m.i.a., kala
The new M.I.A. record, Kala (out in the US Aug. 21, Aug. 20 in the UK), is
a) absolutely ridiculous
b) some crazy-ass back-to-the-future-music time-warp kinda deal
c) a country mile better than the already-great Arular
d) the smartest/sickest/slickest pastiche/homage/collage/mélange of pop music I have ever heard
and the best songs are
e) “Paper Planes,” which sounds kinda like a straight-up Yeah Yeah Yeahs (w/ Gwen Stefani) mid-tempo power-ballad about counterfeiting passports — naturally — until the chorus goes into a still-slow, anthemic “Rumpshaker” tribute with the sounds of gun shots, a gun’s hammer clicking and a cash register’s *ding* replacing the original’s “boom boom boom” etc except that it sounds like this huge life-affirming thing, even as yr miming trigger pulls and chanting, “All I wanna do is/ Take your money” and later cooing, “sum-sum-sum-summer murder.”
f) “Jimmy,” which is basically a Knife song except that it’s not because it’s an M.I.A. song except it’s not that either. (Stay w/ me.) It’s actually a classic Bollywood song (I say classic because I hear people say classic; I have no idea how big the song was) that M.I.A. loved as a kid that she is covering; the original sounds pretty much exactly the same (I might like it even better). “Jimmy” is disco through-and-through, with big open, reverbed guitars and little eensy-bitsy snare swifts and drum patters. Here’s the beauty for you, though: we have the original on eMusic, which is just fantastic, and so obviously ready for DJ plundering (by September yr local spinner will be looking for it). It’s called “Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja” and you have no choice but to download it from here, which you 10000000% will not regret. It also ends with the singer crying; I dunno if I have ever heard that before.
g) “Boyz,” which has been around for a while now and is as big an anthem as “Galang” except this should have been released two months ago so the hipster girls could be requesting this from DJs at house parties all summer. I just don’t know if September/October/November can hold a song so big.
h) “20 Dollar,” which every single science-fiction director/producer should be drafting scenes around for their upcoming utopian/dystopian (it’ll work in either) epic as some example of what future-music will sound like. (The same way Cuaron used Radiohead and Aphex Twin in Children of Men.) The first half of “20 Dollar” is built around a fuzzed-out crunk keyboard cover of “Blue Monday,” and then it slowly mutates into M.I.A. chant-singing the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” over sparse, echoing beats while her Vocoder’d voice swirls around with backing operatic arias. It’s completely disorienting.
i) “Come Around,” which is the Timbaland song, and will not be on the U.S. release (it’s a bonus track in the UK). This is the only track that really sounds like a “hit,” the sultry little hook and M.I.A.’s “dundadundadun” refrain totally enchanting.
j) “Bamboo Banga,” the album opener, which is almost completely without structure. It just kinda floats along, drifting between so many different, sparse sounds. It also opens with the chorus of the Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner.”
not to mention
k) how huge “Hussel” sounds
l) how creepy the whispered & rapped guest verses on “Mango Pickle Down the River” sound; are those actually kids, or is there some new preset that makes adults sound like children?
m) how “World Town” has to be a Diplo production, but I have no idea whether it is or not — did they break clean?
n) how she still succeeds in being a defiantly 8-bit artist in a very 80-gig world; she backs up her first-world protest musically, too.
but still it begs the question
o) how much will people care? Arular has sold roughly 130,000 copies in the US — can Interscope get this to outsell it? I vote yes.
p) how many times can I listen to this record again today? I say at least ten.
THX U MIA!!!!
thanks for the mia love. only heard boyz and bird flu so far and they both make me do the stupid dance around the house.
If Interscope is distributing the new one does that mean we won’t get it on E-Music?
that sucks I’vew actually been looking forward to it (maybe I’ll buy it as my once every blue moon physical CD Buy)
yeah interscope has it in the us, so american subscribers will likely have to look elsewhere.
having now played “paper planes” like 26 times in a row, i can confirm that what she’s saying at the end there is “some, some, some, some i murder/ some i let go,” which i *think* is the refrain to a dancehall song - i’m just blanking on the name right now.
also, apparently the loop “paper planes” is built around is swiped from the clash’s “straight to hell.”
yeah, the whole melody is. kali figured it out last night.
how did you all hear paper planes already? anyone know where i can hear it?
i cant wait!!!
OH MY GOD!
I love this hustle, bamboo are so fucking hot!
i’m too impatient to wait for this albummm…. any idea of where i can find even a SAMPLE of ‘paper planes’? Nylon said some interesting things about it too!
not feeling you on the knife comparison, nor the point on bamboo banger being “almost completely without structure”.
a) nothing like the knife, bar a high pitched singing voice
b) just because a song doesnt have crisp snares for half the song doesnt mean it doesnt have structure
otherwise i agree, a great album!
I think I read somewhere that Mango Pickle Down the River contains a sample from the Wilcannia Mob song of the same name…This album is fucking hot by the way. Wayy LESSSS mainstream than her last release, I dont really see her blowing up in the mainstream from any of the songs on this record. She’ll def cement herself as a top notch indie artist (she was before imo but ya knowl, even bigger)
If you care where the World Town “Hands Up, Thumbs Down” came from .. it’s a Baltimore club track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnHhCHwDUwU
K-Swift popularized it I think.
I hope she doesn’t become mainstream. I enjoy the little, but not soo soo little MIA community. I highly doubt that this music is being made for the masses, which usually aren’t always the smartest group of people. ps paper planes is the shit.
i completely agree. this album is amazing. beyond words, fo rizzle my nizzle.
anyone who wants to listen to it the whole album can be found on her myspace!
No mention of the sick XR2? Def my fave (by a country mile). The whole damn thing rocks, and I just can’t get enough of it. Are the US and UK versions going to differ again?
LAndon’s right on the money. The Wilcannia Mob are a group of Aboriginal kids from Australia, their only big track, Down River (which MIA basically adds her own lyrics to and remixes) did the rounds a few years back. Stoked to hear it on here, it’s a cracking single (the original and her remix) and the album is banging!
This just showed at emusic today!!! I’m just waiting for my downloads to refresh later in the day, then I’m all over it. The samples are downright nasty. In a good way.
Ha ha to all the U.S. Peeps who weren’t as I was and didn’t grab the tracks while you could. If only I’d grabbed the whole album
Oh Well I got the bonus track so that when I buy this album In the U.S. I’ll still have the Non-U.S. Track
Score
1 MiDojo 0 Inters*it Records
m.i.a kala is the shiiitttt!!!! i can play her cd straight thru without hearing a disappointing song. im loving her.
wow i love the song paper planes because all i wanna do is ……… take all ya money i’ll fly like paper get high like planes if u catch me at the border i got visa’s in my name if u come around here i’ll make em all day i’ll get one done in a second if you wait.x2
somtimes i think sitting on trains evry step i get to im clocking that game every ones a winner were makeing our fame bonafide hustler were makeing our name x2
lol tahts my fav’t part of teh song i know alal of her osngs by heart including the first cd an second one.
lol i love u mia