I streamed the new MIA album and really didn’t care for it. Bums me out because I loved her last two. Here’s a more in depth review I wrote for my blog:
http://mrmississippi.blogspot.com/2010/07/mia-just-doesnt-matter-anymore.html
My condolences…I do know how much of a fan you are brother!
I haven’t heard the record yet, but by the sounds of it she’s trying to make her most commercially sounding record yet and reach the sales heights of folk she’s been performing with lately such as Jay-Z.
I honestly think her (and her husband and record label’s) objective at this stage is to become a huge mainstream selling artist…in order to do this she has to lose the magic sound of the first two albums as they were never going to sell the amount of records that her and her entourage are now hoping for.
Basically in order to become the new “Madonna/Jay-Z” she has to make her music a bit crappier.
I’ve listened to some of the songs and bits of others; there sounds like 3, maybe 4 decent songs and the rest seems filler. The ‘Steppin Up’ and ‘Teqkilla’ songs are hideous. I dug ‘Born Free’ & ‘Meds and Feds’. ‘XXXO’ is a bit too Lady Gaga for me but it’s not a terrible summer pop song at the same rate, regardless she is capable of so much better.
To me it sounds like she is straying too far from what made her likeable in the first place and she is winding up in the “big-name-but-really-crap” league which doesn’t suit her. I mean her first album was basically beaten out on a Korg by her (at least we’re led to believe). That’s the kind stripped down, DIY approach that makes albums into gems. Thom Yorke took ‘Arular’ as inspiration for his ‘The Eraser’ LP, which wasn’t half bad either. I think M.I.A. getting popularity with ‘Paper Planes’ on Pineapple Express which has the inevitable hip stoner following can pull her into that bracket, which I don’t feel she necessarily wants to be in nor does she sound comfortable in. On many of the tracks from the new album she actually sounds bored and is just going by the numbers. I don’t see the mainstream sell out vibe on the new album lasting too long. It is a pity that this album sounds weak as it’s been what 3 years since the last one, so it’s not as if she hasn’t had time to get it right.
And I concur about her myspace (and also her own website). They are too just too tacky and induce unwelcome headaches.
I hope for her own sake this album bombs and she has to re-evaluate where she is going. She’s still a cutey pie, though.
Really? I thought you guys would love this record. Those chainsaws at the beginning of “Steppin’ Up” get me every time. Give it a few more listens, you’ll see.
I’ve listened three times to everything except “It Takes A Muscle” (which I genuinely love) and don’t see myself giving it too much more of a chance for a while. I’m bummed and six months later I may listen and revise my opinion but for right now I’m happy to let the album ride on without me.
This is she on D. Letterman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmUHYiGbd4M
This is a bit too narcissistic for my tastes. It looks like she’s miming and I can’t stand a bunch of people doing (and looking like) the exact same thing at any one time. The keyboardist is jerking off there, too. Try harder, Maya. Pull the finger out.
Anybody notice that’s the real Martin Rev with her playing keyboards on this half-Suicide cover/homage (referring to the Letterman gig)?
Too kool, if you ask me!
The letterman thing is cool but here’s the thing - all her records, I only dig two-three songs. And this is no different. Whoever performs the music on this latest is awful, there’s a lot of stilted, dated shit in it, and I don’t know why she bothered.
Okay, so she’s a fan of Suicide…why not do something truly minimalist and not try to sound like some sort of dancey, droning garbage? Make a rock record or something…or just hammer nails into a keyboard and record it…
I’ll go back to my Lady Gaga records thanks…