[Rewind Reviews are reviews of albums at least a year old by the time I hear them.]
For the record, I think M.I.A. is a genius. She always seems to get the best beats and hasn’t given a damn about what’s popular, what people think of her, or even the Super Bowl for years. Her 2014 album Matangi is another great example of her doing her own thing with a mastery of world beats, sharp wit, and killer mic flow.
“Karmageddon” laces Bollywood beats and reverb throughout it. It’s seductive, synth-heavy, and even a bit scary. “My words are my armor and you’re about to meet your karma,” she sings. It’s a quick introduction / warning before the title track throws us into a deep Indian jungle, both in terms of jungle techno beats and tropical jungle heat. Only M.I.A. can pull off the chants she rhymes around in the song. Her chants are like battle cries mixed with meditative mantras.
“Only 1 U” starts with temple bells and then unleashes some of the wickedest beats on the record. M.I.A.’s voice is echoed, distorted, and fuzzed but it remains clear enough for you to hear her message of empowerment. I also love the inclusion of a boxing ring bell to signal each verse. She’s come to fight, so it’s appropriate the next track is “Warriors.” It starts with an “ohm” chant and then M.I.A. is dropping rhymes like she’s unleashing a tricky boxing combination. “Gangsters, bangers, we’re puttin’ ‘em in a trance,” she says. I’m sure she is, because her rhymes and beats are dumbfounding.
“Come Walk with Me” is a fun love song with beats better for dancing than walking, so walk to the club with your lover when you play it. “Atention” is a play on words, riffing on “attention” and “a tension.” M.I.A.’s voice is a bit robotic, almost like she’s a computer program singing to us atop wicked drum machine beats and turntable scratches.
She teams up with The Weekend for the first time on “Exodus.” He does most of the rat-a-tat electric beats, I’m guessing, because M.I.A. sings all the lead vocals (and quite well). “Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well,” she sings on “Bad Girls,” a song title she is eminently qualified to claim. It has a neat Middle Eastern flavor underneath the sick hand percussion beats.
“Boom Skit” is far too short. M.I.A.’s rapping and the beats on it are so good they’re almost frightening. “Double Bubble Trouble” isn’t really about gum, but it’s just as sweet. “You’re in trouble. I step up in the game and I burst that bubble.” The alarm claxons taking the place of a horn section are brilliant. This deserves to be cranked from every taxi in New Delhi.
“Y.A.L.A.” has bass that Missy Elliott will probably gank for her next record. “If you only live once, why do we keep doing the same shit?” M.I.A. asks. It’s a play on “Y.O.L.O.” and I’m guessing it stands for “You All Live Again” since she sings, “Back home where I come from we keep being born again and again and again. That’s why they invented karma.”
“Bring the Noize” isn’t a cover of the Public Enemy classic, but it’s just as good in its own right. The hyper beats seem to include a creaking door, sampled R&B croons, and a haunted horn section. “Lights” has M.I.A.’s vocals subdued and echoing in the background as the synth beats take lead. “Know It Ain’t Right” is bouncy, while “Sexodus” (her second pairing with The Weekend on Matangi) is sensual. Go figure with that title, really. M.I.A. is at her sexiest on the track, singing about getting in the sheets and staying busy until dawn.
The digital download version of Matangi comes with the bonus track of “Like This,” which is well worth the download. M.I.A. purrs like a tiger at one point, nearly making you slide off your chair. If that doesn’t do it, then the phat bass and her supremely confident rhyming will.
M.I.A. can do no wrong, really. Her beats are always big, her rhymes are always deadly, her lyrics are always powerful, and her power grows with each record.
Keep your mind open.
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