xpost. Of course she's "look at me". She's a fucking pop star!
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:50 (thirteen years ago) link
re d.levskey: agreed. the lyrics only become "moronic" when you decide you need to argue them down. otherwise they're no worse than most pop.
otoh, the fact that she likes to at least flirt with big statements and serious issues does tend to invite those argumentative responses, you know? of course she doesn't owe her audience a meaningful education in the realities of the sri lankan political situation, but she's the one making an issue of it. maya seems to revel in the attention that her "radical" political provocations earn her, so it's not like she doesn't earn the criticism she gets.
i'm not personally engaged with her political persona, so the whole debate seems a little silly to me. i'm mainly interested in the music and the vocal delivery, and in the lyrics only as a distinctive pop style.
― good news if you wear cargo shorts (contenderizer), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:51 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost - yeah, she can actually be a great writer at times.
tell me why on the album is sublime btw.
i kinda like it in 128 bit rate lol.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:51 (thirteen years ago) link
its flawed, but still one of the albums of the year, btw.
and quite easily.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:53 (thirteen years ago) link
People are applying absurdly high standards that they don't apply to anyone else. If you want really idiotic political lyrics go to XTRMNTR (which I still love anyway).
I think stuff like Paper Planes, Bamboo Banga, $20 and Bird Flu is fantastically rich, funny and insightful on the subject of developing world aspiration. She writes about that far more than she writes about the Tamil Tigers.
Of course she's "look at me". She's a fucking pop star!
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, July 14, 2010 10:50 AM (51 seconds ago) Bookmark
O.T.F.M. especially wr2 "the subject of developing world aspirations".
― good news if you wear cargo shorts (contenderizer), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:53 (thirteen years ago) link
i.e. paper planes, which is brilliant
― good news if you wear cargo shorts (contenderizer), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Hmm, I actually think she's the elitist but not acting like it. Like, I don't expect most pop stars to be able to back up their politics, but I do expect that from her, since she's smart and savvy. I suppose that's not fair on my part. With all these "she's a pop star!' defenses, I guess I just need to lower my expectations. Which is sad.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:10 (thirteen years ago) link
what pop/rock/rap stars do you know/like who really back up their politics flawlessly? Im not sure I even know politicians who back up their politics flawlessly.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:12 (thirteen years ago) link
The only egs I can think of are Billy Bragg and Michael Franti, both of whom routinely dismissed as "worthy". Good luck to anyone trying to find that middleground between worthy-but-dull and fun-but-irresponsible in the current debate.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Dorian OTM throughout here...
― Major Lolzer (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:14 (thirteen years ago) link
That last statement is totally OTM, Dorian. Perhaps this album is a stepping stone toward being as radical or revolutionary as she wants to be. Or maybe the next one will be her Stuart Price collaboration.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:23 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost - right.
franti = great in interviews, less great to listen to.
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Like, I don't expect most pop stars to be able to back up their politics, but I do expect that from her, since she's smart and savvy. I suppose that's not fair on my part. With all these "she's a pop star!' defenses, I guess I just need to lower my expectations. Which is sad.
there's a weird break in the thinking here (no offense). it's like, "i want her to be extremely smart and savvy, so i feel disappointed when she turns out to be less smart and savvy than i'd imagined." the real-world maya is always gonna come up short relative to an idealized image. but maybe it's unfair to blame her audience for the discontinuity. she worked hard to create the persona that she's having trouble living up to.
― good news if you wear cargo shorts (contenderizer), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:27 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't think she's any less smart and savvy than she's ever been, but I think the intrusion of fame/wealth/parenthood/marriage cannot be ruled out as a distraction.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:31 (thirteen years ago) link
The odd thing is that this album contains far fewer references to guns/bombs/radical chic than the previous two but because the music's so divisive it's getting all the flak that sceptics have been holding back until now. So she already is moving away from the posturing and foregrounding the personal. But I think she'll have to raise her lyrical game significantly to overcome the backlash, justified or not.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:36 (thirteen years ago) link
only had it since this afternoon but id say this album is a lot more intimate. the last two songs seem particularly touching and sweet in a way ive not heard from her before, almost as if she was thinking of music of hers that she could or might like to play to her child (not really heard the lyrics on these two properly yet though).
― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't hate m.i.a.'s lyrics! i mean i haven't paid attention to the ones on the latest, and i doubt i will given that i don't intend to listen to it again. the thing i rail against is those lyrics being seen as radical, revolutionary or even all that politically substantive, by her and by those talking about her. some of her lyrics are dumb but she's good at a) nonsense but evocative missy-esque wordplay ("bamboo banga" and "galang"), b) character studies of, yes, displaced people ("10 dollar" and "hussel").
but the thing with the label of "radical activist" is that it works as a kind of free crit pass (until the ~backlash~ i guess, which would appear to be now) not available to artists without it - talking about politics is automatically a Good Thing (regardless of how well or coherently it's done) whereas talking about love or sex isn't seen to be (no matter how well it's done). i don't like it when people judge based on what something is rather than how that thing is done.
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 19:50 (thirteen years ago) link
to refine what i was saying earlier:
you can attract public attention with bold political provocations, but you risks harsh criticism when you do so. these things are a matched set, and everyone understands the way the relationship works. maya has made an obvious attempt to be politically provocative from day one, and it's worked for her, providing her musical career with a narrative and an aura of significance. it's disingenuous to pretend that she's done this accidentally or without regard to the ways in which others will receive her messages. and it's equally disingenuous to pretend that the negative attention she receives when her political persona shows cracks is somehow more unfair than the (largely) positive attention that she initially received from her faux-radical steez. two sides of the same coin. not saying she deserves the abuse, but it's a natural consequence of the game she's been playing.
― good news if you wear cargo shorts (contenderizer), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:08 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't like it when people judge based on what something is rather than how that thing is done.
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, July 14, 2010 1:50 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest
This.
― altered boners (rennavate), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Plato vs Aristotle.
― I'm never gonna do it without the Lex on (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Argument between contenderizer, titchy, lex and dorian on mia...some kind of nightmare
― blap...tremendo (deej), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:21 (thirteen years ago) link
if only you could wake up
― da croupier, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:30 (thirteen years ago) link
I admit seeing MIA live in Brussels shortly after the London 2005
*waves at Ned* :-)
― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Hi there! Nath was indeed at said show too.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 22:44 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't know why, but I kind of figured the Born Free/NYT article/XXXO series of gestures was MIA clearing room to make her big pop move, using her increased visibility to actually try to reach a lot of the people she had heretofore only sang about. This necessarily means an adjustment in songwriting types--instead of selling the Third World to the indie-rati, she would be selling pop music to the Third World, a pop music of course that would be remade in its image, whcih to me explained the sudden emergence of the massive ego and the equally sudden willingness to paint in broad strokes, and make sweeping generalizations. As far as the affluence angle goes, it may seem jarring to us but it remains to be seen whether it becomes a problem with her "intended audience" (scare quotes bcz I'm not sure whether this is really her intentions or what I'm projecting onto her) (What is known: she definitely is very aware of the dichotomy of advocating for the poor and dispossessed while lounging in luxury--the idiosyncratic album name is due to the fact that it is spelled out in gold bars.)
(of course the fact that she's taking cues from Skinny Puppy kind of undercuts my whole conceit, so...who knows!)
― please sb me (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 23:32 (thirteen years ago) link
change 'adjustment in songwriting types' to 'shift in lyrical focus'--I really should write my posts out in rough drafts.
― please sb me (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 23:35 (thirteen years ago) link
― da croupier, Wednesday, July 14, 2010 5:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
if u suggest ban me ill be one step closer...
― blap...tremendo (deej), Wednesday, 14 July 2010 23:37 (thirteen years ago) link
well keep it up, you're well on your way with this new budget-Jess act
― HI DERE, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 23:53 (thirteen years ago) link
wait Jess and deej aren't the same person? somebody please sb me...!
― please sb me (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 15 July 2010 00:03 (thirteen years ago) link
jess has a monopoly on being bitter???
― blap...tremendo (deej), Thursday, 15 July 2010 00:09 (thirteen years ago) link
not sure i buy HI DERE's budget tombot act
deej
coming onto a thread to say "some posters I don't like are having a conversation about something they're interesting, how terrible"
is weak
please don't do that any more
your friend who likes you
ua
― les yeux sans aerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Thursday, 15 July 2010 01:24 (thirteen years ago) link
guh interested in
lol
Comparing me to Tom when I'm not posting anything like him shows that a) you're reaching and b) you know you're being an annoying dick.
― HI DERE, Thursday, 15 July 2010 02:25 (thirteen years ago) link
also re: M.I.A. I really don't get why people dislike "Teqkilla" but it's pretty well documented at this point that there are artists who could record themselves farting into a bag and I would be all over it and three albums in I think it's safe to say that M.I.A. has joined this exalted company
― HI DERE, Thursday, 15 July 2010 02:27 (thirteen years ago) link
that seems to be her career trajectory, no?
― iatee, Thursday, 15 July 2010 02:29 (thirteen years ago) link
dan i'm a little offended.
― strongohulkingtonsghost, Thursday, 15 July 2010 03:27 (thirteen years ago) link
^ big-budget
― oh sh!t a ¯\⎝⏠___⏠⎠/¯ (sic), Thursday, 15 July 2010 04:58 (thirteen years ago) link
this thread makes me want to hear it because skinny puppy has come up a few times! i hope they become a band to namecheck soon
― uptown churl, Thursday, 15 July 2010 05:50 (thirteen years ago) link
strongo is a big supporter of contenderizer
― blap...tremendo (deej), Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:28 (thirteen years ago) link
of course im being a dick -- i posted in a thread just to express annoyance at a circular conversation
― blap...tremendo (deej), Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:29 (thirteen years ago) link
dan is treating deej like the gingers were treated in the mia video
― max, Thursday, 15 July 2010 07:34 (thirteen years ago) link
open ur eyes sheeple
This is because there are literally thousands of artists who bang on about nothing other than love and sex whereas political musicians are few and far between.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:03 (thirteen years ago) link
(Relatively speaking, that is. I think MIA's political statements are clumsy as hell but no one else had been doing it anywhere near the mainstream. New subject matter is refreshing, the reason people are starting to attack her now is because it's stopped being so).
― Matt DC, Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I like lex's final line but I think he's overstating the free pass. You might get one from Robert Hilburn or (to some extent) Greil Marcus or Christgau, but the average P4K/ILX/blog reader seems to be fairly intolerant of political content - ever since MIA first appeared there's been a significant number of sceptics who liked the music in spite, not because, of what she was saying.
But lex and I are coming from different angles here, so maybe it's like the way conservatives think the media has a liberal bias and liberals think the opposite.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:10 (thirteen years ago) link
i guess "free crit pass" might mean more "disproportionate crit ATTENTION" - even now, when a ton of critics plain dislike her latest album, she's the hub of conversation (and i admit i'm contributing to this), which i guess is fine until i think about the many similar-but-way-better artists who get none of this attention or conversation, let alone any sort of free pass, just b/c they're not ~*political*~
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:28 (thirteen years ago) link
also dorian, re: your other examples of "political" artists who weren't given as rough a ride as m.i.a. - lol do you really think i'd have been all that accepting of eg the clash or whoever if i'd been alive then? fucking HATE the clash! would've gone in even harder!
― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:32 (thirteen years ago) link
You're not the kind of critic I was thinking of, lex - I don't think you're particularly tolerant of politics in music generally. And the Clash were critiqued at the time - if the fuss about MIA's cavalier use of gun/bomb imagery reminds me of anything then it's Nick Kent and Jon Savage's reviews of the second Clash album - but not so savagely.
― Haunted Clocks For Sale (Dorianlynskey), Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:43 (thirteen years ago) link
i think about the many similar-but-way-better artists who get none of this attention or conversation, let alone any sort of free pass, just b/c they're not ~*political*
Dude you are massively overstating the extent to which politics factors into the MIA hype - the buzz around Arular and Kala was almost exclusively round "OMG this album is full of bangers".
― Matt DC, Thursday, 15 July 2010 09:47 (thirteen years ago) link