During the ‘90s, there was a subgenre of dance music that lived halfway between Amazonian children’s choirs and Soul II Soul. It was called Worldbeat, was led by the likes of Enigma and Deep Forest and was almost universally derided outside the safe haven of WOMAD.
M.I.A. might have spent the past 10 years reinventing it, but for the fact that her music is so distinctive that it defies genre categorisations beyond pop. Put simply, M.I.A. is original.
Her fifth (and possibly final) studio album, ‘AIM’ does not veer from this sense of originality. Its lead track, Borders, might be the most important single released by a major label artist this year. It’s blackly satirical desert-rap; an existential prayer to a world that is too busy taking selfies to notice the dead refugee on the beach.
Elsewhere, M.I.A. collaborates with former One Direction member turned thoughtful solo artist Zayn, but with a degree of humour.
His vocal on Freedun is treated a bit like George Clooney’s cameo in South Park as Sparky the dog. The association is clearly too big an opportunity to miss, but it’s one that M.I.A. will not allow to undermine the integrity of the record. He was in the world’s biggest boyband, after all.
Actually, satire remains the sharpest tool in M.I.A.’s musical arsenal. Tracks like Fly Pirate and Visa have brilliantly lo-fi samples that transform them from nightclub fodder into being something altogether more interesting and comic. Meanwhile, her lyrical tone always remains vaguely unimpressed and insouciant - like a girl who’s bored of alpha males trying it on.
The only thing that stops this from being a classic is the lack of absolute bonafide pop bangers on it. But ‘AIM’ remains an album of of brilliantly delivered poise, humour and anger, brimming with ideas and hungry confidence. It’s what pop music should be about, and too often isn’t.
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