20. Solitude (2023)
In contrast to her first attention-grabbing mixtape (2004’s Piracy Funds Terrorism), 2023’s Bells Collection slipped out virtually unnoticed: to say its lo-fi, Christian-themed contents divided fans is putting it mildly, but Solitude’s murky synth arpeggios and reflective mood were good enough to surmount some clumsy lyrics (“You used to have gurus, now it’s Google” etc).
19. Pull Up the People (2005)
Tough, funky, minimal – there’s almost nothing here beyond a beat and a bassline – Pull Up the People just makes you want to dance. Grime producer D’Explicit’s remix roots the track more in the contemporary London scene, but it’s the original version that demonstrates how singular MIA and producer Switch’s vision was.
18. Hussel (2007)
Kala may be MIA’s best album, so consistent that even its less-celebrated tracks are pretty amazing, which brings us to the grinding synths and chanted vocals of Hussel. The moment when she cedes the mic to Nigerian-born London-based grime rapper Afrikan Boy, his voice cut up and looped – “You think it’s tough now? Come to Africa!” – still feels hugely exciting 17 years on.
17. China Girl/10 Dollar (2004/2005)
This track started life on Piracy Funds Terrorism, interpolated with the riff from Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams. By the time it ended up – retitled – on Arular, it had taken a darker turn: the song’s subject more clearly drawn as a sexually abused child. No Eurythmics sample, but the music is still raw and super-danceable.
16. Time Traveller (2022)
By Mata’s release, it seemed as if MIA’s more outre views – a Trump-supporting anti-vaxxer, she literally started selling a $100 5G-blocking “tinfoil hat” on her website – might be affecting her popularity. Certainly, the album’s commercial failure wasn’t always accounted for by its contents: the Pharrell-produced Time Traveller was minimal but fabulously intense.
15. Tell Me Why (2010)
A fabulous deep cut from Maya, which warps a sample of sacred harp singing – a particularly forceful brand of a cappella choral music popular in the deep south – until it floats over a monstrous, military beat, then throws in the kind of ultra-catchy chorus notable by its absence elsewhere on the album.
14. Borders (2016)
Borders was apparently written in two hours – a waspish observer might suggest you can tell from the lyrics, which address the refugee crisis in fairly simplistic terms (“Borders! What’s up with that?”), but you can’t knock the supremely catchy melody, or, for that matter, the stuttering beat that propels it forward.
13. XR2 (2007)
A glorious, gleeful paean to London’s 90s hardcore rave scene – Bagleys, World Dance and Labyrinth all get a mention, as does the era’s lethal teen booze Mad Dog 20/20 – tricked out with suitably air horn-like blasts and electronic noises that sound a little like radio interference as you try to tune into a pirate station.
Crammed with ideas … Mathangi Arulpragasam. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
12. Sunshowers (2004)
The chorus of Sunshowers is lifted wholesale from a wonderful 1976 song by August Darnell’s swing/disco titans Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, used here as an irresistible burst of melody in a track that’s both playful and tough, driven by a beat somewhere between dancehall and a malfunctioning video game.
11. Matangi (2013)
If MIA sounded embattled on Matangi – calling out a nameless “lookalike, copycat, doppelganger, fraud”, and aiming a jab at Drake for reasons that aren’t entirely clear – then the track itself converts anger into powerful, riotous energy, her vocal riding a beat that’s got a distinct hint of glam stomp in its makeup.
10. Jimmy (2007)
Based on Pavarti Khan’s Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja, Jimmy amps up the four-four pulse and marries said Bollywood disco anthem’s slightly ska-like rhythm to a lyric that appears to be sick with lust for a war correspondent: “Take me on a genocide tour, take me on a truck to Darfur.”
9. Born Free (2010)
As if to underline that she had no interest in chasing after the commercial success she found with Paper Planes, the lead single from MIA’s next album was distorted and muffled, based around a frantic sample from Suicide’s Ghost Rider and boasted a vocal that involved singing what little tune there was off-key. It’s still viscerally thrilling.
Viscerally thrilling… MIA at Nyon, Switzerland’s Paleo Festival, 2014. Photograph: Erick James/WireImage
8. Boyz (2007)
Recorded partly in Trinidad and India, Boyz soaks in the local influences of soca and Tamil gaana – its rhythm is partly powered by urumee drums – but there’s nothing studious about its adoption of global sounds. It feels like being in the midst of the chaotic “mash up and in a haze” party its lyrics describe: a joy.
7. XXXO (2010)
A rare pop-facing moment amid Maya’s aural minefield, XXXO is an explosion of chattering electronics, R&B vocals, with a big old hook thrown in. The lyrics intriguingly temper their sharp come-ons – “I can be that actress, you be Tarantino” – with the suggestion the relationship is doomed: “You want me be somebody who I’m really not.”
6. Bamboo Banga (2007)
Bamboo Banga opens with a burst of the Modern Lovers’ proto-punk classic Roadrunner, its lyrics about driving through suburban Boston recontextualised to reflect Kala’s global musical journey: “Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, Burma … I’m a world runner.” The track is a thrilling ride in itself: propulsive, stark but crammed with ideas.
5. Bucky Done Gun (2005)
The delightful shock delivered by both Piracy Funds Terrorism and debut album Arular in miniature: the music is equal parts baile funk and electro – with a hint of the Rocky soundtrack thrown in – the voice is very London, the lyrics ponder both hip-hop’s obsession with guns and matters more carnal: “You’re so do-able.”
4. Come Around (2007)
Kala ended with Come Around’s triumphant collaboration with Timbaland, a perfect match given the increasing global music influence on his beats at the time. From its Indian percussion-laden rhythm to its dense electronic coda, Come Around is so great, you can even forgive Timbaland’s verses (rapping was not his primary skill).
3. Galang (2003)
MIA’s debut single had a weird gestation: co-written by Justine Frischmann and initially intended for Elastica(!), before Frischmann encouraged MIA to finish it herself, its pile-up of dancehall, jungle, electro and weed-fuelled London street reportage sounded incredibly striking on its release. It still does now.
2. Bad Girls (2012)
The media storm that engulfed MIA around the release of Maya made the first single from its successor – originally released in truncated form on her 2010 mixtape Vicki Leekx – seem like a defiant comeback, a supercool pop track, powered by Middle Eastern and Indian-sounding melodies and an undeniable chorus.
1. Paper Planes (2007)
Paper Planes isn’t just MIA’s biggest track, it’s the moment where all the various strands of what she does – provocative lyrical politicking, pop smarts, insouciant rapping, magpie musical borrowing – combine to most striking effect. The sample from the Clash’s Straight to Hell is both fitting (it was, after all, a song about immigration, with a global worldview) and beautifully deployed; the chorus is just great, its trio of sound effects a superb hook. The extended Diplo remix with guest verses by Bun B and Rich Boy is probably the pick of the various versions available, although DFA’s chugging remix is worth checking out too.
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