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M.I.A. - Kala CD Cover Art
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M I A Kala CD

 M I A Discography of CDs
4 stars (8 Customer Reviews)

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Personnel: DJ Ability (scratches); The Wilcannia Mob.
Additional personnel: Afrikan Boy, Timbaland.
Audio Mixers: Switch; Mark "Spike" Stent.
Photographers: M.I.A. ; Liz Johnson Artur; Michael Kamber; Janette Beckman.
Even before M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam) debuted in 2005 with ARULAR, the blogosphere was already abuzz about her, engaging in the kind of discourse normally reserved for academic dissertations. Whether hailed as a canny postmodern pastiche or dismissed as inauthentic cultural pirating, the music, a lively pan-global mash-up of regional dance music styles, seemed to be emanating simultaneously from every ghetto, favela, and council-flat within earshot. As if to call out her detractors, M.I.A. returns for another shot of explosive, politically charged and globally conscious dance music on her second album, KALA.
Lacking the patchwork quality of the debut, KALA is a more cohesive and polished affair, though it matches its predecessor for shear visceral thrills. Recorded across several different continents, and featuring the production talents of Timbaland, Switch, and Blaqstarr, as well as longstanding collaborator Diplo, the globetrotting beat makers mine sources as varied as funk carioca, Baltimore bounce, and the occasional ludicrously placed sound-effect (a squawking chicken). The gloriously bombastic lead single, "Boyz," kicks off the party with a blaring horn loop, carnival percussion, and a stuttering Bollywood vocal sample, while M.I.A. merrily chants the chorus in her sing-song faux patois. The twittering, beat-heavy "Bird Flu" sounds a bit like what you might expect--jagged beats create syncopated poly-rhythms, while birds chirp feverishly against Arulpragasam's bratty invective. But the irreverent cultural re-appropriation doesn't stop at her borrowing from the third world; clever nods to the Clash, New Order, and even Jonathan Richman appear in unexpected and cheeky combinations, offering further proof that M.I.A.'s potent cross-cultural grab bag is as sonically audacious as ever.
Kala and Arular are similar in that they are both wildly vigorous and wholly enjoyable albums, generous with blunt-force beats, flurries of percussion, riotous vocals (with largely inconsequential lyrics), and fearless stylistic syntheses that seem to view music from half of the planet's countries as potential source material. But Kala nearly makes Arular seem tame in comparison, magnifying most of its predecessor's qualities as it remains bracingly adventurous. While it certainly sounds like a second M.I.A. album, nothing about it is stagnant. Made in piecemeal fashion while located in several countries, Kala involves a few co-producers: U.K. "dirty house" producer Switch is the primary collaborator, while Baltimore club don Blaqstarr, Diplo, and Timbaland assist M.I.A. on one or a couple tracks each. Further variety is added vocally, not only through M.I.A.'s numerous modes, but also through feature spots from Nigerian MC Afrikan Boy and a crew of young Aborigine rappers. Roughly half the album -- including the opening three-track sequence, which incorporates Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner," samples from two Tamil-language film soundtracks, squawking chickens, (what sounds like) yelping children, and clustered rhythmic devices that boom, stab, clap, rattle, twitter, and sometimes even prance -- is more intense than anything on Arular. The tracks are so full of chaos and jagged noise that it is disarming to reach the relatively relaxed material, especially the two tracks that resemble actual songs. "Jimmy" is a rather faithful cover, willfully chintzy strings and all, of a flirtatiously lovelorn neo-disco number from the '80s Bollywood film Disco Dancer. "Paper Planes" has a sing-songy float to it, aided by the Clash's "Straight to Hell," though it also appropriates Wreckx-N-Effect's "Rump Shaker" while replacing "zoom-a-zoom-zoom-zoom" and "boom-boom" with sounds from shotguns and cash registers. Like the remRolling Stone (p.65) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "It's heavier, noisier, more jagged....KALA strikes deep....A riot of human, musical and mechanical sounds bubbles underneath these tracks."
Rolling Stone (p.107) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Top Albums of the Year 2007" -- "M.I.A.'s second album was an international block party with a sonic imagination nobody could match all year."
Spin (p.127) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "M.I.A.'s border-crossing dance pop is a revolutionary manifesto set the victory party vibe of the future."
Entertainment Weekly (p.133) - "KALA is propelled by genuinely stellar moments: the manic thrall of 'Jimmy,' the ferocious gunshot-chorused 'Paper Planes.'" -- Grade: B
Uncut (p.87) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] head-spinning equatorial dash....She twangs the boundaries of taste both lyrically and musically. But a knockout's a knockout..."
The Wire (p.57) - "She has kept her globetrotting spirit intact in later years -- for Kala she's harvested inspiration and sounds from streets on every continent."
The Wire (p.37) - Ranked #8 in The Wire's "Top Ten Records of the Year 2007" -- "[The] album saw her in transcontinental globetrotting mode in search of the tribal beats, engine sounds and local pop samples mishmashed into KALA."
Q (Magazine) (p.76) - Ranked #34 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2007" -- "[H]ip hop by way of Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent..."
Kala Music


Detailed Kala Music Information



List Price $10.99 (You save $1.00)
Category Rock/Pop Albums, Rock CDs, Rap, Electronica, Alternative, Dance
Label Interscope
All Time Sales Rank   2202  
CD Universe Part number 7483225
Catalog number 000965902
Discs 1
Release Date Aug 21, 2007
Studio/Live Studio
Mono/Stereo Stereo
Producer Timbaland; Switch; Diplo; Morganics; M.I.A.
Engineer Larry 'Live' Lyons; Marty Green
Recording Time 47 minutes
Personnel D.J. Ability - scratches

Also: Timbaland, Afrikan Boy
M I A Kala Songs


M I A Kala Album Track Listing



Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample1.Bamboo Banga  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample2.Birdflu  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample3.Boyz  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample4.Jimmy  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample5.Hussel - (with Afrikan Boy)  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample6.Mango Pickle Down River  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample7.20 Dollar  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample8.World Town  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample9.Turn, The  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample10.Xr2  $0.99
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio MediaMP3 Track Sample11.Paper Planes  $1.29
Windows MediaWindows MediaRealAudio MediaRealAudio Media12.Come Around - (with Timbaland)

Kala Music


Kala Other Versions



M.I.A.
Kala  Bonus CDAudio Samples
CD$19.79
M.I.A.
Kala  Bonus Track; Japan5 stars
CD$31.39
M.I.A.
Kala  
Vinyl Record$12.09
Kala Music Review


Customer Kala Reviews 




Average Rating: (4 out of 5 stars) 4 stars

List All Reviews

1 star fake rap
watered down crappy noise not even real music don't waste your time life is too short
Submitted by youngballa_88 (kansas city kansas)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  1 of 1 found this helpful.

3 stars All I Wanna do is...
You know I found out that the guns and the register in Paper planes is from that one 90's song "All I wanna do is the zoom zoom zoom and the boom boom... just shake ya rump." I love that. anyway great CD. I Really loved the ARULAR CD but this one is even better.
Submitted by Ashley not a raver (chitown, ill)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  1 of 1 found this helpful.

5 stars raw. original. fresh.
M.I.A. is hot. shes different and original and her lyrics are amazing. like someone else said, its a breath of fresh air to your earlobes. lets just hope she doesnt get overplayed like other artists. peace.
Submitted by california.doll (L.A. - ca)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No

5 stars amazing
its just amazing this is probably one of the few albums that people can listen to every single song without becoming tired a bored album
Submitted by redfacechi (Wilmington, NC, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No

5 stars All I Wanna Do Is Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! And KAA-CHING!!!
I've had Kala on repeat for a week! There are a great variety of world, and musical influences being effectively utilized on this record. I especially like the influence and use of elements from the Clash song "Straight To Hell" in "Paper Planes," and the song "Where Is My Mind" on "20 Dollar." And by the way, the gunshots and cash register sounds on the chorus of "Paper Planes" is one of the BEST moments of the record. This...is hip-hop.
Submitted by 3rdWorldDemocracy (Third World, WorldTown)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No

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