M.I.A.

Artist-M.I.A.
Album- Maya
Label- XL/ NEET
Genre-electropop? vaguely hiphop

DO NOT APPROACH THIS ALBUM EXPECTING ANOTHER “PAPER PLANES”! M.I.A. has become a caricature of herself; her insistence on calling herself a “music terrorist” is tired and played-out, interviews show that she really is kind of clueless about politics, oh and she’s living in a posh suburb of Los Angeles. Her response to a New York Times Magazine feature that exposed her bullshit was to put the author’s personal phone number on Twitter. This type of childish antics would maybe be acceptable if MAYA didn’t suck so bad. “XXXO” is a disappointing attempt at a mainstream Billboard single that sounds like bad Madonna- the exact type of sexy pop star that MIA supposedly despises. Other single “Born Free”, with its “controversial” video that was made only to garner attention is little more than MIA stealing a sample of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” and lazily talking over it. Most of the other songs are full of industrial noises, and her former producer/ex boyfriend Diplo’s claims that the cd sounds like a bad Skinny Puppy cd ring pretty true. The only thing approaching a good song, “Meds and Feds” featuring a Sleigh Bells sample, is unplayable due to FCC codes. Her lyrics lack the cleverness of Arular and the beats are trash compared to Kala. This is how to commit career suicide.