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

[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.