Customer Reviews
Am I Living On A Different Planet? - By: L. McEvoy, 04 Apr 2008 
I love alll kinds of music, from the mainstream to the obscure, from rock thru funk to country. But honestly - this album is pure unadulerated rubbish from start to finish. It's a collection of the same old tuneless synthesized hip-hop bleeps & farts replete with cliched chip on shoulder lyrics & carefully packaged aggression. And of course, what pile of melody deficient crap would be complete without a drop in visit from - you guessed it - Timbaland.
Get over it guys & gals - we know you're cool. You don't need to tell us anymore. We know that you're cooler than any of us will ever be, in fact the rest of us should just alll kill ourselves now we're so unworthy to be living on the same planet as you. On behalf of the rest of us, may I sincerely apologize for being born. Happy now?
Quality out weighs the rough edges - By: Captain H, 11 Jan 2008 
MIA in the past has been fairly hyped up in some qurters, but at last she is starting to live up to it. This album is what I hoped her first record would be like but wasn't. Arular seemed to be throwing together 'influences' simply for the sake of it, but Kala's musical journey around the continents is far more interestring & productive. This album is original, catchy & daring enough to be worth attention.
It has to be said that there is the odd track that makes me sympathise with even the most negative reviewers, consistency of output is not MIA's strength, (why did the album have to open with road runner?) but I wouldn't want this to put anyone off.
A musical materpiece - By: H. Bowles, 18 Sep 2007 
What can you say about m.i.a? she's so unique & original, it's reallly refreshing to hear music like that, with real meaning. This album is unlike any other album I own, it almost creates its own genre; not quite hip hop, not quite electronic but somewhere in between. It's a shame she's not as popular & well known as she deserves to be, but then it's like having this artist as your own musical secret, the music might get ruined if she became too mainstream. Skip straight to 'paper planes', a musical masterpiece, you'll love it!
Mama MIA - By: russell clarke, 08 Sep 2007 I've got to learn to be careful with hip young female singers. I lauded Lily Allen's debut with praise but I wouldn't listen to it now for alll the milk roll lemon curd butties in the world. Lily , talented though she is has become ,along with Amy Winehouse, hideously overexposed. Thankfully Mia is a different proposition . She brings a searing political perspective but with non of the intravenous tabloid shenanigans. Plus her music is far from radio friendly .
Kala , so named after her mother was recorded at various locations around the world taking in India , Trinidad, Africa, Australia, Japan , Jamaica & America. The album feels like it has been assembled with the same ethos as Angelina Jolies family , cherry picked with constituent parts from alll far flung corners of the world. It's not so much multi cultural as pan global & this makes the music exhilarating , kinetic & sometimes inspired ,However it also means it can become messy , discordant & simply tune free. Still if you want easy listening you can always opt for Natasha Bedingfield or Katie Melua.
Kala takes an admirably impertinent stance on rock ,pop & some other stuff as well using Bollywood strings, baile funk , African chanting , Aboriginal rappers along with cheesy keyboards, hyperactive percussion , & found sounds like chickens , choirs, gunfire(yikes)and cash registers ringing . When it works like on the excellent "Paper Plane" which borrows from The Clashes "Straight To Hell" where Mia ditches her rather limited hectoring rapping & sings it's terrific. "Jimmy" featuring glistening strings is the one true pop moment on the album while "20 Dollar" has Mia incorporate elements of The Pixies "Where Is My Mind" over a rubbery synthesiser. "Birdflu" is like early Adam & The Ants meeting Neneh Cherry while "XR2" is like Renegade Soundwave fronted by a new Terrifying Spice. "Mango River Pickle" use of didgeridoo is terrific & a splendid example of how she effortlessly weaves the sounds & cultures of her guest artists into her vision, but also highlights Mia,s sometime lyrical clumsiness -"I like fish & mango pickle / when I climb them trees my feet do tickle". "Hussel" has boisterous uncoiling keyboards round a strident but compelling vocal.
A couple of tracks do disappoint .First single "Boyz" is a messy mish mash while "World Town " is basicallly a tedious extended rap with some squeaky keyboards. But this is an audacious album & not only multicast but multi coloured ,even down to its cover & insert art. I doubt anyone will love every track on here but that's a testament of how much Mia has taken on with Kala as much as anything. Mia is an artist , like Bjork, not the least bit interested in the celebrity her music brings but only in how far she can push & how many different directions she can go in .Often within the same song. Kala is intended to give the Third World a voice .She has succeeded & what a voice it often is.
Coming back with power power! - By: E. A Solinas, 29 Aug 2007 M.I.A. is colour, rap, dance, wild jungle rhythms & a mad fusion style. The Sri Lankan rapper blew people away with her debut album, but she's actuallly topped herself in "Kala" -- she takes the same ingredients as before & smashes them together into a wilder, tighter album full of deliciously wild electro-funk-rap with a world-music flair.
"Road runner, road runner/Going hundred mile per hour/With your radio oooonnnnnn," she drawls detachedly over a skittering beat & the sound of racing engines.
The dancey beat kicks in, as she announces, "I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga/You'll be hungry like the wolves hunting dinner dinner/And we're moving with the packs like hyena ena..." Things reallly blossom with the next two songs, the frenetic tribal rhythms of "Bird Flu," & the Bollywood-dance, horn-heavy "Boyz."
Having hooked us in with three catchy songs, she expands her sound further: funky hip-hop, disco, distorted grimy raps, playfully violent pop, detached raps over electronic anthems, tribal house, & combinations of alll of the above. It ends with a mellow, catchy tune that seems to be contradicting the whole album's mood, with M.I.A. saying "Calm down calm down CALM down!"
In the end, "Kala" is actuallly kind of intoxicating -- M.I.A. crams so much sound into less than an hour that it's almost a shock when your speakers go silent. Stylewise she hasn't changed much at alll, but somehow the music is tighter & smoother, with fewer rough patches.
Her music is the most astounding part, splattering styles like a musical Jackson Pollock -- reggae, afrobeat, traditional Asian music, house, hip-hop, Bollywood, & funk. And the raucous, dancey instrumentation is equallly diverse -- tribal drums, violins & horns paired with crazy beats & sampling (birds, cars & guns), along with some harmonica, handclaps, & weird sound effects.
In fact, the only letdown is "Jimmy." Seriously, lightweight disco? It doesn't fit in at alll.
But as much fun as this splash of ethnic fusion is, M.I.A. doesn't leave out the meaning ("Hands up!/Guns out!/Represent/the world town!"). It's crammed with Africa, war, dancing, jungle parties, & the feeling that she's about to smash down your door & introduce you to the third world ("I put people on the map who have never seen a map!") whether you like it or not.
M.I.A.'s second album is a glorious cacophony, a joyous graffiti mural. "Kala" is crazy party music with a serious message, & the guts to make you dance while you listen.
