Matangi [Parental Advisory]

Rating

Album: Matangi
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Karmageddon	More Info...
2)	MATANGI	More Info...
3)	Only 1 U	More Info...
4)	Warriors	More Info...
5)	Come Walk With Me	More Info...
6)	ATENTion	More Info...
7)	Exodus (Feat. The Weeknd)	More Info...
8)	Bad Girls	More Info...
9)	Boom Skit	More Info...
10)	Double Bubble Trouble	More Info...
11)	Y.A.L.A.	More Info...
12)	Bring the Noize	More Info...
13)	Lights	More Info...
14)	Know It Ain't Right	More Info...
15)	Sexodus (Feat. The Weeknd)	More Info...

Album: Matangi
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Karmageddon	More Info...
2)	MATANGI	More Info...
3)	Only 1 U	More Info...
4)	Warriors	More Info...
5)	Come Walk With Me	More Info...
6)	ATENTion	More Info...
7)	Exodus (Feat. The Weeknd)	More Info...
8)	Bad Girls	More Info...
9)	Boom Skit	More Info...
10)	Double Bubble Trouble	More Info...
11)	Y.A.L.A.	More Info...
12)	Bring the Noize	More Info...
13)	Lights	More Info...
14)	Know It Ain't Right	More Info...
15)	Sexodus (Feat. The Weeknd)	More Info...

Performer Notes

Recording information: Chalice Studios, Hollywood, CA; Hit Factory, Miami.
Photographer: Daniel Sannwald.
Names are important to Maya Arulpragasam. She named her first two albums after her father and mother, /\/\/\Y/\ after herself, and Matangi after an emerald-green Tantric goddess as well as a riff on her birth name, Mathangi. Picking up where /\/\/\Y/\'s challenging electronics and distrust of the information age left off, M.I.A.'s fourth album is top-loaded with some of its most aggressive tracks, including the title track's global litany. She makes listeners wait for her still-formidable skills with hooks and melodies, displaying them most stunningly on "Bad Girls," a sinewy, menacing track whose origins date back to 2007 sessions with Danja. Throughout the album, Arulpragasam proves she's as adept as ever at blending different sounds and cultures into a mix that is unmistakably hers, alluding to Shampoo's bratty Brit-pop single "Trouble" at one moment and proclaiming herself the female Slick Rick at another. Indeed, the songs inspired by rap and R&B are among the highlights, such as her karmic questioning of Drake's ubiquitous motto on "Y.A.L.A." or the sultry, surprisingly straightforward ballad "Know It Ain't Right." "Exodus," a collaboration with the Weeknd, finds a mostly successful middle ground between her outbursts and his chilly R&B dirges. Other standouts include the fizzy, hypnotic "Lights" and "Boom Skit," which harks back to Arular's brazen exuberance. ~ Heather Phares

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (p.69) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he magic is in the frisson....And the contradictions keep coming."

Entertainment Weekly (p.63) - "[S]he remains one of music's great eccentrics, a charismatic leader preaching a flippant sort of militancy." -- Grade: B+

Mojo (Publisher) (p.96) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] thrillingly cohesive guerilla strike-force. The snotty attitude of MIA's incendiary globalist skipping rhymes has never been better balanced with first-rate pop hooks..."

Paste (magazine) - "M.I.A. is so assured here that rather than spending its running time decrying her critics, she knocks them down to size in an interlude that doesn't even hit the 90-second mark..."