It’s no surprise that M.I.A. opens her second album, Kala, with the assertion that “I’m comin’ back with power, power”—her brash, confident attitude, is what made her debut Arular a hit. Pairing astoundingly ferocious political raps with a collection of grimy, highly danceable beats made her as intriguing as any new artist in recent memory. On Kala, Sri Lanka’s brightest star mostly duplicates the magic of her debut with a few duds that keep it from greatness.
The first few tracks of Kala are flawless. Opener “Bamboo Banga” builds slowly from a simple grime beat to a rousing, Indian synth-sampling apex. The next track, “Bird Flu”, is the strongest on the album. Over a beat that sounds like it was recorded on the bustling streets of Mumbai, M.I.A. argues against the “protocol to be a Rocawear model” and the “protocol to be a rocker on a label,” and it might be her best track to date.
From that point forward, the album frequently diverts from the usual M.I.A. formula with inconsistent results. “Jimmy” is her first foray into disco, and will undoubtedly be met with mixed reviews. The worst track on the album is “Mango Pickle Down River,” a dull, almost laughably bad rap featuring the Wilcannia Mob, a group of aboriginal Australian rappers who sound like that little kid from Hurricane Chris’s “A Bay Bay.”
Fortunately, that mess is followed by the excellent “$20,” which rips its melody straight from “Blue Monday” by New Order and still manages to sound exactly like M.I.A. should. “I put people on the map that’ve never seen a map,” she exclaims, acknowledging her reputation as the voice of the Third World. On “Paper Planes,” M.I.A. gives actual singing a shot, and although her voice isn’t anything to write home about, she pulls it off with infectious exuberance.
While its failures ultimately doom it to something less than greatness, Kala has enough standout tracks to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Arular, and will leave people wondering where M.I.A. will take her sound next.
