Matangi
M.I.A. has hyped her long-delayed fourth collection as her "spiritual album." While Matangi is not as abrasive or hook-averse as its predecessor ///\Y/, much of its sensibility feels dated, limp, or just plain perplexing.
In 2004, M.I.A. burst on to the underground music scene. Singles like “Galang” and “Sunshowers” were bangers, and with the help of producer Diplo, the British rapper started to spread her overly simplistic message of peace and cultural diversity to the masses. Nine years and four records later, that message is still…
A record poised to spit in the face of detractors while igniting the passions of her regrouped admirers.
Maya Arulpragasam’s music has finely enmeshed the personal and the political, using her multi-varied upbringing—daughter of…
Matangi -- named after an emerald-green Tantric goddess as well as a riff on M.I.A.'s birth name, Mathangi -- has weaknesses similar to /\/\/\Y/\'s: many songs are so claustrophobic that they feel twice as long as they actually are, and her wordplay hovers somewhere between the club and the nursery.
M.I.A. returns with a new album, this time with production masterminded in the main by longtime collaborator, Switch. It's as alternately as dark, steamy and dangerous as a war-torn jungle conflict zone, and as stylistically confused and over-reaching as the most pretentious catwalk fashion.
The anticipation for M.I.A.'s fourth album, Matangi, has been building since last year, with her label postponing the release date over and over.
Album review: Clash delivers its verdict on the new album from rapper M.I.A., 'Matangi'...
MIA has taken a turbulent three years and distilled them into her latest album. The result is a return to form, writes <strong>Killian Fox</strong>
Matangi again establishes M.I.A. as one of the most fascinating figures in modern music, but the personal voice underlying her material remains aggravatingly half-baked.
Review of "Matangi" by M.I.A. by Evan McDowell for Northern Transmissions. "Matangi" comes out on November 5th via N.E.E.T. and Interscope Records.
MIA's last album was hard work indeed, and her new one is only marginally less so – but she's still a unique artist, writes <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>
Is the Anglo-Sri Lankan agitator's fourth offering affected or affecting? Review by Russ Coffey