M.I.A.- Matangi (2013)

M.I.A.- Matangi (2013)

In order to understand Matangi, M.I.A. latest record, I had to give Maya, M.I.A. previous effort, a new listen, why? Because basically MAYA represents a big turn in M.I.A. career, one that obviously got her in trouble with her label bosses at Interscope, and like Metallica, you need to listen closely to the so called “black album” to understand everything that came after that, it’s a “crossroads” album type of situation in which the artist must decides if he or she continues in a crowd pleasing direction or simply returns to satisfying him or herself in this case, Metallica learned the hard way, and M.I.A. understood fast, Matangi keeps the direction set by Maya, but while we can say, M.I.A. has saved her artistic soul, she’s is not left without some bruises.

Maya and Matangi are kind of twin records, both belong to a particular “space” in the career of this amazing artist, fans of Arular, M.I.A. first record were disappointed by the pop approach applied to Kala, M.I.A. second effort, a record that definitely rounded the edges of M.I.A. sonic approach delivered first, Maya was a direct reaction toward the casual listeners that arrived after the Paper Planes single, obviously her raising fame after that single became a heavy burden to M.I.A. and she was quick to shake those unwanted guest in a “Lou Reedesque” strategy, so Maya, in a way, became M.I.A. own Metal Machine Music, a record so conflicted with pop, that neglected it in a big way, taking a very noisy and abrasive approach that had M.I.A. in a full aural attack, that obviously resulted in something so repulsive to pop lovers and casual listeners, abstract and one record that required several listening for their secrets to be revealed.

But at this point, is Matangi a good record or not? It is and it is not, is a great record because it lets her regain power over her career, it gives some order to the chaotic Maya, and that’s so good, but at the same time, the records suffers because of the amount of time it was shelved, the songs lack some spontaneity and rests power to the arrival of the record, it could have been a great 1-2 if it was released close to Maya, but after 3 years, people are not so much hungry for M.I.A. material, so it might affect deeply the reactions towards it, first theme Karmageddon is not exactly one to tear down the doors, and Matangi, the next one isn’t exactly one to keep the impact though the first moments of the record, unfortunately, M.I.A. tries once again to make a personal record, but while on Maya she sounded enraged, in Matangi she sounds confused, trying to remain personal, but at the same time afraid of taking the personal view to far, things start working in Only 1 U, she seems more or less bringing her powers and focus back, the rhythms hit harder and her flow simply shines here, and Warriors also benefits from noise and dissonance, here M.I.A. seems to recover the intensity and abrasive power of Maya, but she stills sounds far form Arular, the oriental tricks se adds to her music, that sounded so original on Arular, now seem outdated by the great Omar Souleyman, who seems untouchable as the principal face of oriental avant garde world music, and as the saying goes, “Who hits first, hits best”.

M.I.A. looses energy with Come Walk With Me, in which she tries to regain some broader appeal, aTENTion, simply misses the point, and by Exouds, M.I.A. simply sounds like she has lost her way, she sounds scared of the chances taken in the first past of the record, she concedes some commercial tunes to please her label bosses, but her power sounds drained, and Bad Girls, which could save her, is a song that given the fact that was issued almost a year ago is simply out of time and context here.

Matangi sounds like a big mess, a noisy one in some moments, of course but unfortunately lacking the artistic daring cohesion of Maya, if you are going to take such a big artistic risk, you should make sure that you have the right songs, and if in Maya, M.I.A. took the risk, in Matangi she runs out of gas, out of courage and out of songs, so much time in between is not backed with good material, so she simply falls on her butt this time, the girl simply lacks the power she showed on those first records, she sounds with lots of doubts and that ends damaging severely the record and perhaps damaging her career, as in the case of Metallica, I thing M.I.A. wont be able to solve this mess by herself and perhaps she must consider a good collaborative work in the short time to recover some momentum and save her career.