|
|
Hit 7 - Arular
|
List Price: $13.98
Our Price: $12.99
Your Save: $ 0.99 ( 7% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Interscope Records
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0602498826515
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Label: Interscope Records
Manufacturer: Interscope Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Interscope Records
Release Date: 2005-05-17
Studio: Interscope Records
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
M.I.A.'s debut record is both intensely urban and aggressively modern. The group's sole member, Maya Arul, infuses her blend of hip-hop and chunky electro with raw, tribal overtones and a healthy dose of sex appeal. There are elements of world music here, in Arul's multilingual vocal as well as the tonal shifts and instrumentation (like the drone that opens up "Hombre"). Her delivery uses a variety of yelps and tics full of street-wise confidence and bratty energy. But there's also an appealing melodic sense, like early Neneh Cherry or Miss Kitten when she's not in diva mode. M.I.A. doesn't really sound like anybody; the music is just experimental enough to wiggle out of easy comparisons. The IDM-style bleeps and beeps of "Galang," for example, give an already catchy song extra punch. The only problem with the record, a common flaw for debuts, is a sameness from track to track which robs it of the ability to surprise. Still, Arul is hugely talented and her abundant originality packs a wallop. --Matthew Cooke
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth it
Comment: Lively beats and thought-provoking (though nonsensical) lyrics. Good for lifting the mood without invoking false optimism.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Novelty Item, Nothing More.
Comment: This record is nothing more than the musical equivalent of a Von Dutch hat. Trendy for a couple months and then quickly tossed aside, as the bastardized dancehall routine inevitably becomes boring. I give her another album - Kala has already proved to be a disappointment - after which she'll have little left to do but don a suicide belt, perhaps?
What is a bit different with this "pioneering artist" is that, to sell records, she is prostituting her repugnant association with a terrorist outfit who, among other things, (1) invented the suicide bombing belt, (2) pioneered the used of women in suicide attacks, and (3) has been the only terrorist organization to assasinate two world leaders. The LTTE have been banned in more than 20 countries around the world, with the FBI this past January calling them an outfit that "inspired" the Al Qaeda (http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/tamil_tigers011008.html). Killing innocent people, smuggling drugs and using suicide bombers aren't the tools of "freedomfighters".
After buddying up with Gwen Stefani, its quite clear that she's trying to be yet another tuffgrrl and that this "freedomfighter" angle is a reprehensible record-selling gimmick and nothing more. Take away the backstory and the anti-establishment packaging that lends it enough "street cred" for the Brooklyn iPod kids to buy her records, and these simplistic "mash-ups" fall flat on their face. I can't decide whether she's simply too dumb to understand the fire she's playing with, or unscrupulous enough not to care.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read This!
Comment: This is a quote from a negative comment," This is the definition of drivel".
Please tell me what you like. To me, this is an example of a flow lyrically, and artistic beats, that combine to produce a vibe that I haven't heard in a looooong time! It's SEXY, political, and (((F@#king HUGE IN SOUND)))!!!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Twisted
Comment: "I can do the twist!" I proudly announced to my grandmother. I was 5, she 65 and it was 1965. "So you can," she proudly retorted. Maybe it was the Beatles cartoon, or, who knows, some 101 Strings K-tell "Now Sound."
Rats, I lost my hipper-than-xxxx rock critic notes. That's ONLY because I was dancing so fiendishly, though. This gets the people up on the floor. Bonus revolutionary rhetoric, too. Samples to die for.
"$10" and "Sunshowers" are the show stoppers. Lots of wow throughout. Anyway, enough of that. Back to me, Lexus in the driveway, snowperson on the front lawn, private kids' (including mine) school up the hill.
Samples to die for. Better than Moody Blues "techno" 80's "comeback." Which NO one could twist to, a shame, because twisting ~ and being twisted ~ is, like, EXACTLY. My, my. Now back, over and out, to YOU.
Customer Rating:
Summary: OK
Comment: You can tell the difference between this and the next. A couple of good songs, nothing spectacular. One song on this CD appears on the movie "War" with Jet-Li. Although I rate this with an OK, Im very tough. There's no sappy love ballads, no whiney boy songs. It's in your face, and strong.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
