M.I.A. – Kala — music review
M.I.A. You might have seen her in the Marc Jacobs ads. You might have heard her on the Vexille soundtrack or the Pineapple Express trailer. You might have heard her and thought she was Lady Sovereign getting funkified as I did when I first heard ‘20 Dollar’ last year, a mish-mash of part Pixies lyrics and part New Order riffs and heavy on the synth-adulation and through-a-tube-singing please.
I know this is blasphemy to some, including myself, but M.I.A.’s sample-set is almost as good as (and unrecognizable from) its predecessors and almost impossible to pry the repeat button away from. Closer inspection of ‘20 Dollar’’s lyrics reveal a sharp wit basted in bold blatancy. Not exactly a poet, but nobody’s asking her to be. M.I.A. describes the dingiest dregs of Africa, an area we assume would be untouched by capitalism as personal fuel, where an AK-47 costs $20, and where they try to dress and look like MTV goldenboys like T.I.
I’m sure most of Kala’s socio-political messages get buried by the luscious layers of skillfully blended genres (Electronica, Pop, Dance, Ragga, Indian, World-type tribal… a what? a didgeridoo?), even bumping beats with that ubiquitous album whore Timbaland, even making the generic sound fresh.
M.I.A., born Mathangi Arulpragasam, refers to herself as both M.I.A. and Maya on the tracks. You may gloss over this because hey, so what, but to me it reinforces her stance on identity in an industrial world that overlooks its hardest workers.
Aptly named after her mother, Kala shows M.I.A.’s softer yet still aggressive side after the forceful first effort Aruglar, named after her political rebel father. Utilizing ethnic instruments and deeply infused empathy, Kala’s every essence oozes third world plight, punishment, and power. For example, ‘Hussel’’s premise stemmed from the image of “200 people being smuggled in fishing boats in Carila, coming over as refugees. If they banged that beat on the side of a boat, what would it sound like? That’s why it’s all echo-y and submarine-y. We tried to get that out in music.”
If you think M.I.A. creates just simple music you can dance to, think again.
About the Author
