M.I.A. - Matangi

The rate at which the world seemed to "go off" M.I.A. between the years of 2007 and 2010, culminating in the release of her third LP MAYA and something dubiously referred to as trufflegate - essentially the hipster press' dismay at finding that she was successful and quite affluent now - was, as a fan, saddening. Although there are plenty of examples of newfound stars deserving of public backlash (hello, James Arthur) the whole thing seemed to centre around petty preconceptions about Maya Arulpragsam's politics and ethics. I'm just putting this out there, but Arular and Kala weren't political albums. That listeners took them as their sole window on Sri Lanka, or as the musings of a social activist, was a bit baffling when most of us were just jamming as though possessed to Boyz. /\/\ /\ Y /\, though, was the first real sign that maybe there was something awry: she'd adorned an unrelenting, industrial-dubstep affront on the senses, and the end results were mixed. There were the typical highlights - XXXO, Born Free - but a lot of it was, whilst innovative, largely unpleasant to listen to. Then came the Vicki Leekx mixtape, which drew all sorts of criticisms for being a wild series of conspiracy theories that totally didn't turn out to be accurate, but at least it showed signs of M.I.A. getting back into the groove of making tapes that flowed nicely and had the ability to wow us.

It would go on to spawn Bad Girls - her biggest single (and, indeed, only hit) since Paper Planes. Whilst there was something a little odd about seeing freshers and clubbers spouting "live fast die young!!" tweets and hashtags as though M.I.A. were the new Drake, it pleased the optimist in me that secretly hopes for all sorts of success for my favourite artists (even if they grow to irritate me as much as Mumford and Sons did). I can't help shake the impression that M.I.A. is now one of those artists who's going to come under fire whatever she releases: if Matangi were an album of Bad Girls anthems about having swag, she'd probably be filed under "desperate for a hit"; were this a whole new genre experiment entirely it'd be labelled a middle finger to her fans; and if she resurrected that Arular style of skit after skit after skit with some music videos of her slumming it in India, she'd surely be attacked for something like exploitation. Matangi offers some ready-consumable pop mantras but so much more, and although 6 or 7 listens may be too early to call, it currently stands as my second favourite album of hers (sorry - nothing's ever going to top Kala).

That rant aside, what we do have here is an homage to the Hindu goddess of music and learning and from the opening of 'Karmageddon' that exploration of the Hindu faith takes shape in harps and sitars, and later on 'Warriors' there're meditative moments. Its juxtaposition with modern trends makes for an amusing turn on instant favourite 'Y.A.L.A.' (You always live again) as she propagates reincarnation as a decent enough reason not to act like a reckless idiot; its closing spoken verse ponders "If you only live once why we keep doing the same shit?" Nonsense comes under fire from M.I.A. often: on the hilarious 'Boom Skit' she tears up Eat, Pray, Love ("spend time in the Ashram or I'll drone you") and opens with a mocking tone aimed at those who believe her to be the intruding foreigner ("brown girl brown girl, turn your shit down - you know America don't wanna hear your sound"). Lyrically she can be quite on-point, although I can't help but think 'ATENTion' would've been a message executed better without the repeated tent rhymes (supposedly a reference to refugee tents). "My exisTENTs is miliTENT, cause my conTENT bangs like it's poTENT" probably looked quite clever on paper but it's all a little bit... "OK what else rhymes with important?" and it sounds like a constant(!)ly restarting car.

The big draw here though is the beats: the aforementioned Y.A.L.A. goes the hardest, and has a spectacular standout "alarms go off when I enter the building" moment. Early cuts from the album 'Bring the Noize' and 'Come Walk With Me' are further honings of her work with Switch and tread a fine line between chaos and brilliance (although the latter is much more melodic and enjoyable as a kind of rock & roll revamp). Her worldiness is summarised on its title track, where a slight BirdFlu, drum-heavy revival occurs as she lists off countries before enfranchising herself with the people of them, through the process of a not-very-subtle dig at Drake ("We started at the bottom but Drake gets all the credit" - this is starting to feel like an antidrake record, right?) M.I.A. even turns her hand to production on 'Only 1 U' which - if you can get past the slight reminiscence of the Crazy Frog - splutters and stomps through sound effects with irreverence. And then there's 'Bad Girls' which - nearly three years now since its first teaser on Vicki Leekx needs no introduction. It's a sublime series of hooks that's just...great.

Moments of greatness here give Matangi immense replay value, such as the reggae-dub stewing pot of 'Double Bubble Trouble' with its "what's going to happen next?" breakdowns, or the R&B sheen of 'Know it Ain't Right' where she actually has lyrics that tell a story rather than explode as a series of brags or hooks. Speaking of R&B sheen, The Weeknd has two appearances here and they're sadly, as is most of his recent output, a little bit clouded and lacking in precision (and also slightly reek of opportunism on his part, sampling his own Lonely Star). 'Sexodus' is marginally quieter and, I guess, nicer than 'Exodus' but they're both essentially the same song and that's likely a massive blow to this album's reception. They are but two tracks on an album of 15, though, and the only other meh moment is the minimal 'Lights' which should really just be a skit but instead goes for four and a half minutes.
 

There're enough stellar efforts on Matangi that make it a career high for me, though, and looking back there're definite duds on Kala and Arular that I make the effort to skip again and again; the defining style of Matangi might lean a little towards emulating the club scene rather than rubbishing it as much as her lyrics would suggest, thanks to some excellent...oh god, I have to say it... twerk moments, and the whole association with Assange thing is probably a little overplayed for a bit of controversy, but this is an excellent album.

Rating: 9/10
Highlights: Y.A.L.A.; Come Walk With Me; Double Bubble Trouble; Only 1 U, Bad Girls; Boom Skit
Avoid: Exodus; Sexodus

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