MIA Life In The Bosh Of Ghosts

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Kala has now come out so let's have a thread on it!

Ten Things About Kala By MIA

1. All the press I've seen is going for some kind of "wowz now world music is interesting again!" angle - hein? Maybe it's just me who feels a distinction between world music and pop that nicks from world music (tho few have done the latter as effectively as this). She looks quite awkward as a pop star, not rly into it (on the Jimmy video)

2. It's a really bittersweet album - "Paper Planes" and "Jimmy" especially have a pop rush but also sadness, loves-that-cannot-be, and there's a dread on parts of the rest of the album that combines to give the record a tragic, trouble-is-coming 'vibe'. (I think it was Xgau who talked about Kala being a record about fears of the Other but it's playing on them as much as confronting them)

3. eg. "You think it's tough now - come to Africa!" - key word: NOW. Not "here", which would seem to make more sense.

4. I love how teasy MIA is about authenticity (she can get away with this cos the record is saying something hugely emotionally true I think) (which handily I can't put in words! arf) - Afrikan Boy says "come to Afrika", but he's an East London grime MC (tho he is African). The way she inserts herself into the Wilcannia Mob's narrative, as if they're all romping through the bush together.

5. So many thrilling MOMENTS on the record - the garbled electronics after "come to Africa" but also "coming back with POWER POWER", the sudden upshift in beats on "Jimmy", "some people think we're stupid but we're not", when I catch a FISH I put it in the FRIDGE.

6. If you dig the middle tracks - "Hussel", "Mango Pickle" - you'll dig the whole thing I think (AS a whole - this is my first mustn't-turn-it-off album in AGES)

7. Though actually the "World Town"/"Turn" sequence is kind of water-treading compared to the rest of the record.

8. And what exactly is Timbaland doing? I quite like his track turning up at the end of the album though, a decompression back into everyday pop and its confident dimnesses.

9. Total early-80s vibe - Bow Wow Wow cut'n'splice, the Clash and New Order sampled or referenced, Remain In Light and Bush Of Ghosts for sure, I can even hear Lori and the Chameleons on "Jimmy" (as well as Boney M as everyone says)

10. Maybe I'd like Arular if I tried it again!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think MIA's massive massive strength is still the same as it was on Arular - ie, really catchy, naggy, funny rhymes which can make some or no sense, which is why my faveourites are 'Bamboo Banga', 'Hussel' and 'Bird Flu'. It's a combination of the words and her voice, it's real earworm stuff - "doggin' on the bonnet of yr red Honda", even just "roadrunnah roadrunnah, going hundred miles per hour".

'Hussel' is really spectacular I think - her 'politics' such as they are make real sense here; it kind of confront the whole western tradition of residual (and not-so-residual) suspicion/distrust of "those foreigners", especially those perceived to be money-grabbing; I'm reminded of how Jews were stereotyped in the Middle Ages, there's this real parallel with the stereotype of the corner shop owned by immigrants from the subcontinent, and MIA's words and delivery are v hard-hitting. Otherwise I'm reluctant to take her politics seriously: she can be a total div sometimes, which doesn't bother me so much as journalists taking her so bloody seriously! I like how upfront she is about magpieing over other cultures; I also like lines like "Somalia Angola Ghana Ghana, India Sri Lanka Burma bamboo banga" for the reason above but c'mon WHAT EXACTLY do those countries have in common with each other apart from being phonetically pleasing together?

'Jimmy' is amazing but I totally laughed when I heard the original because MIA has changed PRECISELY NOTHING about it

Still not really feeling 'Boyz'! BUT -

I am not sure whether this reflects well or badly on Kala but it did make me rethink three MIA songs I'd been ambivalent on before, 'Hit That', 'XR2' and 'Come Around', both of which I am totally feeling now. On the latter (it was the second best song on the Timbalbum in any case) putting MIA over country twangs really is a stroke of genius, though Timba needs to shut up about teepees. And the former...well, we're back to reason 1, even if it is v slow, and I have put it on my Kala playlist. 'XR2' just reminds me of how me and my crew are.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also, I think I prefer Arular, which isn't to say that Kala is a disappointment in any way b/c it's so different and will almost certainly be in my 2007 top 10 etc etc.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

And my favourite single MOMENT is easily "You think it's tough now! Come to Africa!" *MASSIVE DOOMY BASS SYNTH STAB*, though pretty much every rhyme on 'Bamboo Banga' rivals it.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes that is the heart of the whole record :)

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

That bit, that specific bit, is amazing. That said MIA in the third verse is sounds kind of half-arsed and I find myself pressing skip 2/3 of the way in.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I see what you're saying there - the energy kind of dissipates once Afrikan Boy's finished.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No WAY! MIA's third verse is terrific, you have the "chun-cha-cha chuk-a-chun-cha" earworm and the "one second, my phone's ringing, it's my friend Habibi" bit and it's all topped off with the chocolate Hershey line.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah MIA's actual politics barely stand up to any analysis AT ALL but it's the feeling running through the record that i. I get off on and ii. is emotionally 'political' if only just in a "there's a huge complex scary exciting funny world happening and you need to wake up to it" way

Lex you do know that the roadrunner roadrunner line is a quote from 1x famous rock track :)

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

AARFF I was going to say that about Roadrunner. RADIO ON!

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i am looking forward to the Radio 1 jingle that uses this track.

(re-posted 'joke' from ILM thread)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree - there's this brittle tension throughout which is still loads of fun. It's very thinly produced! Makes Arular sound full-bodied.

I don't know about the woadwunner line (MIA totes can't pronounce her Rs). Apparently '$20' is a cover or interpolation of some shitty indie thing too but I don't like it AT ALL so that's OK.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i bet you own it/have owned it tho.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

which doesn't mean I've ever listened to it!

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

i didn't know you thought new order was shitty indie!

[koganbot]

FYI

Roadrunner, roadrunner, goin' faster miles an hour

Which was a self-conscious take-off and reworking of this:

All dressed in pink and leather

A SELECTION OF LINES WHICH ALWAYS GET STUCK IN MY HEAD

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"Hitting our rackets like a tennis playah, and the drummer do this shit like the Macarenah"
"Strike match, light fire, who's that girl called Maya? MIA coming back with power power"
"Barbarellah look like she my dead ringah when I'm doggin' on the bonnet of your red Hondah!"

"Protocol to be - a - Roca-a-wear model"
"Credentials are boring, I burnt 'em at the burial ground"

"Take me on a genocide tour, take me on a trip to Darfur" for sheer WTF factor

"You think it's tough now? Come to Africa!"
"I'm broke, I got indefinite stay, you can't touch me like leprosy"
"We drum on it like chun-cha-cha, chuk-a-chun-cha"
"some sit by me, lemme tell ya we, don't do bling but we do white tee"
"without me there'll be no chocolate Hershey"

"The war in me makes a warrior"

"Yeah I got more records than the KGB"

"Brick Lane massive, we all like grime"
"Some of them drink Heineken and some of them drink Bacardi, some of them talk a lot of shit and act rowdy...some people think we're stupid but we're NOT."

"dun dada dun dada dun dada dun dun, big girl's on" (etc etc)

"Tap tap that bed to the wall"

"Hasta vista la gangsta, why you always wanna hit that chocha? Take a break like Chapelle on my sofa"

"Don't wanna be talking 'bout moi, but my shit starts way more fiyah"

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I think Turn is fantastic and have barely seen it mentioned anywhere - something about the beat plus that boinging buzzing noise that make it feel really... textured. I'm not expressing this very well. World Town feels likes a bit of a retread of Arular but there's a good robotic wasp noise on it.

The Wilcannia Mob track annoys the hell out of me.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Agree about Wilcannia Mob - that midsection after 'Hussel' really lets Kala down, Arular never had that many skippable songs in a row.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I love the Wilcannia Mob track - a really nice lazy break in the intensity. Also, I like didgeridoo on anything rly.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

BRIDGE. FRIDGE. DIDGE. I rest my case.

Also, that might be my favorite beat on the album for getting together w/ friends and embarrassing yourself trying to freestyle, which is basically what the song is about! (Would also love the a cappella version.)

Also, I love how she says to them in matronly manner "boys, if you catch meth, you'll catch your death!" I love how in that one part she goes into Bedtime Story mode, like the boys are all huddled in her arms.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

You don't like $20? :(

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It's a bit boring and jarring? Not really...