M.I.A. – /\/\ /\ Y /\
In another universe, parallel to ours but not too distant, Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam is the pivotal character in Pulp’s ‘Common People’. She may have come from Sri Lanka rather than Greece but she certainly had a thirst for knowledge. She studied art and fashion rather than sculpture at St Martin’s college and if one were to be very cruel to M.I.A. (something she’s been enduring a lot of recently, not least at the hands of the New York Times’ Lynn Hirschberg), one could also substitute the name ‘Justine Frischmann’ for ‘dad’ in the line about the moneyed saviour who could “change it all”.
But the disparity between her status as a mansion-buying, record exec-marrying, gauche political ingénue and her self-perception as a fourth-world radical isn’t really that important as regards her output... just add her to an ever growing list of occasionally demented pop stars who do some of their best work while losing the plot (Bowie/Prince/Ol’ Dirty Bastard). So beyond the dayglo, fashion mag, slum face rapper’s confused message, this is a collection of mainly superb tracks.
Among the essentials here are ‘Teqkilla’, a lolloping, acidic slice of skwee-leaning dubstep that successfully mimics the experience of being leathered on the lethal South American liquor, while the rhythm is partially bolstered by glasses clinking and shots being poured. The heaviest here is ‘Steppin’ Up’, which survives her slightly spam-tongued “dub a dubba dub/club a clubba club” rhymes because of its 100 per cent sonic militancy, coming across as ‘Stigmata’-era Ministry being remixed by Adrian Sherwood. Taken without its video, the Can-style freak-out drums and sped-up Suicide loop of ‘Born Free’ is utterly masterful.
One of the real misfires here is ‘It Takes a Muscle’, a slightly wonky take on eighties pop reggae worthy of UB40 or Boris Gardiner that is surprisingly is produced by the normally reliable Diplo. Only the permanently retarded or pot addled will buy into her assertion that Google and your iPod are being used as monitoring devices but, overall, this is a genuinely refreshing album on which the post electro-clash/Kate Nash single ‘XXXO’ is actually one of three lowlights.
John Doran
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