Average Score on Metacritic is 87.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=2772

M.I.A.
Arular
XL
2005
A+


M.I.A. could well be an ideal case study for examining the impact of the internet on the ways we listen to and, more importantly, are exposed to music. It’s difficult not to dip into Marshall McLuhan-esque “our-ever-shrinking-world” clichés when discussing the impact of the web on the way we live, but the truth of the matter is simply that it’s becoming—if it’s not already—the central mode of communication in the 21st Century.

Just over a year ago word began to spread, largely via the net, about an artist called M.I.A. who had a song called “Galang.” The first time I heard “Galang” was about an hour before the fifteenth time I heard “Galang.” That was roughly a year ago, and I’ve played the damn thing practically every day since. It really was that good...

M.I.A., in her way, is as musically (if possibly not personally) idiosyncratic and captivating as Michael Jackson or Prince. Whether she strikes a fraction of the pay dirt that they have is yet to be seen, but she deserves to be huge, and her best weapon against marginalization is her music. On “Pull up the People,” the first full track on Arular, M.I.A. informs you that she’s got both “the bombs to make you blow” and “the beats to make you bang,” and it behooves you to take her at her word because the sonic impact reveals that she’s not kidding; within a few moments she will have compared herself to Rocky, and we shan’t have doubted her for a second.

As Sasha Frere-Jones noted in his piece on M.I.A. in The New Yorker, “‘world music’ is a category that does nobody any favors”. Despite the hard-to-resist tendency among journalists to wax exotic about the details of M.I.A.’s back-story (given name: Maya Arulpragasm; revolutionary father, whom the album is named for; moved from London to Sri Lanka to India to Sri Lanka to India to London—hell, if you don’t know the specifics by heart by now, just pick up the current issue of Spin), her sensibility is far more in tune with, say, Missy Elliot (who she namedrops) than Youssou N’dour (who she doesn’t).

Produced by a diverse cast including Steve Mackey, Ross Orton from Fat Truckers, Dave Taylor (AKA Solid Groove) and M.I.A. herself, Arular is a record that seeks to defy genre and nationality while at the same time reveling in both those things, being born directly of its heritage at the same time as it breaks free from it. It’s a swaggering, spitting, utterly contemporary album of politically dissident, sexually forthright Anglo-Sri Lankan dubstep bhangra hip-pop IDM in which M.I.A. stars as protagonist, antagonist, chanteuse, MC, exotic schoolgirl tease, graphic artist, chastiser of the immoral, and fun-loving London-living party girl. And all in under 40 minutes, too. It’s special. We’ve not heard it’s like before.

But something feels at stake here. M.I.A. is, in a sense, the first web-born (potential) pop star. The response to her music from a wider public not made up primarily of critics and music junkies could signify a changing of the guard, an expansion of the horizons of pop as we know it. Or, like Howard Dean’s much-hyped net-based presidential campaign, it could mean jack shit and four more years of Maroon 5. But I’m starting to regain some of my pre-election optimism. M.I.A. may be a critical darling, but she’s not so esoteric in the grand scheme of things. This is music that everyone can relate to, dance to, salt and pepper their mangoes to.

M.I.A.’s done what we’ve asked of her, and the press appear to be on board. Now it’s up to the voters consumers to go the extra mile or not. I mean, who actually buys CDs anymore (that aren’t blank)? Annie’s recent hype-and-fail-trajectory sets a dangerous precedent for web-friendly artists labeled as “pop” by critics because of textural or theoretical tropes, but who exist outside of the continuum of consumability as far as people who actually buy records and put them on the radio are concerned. The fact remains that, at the moment, few people beyond of the sphere of influence that the internet exerts have heard of M.I.A.

Reviewed by: Josh Timmermann
Reviewed on: 2005-02-24

For what this thread is about see my post here:

http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=14087

This one is early tonight and now listening to it and will write out my brief review when it’s finished.

Is this going to become a daily feature thru Dec. 31, detailing twenty or twenty-five likely vote-getters in the Shmoo Poll (with a few diamonds of the rough thrown in for variety)?

Yes i hope so, this is for people to say something about some major releases this year and write out a little review of it.

BTW, I loving this album right now.

I was hoping to love this album after hearing a few songs on KEXP. I bought the album and barely listened to it again. I need to revisot it again but can't help but believe that in reality this album could never be as good as any big daddy kane album, kool g rap & polo album or most of the decent stuff from the late 80"s (in the rap genre). It's different and it speaks to the sensibilities in me that like different challenging music but overall it's not that groundbreaking and can be fairly tedious. I do dig some singles but again....i have to revisit. 7.2 out of 10.

Arular is still #2 on my Top-20 list. What ultimately won me over was its uniqueness and the Richard X tracks. It's awesome driving music.

What a great little album but it could be ignorance on my part. I really don’t know jack about hip-hop/rap so maybe this affected me moreso because of the limited exposure. Will admit that the hype is what made me buy it and was purchased at Aron’s (RIP) earlier this year. At first I thought I was disappointed in it and then seeing her on one of those late shows left a sour taste in my mouth.

It about the music though and since I owned it I kept playing it and playing it witch is a good thing in this case. Damn happy that I own it because it’s something I really haven’t heard before and has something special about it. It’s hard in 2005 to make something original but she did it as far as I can tell. “What can you get for 10 dollar? Anything you want” just seems so modern life with songs like ‘Galang’ and ‘Pull Up the People’ are songs that I found myself humming when I had a smile on my face at times in 2005.

Overall though it about 25 for now on my end of the year list. Don’t be surprised if it wins Pazz & Jop Critics Poll this year.

This shit was fun for a minute and then you get beyond that and realize that she's just this hot girl from the east who dances funny. I'll put on "Bucky Done Gone" and maybe "Fire" at get togethers, but that's about it. Consider this shit irrelevant now.

Yeah, she's hot and dances funny, but her music is actually pretty unique and different compared to other albums I've heard in recent years. She reminds of me a mix of Missy Elliott and Nelly Furtado, two of my favorite female artists.



I don't think she's irrelevant at all. In fact, I say she'll continue to be one of the most relevant artists of the next decade, sort of like a new Missy Elliott.

Warmed up to it slightly due to a track's placement in a commercial, but certainly not in the first group of stuff that I'd turn to for party/dance tunes.

absolute garbage.

Unlistenable cracker rap for people terrified of being called closed-minded.

got beats but over-lauded. fun fun fun with little substance, though that's all she touts in interviews.

It's terrible. If I had to pick the worst album of the year I would choose this. Everybody talks about the beats, but I'm not impressed. Nothing special. Mainly I find the songs annoying like fingernails across a chalk board. I wish I could express more cleary why this album sucks, but I'm terrible with reviews.

the beats are some of the most amateur i've heard.

Favourite dance/electronic album of the year, next to Annie's Annimal.

your mom's beats are some of the most amateur i've ever seen.

boo/yeh

It's a decent, fun pop record. It was flavor-of-the-moment, but it isn't bad or "irrelevent" now.

It never was the sort of thing I listen to a lot of, and it still isn't. But who gives a shit about music sounding "amateurish"? As far as I'm concerned, all of the major pop, hip-hop, and dance producers can keep their "professionalism". Nearly all of that stuff leaves me cold. Granted I only hear most of it in passing, but at least M.I.A. had something interesting to catch my attention in the first place.

edit: This isn't a top 20 album for me, but I know it'll still get played in coming years.

I like it a lot...for some reason end up putting it on a lot while in the gym

i want to like it, but i think that Piracy funds terrorism is a lot more lasting.

I listened to it once and it really didn't do a whole lot for me. I've heard worse, but I've heard a whole lot that's better. I don't get the critical adoration for it. It seems a little strange, but maybe it's just the UK overexpressing themselves as usual.

And this talk of beats? Cripes, were we actually supposed to take this album seriously? How could one honestly consider that when taking this in? It's like comparing Beck with Rakim. It's a cross-cultural joke.

grating beats and laughably bad lyrics/delivery - one of the worst releases of 2005 (although Hawthorne Heights may be worse)

On the contrary, I kind of like Arular but think Piracy Funds Terrorism is the worst thing ever created.

Isn't she Neneh Cherry's daughter?

Neneh Chery rules