M.I.A. - Kala poll

Nah, she doesn't have enough mass appeal (yet). I think she's been more written about than adored.

well he's not really saying she is the artist of the decade, just that she has consciously positioned herself as the kind of big-picture mantle-inheritor who gets talked about in those terms. (and that those terms are themselves sort of antiquated.) i think he's been wrong (jarringly sometimes) in a lot of what he's written about her, but this one is pretty close to right on a lot of things.

I think laying out the case without passing explicit judgment on her worthiness helps him here.

Leafing through it at a bookstore on Thanksgiving weekend, I concluded that the Hilburn book is ghastly.

the Hilburn book?

No '30 Dollar' on the new album?!

In retrospective Bird Flu should be higher.

still her best imo

yep

Kala
Matangi
Arular
MAYA
AIM

Close. Kala and Arular are tied for first folled by the underappreciated MAYA. Matangi is not far behind that one and AIM is the worst yeah

*followed

I love this recording artist.

i was baffled by the reviews and opionions of it as being better than ARULAR then, and i'm completely baffled by them now.

I would put Arular in my top ten of all time and I don't think she's ever come remotely close since

Yeah Arular sounded so great at the time and, having heard it again for the first time quite recently, it still holds up. I didn't really listen to much past then

did anyone see the guy from the wilcannia mob on the reggie yates doc? it's pretty heartbreaking

Arular is the only one I got that into.

i love MIA imo she's the most interesting pop star of the 2000s

i was baffled by the reviews and opionions of it as being better than ARULAR then, and i'm completely baffled by them now.

― boxedjoy, T

It's not better – it's a refinement. I love'em both.

Also, it's better.

If MAYA didn't have that horribly draggy middle section, I would like it more.

Adam, Alfred and DJP all otm. I also still listen to "Piracy Funds Terrorism" a lot.

I like MAYA too. I thought way too highly of Matangi at the time, though.

Matangi bangs

I like Matangi but stopped playing it pretty quickly. I think it's a little monotonous, not as varied as the ones before.

i love MIA imo she's the most interesting pop star of the 2000s

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau)

Yeah I agree. For me at least speaking about female pop stars top of my mind these are my favorite each decade:

50's: Yma Sumac
60's: Brigitte Fontaine
70's: Stevie Nicks
80's: Kate Bush
90's: Bjork
00's: MIA
10's: Grimes

I just realized that each one of those comes from a different country.

Ah wait MIA was born in the UK, scratch that. I thought she was born in Sri Lanka.

listening right now "Birdflu" is an insane beat. makes sense she sampled Suicide later. this is on that level of electronic minimal punk but with this hyperrad acoustic flavor.

god damn this album rules

how many
how many

.. and i still stand by that earlier bafflement.

I posted this on the other Kala thread. Bird Flu is still dope but the beat being a whole-cloth Bollywood sample takes a little something away from it, especially after those stories around the release about going to India and recording with drummers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcQyMmjMrP4

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-m-i-a-made-kala-20130319

"For "Bird Flu," M.I.A. harnessed the power of South Indian percussion: "30 drummers in a room" playing an instrument called the urmi, a which is used in temple rituals. The result, M.I.A. recalled, was "a massive beat – the total opposite of the snap beat sound that was popular in the U.S. at that time. People kept telling me: That record is going to clear the dance floor.""

Maybe she did record with a bunch of drummers but it didn't sound as good as the sample...

yeah i was gonna ask if she did that. you are probably right. i love the loops. this record is very instant classic.

XR2 is a banger

The Turn is making me think of Bow Wow Wow

this album is really very good