MIA

some people just like to moan about stuff cos its fun.

Musically, it's a lot thinner than most of the songs on the album. It's also just not very interesting; it's midtempo meandering doesn't really go anywhere and the thin arrangement makes autotuned vocals stick out as a very unflattering treatment of her voice; generally speaking, M.I.A. sounds better when she doesn't sounds like Ke$ha.

In fairness, I would probably like it more were it not on this album, where all of the clatter and messiness is really grabbing my attention and the calm tracks are not.

Maybe no one else wants an entire album of "Teqkilla" but I really, really do.

^^^. The first side of the album is fantastic.

also "Lovalot" is the tense, paranoid piece of music with a great use of tempo and her flat-affect delivery (kind of like on "XR2") makes the song for me, particularly on the Chinese interjections when she briefly bursts out of it and then slides back in

This may seem a bit blasphemous, but is MAYA MIA's On The Corner?

And also, is it just me or is Diplo's idea of "quality control" to only include songs that are either produced by Diplo (or maybe Switch) or that sound like them?

you might be onto something there!

I know that some folks have argued against looking at this album from the perspective of which producers worked on it because it was all "M.I.A.s sound", but I'm not sure that I'm really convinced. I think the move from Diplo/Switch to Rusko shows to a certain extent how much what we consider the "M.I.A. sound" was perhaps really the Diplo/Switch sound. Rusko comes from a completely different world of club-friendly, bangin' dubstep and I think the harshness of his tracks comes across on MAYA as well.

this is a pretty good record. i don't really get a lot of the reviews i've read. some of them sound to me like they'd never actually listened to her before. it's hard for me to find anything on here, musically or lyrically, that doesn't follow directly in one way or another from things she's done before. i can understand hating it if you hate m.i.a. i can't at all understand hating it if you like or have ever liked m.i.a.

xpost: sort of, but there's always been a pretty brazen harshness to her sound. arular is full of clanks and bangs. the distorto-scuzz is i guess sort of new, but not a surprising one.

not a surprising move, i mean.

(i do think it's her weakest album, on initial listen, but a.) i might change my mind, and b.) considering how much i love the other ones, that's not really a put-down.)

the growing trend here is a march away from minimalist arrangements towards maximalism; her original songs were one or two synth lines/samples built around relatively simple beats and, with each successive album, she does stuff with more layers/pieces to it (which btw is why I call out the songs on this that I have; they're the ones that slip back into the older ways of doing MIA songs and are as a result a lot less interesting; the only one in this mold that works for me is "Lovalot")

This is the first album in months I've actually bought as opposed to downloading first and living with it for a few weeks, and -- wow, I'm with tipsy. Beside the producer switches, I don't hear anything on this album that would alienate a fan.

with each successive album, she does stuff with more layers/pieces to it

yeah, i think that's true. and it's why i love the sound of kala more than arular, it has these deep weird sound fields. this one is even busier, obviously. and buzzier, not lush like a lot of kala is. but it makes sense to me, none of the directions on the new one seem unprecedented given her earlier stuff. i mean, i guess if people just don't think the songs are very good, that's one thing. but enough of them already click with me that i don't share that opinion -- and i think more of them will click with me on more listens.

The sounds are harsh, steel-thin, and pop like firecrackers in unexpected places. The sequence from "XXXO to "Story To Be Told" is terrific noise-pop.

For me (given the caveat I noted yesterday) the primary attraction has always been her sound -- said sound may be mostly the work of others and what they bring to it but hey, it's her name on it and she has put the stamp on it, so it's hers as I hear it. As such it's an often very rich world where comprehension (lyrical or otherwise) almost reduces the impact, speaking strictly for myself.

the neverending, incomprehensible “Teqkilla,” a torture chamber of painful blips and industrial ambiance

Why does this sound appealing to me? I think this could be the description for some of my favorite music.

have you heard the album yet, Ned?

Not yet, my slight contrarian side is kicking in with this and so many other releases right around now (Big Boi being another example) that are being so "OMG HEAR RIGHT NOW OR DIE" talked about that I'm all, "Um, I'll get to this in a little bit here, thanks." They aren't going to go anywhere in a month or two and I'd like to think I'm not beholden to the must-react-now culture. (I'd *like* to think that, I'm probably wrong.)

Should say I've heard the singles of course, just not the full album.

I don't hear anything on this album that would alienate a fan.

Agreed - it sounds like an M.I.A. record to these (cloth?) ears. It's a bit patchy and a few songs have yet to grip me but that's probably what I first thought about Kala. Much preferring the noisier first half so far.

i think it's a sign of how much i just basically dig her thing that you could make a track like "believer" about three times as long and i'd be perfectly happy with it.

(the "bonus" tracks are worth tracking down imo, even tho "caps lock" is pretty drab.)

Im waiting for the right mood to listen to this album as a whole with full attention. Something tells me I'll really love it. I love noisey stuff.

um has this been posted?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MROxPK18v5I

yup

lol @ Dave holding up, of all things, AN LP

sorry it has

Dave and all of the late night hosts have switched to holding up LPs quite awhile ago actually.

They're bigger and easier for the audience to ssee.

huh

haven't watched anything late night in awhile obviously

it's seriously terrible [it iz what it iz], rivalling "It Takes A Muscle" for worst song on the album

kind of lolling at Diplo being all "I'm the only one doing any quality control on her" when his two tracks are easily among the worst on the album

crazy talk. i like the noisy stuff - born free, steppin up, meds & feds - have even come around to fully loving teqkilla. but that doesn't make the warmer, gentler tracks worse. it iz what it iz and it takes a muscle are lovely songs with sympathetic production.

problems with the album = a serious lack of cohesion and bit of pointless filler like lovalot and internet connection. story to be told and tell me why are just barely interesting enough to justify their inclusion, which means that a third of the album is somewhere between awful (internet connection) and ho-hum (tell me why). counting the 3 "bonus tracks" as part of the official album here. 11 good-to-great songs out of 15 wouldn't be such a bad average except for the fact that the 11 good ones are evenly split between abrasive noise and gentler pop, which makes for a schizophrenic listening experience. fact that the album front loads stuff teqkilla, lovalot and story to be told certainly doesn't help.

it's not hard to build a digestible album out of these tracks (with a bit of trimming), but MAYA works hard to be as off-putting as possible. and i like the album.

The only song so far that induces fear and loathing is "It Takes a Muscle," which I knew was a cover without even glancing at the credits.

Hm!:

Listened to MIA now - sure I'm not the first to have said it, but it's her Human After All really. Don't hate it, won't listen to it much.

(One reason I like this take is I like Human After All quite a lot!)

On her first 2 albums, I really like about 2/3 of the tracks and will listen to them whenever they come on and can pretty much do without the other 1/3. I still consider these 2 of my favorite albums of the past decade. From what I've heard of MAYA (only listened to it on her myspace so far, still waiting to get the CD from Amazon), I probably like just about the same portion of tracks, although I don't yet know about their re-playability. So I would consider it at least very promising. So far I really like the abrasive and cluttered feel of many of these tracks.

The only song so far that induces fear and loathing is "It Takes a Muscle,"

awww :(

Not as good as Alice Cooper's "Muscle of Love."

well yeah, but what is?

On her first 2 albums, I really like about 2/3 of the tracks and will listen to them whenever they come on and can pretty much do without the other 1/3. I still consider these 2 of my favorite albums of the past decade. From what I've heard of MAYA...I probably like just about the same portion of tracks...

fair point. i was saying something similar about MAYA a little while back (that it's about 2/3 great). it's true that her previous albums hit a comparable ratio, though. primary difference, if there is one, is that kala and arular are extremely consistent-sounding. they work within a fairly narrow palette of sounds and production approaches, providing maya with a dependably characteristic sound. MAYA, in contrast, goes off in a bunch of different directions, and only occasionally provides fans with what they've come to expect. song-to-song, it's alternately rougher and softer than anything she's done before. and it's hard to find the aesthetic thread that connects "teqkilla", "it takes a muscle" and "space". combined with the embattled, paranoid vibe throughout, it hardly makes for a welcoming first listen.

...or so i imagine, for those who loathe the album. works just fine for me, and the more i listen, the more i like it. still think its sequenced badly and could stand a bit of trimming.

people who think this album is "too noisy" or "too harsh" really need to step away from the radio for a while.

"oh dear, the arrangements are a bit loose in places and not every sound has been digitally sanded of its rough edges, horrors."

just got around to watching that letterman performance. god damn that's the shit! even with cruddy youtube sound, comes ripping out like a bomb. and so so great to see martin rev, cool as ice, bringing the noise with his fists (nice camerawork). the most electrifying musical performance i've seen on american TV in ages. felt the guy in those old maxell ads watching it, the blast all but knocking me out of my chair. a hell of a lot better than the album version, and the album version rules.

xpost

lolz!

reposting for those who maybe missed it last night/the first time around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MROxPK18v5I

I enjoy the presentation but that sound is atrocious and I dunno how much to blame that on the rip vs. how much to blame that on the "song" itself. I mean, I don't even hear the drums at all, just a blur of white noise

okay so if you don't hear the drums I would actually blame that on your ears

I dunno man, from about a minute in on I can't differentiate the snare or the kick from whatever white noise generator Rev is playing

So what?!

It's a performance on television captured on YouTube.