I didn't "love" Arular; I adored Kala, but I'm obsessed with Maya. In my opinion, this is M.I.A. in her most potent form - stripped of the multicultural influences that "softened" the music of her two previous albums. In Maya, M.I.A. is raw and powerful; her exotic charm and airy beats seen in Kala are replaced by a grungier, more dystopic, seemingly more condensed tone in Maya, where the air is filled with the sounds of ear-splitting drills and conspiracy theories run wild. Anyone expecting another LP of ethnic beat potpourri are going to get, well, culture shock, more or less. Although her style is essentially still the same, this drastic excision of her multicultural undertones seems to be a deliberate attempt to both scare off mainstream "Paper Plane"-ers and to say "Hey, I don't need beats from India or influence from the Caribbean - my music is MY music." However, it may have worked too well, as I have personally seen this album scare off quite a few ardent fans from the Arular days.
All in all, this is a great album, if not one of the best albums of the year. It's harder, rougher, and more condensed than Arular or Kala. Maybe that's why she named it after herself - it's something like an autobiography or self portrait. |
