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M.I.A.

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12:13 / 07.08.07

Arular was very minimal, very sparse... Kala on the other hand is dense and layered; she uses a lot of echoey, spacey noises in it

Where do you see that, TeN? I hear a lot more space in it than in Arular.

-

I think part of the problem for Arular with me was that it was a bit overwhelmingly shiny - every song sounds as upfront and concise as a single, causing a lack of dynamics that left the album without much sense as an album to me. Kala is more varied than that, but isn't really ever quite as successfully catchy as Arular, as well as having in Mango Pickle Down River and World Town moments lower than anything on Arular. So I say "yay M.I.A.!" but find it hard to be unambiguous about the albums.

Love: Bamboo Banga's simplicity and dead drive; 20 Dollar's sense of size (harsh beat; dense synth; loud vocal); The Turn as M.I.A. gone melancholy; Come Around's, well, basic "fun|sexy"ness. Bollydisco single Jimmy is the kind of thing I reckon I can only get truly excited about when drunk; the new XR2 version is kinda gimmicky but fun and Paper Planes is a bit excessively sweet for me, though it's wonderful chorus kinda makes up for that...

14:15 / 07.08.07

I more or less missed M.I.A. the first time around. Read some things about her which sounded really interesting, but following that all I managed to find were variations on the convoluted and off-putting ethical/political questions summarised above, and when I enquired of the world in general "well fuck that, I'm not really bothered for the moment - what are the TUNES like..?", the internet/media failed to provide much of a response, so I lost interest before ever actually consciously hearing any of her stuff...

Now that I have a certain amount of download capacity though, I may well have to check out this here new album.

Maybe I can then report back from the point of view of someone who is largely ignorant of modern pop / hip-hop and related sub-genres... although whether my thoughts would be refreshing or just wrong-headed, who knows.

Frankly, any album that manages to reference both the PLO and The Modern Lovers is worth investigating.

19:46 / 09.08.07

Just stumbled upon the video for Jimmy here -

Jimmy

Looking forward to this a lot, however with no chance of buying and no internet it's going to be awhile.

08:06 / 10.08.07

The original is here
for comparison. Sadly, MIA's version lacks a moody looking Indian guy trembling with lust and distress. She doesn't run off screaming "I hate you! I hate you!" at the end either.

08:10 / 10.08.07

And here's the Boyz video. I think this song is fucking great.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:56 / 12.08.07

I love how pop 'Jimmy' is (both video and songs). 'Paper Planes' is even better, though.

all I wanna do is -
*prrm prrm prrm prrm!*
and uh - *k-ching!*
and take yr money

18:18 / 12.08.07

I'm enjoying quite a few tracks from Kala at the moment, The Turn being my current favourite.

Moreover, I think a lot of the theoretical/cultural/ideological complaints thrown at MIA, particularly by Simon Reynolds with his strange "no substance" argument*, kind of fall down when you consider that she was willing to come out with the line: "like PLO I don't surrender".

Mentioning, supporting, the Palestinian struggle in a pop song is classic - in this case particularly for it's literalness, it's specificity, and it's association of the artist with the people who are struggling, whereas methinks your classic white, "socially conscious" band (Rage Against the Machine, perhaps) are for more likely to throw out an easy, fluffy abstract line about "the system" being "bad", at which they get fawned over/held up as messiahs/get a huge gimmick etc.

I have to say, M.I.A.'s lyrics do grate on me occasionally, that P.L.O line in particular. I don't know much about Simon Reynolds' criticisms of her, but I can;t really see how that line is indicative of 'substance' - in fact it seem pretty 'fluffy' and 'easy' to me, brushing up against an incredibly complex political situation and name-checking what has become a fairly dodgy organisation (which is not the same as 'the Palestinian people', by a long shot). I guess I just don't think that that's a particularly 'difficult' line to come out with, and whatever it gains with its literalness it loses with its naivety (not sure that's quite the word I'm looking for though...).

Its interesting that you're chosing Rage Against the Machine as your "white 'socially conscious'" band, given that - as I recall - at least 50% of the band are not white? Not that I'm a fan, but their lyrics are frequently make equally specific (and sometimes equally dodgy) references to the ones you find in M.I.A. Of course, they're much less exciting musically, but it seems like you're setting up a comparison between 'good' political music that you like, and 'bad' political music which you don't, without giving any real criteria for the distinction beyond your own aesthetic tastes.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:13 / 14.08.07

Surely the problem is that coming out with the line "like PLO I don't surrender", contrary to Allecto's point, its specificity is all wrong in 200..4, was it, when 'Sunshowers' was first released? Comparing yourself to the PLO is not the same thing as empathising with the Palestinian people, as Edward Said often pointed out, and it's not necessarily anything to do with whether or not they were terrrrists.

Anyway, I'm not sure to what extent that matters, since pop musicians who get everything right politically don't tend to exist, whereas pop musicians who express sentiments that are a bit crass or misguided or simplistic often make compelling music, from the last Dead Prez album to The Clash (sampled on 'Paper Planes').

14:11 / 14.08.07

So...

I've listened to a few tracks, watched a few videos and thought I'd throw out some thoughts:

"Boyz" is a pretty thunderous track.... sounds like it should be some hypnotic 12-minute 12" jam or something. It has that whole post-Get Ur Freak On "ostensibly fun, upbeat song set to beats that somehow sound totally alien and oppressive" thing going on. Laugh at me if I'm entirely wrong here, but is it one of the Timbaland produced tracks, at a guess..?

"Jimmy" is genuine pop awesomeness of a very good kind.... sounds really psychedelic and amazing, makes me want to jump around. Also though, I can totally see the whole "cultural tourist" argument leveled against M.I.A coming through here: the video especially couldn't be more "hey, let's be all Indian for three and a half minutes!" if it tried.

"Paper Planes" is my favourite so far! Fantastic song! All those demented gunshot and explosion samples and barely concealed angry-ness somehow mixing perfectly into what's still basically a kick-ass, dancefloor-worthy pop song. Hints of Public Enemy maybe...? Pretty much screams "POP FOR A TROUBLED WORLD!", which is an angle I can well imagine reviewers etc. picking up on...

Although I'm basically pretty impressed by all of these songs though, there's something that bugs me about them and stops me fully engaging with them..... and unfortunately I think it's M.I.A herself.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but her voice just seems a bit weak and slurred, and her delivery seems to lack much real enthusiasm, meaning she's often the least interesting part of her own records... she comes across as a lot stronger and charismatic in interviews, and in the videos, than she does when putting herself across via the actual music....

.... so I dunno really: count me as theoretically impressed, but not entirely won over.

Thoughts?

21:24 / 14.08.07

Surely the problem is that coming out with the line "like PLO I don't surrender", contrary to Allecto's point, its specificity is all wrong in 200..4, was it, when 'Sunshowers' was first released? Comparing yourself to the PLO is not the same thing as empathising with the Palestinian people, as Edward Said often pointed out, and it's not necessarily anything to do with whether or not they were terrrrists.

Yes, exactly what I was trying to say, but more lucid. Thanks. And that's why I say her lyrics grate on me, rather than that we shouldn't listen to her music because of them. And even then, its more of a reaction to people citing that and similar lines as a positive aspect of M.I.A.'s music (which both you and Allecto have done in this thread) than the lines themselves.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:50 / 15.08.07

Yeah, I did say "smart, political and provocative" and then quote that lyric, didn't I? 2004 seems a long time ago...

13:48 / 31.08.07

I really need to spend some more time with Kala in order to form a proper opinion, but I’m loving it so far.

On the question of whether there’s more (sonic) space here than there was on the first record… I dunno. Kala seems less layered to me, but not in a bad way. There are still a lot of disparate musical elements in each song, but they don’t seem to be clashing quite so much on this record*.

‘More space’ doesn’t quite apply to what I’m hearing on Kala though; instead I think that the production/arrangements are a bit more compressed. Bamboo Banga, in particular, has a pleasing flatness to it – with all those vocal ticks that dress up the verses and even the sample that’s used in the chorus blurring into the monotone thump of Maya’s rap. Even the lusher moments like Jimmy and 20 Dollar have a sort of blunt quality to them. (20 Dollar is awesome though, isn't it?)

I like this smoothed out density though – it gives the whole album a relentless feel that only really breaks with the properly gorgeous Paper Planes. I guess Arular was relentless too, in an ‘overwhelmingly shiny’ way (thanks Folia, Foge!) – to me, this seems like a key part of the MIA aesthetic (check the eye-scorching album covers!).

The lyrics aren’t jumping out at me yet, but that’s okay – I’ve never really listened to MIA for cohesive lyrics/politics. Her (slightly grating) talk about how she doesn’t talk about politics but rather is politics/about wanting to be a spanner in the works in Plan B magazine has some currency, I think. Her music, like her artwork, is OTT day-glo fun, but it’s also packed with shards of militant/political iconography that seem designed more to provoke (thought/interest/outrage) than to provide a comprehensive commentary.

Sorry if most of the above is a bit garbled and abstract, but like I said I really need to give the album a couple of proper listens.

*See Bucky Done Gone from the in particular for some fragmented Arular goodness.

17:31 / 31.08.07

A few more thoughts:

I really liked Flux's comments on Bamboo Banga and on Kala in general. His description of the way that MIA sounds like 'a depressed teenage girl trying to force an enthusiastic smile' on Paper Planes is spot on.

And how odd is the tone of that song? It's really pretty, but the cash register/gunshot collage of the chorus has a crude swagger to it that the vocals aspire to but can't sustain.

I've just realised that my last comment sounds like a criticism, but I actually think that this dynamic makes the song more interesting/maybe even moving?

Anyway, rizla I can totally understand why you thought Boyz might be a Timbaland production. In some ways it's a better Timbaland track than the actual MIA/Timba collaboration, Come Around.

With regards to MIA's voice, while I don't think I'd particularly want to hear her guesting on other people's tracks, I do think her vocals work perfectly as part of her musical output. There's a mix of dissafection, sarcasm, childish joy and subsumed anger in Maya's voice that fits her songs perfectly, and I certainly can't imagine anyone else nailing her best tracks like she does. Sometimes context is everything, y'know?

That Fluxblog post I linked to above highlights most of what what I think is good about the vocals on Bamboo Banga and Paper Planes. Beyond that, I guess I can understand why you'd find her a bit blank sounding sometimes, but I think this blankness is purposeful and affecting in its own way.

Like on 20 Dollar, where the computer enhanced flatness of her voice ends up making her sound both quite lost and kinda distantly appealing. Or, at the other end of the joy-scale, on Boyz where it sounds like she's (jebus help me for saying this) using her voice as another part of the big, thumping beatscape. It's both a little bit detached and totally big fun. Or, to put it another way: 'NA-NA-NANA-NA-NA-NA--NA-NA-NANA-NA-NA-NA! = yes!

So... I don't know if I've done anything except mildly disagree with you in a long-winded style here rizla, but so it goes.

"POP FOR A TROUBLED WORLD!" -- sounds about right to me.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:31 / 04.09.07

'XR2' nearly turned me into Tyres from Spaced on the way home yesterday.

Matthew Fluxington

01:10 / 06.09.07

You know how you know something is a Timbaland track? When it sounds like 2001. The guy used to be ahead of the curve, and now he IS the curve. He's far too lazy and complacent to come up with anything like "Boyz" now -- we're lucky "Come Around" is as good as it is, even though it is by a long stretch the most conservative thing on Kala.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

17:58 / 07.09.08

Wanna hear something funny? Type "M.I.A." into our search function and you'll get NOTHING, despite the presence of a thread with exactly that, and only that, as the title. Alright, so it's not so much funny as awful. Whatever.

I can't stop listening to Paper Planes. There, I've said it. It's on the commercials for the movie Pineapple Express (starring Seth Rogan and Harry Osbourne from the Spider Man movies, who does an excellent job btw), and while her name popped up here and there in the past couple years I had never checked her music out.

My mistake obviously, now I'm kicking myself for missing out on seeing her live while she was in town this spring. Something about her general aesthetic is powerfully attractive to me, and I can't figure out what or why.

08:31 / 08.09.08

On the criticisms about the PLO above, I'm not sure what one could expect within the context of a song. Sure, "like PLO I don't surrender" is difficult to interpret as anything but a positive statement, but the limits of that "endorsement" are, I think, left up to the listener. Whilst you could read it as unreservedly "woo, yeah, PLO!", the impression I've got from everything I've read about her is that she has a pretty balanced awareness of the pluses and minuses of such organisations (I think I'm specifically thinking of the Tamil Tigers here, but talked about in such a way that one could reasonably expect her to have a similar awareness re: the PLO). This isn't to say that she has perfect political views all round or anything, but I read the PLO comment as supportive of their essential purpose and admiring of their willingness to persevere (and, obviously, as intentionally confrontational, which I quite like), but not necessarily as anything beyond that.

More generally, I'm loving M.I.A. at the moment. For me she has that certain genuinely-fresh-and-exciting feel that I'm always wishing more bands/artists had.

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