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Bad girls do it well: MIA’s 20 best songs – ranked!
Mathangi Arulpragasam has been mixing it up for more than 20 years, blending Bollywood and Suicide samples with funk, electro and hip-hop. We select her standout cuts
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). 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. 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.
Or read this on The Guardian
