album of the week: M.I.A.- KALA

And finally, after many months waiting for the album, Kala is here. One year of anticipations, we've already listened to XR2 in 2006 and to Bird Flu and Boyz in 2007, and we also could have listened to the bonus track, the one featuring Timbaland, in his record out some months ago. So when you listen to Kala from head to toe it sounds already familiar, like if it was a kind of compilation with bonus tracks. But this doesn't have to be a bad thing. The tracks that are completely new for our ears are not album stuffing. I suppose you already know the album's been made around the world (mainly around Asia and Africa) with musicians and mcs from the places she was travelling through. And you can feel it in every little sound of the record.
The first four tracks of the record are amazing. In Bamboo Banger she even sometimes sings like John Lydon out of P.I.L.; in Bird Flu she tribalised the arrangements like Sepultura did before in all the Roots period but softening it with cheerleader-like child choruses. Boyz is maybe the less surprising song as it seems out of Arular but is a hit from the beginning. And Jimmy, the new single, is a Bollywood goes Boney M anthem that is born to be a massive hit worldwide.
The next two tracks, Hussel and Mango Pickle Down River are the ones with more protagonism of the collaborations and also the dance oriented. 20$ is another crazydance tribal song and The Turn is a weird sung ballad that quiets the tempo before XR2, a kind of neu-rave goes ethnic anthem that has different and better arrangements than the version we heard last year. And we are already at the end of the record with Paper Planes, another highlight of the record, where she sings as she's never done before and we can dance to gunshots followed by cash till ringings.
The bonus track, the awaited collaboration with Timbaland, is also the less interesting. Maybe last year was timbaland's year but 2007 will probably be his fall.
So this is one of the records everybody will talk about this year and will finish in the top of most of End of the year lists.
You just have to have a look at Jimmy's video.