Kala

Whew. What a slog to get through. We start with the one-two helicopter crash that is Bamboo Banga / BirdFlu, a pair of songs so self-assured that they surely don't need any kind of melody, good vocal delivery, or convincing instrumentation – at least, according to M.I.A. In fact, these factors end up being the songs' downfall, because when so much is stripped away, you're left with complex artificial percussion backing an unrefined, childlike vocal and to bland, clichéd lyrics. It turns out M.I.A.'s voice is actually pretty good (see later tracks), but in this first run of songs, she sings/raps in a near monotone which still manages to be harmonically disjoint from the chord progressions. It sounds... well, bad. M.I.A. also chooses to double-track her vocals on most songs, which is by no means a bad choice – countless 60s bands pulled this technique off well – but her clumsy, inconsistent delivery makes the singing sound messy and unprofessional at times. The song Boyz begins to show promise with the Olympic-sounding brass part, but again M.I.A. self-sabotages with the (essentially) one-note melody. Jimmy and Hussel are the first two good tracks. They showcase some fun synth parts and the first appearance of solid singing and melodic work. The only other tracks I'd be willing to listen to again are the mega-hit Paper Planes and the album closer Come Around, both of which have memorable, catchy hooks. The remainder of the album is mostly complete throwaways. The kids of Wilcannia Mob who feature in Mango Pickle Down River just don't sound very good – though props to the low beatboxing that substitutes for a bass synth. Pretty cool. XR2, World Town, and 20 Dollar are three extremely anonymous electronic club-rave songs that don't really get off the ground at all. I'd be interested to hear M.I.A. singing with any kind of effort or passion. It would completely change my view of her music. 1/5 Key tracks: Jimmy, Hussel, Paper Planes

It’s nothing really special and nothing I personally would revisit in full other than one song (Jimmy). It was also quite repetitive which was sad, sorry

First track annoyed the shit out of me. Second track sounds like Nelly Futado having a fight with Mini Mouse. Third track…fuck this I’m gonna have to skip through this, it’s hideous FFS! No it’s not getting any better, Japanese Boney M ?! OK Paper Planes is just about bearable but only for The Clash sample. This is the worst so far by far, horrendous!

Look, I love weird music and I love noise so I appreciate those aspects, but these songs are just annoying. The only song that wasn't annoying was Paper Planes and that's because Straight To Hell (the sample) is my favorite Clash song. I feel bad giving this one a 1 because it's very unique, but on a scale of every album on this list, this is one of my least favorites so far. I see why people would like this, but it is not for me. I had to skip a few songs, because they were giving me a headache. High 1.

Honestly not a great album

fhfhbbb

Listening to these lyrics and remembering that she married a millionaire and her values seemed to change overnight! MIA is a little shit head and this album sucks.

First song was horrible. I tried to stay open minded but the second song is horrible and annoying too. By this point my ears are suffering. 20 Dollar is a cheap knockoff of The Pixie's Where is My Mind. Really wish this list would give me that album instead. Paper Plans is a song I knew already and is okay I guess. But by now I'm questioning the integrity of these songs and lo and behold, it's a ripoff of The Clash's Straight To Hell. The only possibly good thing about this album is not original.

Wie auf dem Bauernhof: Eine Ladung Mist nach der anderen! Gackern, Kreischen und Jammern hat mit Gesang nichts zu tun. Dazu klopft jemand mit einer Stange auf einem Fass herum. Unhörbar!

I skipped every track!

Really, truly bad. The one hit song is nostalgic for me but the rest is quite dull and laborious to get through

Annoying noise. Not for me.

Paper Planes is good. The rest.. not so much. Can't stand it.

Mais isso atingiu altas doses de chatura.

Terrible. Just noise for most of it. I feel justified being like the only person I knew who didn't like Paper Planes back in the day.

A lot of this album sounds like it was made by a child. Occasionally some cool use of samples. '20 Dollar' was catchy. 'Paper Planes' was catchy. I hope I gave it a fair shot; I’m not sure I did. But even the catchy songs are self-important, image-obsessed, and arduously humorlessly political. This album came out a year after Kevin Federline’s similarly funk carioca influenced ‘PopoZão’.

I suppose they do what they do well, just not for me. 1

This didn’t help my hangover. Too much going on. Maybe I need to go and have a lie down in a dark room and give it another listen later.

Drivel..like her last album

This is my 100th album. Thank you for the headache and also recommending me 99 albums before I had to suffer through this one.

shit!

gods have forsaken us

Awful.

I immensely dislike Hip Hop. I don't know if this is good or bad but I just can't get through it as much as I try.

I didn’t drink the M.I.A. Kool Aid in 2007 and I ain’t drinking it now.

I didn't make it very far into this one. I remember Paper Planes being a big single at the time and the rest sounds like what I would expect the rest of the album to sounds like. Not really my thing. Also not really anything special.

Wow that was irritating as hell..

One really good tune (Paper Planes). The rest seemed to have some small degree of undeveloped promise and are well, just annoying after 30 seconds. One star.

That was a lot of work to get to the Paper Planes song. Everything else on this album blurs together into noise soup. Paper Planes is still great.

My two least favorite genres are world and hip hop. And this is hip-hop that samples more world music than anything else. Paper Planes has some parts of it that are sort of listenable (I can see why it's a popular single at least) but this is not for me and I hated most of it.

Hip hop with an African feel. I didn’t like her previous album and I didn’t like this one either. I think it’s just not my style of music. I don’t think it’s bad, I just don’t like it.

Each song is repetitive and unlistenable. I guess you'd have to be in a dance club and on a lot of drugs to like this music. One positive is that each song is unique...but I can't handle this. Paper Planes is ok, but if you like this, listen to the original, Straight To Hell by The Clash. It's so much better.

Never heard anything from her, except Paper Planes, and i wish i never had

I did not enjoy this at all. Even back when this released, I never understood the appeal nor the praise it garnered.

fan vad det här är tråkigt. paperplanes är ju bra men inte tillräckligt bra för att rädda upp den här skiten.

All I wanna do is *bang bang bang* and *cash register sound* and a tell people that their covid vaccine has a 5g chip. Paper planes slaps everything else involved does not

Horrible!!

Oh Jesus. My first association... PAPER PLANES. Turned from a dancefloor favourite to an annoyance. Also, hasn't she turned into a bit of a conspiracy nutjob lately? Anyway, on to the music. Phew. I appreciate the layers expertly laid on top of each other and all sort of making some sense. Nothing here is a coincidence. You can also hear loads of influences. First two that come to my mind have a connection, even - Tom Tom Club and My Life In the Bush of Ghosts. The thing is: So many of the choices made are just so annoying to my ears. High-pitched repetitive samples. Give me a claustrophic feeling of being on some sort of trip without an off button, when I've only had a glass of beer. Which of course means there IS an off button to what I'm experiencing. Jimmy is weirdly annoyingly catchy in a way that might make me want to come back to it in the same way I sometimes need a dose of Gwen Stefani's Watcha Waiting for. But by and large, I never want to listen to this album again.

Genuinely awful

Aside from Paper Planes and maybe 2 other songs, this entire album is garbage. truly annoying noises put over nonsensical lyrics. sounds like "thirteen year old's first time using fruity loops program" and feels even worse.

I couldn't seem to vibe with this, apart from Jimmy and Paper Planes. Otherwise, I found the rhythms and vocal off-putting.

Not sure an album could be much more unlistenable than this. At times the songs would give a hint of being something decent, but then just turn into absolute shit. Paper Planes is OK, the only coherent track on an album of random sounds.

I honestly thought I wad having some sort of fit listening to this. Not good at all I'm not even a fan of paper planes, which is the only one I knew

This is relentless shrill fucking noise. HARD PASS.

Nicht meine Richtung

Do people actually pay money to listen to this?

🚮 jimmy xr2

I kept waiting for something to happen. Anything. A hint of melody. A variation in the beat. She travelled the world and this is what she came back with? She obviously didn’t hear any singers in hear journey.

first song sucks ass. second song sucks too. the trend is continuing. i could not finish this album. Even their popular song Paper Planes could not save this.

Evidence that Robert Christgau lost his dang mind in the mid-2000s. Best album of the decade? Performative poseur nonsense.

Sannerligen unikt men det behöver inte vara bra för det. Väldigt jobbig musik. Fult cover, dryga låtar, tråkiga texter…

Thought she was taking the piss for most of it... Almost unlistenable. Quite like paper planes, probably been on an advert. Overall, quite annoying.

1. bamboo - 1 2. birdflu - 1.5 3. boyz - 1 4. huzzel - 1.5 5. mango - 1 6. dollar- 1 7. uuorld - 1 8. turn - 0 9. zr 2 - 1.5 10. paper planez - 2 11. come around - 1

Paper Planes was the only good song. 1/5

Terrible

It's impossible to listen to, hip-hop with too much experimentation and unattractive vocals.

That's not my taste in musik. Musik?

This is trash

I’m about to be MIA from this site. I know I’m not going to like everything but this has been some run…ouch.

I tried

You know the saying, “you can go your whole life without drinking water”, because you’ll just die at the end? I sometimes feel that when listening to 1001 albums before I die, cause if I keep getting these dogshit albums I’m not going to make it to the end.

No thanks. A strong beat and a clever lyric repeated ad nauseum is no substitute for talent.

Outside paper planes this is an annoying album. The background vocals/sirens/dog barks don’t add for me. The percussion parts are redeeming at times.

No……

Just kinda terrible.

Nope

I'm guessing M.I.A. would love how marmite the reviews on 1001 are - mostly 5 or a 1. And there is something cool about that. But I'm going to have to side with the guys voting 1. I just don't see it. I only knew Paper Planes, and I wish that were still true. There are so many good ideas in Paper Planes, and then one idea per track after that. Repetitive and annoying. Jimmy was listenable, and that's the best I can do.

I understand that there have to be cultural expressions and demands of all kinds, but I don't understand that, as musicals, they have to be on the list... Anyway, snobbery once again... If the suggestions continue like this, I will leave it shortly... I don't want to understand anything, I want to enjoy the music.

Nop

Really hard to listen to. Kind of monotone and bland, and just strangely edgy for the sake of sounding different, but it never ended up being very musical or fun.

The exact same sound and production values on every second of every song. Boring, unoriginal, monochromatic, no variation.....you get it.

lots of energy, African-inspired drums & rhythms absolutely hate everything about it, even the cover Paper Planes is alright I guess Jimmy sounds a bit ABBA

one really good track, the rest is meh. not my thing. 1/5

In a nutshell: ambitious and haphazard passion project number 2. Overall: 2/10

"Thou shall not make repetitive genetic music" This record is so damn repetitive. Even paper planes, the hit, repetitive.

Hmm weinig leuks te vinden bij M.I.A, behalve dat briljante refreintje van Paper Planes: All I wanna do is - POW! POW! POW! POW!

Aaarghhh make it stop!

Wow that was one of the most interesting albums I have listened to by far. I literally had NO idea what was going on AT all during this whole album. Maybe this is one of those albums that you can look back on and be like wow this is amazing how did I not like this at first, but my GOD if I can give M.I.A. one thing, its that it is not like anything I've ever heard before. 1/5

I cannot stand this album. Between the purposeful dissonant vocals, repetitive 5 seconds loops, and terrible electronic I'm just annoyed listening to it. Features were the only positive

11 out of 12 songs were garbage.

This album would be improved out of all recognition if it was just Paper Planes eleven times. It would actually be less repetitive and boring, too. Rubbish.

16/100 Based on this scale: 1 star - 0 to 19 2 stars - 20 to 39 3 stars - 40 to 59 4 stars - 60 to 79 5 stars - 80 to 100 Repetitive and dull.

Rap, african in sounds with a lot of soundboard effects. Paper Airplanes was huge for a few years. Its crazy how many ppl listen to that one song with the rest of the album is so low. To me its because each song is very different without a flow as you listen to the album from beginning to end. Single songs all bundled together.

Not just annoying, it's aggressively annoying! There is nothing musical about this to my ears. My poor ears. Why would anyone think this needs to be listened to before they die? Note: It wasn't on Apple Music, so I had to listen on YouTube, which isn't ideal.

Hater beatene, vokalene er irriterende og sangene mangler variasjon. Oppriktig vanskelig å høre på. Paper planes er god da.

Not a fan. Actively wanted most songs to end after their first couple minutes. The South Asian/hip-hop fusion felt like it could be cool as a premise, but it was very irritating and repetitive. It felt like effort was put into most elements to create a unique listening experience, so I wish I didn't dislike it so much when it hit my ears. Could feel the 5G coursing through my veins. 1/10

Old rap, no fun

This album annoyed me for the most part it had that one song that called back to The Pixies where is my mind which I wouldn't go as far as it say it was good. But it was a nice surprise compared to everything else that was on here. Her voice is fine but her style of rapping or deliver on lyrics is incredibly repetitive along with all the backing tracks behind it. Paper Airplanes was probably the best song on here and I didn't like it the first time I heard it on the radio and in movies.

Horrible. Shameful inclusion.

Ugh. No. Just no.

She does much in life that is laudable, but this is not to my taste. It barely qualifies as music in my view - I hate it. Mucking about with rythyms and sequencers is not 'music'. And rap might be poetry, but it isn't music.

I hated this album tbh. Could've done without the kidz-bop song halfway through. The last song sounded like if you searched "plants vs zombies type beat" on YouTube. Production was at least decent but oh my the vocals I'm glad I am dun da da dun dun dun with this one. Gonna go listen to that industrial German yelling album🤘

1/5 Best: Paper Planes Worst: Boyz

Not sure why this is in the top 1001

Pretty annoying with the exception of Paper Planes

Looking at the reviews this would appear to be a Marmite album, you either love it or hate it. I think Marmite is shit. So is this. She sounds like she doesn't care or she's high, either way it's annoying.

There’s a few fun songs that still bop but honestly outside of a club I’m not listening to this lol.

M.I.A. is widely praised for her innovative take on pop music. I fucking hate it with a passion.

Wow, thanks, this is unbearable. If innovation = plastered in cheap sound effects, then M.I.A. is innovative as fuck.

I am biased against her as a person but aI funny see how this isn't generic dancehall

Now I know why paper planes is the only song I’ve heard.

Unlistenable. She may have something to say in regards to our current political environment and I respect the hell out of that, BUT can it be stated in a way that is less like electronic nails on a chalkboard and more like music that doesn’t disrupt the central nervous system causing unnecessary anxiety?

Unlistenable

Alter was für ein absoluter Müll

One popular so g!

This is mostly shit, except for ‘Paper Planes’ and ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ (essentially Wilcannia Mob’s ‘Down River’ with awful M.I.A lyrics and singing added). Not sure both together are enough to elevate ‘Kala’ above a 1 out of 5.

I'm sorry I tried listening to this album but had to stop after the 3rd song... I did not vibe with it at all.

No. It's okay but probably not making it into the rotation.

That album was awful. Her voice is annoying, the samples are over the top repetitive, and there isn't much substance to enjoy. Paper Planes is the only decent song on this whole thing.

Ég skil ekki hæpið. Meh.

Just not good. Um, it was a few days ago, but honestly nothing even comes to memory about it, only that it didn't sounds good

Not hopeful on seeing the cover. The first minute of the first track confirmed my fears - this is awful. It is really bad hip hop - and I don't like good hip hop. No this is not an album I have to listen to before I die - I will die quite content that I did not listen to it all. What I did listen to showed me that she can not sing, that there is no idea of establishing a style amongst a mess of random and unresolved influences. I just can't find anything redeeming at all about this mess.

i listen to some modern music (mostly after 2013) and i feel as singles its okay to hear at a club but as an album it get stale. i'm also not personally a fan of these types of vocals.

A difficult listen. This kind of music doesn't hold up very well, in my opinion. The sound has been designed to be as annoying as possible. I forgot Paper Planes was 90% gunshots.

This sucks

I couldn't finish a single song. I tried, I really did.

No. Just no

I gave it a go, but not my thing.

Liked the first song. Really disliked everything after.

Not my brew. I like a verse/chorus/M8 and all these just sounded like one long verse.

I feel like someone loaded a blunderbuss with every possible style of music imaginable and shot me directly in the face.

Covering a portion of "Roadrunner" as Elmer Fudd was a choice.

Nice groove from the get-go. It's pretty crazy, not exactly good, but at least it's special. I love when it hits hard though. Ok it's pretty terrible A 1 before hearing paper planes, I don't remember it from the title, so I'm excited ro see if I remember it. Ok of course I remember that haha, lgendary song I'd give it a 3 just for that song, but I actually want to remember this album so I'll give it a 1 so it's on my profile

Metto una stella solo perché non posso metterne 0

Pretty awful, with the exception of a couple songs.

Spielt und hört man am besten im Fitnessstudio während einer Session HIIT. Aerobic 1.0

Not for me.

Wtf

Meh

I’m sure someone likes this, but that someone isn’t me. Some of the tracks approached funny, but didn’t quite get there. I get the Indian influences, but that’s not a sound I’m able to appreciate yet. Imagine someone wasn’t accustomed to whisky and you gave them the smokiest Islay Scotch; that’s what this is like. Favourite track: “Jimmy”

Nope. Not a fan.

Don't like it at all

this shit is just annoying, until now i'd only heard the big single and that was bad enough. this just sucks. the only time there is any actual "tuneage" is when it's basically a butchered cover song, everything else is just banging bongo drums to basic AF synth/bass lines and processed speaking/yelling. the few times she tries to actually sing it's fucking horrendous. 1/5.