Arular (Clean Edit)

Electro fusion from Sri Lankan-born London-based M.I.A. (nee Maya Arulpragasm) A bumping mix of techno, dancehall, singsong chanting in her British patois, and political lyrics. She's had a bunch of press in both British music mags and stateside indie mags (cough, pitchfork, cough) and isn't quite worth all the hype, but she still makes some cool new music. The production is what might now be called 'grime' full of hard computerized beats and odd rhythms. She takes bits and pieces of styles from all over the globe, making this a pretty fun album to listen to. Some songs are more dance-oriented while others are a bit more rocking. Either way, this is fun music that will get you moving. Fits in equally well with fans of grime and DFA sort of indie dance stuff. Clean. Play 2,3,6,10,12

1) Skit, spells out 'banana' to hard beats. Pretty cool pro-education skit.
2)** "Pull up the people, pull up the poor," political lyrics matched against sludgy bass with really tight beats and weird laserbeam sounds interjected now and then
3)*** Changes between verses of typical MIA beats and computerized sounds and then horn-led fast-paced marching sounds, pretty cool.
4) Has a very US hip-hop siren-like hook, with her tyical chanting and blasted beats
5) Skit, talking about "MIA, missing in action, gonna start a revolution"
6)* Comparatively delicate production with some backward-played chanting in the back during choruses. The beats are smoother and have a light xylophone sound (can't figure out what the instrument is)
7) Big Caribbean vibe with steel drums and slower vocals.
8) Latin-tinged with some spanish vocals and hard beats. "ooh ahh" choruses
9) Skit, pretty pointless
10)** Quick beat, real smooth, gets you nodding.
11) Disco diva vocals with big bass, kinda interesting.
12)* Her big British club hit. Cool vocal "galang alang alang" with distorted beats and tight synth stabs. Bumpin.
Watch out for the hidden track at the end and don't just leave the song playing! Long silence after Galang ends.
12b) The hidden track has Bush/Blair bashing, "you can be a follower, but who's your leader" with slower beats. Decent song.