M.I.A. - KALA

Haha, that's the one song I skip.

She'll have to go a long way to top that terrible clunky Bjork lyric about the suicide bomber though.

Hmm???

I like the "Paper Planes" chorus - "Rumpshaker" with gun shots is somehow less dumb than with zubba zoom zoom (and a boom boom).

Pleasantly surprised by how strong this album is; no sophomore slump in evidence.

This album is unbelievable great.

Found the first album (and her in general) fucking annoying, vocally UNBEARABLE, trite, insanely overpraised, barely worth the repeat playthroughs and a model demonstration of everything bad about indie/internet hype. A few good tracks and an awful lot of BS.

Liking a LOT of this a LOT. Opener just smokes (then Bird Flu... is what skip buttons what were invented for) and there's other great stuff here, if this was instrumental (which at times I kind of wish...) it'd actually probably hold it's own next to Panda Bear or something just on gloriously messy inventiveness. Quite the pleasant surprise, I'm still on the fence about some of it/her, but going less immediately, graspingly pop, it's worked for her big time.

Album of the year.

for me

Will definitely buy it on vinyl.

Switch's influence is actually good. Much better than I had predicted.

How the hell did she end up in Wilcannia?

I *love* Boyz, Jimmy, XR2 and Paper Planes, kind of undecided about the rest of it.

I'm a little disappointed so much of it is so mid-paced. As Dan pointed out a few months ago, her voice and delivery really require an active beat - the reason Arular and the best tracks here work so well is that she's totally propelled along on the momentum of the track and you don't really notice her vocal limitations. When things slow down a little there needs to be a melodic cushion there (Amazon, Paper Planes). When she's going "hustle hustle hustle, cry cry cry" over a sparser arrangement it just sounds kind of bored and empty.

I'm reserving judgement on the thing as a whole for now, but on the first couple of listens it doesn't have the initial wow factor that Arular held for me.

Oh Bird Flu is great as well but I'm not really sure why people are hating on the Timbaland track over everything else here.

Re: XR2 - I felt my spine tingle at the opening "where were you in '92?" bit as my head went "okay, you KNOW what happens now". The inevitable maximalist all bells, whistles and sirens blog house remix is going to be incredible.

this is some serious shit.

she out-Bjorked Bjork on this one.

How the hell did she end up in Wilcannia?

She didn't, Morganics did, about four years ago. (Probably ignore the Diplo guess in that link though.)

Oh! I read this thread but I missed that - thx!

I haven't heard the full album but have a feeling I'll agree with Matt DC - I like M.I.A. when she's going for all-out maximalist assault ("Boys" is definitely one of my absolute favourite things of the year for this reason), but quickly find her tiresome when she's getting all sparse/spartan/worthy.

I just reversed $20. It sounds cool; she's whispers propaganda.

I like M.I.A. when she's going for all-out maximalist assault

^ this

"Boyz" might be my fave song by anyone this year

does this one also sound like it was made on mario paint?

i really like this.

that's all for now.

The best things about Boyz are a) the cheering and the crowd clapping and the fanfares that accompany it and b) the fact that it comes straight after Bamboo Banga and Bird Flu and the cumulative effect is this constant ramping up of deafening drums.

I'm sold on all of this now except for Mango Pickle Down River, and Hussel isn't great, especially Afrika Man's verse. Although the bit when they loop his "you think this is hard, come to Africa" line and there's this enormous bass synth stab absolutely rules.

Also "when I'm dogging on the bonnet of your bright red Honda" WTF?!

WAIT I GET IT "DICK" "WOOD" "JOHNSON"

I used to know a guy called R1ch4rd Fa11as actually. Oh the hilarity that caused when we were 15.

What do we think of "Down River"/"World Town"(?)/"Bucky Done Gun v2"? I think it rivals Boyz for the best song on the album...

sort of what matt dc said, except i was never blown away by arular, and i'm loving most of this. jonathan richman shout out is crazy way to open an album - wonder if Radio 1 will get this made into an updated jingle based on the original :-) :-)

Jimmy and Paper Planes,plus all the stuff i've already heard (XR2, Boyz, already featured on FT podcast, yay) instantly lovable. others are a bit hrm so far. the mango pickle one sounds like an extended skit off a DJ Yoda mix. which, to me, is a good thing.

i cant believe more people aren't loving $20

Boyz would sound so great on a street carnival sound system.

$20 is the blue monday one. mix this into Rihanna shut up and drive plz kthx

Also "when I'm dogging on the bonnet of your bright red Honda" WTF?!

-- Matt DC, Friday, August 3, 2007 Bookmark Link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogging_%28sexual_slang%29

agree with matt dc and tim f. OTM etc. still like this album though. ive only heard it once though in case i start to dislike it. i need to love one new album this year. dont ruin it for me.

$20 is awesome as well. I love the vocoder on her voice that alternately makes her sound like Cher doing Believe and a roaring robotic dinosaur.

Paper Planes = track most likely to be covered by Lily Allen this year.

oh dear... i'm sure i'll regret posting this, but upon marianna's encouragement, this is a drunken email i sent last night about kala:

well, having listened to the MIA album a couple times now, i have to say that i am so appalled by how bad it is, that i wondered if it was even the 'real' album, or someone having a laugh, doing a 'mock' MIA album.

**WARNING - GRUMPY OLD MAN RANT ALERT**

this could be the most asinine, amateurish, worthless recording i have heard in a long time. and i used to listen to trance music! seriously - her "lyrics" are embarrassingly childish and stupid. maybe that was intentional, but come ON! i honestly suspect that she was simply making up words on the fly, just rambling about random things that rhymed. it reminds me of when me and my friends were about 8 years old and we had one of those tape recorder things, and we would just spout whatever words we could string together. needless to say, she has about as much talent in this regard as the average 8 year old - and that might be giving her too much credit. and her singing/MCing everything in that monotone is incredibly tiresome. about the only thing i like is some of the production and background beats, but even those are just re-purposed from the freestyle stuff of the early 80s. what i find most worrisome is the fact that hapless journo hacks will probably laud this as some sort of watershed recording of british music - a great leap forward by an 'adventurous' artist, blah blah blah. then again, these are the same people that think radiohead are geniuses, and they stopped making decent 'music' after 'the bends'. jesus, wake me when it's over.

wow. i really went off. and upon reflection, i realize that i am a 'hapless journo hack' who gave OK computer a good review. ouch.

i'm baffled and disappointed by your reaction to this music, Sir.

MIA really is the most exciting artist in British music right now tho. We're sorry...

i'm actually a bit baffled by my email too!
hey, at least you've got MIA. we've got nickelback :/

What part of her or her music is British then? (xpost) (oh, the label, is that it?)

What part of her or her music is British then?

that's not what i said

altho her basslines never shut up about house prices, chavs and putting the kettle on

This sounded FANTASTIC at first... probably because her vocals & patois stylings are a BIT more tolerable this time, where Arular was sickeningly, obviously so lightweight and all up-in-your-face without ANY of the wallop or weight to make that approach WORK.

Kala is going for something far more low-down, grooves that are insistent and squirmy but still bang, musically it's SO much more interesting that it's just in a different league. Production wise, it's full of surprises, energy, immediacy and feels like a really unique and effective fusion.

BUT 4,5 listens in, the cracks are starting to show big time and I'm getting annoyed at her too-frequent inability write a song that doesn't evaporate from memory the minute you turn the stereo off. Boyz is a particularly acute example here.

I feel like MIA is absolutely perfect for people who prefer their pop/dance to consist of NOTHING BUT transient thrills and explosions (hi dere ILM!), who can find "massive pop hooks" in anything, however empty & hollow it might be ... and kind of useless if you like anything more solid, especially lyrically.

All of which is a bit unfair, as she's made GIANT steps forward here in packing memorable moments into her stuff, enough that I can understand the excitement she generates a bit better now... but honestly... overrated much?????

mind you "most exciting artist in British music" not saying much looking at the competition so maybe she is :p

you're saying Boyz is forgettable??? or the exception to that?

People who diss post-Bends Radiohead are not to be trusted, even when I think I might agree with them.

I'm saying, like SO much of her stuff, it kind of has half a tune, not much of a chorus/hook/song... and then the rest of it... I think I must be hearing her wrong because the rest just feels like load of noise & effects hanging around to disguise what's missing. Doesn't really work for me, soz.

i'll convert you to this like i did The Knife

Geesh, fandango, is it necessary for you to come into every M.I.A. thread and bitch about how "overrated and shallow" her music is? And you're so condescending about it as well, I happen to quite like her lyrics. And "Boy" is pretty much all hook, so I don't get where you're coming from there either...

The Knife was a grower, this is sounding like an anti-grower...

but I do like it a lot more than her first, faults and all.

woah there! I've hardly said shit on ILM's MIA threads before now, and about condescending... I've got some way to go before I catch up with others here imo. I actually started posting on this one because I was honestly surprised how rad this seemed the first few spins... ok, now I'm not so sure, but I'm just going with the flow like everyone else seeing as it only just leaked... fucks sake.

I wonder how shallow a song called 'Boyz' would possibly have to be to be 'too shallow'.

fandango, is your plan to become completely disillusioned with this album by the official August 20th release date? you're making good time!