M.I.A. - KALA

the final (timbaland) track is growing on me

? what about rap music? she sings an entire verse + chorus of where is my mind, it's most of the lyrics to her song!

yeah someone who was in my office yesterday recognized the where is my mind lift immediately without knowing the m.i.a. song at all

Where Is My Mind is only about half the lyrics to the song, but the record itself, sonically, is so much more than just Blue Monday plus Where Is My Mind anyway.

I noted with amusement the Lex going "apparently it contains a Pixies reference" when he owns both the first two Pixies albums and therefore that song.

DAMN - i was this ][ close to asking what 'where is my mind" is?

Where Is My Mind is only about half the lyrics to the song, but the record itself, sonically, is so much more than just Blue Monday plus Where Is My Mind anyway.

yep, and i think that's why it cuts through my bootleg-phobia. every time i hear it it's slightly surprising to me that it doesn't jar or sound stupid, but something about the combination works. amusingly when i first heard the song i totally failed to pick up the blue monday steal until colette pointed it out, but the lyrics jumped right out at me.

zomg i cant believe that shed use pixies lyrics it ruins the song

WHAT IS WHERE IS MY MIND U GUYZ HALP

yours, lexski

he quit ILM so i am filling in

he quit ILM so i am filling in

praises be

i mean in all honesty id mostly rather she use other peoples lyrics than her own

well 60% of the time anyway

it's funny, the modern lovers - new order - pixies refs on this would probably, at various points in my life, either enthralled or annoyed me, and now i'm perfectly neutral about them.

more fascinating insights still yet to come

I can't stand "Boyz", it's so annoying.

Also, she comes across as a bit annoying herself in that new pitchfork interview.

I mean, I get that she probably faces ire from many people because she's a woman and from a third world country, but I personally don't give a shit about either of those things. If I don't like something, I don't like it. It's not because a woman made it, or an immigrant or a three headed dog, music is music (to me). She really beat into the ground the fact that "Nobody thinks a woman could have any ideas without a man behind her", and that's fucking stupid (in my eyes).

She also seemed to be a bit confrontational (I had never heard that "Diplo was the mastermind behind MIA" like she implys every article says), and especially towards a website that actually digs her. I can't imagine how it would have been if it was a SPIN magazine interview or something.

I think you are the only person who hadn't heard Diplo and MIA conflated. There were about a ton of threads and blog posts and articles when Arular that used them interchangeably.

Her comments weren't directed to people who dislike her music. They were directed to people who do like it but have to reason to themselves that she can't possibly be the one behind it, and that seems to be the case in a lot of articles.

And yes, the fact that nobody thinks a woman can have any ideas without a man behind her is stupid. This is why she is angry.

if they sampled actual chickens for "bird flu" this album jumps from a B to B+.

It does indeed have real chicken sounds.

oh shit

this album is FIERCE

going back and listening to "Arular", "Kala" sounds so much more brutal and confrontational and in-your-face.

i've only listened to this on shitty computer speakers at work -- can't wait to bump this on the car stereo -- i feel i'm missing out on a lot of the depth of the production on these clipped-range 1/8" jack fuckers

upon first listen this is boring compared to arular. what happened to the rhythms?!

uh hello, world town???

Hahaha what?

bird flue? $20? XR2????

"$20" is kind of boring.

also lacks those annoying 'skits', thank god

Also, she comes across as a bit annoying herself in that new pitchfork interview.
not as annoying as the writer who was like "boo hoo i had really great questions planned but she hijacked the interview to talk about something important to her." shut up!

True, and besides, it seems the only planned question the interviewer gets out was WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH SUPERSTAR PRODUCER TIMBALAND? which, given her entire rant about people associating her with her established male collaborators at the beginning of the interview, makes me think he's kinda dense.

Also, she comes across as a bit annoying herself in that new pitchfork interview.

omg i like the album less already!!

Yeah given the relative consistency of ideas across the album I'm assuming MIA had most of the initial inspiration and then fed it to her producers to work magic out of.

Anyone got a list of who produced what, by the way?

attn DJ's: mix "Down River" by M.I.A.----> "Radio Fireworks" by Surkin

up the rpm, of course.

Anyone got a list of who produced what, by the way?

in her pfork she begrudgingly gave most of the credit to switch:

On this album I self-produced most of the album with Switch, and nobody's talking about that. And it's because Switch doesn't really talk it up, or he's not into self-promotion like that. Switch spent a year with me making my record and I'm really surprised how he doesn't really come across as the person that I've relied on most. I don't know, I just wanted to set the record straight and make sure that credit goes to people, where it's due, I guess. Last time I set out in America, I probably saw Diplo once.

Forget the Switch/Diplo shit...Timbaland listening to Celine Dion?!?!? OH NOES!

Was bumping this in the car today.

AWE$OME

That quote doesn't sound begrudging to me - it seems like she's saying people should talk about Switch's involvement more.

I really like the idea of her choosing to work with Switch (based on "Boyz" the execution is ace as well) - it seems like such a counter-intuitive-but-intuitive choice.

Diplo and M.I.A. seem to fit on this kind of abstract music crit article level where both are seen as these jetsetting diaspora celebrities mining the world's disparate cultures to create a handy phrasebook guide to the international language of booty. I think this is part of why people succumb to overestimating Diplo's role.

Whereas Switch would appear to be doing something quite different, but then you think about his actual sonic approach and it fits M.I.A. hand-in-glove. With Switch you don't get that theoretical angle that Diplo brings to the table, it's just "we'll use anything from anywhere" as part of a program of sensory overload.

And I say this while only liking Switch's own stuff some of the time.

Is this the "Boyz" that everyone is talking about?
http://pitchforkmedia.imeem.com/video/GnalkB_z/boyz/

Christ, this is horrible. it sounds like someone who was making a bollywood soundtrack got an aneurysm before completing the song, and somehow the exploding synapses in their brain splattered all over their sequencer. Anyone who likes this should probably explore bollywood music. there's good stuff out there-- much better than this, anyway.

OK, "Paper Planes" TOTALLY samples The Clash's "Straight to Hell."

"it sounds like someone who was making a bollywood soundtrack got an aneurysm before completing the song, and somehow the exploding synapses in their brain splattered all over their sequencer."

I'm sorry, you've confused "horrible" with "awesome," even though you gave a passable explanation.

"Anyone who likes this should probably explore bollywood music. there's good stuff out there-- much better than this, anyway."

And while you're at it, anyone who likes "$20" should probably explore this thing called rock music! There's good stuff out there!

Also, house and hip hop and dancehall! There's good stuff out there too!

I'm just glad someone else didn't like "boyz".

And he even gave better reasoning for not liking it than I did

Haha M.I.A. always brings the trolls out.

I can't wait to download this and be completely baffled by M.I.A. AGAIN.

I have no idea why but suddenly I was thinking that M.I.A.'s closest forebear might be Kate Bush. I wish I knew WHY I thought that, but it seems to be something to do with conceptual reach and treatment of source materials as opposed to actual sound. Probably just something random based on the rhetoric on this thread.

Ha ha Ned upthread I said:

""Boys" and "Bird Flu" remind me of Kate Bush's "The Dreaming" more than anything else."

:-D Then I was unconsciously channeling you, good sir. But without wanting to force a parallel too much, I'm wondering if there isn't more to it in the sense not just of creative independence (and associated perceptions on the part of an audience vis-a-vis female artists) but 'English' identity. M.I.A. will never sing "Oh England My Lionheart" (if anything Sinead's "Black Boys on Mopeds" is more apropos) and yet she strikes me as *very* English for all that she is working and identifying with a wider world consciousness. If that makes sense.

"Also, she comes across as a bit annoying herself in that new pitchfork interview."

no she comes across as someone who raises some important points.