M.I.A: Arular

by Melissa Welhams

M.I.A’s first album, Arular, boggles the mind. Not because it isn’t good music, not because it makes you want to throw your CD player out the window, but because it’s almost impossible to categorise. The thirteen songs on the album fuse hip-hop and electro, street funk and dancehall, and much more besides. Influences from many different types of music are visible, but the sound remains unique and utterly exceptional. M.I.A, a Sri Lankan singer now based in the UK, has a voice that is remarkable with its capacity to sound good even when being mixed and broken, or reduced to the spoken word. The lyrics tackle subjects from war and death, and (slightly more strange) bananas. The language is occasionally, and in some songs predominantly, slang, and therefore slightly confusing to any who aren’t clued in on what each word means. Still, the messages of the songs are clear enough through the words that one can understand, as well as the tone of M.I.A’s voice and the music accompanying it. The lengths of the songs are as varied as the influences obvious on the album, with one or two songs little more than 30 seconds long. Overall, Arular makes for interesting and high-quality listening, with heavy backing beats perfect for dancing or otherwise.