|
New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
|
Kala
by M.I.A.
The UK rapper returns with her second album, which was recorded in several countries.
| LABEL: |
Interscope |
| RELEASE DATE: |
21 August 2007 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rap |
NOTES: Original UK release 20 August 2007.
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Stylus Magazine
In a voice that shifts from pout to growl in a beat’s time, M.I.A.'s verses and hooks are as mercurial in tone as the backing tracks.
100
Los Angeles Times
The album hits hardest by embodying the process by which certain voices are bottled up and distorted within the global noise of what M.I.A. calls "Third World Democracy."
100
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Kala is such a resolutely strange, sweltering album that it's thrilling to be alive in an era when such a thing can lay claim to the mantle of "pop."
90
RapReviews.com
It is more expansive and daring--resulting in more highs and lows than "Arular."
90
Urb
Her most anticipated follow-up is again the most cross cultural jam you'll hear this year. [Sep/Oct 2007, p.129]
90
BBC collective
M.I.A. and co-producers, including Switch, straddle more styles than you’d find in most music collections, let alone on the same disc.
90
Spin
M.I.A.'s border-crossing dance pop is a revolutionary manifesto set to the victory-party vibe of the future. [Sep 2007, p.127]
90
Rolling Stone
Kala strikes deep. There's a resolute sarcasm, a weariness and defiant determination, a sense of pleasure carved out of work--articulated by the lyrics, embodied by the music.
90
Drowned In Sound
With its mix of Tamil pop, Baltimore beats and, yes, funk carioca Kala succeeds best in pulling genres together to make something both unique and identifiable --a 'hip-hop' record that explores what it means to sing about "hip-hop things."
90
PopMatters
M.I.A. has given us one of the albums of the year. Bravo.
90
musicOMH.com
Here she is doing what she does best--weaving the sounds and statements of the people she's writing about into the song itself.
90
All Music Guide
Kala nearly makes "Arular" seem tame in comparison, magnifying most of its predecessor's qualities as it remains bracingly adventurous.
90
Prefix Magazine
The result is Kala a stark confrontation of set notions of authenticity and identity--and my new favorite record.
89
Pitchfork
Kala is clattering, buzzy, and sonically audacious.
87
cokemachineglow
Although there are a couple of failed tracks--like the tediously slow 'The Turn'--most of this stuff is groundbreaking.
80
Billboard
Even more so than her arresting 2005 indie debut, "Arular," M.I.A. comes off as a globetrotting activist on sophomore effort Kala.
80
Hot Press
Kala is an intoxicating junk-culture travelogue, a genre-humping mash-up of Bollywood rumbles, shrieking guitars and machine-gun rhymes.
80
New Musical Express
MIA innovates club music, art music and pop music at every turn.
80
Hartford Courant
Kala is pop music without the vapidity, and political music without the condescension.
80
Mojo
Defiant cosmopolitanism doesn't come much more feisty, or compelling than this. [Sep 2007, p.104]
80
Dot Music
Three loud cheers for her scattershot creativity, please.
80
The Wire
'Bomboo Banga' is pure power monotony, her deadpan one-note voice mixed with car engines, samples of Bombay pop, Booty Bass and tribal rhythms, is a perfect soundtrack to a stroll down London's Banglatown. [Sep 2007, p.57]
80
Lost At Sea
Kala is only received as a political record if you listen up properly. The music itself no longer asserts itself like a militia; it's too calm and more scattered.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
At first, you’re itching for her to tear into such a juicy beat. But after a couple of listens, you realize it’s a tactful deference that allows her to be in the mix without commandeering it. She could if she wanted to, but she’s passed that.
80
Blender
The impact of M.I.A.'s music isn't in what she says, but how it arrives: in tracks so irritating they're irresistible. Anything but naive, M.I.A. brings a connoisseur's ear to her beats.
80
Sputnikmusic
Kala is definitely a song-based album, but, that being said, the songs fit together perfectly, and even more surprisingly, they’re all good.
80
Uncut
She twangs the boundaries of taste both lyrically ("Take me on a genocide tour/Take me on a trip to Darfur") and musically. But a knockout's a knockout, however messy the bout.
80
Observer Music Monthly
There are the terrible lyrics and more than a few moments where her one-style-fits-all MCing grates, but there's also the politics that no one else would touch, an intelligence, colour and humour, and the added benefit of centrifugally heavy production. Skip a couple, and you're in for a treat.
80
Q Magazine
Everything here is a fantastic hybrid, M.I.A. and her platoon of producers thieving fashionable street sounds from Baltimore hip hop to Brazil's baile funk. [Sep 2007, p.89]
80
The Guardian
Even at its weakest moments, Kala sounds unique--and, thrillingly, like an album that could only have been made in 2007, which is not something you can say about many albums made in 2007.
80
Under The Radar
Kala not only doesn't disappoint, it renews faith in M.I.A. and confirms her commitment to the individualistic sound she has created. [Summer 2007, p.74]
75
Entertainment Weekly
Kala is propelled by genuinely stellar moments. [24 Aug 2007, p.133]
70
Slant Magazine
M.I.A., undoubtedly the truest "outsider" to emerge on the pop landscape in ages, has crafted an album that, in its best moments, positions her as an impassioned advocate for the disenfranchised.
70
Dusted Magazine
Inconclusive. Kala plays as mixed media pastiche, a barely restrained amalgam of ideas that are hardly exhausted by beats or flow and double and triple as political references.
68
Almost Cool
Like her debut, Kala is somewhat inconsistent, for slightly different reasons. While there isn't the distraction of short tracks and skits to break the flow, some of the songs essentially do the same thing by shooting high and missing the mark.
58
cokemachineglow
Kala is the sound of a hugely creative, angry, head-strong young artist reaching well beyond her means, both musically and politically, and coming up short, though, to be fair, it still manages to contain a few of the best songs of the year.
30
Vibe
The majority of Kala is limp and unfocused. [Sep 2007, p.133]
The average user rating for this album is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 136 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this album in our forums |
|
GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
