Send "M.I.A. " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Through it all—the spats with journalists, the pot shots taken at other artists, the bandied-about allegations of truffle fry ordering—there’s a reason why we continued to pay attention to M.I.A. It wasn’t just because we love celebrities who harness the media’s insatiable appetite for news to their own ends (though, admittedly, that may have had something to do with it). Rather, it was because M.I.A. has consistently shown an ability to back up her boasts with groundbreaking records. Her first two albums, 2005’s Arular and 2007’s Kala offered an exhilarating vision of what pop music might look like in a world without borders, inviting us to witness what happens when western aesthetics go global and eventually come home to roost. In just five short years, M.I.A. has managed to make a name for herself as one of pop music’s most sonically adventurous heralds, capable of penning hits while keeping her eyes planted firmly on the horizon.Sadly, the cumbersomely-titled ///Y/ might mark the point at which Maya Arulpragasam’s self-aggrandizing finally catches up with her ability to deliver. That ///Y/ lacks the focus and confidence of M.I.A.‘s previous albums is disappointing; that it finds Maya content to follow, rather than lead, is indefensible. While many of ///Y/‘s best songs feel like warmed-over retreads of M.I.A.‘s previous work, its worst often feel like maneuvers cribbed from the playbooks of others....full text |
| Guardian |
| It is probably worth mentioning that // / Y / (but let's call it Maya) is an album of pop songs by MIA, the nom-de-tune of Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. It contains 12 songs, some of which are the kind of thing one might hear on the radio. It is MIA's third – the first two are named after her father and mother, respectively – but it is her first since being catapulted to American renown on the back of two songs, "O… Saya", from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, and "Paper Planes", her unlikely US hit – unlikely because the chorus consists of gunshots juxtaposed with the sound of ringing cash registers. Buy it from Buy the CD M.I.A // / Y / XL 2010 Such has been the hoopla surrounding Maya (album and artist) that it is easy to forget that this supra‑national, polymorphously polemical mother-of-one is, in the words of her latest song, "Haters" – posted on her own label's blog – "just a singer". There was the YouTube-banned video for the brilliant, electro‑speed-punk racket of "Born Free", in which redheads were rounded up and assassinated. There was the hatchet job by a New York Times writer that provoked a riveting multimedia spat a month ago. Now, here, finally, are the tunes heralded by all this furious meta‑activity. Maya is a headache-inducing patchwork of conspiracy theories, love, technological overload, world musics and sadness framed by the sort of poltergeist-in-the-machine noises you might expect from a new synthesiser called the Korg Kaosillator. It justifies all the cultural static by being rather brilliant. So you may not agree that the CIA controls Google, as intro track "The Message" posits. You might not wonder what went on in the mind of Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, the Russian teenager who bombed Moscow's tube system to vindicate the death of her husband, an Islamic militant. But MIA does, and her "Lovalot" ponders her inner world with a mixture of nonsense rhyme, militant posturing and pop-cultural free-flow; her London glottal stop mischievously turns "I love a lot" into "I love Allah"....full text |
| Bbc |
| Some musicians fret about the difficulties of writing a new album. Since 2007’s hugely successful Kala, Maya Arulpragasam has designed clothing, set up her own label (N.E.E.T.), been in and out of the press for several reasons mostly unrelated to her latest material, and had her first child. Little has been said, relatively speaking, about Kala’s follow-up, at least beyond the blogosphere. But here the artist known as M.I.A. has unleashed an album that's not difficult in the slightest, instead coming across as deliberately daunting. Do not sit back. Do not relax. M.I.A.'s airborne and she's landing near you, now. Striding through metal, dancehall, space pop and dubstep, our multicultural mascot has littered ///Y/ – “Maya” – with politicised sonic motifs: from marching drums, gunshots and modems to heavy machinery and blaring sirens. It's loud, proud, and taking no prisoners. Despite retaining the services of the world's most cutting-edge dance producers – Diplo, Switch, Blaqstarr and dubstep's aggressive young talent Rusko – M.I.A.’s magpie approach sees her cannibalise these producers' studio skills to build instead an edifice of terse sound that stands alone. As she raps herself: “Imitators? Stick it!”...full text |
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