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Kala

Universal acclaim
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 151 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Interscope
Release Date: 21 August 2007
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rap
Summary
The UK rapper returns with her second album, which was recorded in several countries.
Also By This Artist: Arular
Also On The Web: Criticulture MP3.com Artist Space Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >RapReviews.com
It is more expansive and daring--resulting in more highs and lows than "Arular."
Read Full Review >Urb
Her most anticipated follow-up is again the most cross cultural jam you'll hear this year. [Sep/Oct 2007, p.129]
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.
Read Full Review >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]
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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Kala nearly makes "Arular" seem tame in comparison, magnifying most of its predecessor's qualities as it remains bracingly adventurous.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
The result is Kala a stark confrontation of set notions of authenticity and identity--and my new favorite record.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
Although there are a couple of failed tracks--like the tediously slow 'The Turn'--most of this stuff is groundbreaking.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Even more so than her arresting 2005 indie debut, "Arular," M.I.A. comes off as a globetrotting activist on sophomore effort Kala.
Read Full Review >Hot Press
Kala is an intoxicating junk-culture travelogue, a genre-humping mash-up of Bollywood rumbles, shrieking guitars and machine-gun rhymes.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
MIA innovates club music, art music and pop music at every turn.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
Kala is pop music without the vapidity, and political music without the condescension.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Defiant cosmopolitanism doesn't come much more feisty, or compelling than this. [Sep 2007, p.104]
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]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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]
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.
Read Full Review >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]
Entertainment Weekly
Kala is propelled by genuinely stellar moments. [24 Aug 2007, p.133]
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Vibe
The majority of Kala is limp and unfocused. [Sep 2007, p.133]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 151 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Johnny Flow gave it a10:
This is a fantastic album and a true original, big upgrade over the impressive Arular. But I understand how M.I.A.'s music can divide people. It's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it sound. I will also concede that she is a weak M.C. and downright awful live performer. She is purely an album artist and an interesting person to interview. But damn, what a record... just don't expect to hear specific genre, expect to hear something totally different.
Jooby Dooby gave it a10:
Perfect album.
Milosz D. gave it a2:
I agree that this is overhyped. There *is* a big mix of styles, but that in itself doesn't really mean the album is great, even though some reviewers seem to have based it purely on this notion. It is like Vibe says unfocused, there's no poignancy and it ends up being something in between annoying and dull. 2 Points and that's even with some good will.
Paula K. gave it a10:
Crazy.Cool.Hot.Nice..
Dave h gave it a9:
Pretty spectacular and wildly unique! amazing album! best songs- bamboo banga, birdflu, boyz, jimmy, hussel, 20 dollar, xr2, paper planes and come around are all outstanding tracks!
Kumuthan x gave it a10:
MIA is excellent! talented. a genius. her music is like abstract art. only some of you will "get it".
Matt C. gave it a1:
Pure tripe.
