quotes?

Rolling Stone had a total orgasm over this album.

that Timbaland verse is my least favorite thing on the album.

But where West hired classically trained Jon Brion, the Sri Lankan-British rapper spread out and bent down low.

see? even Christgau noticed that she's always crouching and kneeling in press photos.

I've been appreciating that Afrikan Boy verse a lot more since someone pointed out he sounds exactly like Dr Alban.

trax are wack. e me maya!!

^^^
yes

"Bamboo Banga" is more like what I was looking for! Sweetness.

running around in '92 going to raves and doing pills = SHE IS 35 YEARS OLD

30, actually. That makes her 15 in '92, which is at least more plausible than Sean Kingston being imprisoned at the age of 9.

A lot of these songs make more sense in the context of the album.

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

"Paper Planes" has the best chorus.

she's not 35

xpost

yeah I agree. and it stands out since it's so sing-songy and a lot of the rest of the album is fairly harsh.

I love Jimmy and Paper Planes, and like much of the rest ... really the only one I'm not that into is $20, it sounds like a bad mash-up .... the smooshed-together elements aren't digested enough, you're like "oh she's singing the Pixies over New Order." which in itself is not very interesting.

i guess i should go buy this now

I was disappointed by this. By the beats as much as anything (I've always considered MIA more of a toaster / accompaniment than someone who can really take control of a track). Then again, I don't like Switch, so maybe it's not surprising. Too much trebly noise, not enough rhythm, and limited one note basslines.

i guess i should go buy this now

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

Yep. There's a few other decent ones. Overall the album disappoints.

$7.99 sale price at Best Buy today.

When asked to confirm M.I.A.’s age, a spokeswoman at Interscope waffled between 30 and 31; her manager, Tiffany Steffens, said that M.I.A.’s passport gives her age at 32. Like many details of her past, it can’t be verified very easily. from New York Times article

"An Itinerant Refugee in a Hip-Hop World" for those of you quibbling about her age.

By BEN SISARIO
Sunday August 19, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/arts/music/19sisa.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

first impression (which may not hold up) is that this is better than arular. tougher, louder and poppier all at the same time. in any case, not remotely a disappointment.

haha I totally read that as "An Internet Refugee"

tipsy mothra OTM. The highs aren't as high as Arular, but its a much more even album. After her absolutely atrocious Lollapalooza set I was set for more disappointment, but I was pleasantly surprised after my first listen.

really enjoying this record

I don't know how generous I'm being towards M.I.A.'s intentions, but I'd think she wouldn't just shoe-horn some Pixies lyrics into a song unless she thought they had some meaning she wanted to convey. (Unless, of course, her sole intention was to flip some geeky whiteboy rock-crit wigs.) Just sayin'.

i liked this MUCH more than arular

never really listened to arular, kala is a good record, sounds great in the car, yay

"Paper Planes" oh wow

yeah "Paper Planes" is far and away my favorite thing she's done so far. Even as much as it seems a departure for her somehow? I've just been playing it over and over the past couple of weeks.

Aside from the "Straight to Hell" sample, what else does "Paper Planes" take bits from? The "all I wanna do is *shotgun* *shotgun* *shotgun* *shotgun* and *reload* *cash register* and take your money" is definitely a quote, I just can't place it...

All I wanna do is a zoom zoom zoom zoom and a boom boom! just shake your rump!

The Pixies again!

The above-mentioned video for "Jimmy":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLPUe9Xn9ZE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epoetv%2Ecom%2Fvideo%2Ephp%3Fvid%3D22008

Some really impressive animation work in this.

I'd think she wouldn't just shoe-horn some Pixies lyrics into a song unless she thought they had some meaning she wanted to convey.

sure -- she's building on the psychological dislocation of the original by adding geographic and economic dislocation to it. adrift in the global economy, etc.

@Telephone thing: Wreckx N Effect - Rumpshaker.

maybe i'm just overly familiar w/ the pixies song. the modern lovers bit in bamboo banger doesn't rub me wrong at all.

the speech impediment on that -- "woad wunnuh woad wunnuh" -- makes me think of the elmer fudd version of "fire." but that's ok. elmer's cool.

paper planes
mango pickle

I like the first few tracks that remind me of PiL.

I can't stop listening to "Paper Planes"