MIA

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

m.i.a. has yes men?

But besides that I think she’s amazing and she’ll put another record out that’s going to be fuckin’ sick because I think she needs to get grounded at some point

I still have yet to hear this thing but from the responses it's getting, it seems to scream "transitional record!"

Too bad John Cusack's too old to play Diplo in the movie

I GO STICKY STICKY ICKY ICKY WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

or is it weed, not I'm second-guessing

lol I am terrible at lyrics even when they are written in the CD liner notes

I think it's Icky Icky Icky P'tang

sticky icky icky wii

I haven't stopped playing this thing. Suddenly the last 100 hours of this thread seems irrelevant.

*seem

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.

yeah, this. though the rhythms and rhythmic emphasis are still there, it seems much less like dance music than anything she's done so far, and the "exotic" detailing is almost entirely gone. overall vibe is kinda rock.

it is more of a rock album, for sure, but it's still pretty funky. i had it on loud last night while i was doing household stuff and there was a lot of stuff that made me want to jump around. even the spacey, dubbier stuff mostly had grooves. the adrian sherwood mentions upthread are obviously otm, and overall again it makes me think her most obvious precedent is punk/postpunk of the ari up/jah wobble axis.

(an axis that also includes the sandinista-era clash, obv., all of which helps explain to me why i love her so much.)

^^^word!

it makes me think her most obvious precedent is punk/postpunk of the ari up/jah wobble axis.

an axis I can believe in. seriously this is only sounding better and better...

my only beef with this album is that the two lulls ("Story To Be Told" through "It Iz What It Iz" and "Tell Me Why" through "Space") are really fucking dire

I can't rate this album as highly as the first two because of that, even though I really, really REALLY love the "XXXO"/"Teqkilla"/"Lovalot" sequence

^^^ This, but with the highs and lows almost entirely reversed. (I think we can agree on Born Free)

wait, you really like "It Iz What It Iz" and "It Takes A Muscle"????? really cannot fathom

"Born Free" is awesome, yes

Equally, I can't work out how anyone could love Teqkilla. We can be like odd-couple detectives.

I've come around to "It Takes a Muscle."

I rate her albums: Kala >>>>>> Maya >> Arular

This thing has a punch and density that reminds me why big budgets are often good.

"Story To Be Told" is the one I vacillate the most on, followed by "Tell Me Why"

Really I just want her to do an album full of tenuous puns like "Teqkilla", "Lovealot" and "Illygirl" because that's when I find her most fun (aside from "Born Free" where she satisfies the hypothesis "simple shouting = simple fun")

I love both Story and Tell Me Why because the contrast between the vocal samples and the heavyweight drums seems to be at the heart of the album's mix of toughness and vulnerability. They're the most widescreen productions to me. (BTW, I don't have the special edition so haven't heard Illygirl, etc yet)

http://www.amazon.com/Illygirl/dp/B003UP3VNA

here's a sample

It Iz What It Iz seems like the best song on the album to me: A gauzy, slow banger-type. Of course it's a Blaqstarr joint.

It may seem that way, but what it actually is is a vacant, boring, meandering mess with no propulsion, drive or entry point to invite the listener into its world.

i like the hard jams most, but i really don't mind the spacey pop -- "space" in particular, which i've liked ever since she released the video some months back. i like how the contrast throws the whole album off-kilter. i think i pretty much agree with alfred's ranking of the three albums, tho piracy funds terrorism would rate between kala and maya.

A best-of album skimming the best tracks off of all three albums would be like wo

also no one would be able to agree what tracks to put on it

It may seem that way, but what it actually is is a vacant, boring, meandering mess with no propulsion, drive or entry point to invite the listener into its world.

Dan, this isn't the Inception thread.

lol

(Actually "Space" is pretty good; I just get so amped up by the uptempo tracks that I never want to hear it.)

after listening for a couple weeks, i love the record straight through and would only be tempted to cut "tell me why", which makes the album's final stretch a bit of a chore. swap it out for "illygirl" and "believer". though i like the gentler stuff in the middle, hi dere's right that the strongest tracks are the hardest/noisiest: "xxxo" through "lovealot" to kick the album off, "born free" + "meds & feds" at the other end. initially HATED "lovealot", dunno why...

Is "XXXO" really not pop friendly? I'm kind of out of the loop chart-wise but it sounds like it's a pretty clear single to me.