ALBUM REVIEW

Kala by M.I.A.
Released August 2007

M.I.A. put herself in a situation where she had to live up to the tremendous hype of surrounding her first album, Arular, released in 2005 only after being widely circulated via the internet in 2004. If she were to continue building on ideas brought up in her first record, the context in which this album was made is in a strange way probably the best thing that could have happened to her. The first album was a group effort of sorts, where afterwards she would receive a lot of criticism for not putting enough of herself into the album. With Kala, we get to see M.I.A. at full force. What better circumstances are for an artist to follow up an album dealing with third world politics and globalization than to make a record in a constant period of transition from place to place? The record was supposed to be made in the States, but she only ended up getting here to record one track because of issues with customs concerning visas ("If you catch me at the border I got visas in my name"). The said one track (“Come Around” feat. Timbaland) happens to be the most bland, radio-friendly song we hear on the album. For the rest of the album, we hear M.I.A.'s politically-motivated digital weirdness shine more it ever has.

After Arular, critics went further to say that her politics were confused. While in Kala, the heavy one-liners using western slang as a sort of new, profound poetic device are not crystal clear in their intentions, they still carry the weight and have power to speak to the masses. She let us know her stance on global poverty on Arular with songs like “Pull Up the People”, and this time she gives us just enough to make us think with self-referential short statements like “third world democracy”, combining them with the wake up call sounds of gun shots and clanging cash registers. If you are still confused after hearing songs like “20 Dolla”. “Paper Planes”, and “World Town”, you just simply might not be spending enough time with the material. While in “20 Dolla” she might raise our eyebrows with statements letting us know the cost of AK47s in Africa, a price that is “not shit” to the typical westerner, she clarifies herself by setting up a familiar scene. If we stand on almost any street in Memphis, the statement “the price of living in a shanty town just seems very high, but we still like T.I., but we still look fly” has incredible resonance. It seems to me she is suggesting that violence is not something inherent to human behavior, but instead that it is the product of a class struggle. With lines like this, M.I.A. is fully utilizing her position as musician to advance social critique. She has the ability to reach a wide audience, and she is doing it with this record. Perhaps the only shame of this album is that it’s weirdness makes it not exactly the most radio-friendly of the year. But when “20 Dolla” goes into its chorus, and she throws back to The Pixies by reminding us that “our heads will collapse if there is nothing in them,” I can't help but wish that this could be the next top 40 club anthem.