MIA Life In The Bosh Of Ghosts
Aug. 21st, 2007 01:41 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
freakytigger.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
poptimistsKala 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!
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!
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Some more thoughts after listening to it!
Date: 2007-08-21 08:06 pm (UTC)- it's interesting how the best/most powerful/least politically dodgy songs on each MIA album so far are the ones where she plays with stereotypes of immigrants to the UK rather than trying to give a voice to myriad subalterns from the Third World ie '10 Dollar' ("find yourself a Yorkshire banker!") and 'Hussel' - she pokes fun, twists and subverts those stereotypes in a v affectionate way
- the lyrics of 'Jimmy' - hang on this song is v Kate Bush in its subject matter! B/c what it is clearly about is having a crush on (being in non-stable relationship with) a war correspondent constantly going off to Darfur, Rwanda etc; but more than that, it's about distance and technological confusion, they communicate on telephone and internet but it just leads to more uncertainty and emotional turmoil - "you keep pushing that button but I don’t know what your saying, you hit me on AIM tryna flip me on some game".
- Also I had no idea what most of the lyrics to 'Bird Flu' actually were until now and the second half of the first verse is a) pretty brilliant b) we were RIGHT ALL ALONG she is Neneh Cherry reincarnate: "I have my hard down so I need a man for romance/Streets are making 'em hard so they selfish little roamers/Jumping girl to girl, make us meat like burgers/When I get fat I'll pop me out some leaders"
- She split up with Diplo didn't she? There are two VERY bitter bonus tracks floating around - 'Far Far' castigates the man while 'Big Branch' doesn't mince its words about the Other Woman: "Bring her to my door now, bring me that ho/Put her on the table and put her in my claw/I'll put her down my jaw to my belly to my toe/I'll shit on that ho and drop her to the floor." (an odd rhyme scheme! kinda...ABBAABBA)