M.I.A.
Arular
XL Recordings
· Daughter of a prominent Tamil Tiger rebel, an art school grad and
music student of Elastica’s Justine Frischmann and Peaches presents an album of gyratingly catchy dance tracks with Sri Lankan nursery rhymes sprinkled in.
Her childhood stories hooked me and her alternating squeaky-sexy vocals dancing over top of dirty bass and thumping dance beats sealed the deal. M.I.A., a.k.a. Maya Arulpragasam, fled war-ravaged Sri Lanka at age 10 and found herself immersed in a predominantly Caucasian London neighbourhood heavy on drug culture and racism. Growing up, her solace was the radio and the Boney M and Public Enemy that seeped out resonated with the teenager struggling to fit in. More than a decade later, M.I.A. manages to efficiently combine snippets of reggae, industrial, dancehall and hip hop as the novice MC slowly builds a solid foundation of songs with political and nonsensical lyrics coexisting happily.
Arular takes a while to shine as the first few tracks blur together, but by the time "Bingo" plays, you can’t help slowly grinding and wishing you were in a sticky, sweaty nightclub on the other side of the world at 4 a.m. The sexy pulse continues as flirtatious Spanish pick-up lines are coyly shouted on "Hombre." She manages to make lyrics about guerilla warfare on "Sunshowers" fit seamlessly with a pretty, fluffy pop refrain, and is at her best on the debut single "Galang" with stories of teenage prostitution and chants of gibberish making even the most diehard homebodies want to stay out till sunrise at a seedy bar in the jungle.
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