MIA

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.

kick does get buried, there's maybe a snare in there somewhere (?), and the cymbals cut through easy. i can't complain abt the sound, cuz the energy comes across fine.

I guess my point is it sounds like shit!

but yeah clip on youtube, so no need for alarm

MIA does power electronics

MIAzbow?

a little bit!

teqkilla's starting to sound like the best track on the album

in light the "where is my mind" biting on kala and the pixies-reminiscent gtr on "meds & feds", i'm idly wondering whether maya's a fan. which speculation tempts me to posit MAYA as a kind of surfer rosa rework of her established sound. like, taking something familiar and basically pop, breaking it to pieces, and pushing all the most jagged elements to the fore. again, adrian sherwood's probably a more meaningful touchstone for that kind of activity in club music, but "rock music" seems like an equally important reference point wr2 this particular album. xtrmntr (again again) being the/an intersection of the two.

^ ridiculous comparison, i know

We know.

teqkilla's starting to sound like the best track on the album

it's one of the best, for sure. reviews i've read that single it out for scorn just leave me smh.

i wasn't sure what to make of it at first. it's long, seemingly unstructured and noisy as hell, so it doesn't surprise me that some see it as a dealbreaker. especially if they have no noise tolerance and/or haven't taken the time to really come to grips with the album.

I talked to my friend last night who had just bought it and she seemed disappointed...she thought it sounded very American & commercial. I think the implication was that she thought it was MIA's "sellout" album!

hahaha

I'm failing to see how any record that gets people mentioning Skinny Puppy and Merzbow can be a commercial/sellout record.

why do pop artists still think it's cool or interesting to have a bunch of people dressed like them onstage all the time

I thought it was cool.

oh ok

I'm ever older than Maya though so what do I know about cool :(

(xp to onimo) i don't think she listens to much Merzbow or SP so I don't think she quite made that connection...

Yeah I mean people on here & elsewhere on the Internet say how noisy it is (in places) then someone disconnected thinks it's a sellout album and it seems weird that they're discussing the same album.

I think some people may be having a hard time coming to grips with the lack of a "world" dance vibe on this new album. Kala in particular had a real globetrotting feel to it. That's not what this new one is about.

The world vibe is of course seen as more "authentic".

^yeah, actually...my friend is a really good and intelligent person, and she even has decent musical tastes, but she described Kala as being "really jungle"...

(which is why she preferred it to the new one)

"really jungle"

If only. M.I.A. needs to get with Zomby and start planning out that Jungle revival record.

Diplo piles on with more criticism

http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/diplo-on-mias-new-album-she-didnt-care-about-it/20686

CORRECTION and APOLOGY: It didn’t make sense to us that Diplo would say M.I.A. had “no talent in any aspect,” but after listening to the recording of the phone interview repeatedly, it was our conclusion. It turns out that conclusion was wrong. What Diplo, who was speaking very quickly, actually said was that M.I.A., has “got” talent in every aspect, which makes a lot more sense to us. Apologies to both Diplo and to M.I.A. We will now perform 40 lashes upon ourselves in repentance.

lol