MIA

"XXXO" is super pop-friendly IMO

"xxxo" is very catchy and perhaps even pop-friendly. when i first heard it, i thought it sounded too sluggish and harsh to really work as a proper pop single, but now that i'm used to it, i can't see what bothered me about it in the first place. i'd still be really surprised if it made any kind of dent in the american pop charts.

well yeah no one is going to play it, or if they do it will happen in like 2012 when none of us actually care

i've since deleted the version of "xxxo" i downloaded a month or two back. seem to recall the crunchy, shattery, metallic noise elements being a little more prominent in the mix. album version is fairly smooth, really. maybe it was just the shitty MP3 quality that made it sound so abrasive...

well, there were two versions of it floating around; one was way more abrasive/harsh and the other was what ended up on the album

I'm really starting to notice the quality of MP3 vs albums lately. I thought the LCD Soundsystem was trash until I bought a physical copy.

all the leaks for that sounded particularly shitty

xx-post: that's probably it. i'm still hearing the song as filtered through my initial impressions of the earlier, noisier mix. released version isn't as abrasive, but it is sharp, spare, tough-sounding (through the verses, anyway). seems more in keeping w tracks like teqkilla than with the diplo stuff.

"illygirl" is not bad!

The final arrival in the top 10 this comes from M.I.A.'s "Maya," starting at No. 9 with 28,000. It easily surpasses the No. 18 debut and peak of her last set, 2007's "Kala," though it started with a shade more: 29,000

Congratulations M.I.A.! People are buying fewer albums than ever!

i like "it takes a muscle" but then i looked up the original version by spectral display and liked it better.

Congratulations M.I.A.! People are buying fewer albums than ever!

yeah unbelievable that 28,000 gets you in the Top 10. industry is so dead.

Only just managed to bring myself to listen to this, and my expectations were so low that I actually find myself pleasantly surprised that it has one good song (It Takes A Muscle).

I think I've said before (in response to Hit That) that MIA just doesn't work unless there's momentum or melody behind her, her delivery isn't good enough to work over slower or sparer beats, and as soon as you start incorporating dubstep elements into anything it's the equivalent of tying lead weights to it.

She just picked the wrong producers really, there are so many people out there at the moment who would have been perfect for her - an MIA album featuring Toddla T/Crazy Cousinz/Ill Blu/Kingdom/Sticky/all of the above could have been amazing.

kind of boggling that anyone would pick "It Takes A Muscle" as the one good song

like, why do you think it's good and not a meandering, plodding mess of nonsense?

It has a tune, that helps.

It's not great by any means but on an album with virtually no decent hooks whatsoever it stood out.

since when has MIA been about tunes??????

Like, where is the tune in "Bucky Done Gun" or "Galang" or "XR2" or "10 Dollar" or "$20"? How is the tune on "It Takes A Muscle" any different from or better than "Tell Me Why" or "Space" or "XXXO"? What is a "decent hook" and why don't you think the ones in "Teqkilla", "Born Free", "Lovalot", "Illygirl", "Internet Connection", or "Steppin Up" qualify?

I could understand hating the entire album but picking out the least energetic and least interesting song as the best one and then dismissing the rest of the album for pretty much doing exactly what M.I.A. did on her previous two albums, all over tracks regularly singled out as being among her best (note: not every track I listed is regularly singled out as being among her best) and basically I think you're being lazy.

I mean it's kind of like hearing "Pass That Dutch" and going "ugh I used to love Missy Elliott so much on 'Work It' but now all she does is brag about her sexual prowess"

Dan you're overstating the similarities between what MIA does here and what she did on the last two albums. MIA's never been about tunes really but she's always been about HOOKS - Bucky Done Gun, Galang, 10 Dollar, Fire Fire, Paper Planes, Banboo Banga, Boyz... all of these have terrific hooks and they almost all work because they have this fantastic sense of darting forward motion.

The new songs, especially the Roska produced ones, feel draggy and leaden, and it doesn't help that they're almost all much slower than all the tracks you listed from the previous albums. They mostly suffer from the same things I hate about this strand of dubstep. There are producers and vocalists who do incredible things with menacing bass rumbling and grinding metallic beats and Rusko and MIA aren't really among them.

I think the sound effects here have the hooks you're looking for.

Just for the record, "Teqkilla", "Born Free", and "Lovalot" are all faster than the songs you listed and "Paper Planes" is the slowest song she's ever done, so you are arguing from a provably false premise.

maybe the main thing is that on the first two records the vocals & the beats were much better friends...the beats sounded like they were made for her and she sounded great on them. on this record they feel weirdly disconnected imo.

pretty sure galang is faster than teqkilla (you have to factor in that dancehall upbeat/double-time feel)

ha okay yes it is

it's not faster than "Lovealot"

I'm not really arguing about speed, I'm arguing about momentum and Teqkilla may be fast but throws too much stuff in the way of the beat to ever feel like it's settling into a good groove. Paper Planes is slower but it rolls along so well. I don't much like Born Free at all as a song but at least it feels like it's going somewhere.

I mean in the interests of full disclosure 99% of dubstep really fucking bores me so I'm not really ever going to like an album like this with a big dubstep footprint all over it.

I actually quite like Lovalot after listening to it again, mostly due to the vocals. Part of my problem with this album is that the beats she's picked feel like they exacerbate her limitations as a singer and MC, whereas the last two albums render those limitations irrelevant.

I mean I'm pretty sure she wasn't going for momentum and bounce and groove on most of these songs but that doesn't stop me thinking it was a bad aesthetic choice to have made.

"Lovalot" is rather quickly becoming the standout track on the album for me.

Many of the others had to sink in a bit before I got them (except "Teqkilla") and some I still just flat-out dislike (most notably "It Takes A Muscle" which is why I was baffled that THAT was the one track that you said was any good)

"It Takes a Muscle" is the track I've come around to last.

It's probably just that I found a lot of what came before it so unpleasant that a bit of watery reggae felt kind of refreshing.

Part of my problem with this album is that the beats she's picked feel like they exacerbate her limitations as a singer and MC, whereas the last two albums render those limitations irrelevant.

^^^yeah, this is it for me. she's great within a very small range, and it's got to be hard to keep writing tunes/finding beats to exploit that after a few albums.

I don't mean to be pedantic, but the tracks on which she's sung in a conventional sense are very few.

Fuck the haters. Every time I listen to this I love the texture of it more and more and more.

Hazy and noisy and chaotic and overly busy and just...I read and understand people's reasons for disliking the LP (as in understand the words that they are saying) but I can't imagine myself into a position where my ears hear whatever it is that they do.

Teqkilla may be fast but throws too much stuff in the way of the beat to ever feel like it's settling into a good groove

ok, this gives me an excuse to quote myself (from here):

Nothing really flows on Maya—it rushes forward, loops back, races off in a different direction, and sometimes just flails around drunkenly.

(but i mean it in a good way.)

Alex, otm. When did people stop liking noisy, abbrasive, anti-everything music that you can actually mosh or dance to? Seriously, the way some people are criticizing this album, you'd think M.I.A.'s previous albums were adult-contemporary. Kala and Arular are NOT quiet storm, folks.

I pick most of my favorite music based on whether or not I can mosh to it.

that's hot.

When did people stop liking noisy, abbrasive, anti-everything music that you can actually mosh or dance to?

when did i ever start liking that bullshit!

(strike out the dance bit, i assume not even maya's staunchest defenders are arguing that)

(i don't think being noisy or abrasive is this album's problem, it's hardly extreme sonically. it's just boring and she doesn't sound into it.)

when did i ever start liking that bullshit!

man, your ears must've been burning from that thread where people are saying that you have a difficult time accepting other people's taste in music...and apparently, issues with accepting the existance of others.

Lex, there's totally danceable stuff here. It's not necessarily of a piece with ARULAR's Baltimore club/baile funk fusion or KALA's dancehall/reggaeton/rave world beats, but it's danceable...

XXXO, Teqkilla, Lovalot, basically the whole first half of the LP is pretty dancey for me in a clattery sort of way. The middle reggae/slow jam/ballads/whatever section is a lull, to be sure, and Born Free/Meds and Feds are too extreme for the club, but there's a decent amount to move to on /\/\ /\ Y /\.

Y /\/\ /\/\ \/, of course.

like, why do you think it's good and not a meandering, plodding mess of nonsense?

― FUCK YOU I'M BLACK (HI DERE), Thursday, July 22, 2010 1:49 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

well, at risk of stating the obvious, it's catchy and fun, in a trivial, summery kind of way. though it's far from my favorite track on the album, i liked it immediately and can easily understand why some might prefer it to anything else on offer here. it's generous, lighthearted and inviting in a way that the rest of the album just ... isn't. reminds of "the tide is high" or something.

Yes. After an opening stretch in which MIA sounds surly, paranoid and obnoxious, it's a useful change of pace to hear some warmth and charm from her. I see the whole album as a tug between the political and the personal, aggression and vulnerability, so songs like this and Space are a vital counterpoint. I really like Diplo's production as well.

Yeah that's exactly it, overall I think it's a very jaded-sounding record especially the opening section, and I actively dislike most of the production so I don't think I'm going to be giving this more time.

fwiw, i initally had a huge problem with the "jaded-sounding" aspects of this record, too. i think the sequencing is almost suicidal. it offers up this huge block of bored, tired, fuck-you right off the bat, and by the time people are done choking that down, i'm not surprised that little else on the record (excepting "it takes a muscle") appeals to some. i didn't come to appreciate the record until i'd resequenced it and listened to it a bunch of times. my intro version cut the more bored & paranoid shit entirely and pushed the aggro stuff to the back. helped me get a feel for what maya was getting at, and now that i'm on board with the record as a whole i understand why it ended up sequenced that way.

makes me think about how artists maybe loose sight of what they're saying/giving when they're buried in the process. cuz it's a fantastic set of songs, but the presentation all but dares you to write it off.

Some songs didn't actually make much sense to me until I got them onto a better sound system; the bass in "Steppin' Up" is MONSTROUS for example but doesn't actually register on my headphones.

it offers up this huge block of bored, tired, fuck-you right off the bat,

"steppin up" is a lot of things, but bored and tired would not have occurred to me.

I recognize there's some thinness in "Steppin' Up" sonically and the coda for "Teqkilla" is probably a minute too long but things don't get boring until "Story To Be Told" IMO.

I can't actually articulate my huge problem with Stepping Up and Teqkilla except to say that they're a horrible fucking racket that I find physically unpleasant to listen to. Which obviously will strike some people as a recommendation.