M.I.A
AIM

Album Release Date: September 9th, 2016

M.I.A. (birthname Maya Arulpragasam) is a thoroughly unique artist who continues to make unclassifiable music. Her style is remarkably original as she explores a variety of diverse sounds while avoiding falling cleanly into any single genre. With spheres of influence grounded in electronic music and HipHop, she also draws from a wealth of world music including South Asian sounds reflective of her ethnic heritage. M.I.A. spent the early years of her childhood in Sri Lanka before returning at age 11 to London, England, where she was born. As such she has a distinct recording voice—a high-pitched British accent resounding with feminine moxy, complemented by hard-hitting, drum-heavy rhythms. Her vocal delivery emulates an almost nursery rhyme-like singsong cadence mixed with a Jamaican dancehall reggae style of rap, and she also sings in the occasional more pop-oriented R&B groover. And her music's always laced with overtly political, revolutionary content—all contributing to her stage persona as a kind of postmodern feminist rap heroine.

M.I.A.'s father is a former revolutionary activist for the Tamil people—a minority ethnic group native to Sri Lanka—who fought for independence from British rule during a civil war that raged for decades. And so M.I.A.'s political roots run deep, continuing work as an activist in her own right for a variety of humanitarian and charity causes including ongoing support of the Tamil people, civil liberties, women's rights, anti-police brutality, and anti-imperialism. While some more conservatively-minded listeners may find her messages and delivery brash at times, it's these same characteristics that have cultivated her beloved status by many others as an important cultural voice of her generation. Using her celebrity and art as a platform, her courageous, outspoken stances have also gotten her into trouble; the United States have officially restricted her access into and out of the country since her debut album, yet she continues to unabashedly evoke rebelliousness and political urgency with her music and attitude.

On AIM, her 5th full-length release, M.I.A. continues to display these same qualities that have led to her past success. It follows 2013's Matangi, which may well be her best album in a now over decade-long career. That album saw her many facets converge into a refined, cohesive blend of multilayered electro-rap in which nearly every track resonated with her confident brand of spirited musical creativity, with scarcely any filler. And so a challenge to top. With AIM—the title an obvious palindrome with her stage name M.I.A.—her previous works aren't necessarily improved upon but definitely at least matched, making for another solid entry into her repertoire as an artist who has never shied away from outspokenness in art or politics.

The album starts with "Borders", as M.I.A. sings the opening lyrics "Freedom, 'I'dom, 'Me'dom / Where's your 'We'dom? / This world needs a brand new 'Re'dom / 'We'dom the key / 'We'dom the keydom to life". It's a bit of witty wordplay that spotlights a message of unity, sung to a sparse synth melody that builds to greater intensity behind M.I.A.'s vocals before drums, bass, and a catchy Middle Eastern riff kick in with her refrain of "Borders (What's up with that?) / Politics (What's up with that?) / Police shots (What's up with that?) / Identities (What's up with that?) / Your privilege (What's up with that?) / ...Am gonna keep up on all that". While there are numerous highlights throughout the album's 12 tracks (with an additional 5 on the deluxe version), "Borders" might well be the best.

Middle Eastern electro-rap sounds carry on with "Go Off", a banging jam in which M.I.A.'s steady rapping reverberates as a robotic chant. Her signature sound is exhibited here; computer-generated music that simultaneously evokes tribal, primal qualities in which the voice and drum elements radiate most strongly. Two versions of "Bird Song" appear—the "Blaqstarr Remix" and "Diplo Remix"—a cute ditty in which M.I.A. reflects on relationships by way of bird metaphors like "Toucan fly together" and "I'm cuckoo for you" over a looped beat resembling a bird call. It's not your cookie-cutter love song (and perhaps actually a sendup of such) but this is exactly its appeal. With a raucous dance party beat, a definite standout is "A.M.P. (All My People)" in which M.I.A. further displays her endearing rap style with lines like "I'm not on seven / I'm on eleven / The difference is kinda like Devon and Yemen / When I go to Oman / I say 'Yeah, man' / I open a club up and fill it strictly full of woman". The only marginal low points on the album come with "Freedun", in which featured guest Zayn sings a hook that treads too far into a cheesy top-40 pop sound, and likewise "The New International Sound" relies too much on such overused pop song conventions as autotune.

While AIM doesn't add many new dimensions to M.I.A.'s persona or overall body of work, it effectively displays all that we've come to know and love about her. She closes the album off with "Platforms", singing "Guns keep it fun? / Keeping men on the run / Those who love heat, yeah here comes the sun / Power to the people, yeah the light is never done". And so, in this world of corporate domination, with a slew of fly-by-night pop singers with little to nothing to say, and in a time in which attitudes of ironic detachment, cynicism, nihilism, and shrugging acceptance of capitalism seem pervasive, M.I.A.'s voice is a welcome one. Even if she's not saying much that she hasn't before, her messages and energy are consistently inspiriting, so her continued presence on the world stage certainly earns my hearty salute.
• Nik Dobrinsky / Boy Drinks Ink
October 28th, 2016