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 enlarge | Creator: M.i.a.
Label: Interscope Records
Category: Music
List Price: $10.98
Buy New: $6.82
You Save: $4.16 (38%)
New (50) Used (24) from $6.20
Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 255
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 000965902
UPC: 602517425651
EAN: 0602517425651
ASIN: B000TJ6CM2
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Same day shipping. Free upgrade to 1st class mail for all CDs. Professional packaging material. Friendly customer service.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 83
 Noisy Mess August 27, 2007
S. White (NY USA)
22 out of 31 found this review helpful
First off I gotta say I really liked Arular, it felt kinda dangerous w/ its political lyrics that represented something unheard of in the world of pop music. Maybe this release suffers somewhat for not including a listing of the lyrics. This cd suffers on all fronts. The music is too much over the top and has no real cohesive feel & It gets quite grating.Aside from Jimmy and Paper Planes which at least take the time to create a song , Jimmy almost feels too much a diversion from Arulars fringe feel and goes very mainstream while Paper Planes seems to encourage murdering people in the midst of robbery! (Too Extreme) And in the Timbaland cut she chants "run de-ga-run de-ga-run de-ga-run now" and I dont need to tell you what that sounds like she is saying (even though I dont believe its meant that way). Many times during the cd she goes into this monotone vocal style which only drags the noisy songs down a notch. I am disappointed because I expected greatness from this release. I say beware for those expecting something better than Arular cause this aint it!
An intense, body-shaking, mind-bending album. April 27, 2008
jazz4thenight (Florida)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Over a few years, British musician MIA - aka Mathangi Arulpragasam - has realised far-flung ambitions.
Her 2005 debut album "Arular" proved an electric shock to the system, its ballsy mashup of street styles and pop hooks earning a Mercury nomination in U.K.
Mia's new album "Kala" is named after her mother, but like "Arular" it mixes up musical ideas from around the world and crams them into a club- and radio-friendly collage of tunes.
This CD drives her music in even more intrepid directions
In fact this time, rather than work with British producers such as Steve Mackey of Pulp and the pop guru Richard X, MIA travelled widely to authentically capture the world music that intrigues her.
The result is fantastic.
"Birdflu" features the sound of traditional Indian drummers, whom MIA recorded on a trip to the sub-continent last year.
"Down River" throbs with didgeridoo she recorded at a workshop for aboriginal children in Australia. The tribal pound of "Hussel", meanwhile, was recorded with a Nigerian-born London-based rapper, African Boy.
Whereas "Arular" was dominated by bouncy funk carioca beats, "Kala" feels like a more mixed, cosmopolitan affair.Recorded in India, Australia, Trinidad, Japan, Britain and Baltimore with producers including Switch and Blaqstarr, it sounds like an infectious international travelogue.
Looking at that luminous, vibrant front cover, or the ludicrously colourful video for "Boyz", M.I.A. seems more like a textile artist than anything else.
If the driving force behind her music is a restless, globe-trotting quest for identity, that makes sense - a collage is a beautiful way of drawing disparate pieces together to create a whole that exists as something important in itself.
"Kala" meets the critics head on, taking her dancefloor smash-and-grab sound global.
She twangs the boundaries of taste both lyrically ("Take me on a genocide tour/Take me on a trip to Darfur") and musically. But a knockout's a knockout, however messy the bout.
All in all, Kala is an intense, body-shaking, mind-bending album, far more ambitious than most pop around.
My favourite tracks are "Paper Planes", "20 Dollars" and "Turn".
 21st Century World Music August 21, 2007
Scott Bresinger (New York, USA)
11 out of 18 found this review helpful
("Kala" by M.I.A.)
So what's a talented hip-hop artist to do after her debut draws raves from critics and an inexplicable fan base of jaded indie rockers? Record a follow-up disc with mega producer Timbaland, of course! Now that she had the cult, she might as well go for the gold (or platinum, or diamond...). Unfortunately, Uncle Sam couldn't care less about the pop charts, and M.I.A.'s resulting visa problems prevented her from spending real quality time with Timbaland. This could have sunk a lesser artist, but Maya Arulpragasm has a truly adventurous spirit and a true "vision thing" (as a certain former president might say), so she jets off around the globe to work with kindred spirits in Jamaica, Trinidad, Australia and eventually even the good old U.S. of A, and it's easy to guess that the resulting album, "Kala," is crazier and riskier than the debut, Arular. What isn't as easy, however, is that it's deeper, and in many ways better.
Starting off with three high energy dance numbers that recall her previous work, it soon becomes apparent that there are indeed major differences. The rhythms are far more complex and M.I.A.'s vocals are more confident. While she was never shy about injecting some politics into the mix (her shout-out to the PLO caused some minor controversy last time out), on the Bollywood/disco number "Jimmy" there are these sure to be discussed lyrics: "Take me on ya genocide tour/Take me on a truck to Darfur." Considering "Jimmy" is easily the most accessible track on the album, it comes off as more than a little sardonic and dark-humored.
Other highlights include "Bird Flu," with it's tribal drumming and chicken squawk sample; "20 Dollar" samples gunshot sounds and New Order's "Blue Monday" and has a lush psychedelic quality to it; "Mango Pickle Down" features some aboriginal boys called the The Willcania Mob and "Hussel" has some guest rapping by Afrikan Boy. As a whole, "Kala" is truly 21st century world music, where cutting edge production helps create a global party vibe. Instead of some embarrassing Kumbaya sing-alongs, though, M.I.A. unites the first and third worlds without ignoring the problems inherent in the proposition. Instead of coming off as some rich pop star seemingly exploiting others for a bit of knee-jerk exoticism, she allows her collaborators a full voice and meshes it perfectly with her own sensibility. Instead of becoming just another hit maker (okay, so the CD offers a free--yikes--ring tone), she'd rather have the artistic credibility of someone like Bjork.
Ironically, the weakest track here is the Timbaland produced (and guest-starring) closer, "Come Around," which is really a scrap from his recent solo album. The result is that "Kala" ends with a whimper instead of a bang. When compared with the rest of the album, a listener can only say "who needs Timbaland, anyway?" Frankly, the "global village" needs M.I.A. more than M.I.A. needs cheap pop hits.
Big disappointment September 15, 2007
G. Greenberg (Stiudio City, CA)
11 out of 19 found this review helpful
As a HUGE fan of Arular (it was probably my favorite recording of the last five years) I was really looking forward to Kala's release.
Arular was a big, beautiful recording. It sounded like some demented Indian carnival. It held together perfectly.
But Kala is like what happens after the carnival ends - all that's left is the racket of the roadies disassembling the tents. It's tuneless, hookless. Not one of the songs is better than any of the songs on Arular.
My favorite song by far is the one produced by Timbaland, and although I like his production, I wish he didn't rap on it.
MIA is a great artist, but she needs help production-wise.
If you don't get it, I can't explain it to you! August 21, 2007
M. Robesch (Seattle, WA USA)
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
The term 'World Pop' has been around for decades but it somehow comes up short when describing the work of M.I.A. First with Arular, and now with Kala, the music of M.I.A. has defied categorization and classification. In the best conceivable way, we are in need of new descriptors for what we are hearing. On my iPod, I changed the genre classification for the dance-able yet political Arular to 'Urban Electro Hop'. Kala pushes the envelope further. It's still a booty shaking electronica album but the content criss-crosses the planet so angrily and with such socio-political focus that I can only describe it as 'World Punk'. It is fitting that the excellent track Paper Planes samples The Clash's Straight to Hell. I am certain world music loving Joe Strummer would RAVE about Kala.
Kala is vibrant and alive... it pulses! Take Bamboo Banga, for example, which starts out like a stiff breeze at a race track but catapults you into a pinball machine caught in a hurricane. The excellent tracks Bird Flu and Boyz have been circulating in .mp3 form on the 'net for a few months but it's great to hear their full dynamic impact as presented on the CD. Jimmy is a bouncy change of pace that reminds me of what Blondie's disco years would have sounded like had they been filtered through Japanese and Bollywood DJ scenes. Other standout tracks are the kid hop of Mango Pickle..; 20 Dollar with its eery sample of/homage to the Pixies; the defiant World Town; and the aforementioned Paper Planes.
Kala is simultaneously ahead of its time and in your DNA like history. It is a brilliant album that pounds and deserves to be played LOUD. The sound of your mind blowing open. The hearing loss is well worth it.
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