Day 0973 - Kala

M.I.A. "Kala" (2007)

Funnily enough I watched the doco/film about Mathangi Arulpragasam (M.I.A.) a week or so after I listened to and wrote this one up - which would have saved me a bit of reading time, but just digging around a bit and yeah she's had an interesting life.   She grew up in Sri Lanka during the civil war, surrounded by violence.   When she and her family moved to the UK she found herself surrounded instead by racism.

Arulpragasam actually started her artistic career as a visual artist.   She was becoming a respected artist in her own right when Elastica took her on board to do artwork for one of their albums.   She went on tour with them to do some filming, and the tour opener artist Peaches encouraged her to make music.   Elastica singer Justine Frischmann provided her a sequencer/drum-machine and Arulpragasam started putting together some demos, adopting the stage name M.I.A.

Frischmann's manager helped her secure a record contract and M.I.A. released her first album.   That was my first introduction to her, with the videos for "Bucky Done Gun" and "Sunshowers" getting a bit of play here in NZ.   BDG in particular wasn't really like anything I'd heard with its beats, minimal arrangements, stabs of horn and raps.

"Kala" mostly follows in this vein, mostly focussing on beats without too many instruments arranged over the top of it.  Just there to underline M.I.A.'s vocals.  There are samples of South Asian music and (just to mix things up) the Clash, with that band's "Straight to Hell" being used to create the brilliant "Paper Planes".   "Bird Flu" is all sorts of percussion wonderfulness, "Jimmy" is a bit more electro-pop.   

Great album, though I would say I was less impressed by the artist behind the art after watching the film. 😕

Day 0943 - Sea Change

Beck “Sea Change” (2002) – got it

Relationship breakups sometimes make for the best albums.  That was the case with the end of Beck’s 9-year relationship to his fiancée, after she cheated on him.  What to do when your heart has been broken by a cheatin’ woman…. Go country of course!

Beck wrote most of the songs in a week and then sat on them for a while.  He felt that the songs were too personal and that recording/releasing them would seem like airing his dirty laundry.  Not a surprising attitude for a guy who’d previously made his name laying abstract and cynical lyrics over a rapidly shifting collection of musical genres and sampled sounds.  Eventually he decided the breakup theme was universal enough to not seem too self-indulgent and recorded the songs.

‘Sea Change’ lives up to its name with Beck largely shelving his genre-splicing approach to largely stick with a ballady alt-country sound, and as mentioned, displaying much greater introspection with his lyrics.

There are still interesting audio touches.  The opening track “the Golden Age” is, on the face of it, a pretty straightforward ballad but with atmospheric washes of noise underneath.  The following track “Paper Tigers” has an almost Jean-Claude Vannier/Serge Gainsbourg vibe to its sound and string arrangements.   Strings are one of the main embellishments on the album and range from subtle backing to bombastic attack.   The mood througout is definitely sombre, with song titles like “Lost Cause” “Lonesome Tears” and “I Guess I’m doing Fine”.

The album manages to maintain its quality without a 'side B slump'.   A couple of the last few tracks "Sunday Sun" and "The Little One" kind of have hints of Chris Cornell's slanted melodic sensibilities, maybe with touches of Radiohead thrown into the mix.   Radiohead's regular collaborator Nigel Godrich produces, so one of those influences is perhaps unsurprising.