Idolator

ARTIST: M.I.A.
TITLE: KALA
WEB DEBUT: July 30, 2007
RELEASE DATE: Aug. 27, 2007

SOUND QUALITY: 192 kbps
ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Sure, the cover is blindingly ugly, but in a way, its hodgepodge of bright primary colors and symbols makes sense; KALA is a head-bending pile of snatched references and stolen quotes, and they're put together in a way that just sounds really, really good. It's outré enough that "Come Around," the track from the UK edition of Timbaland's Shock Value, sounds positively staid, although that could be because we've been bumping that song for a good four months now.
THE BEST TRACK: "Jimmy," which 17 dots likened to "a Knife song except that it's not because it's an M.I.A. song except it's not that either"; it's actually a cover of a song that M.I.A. listened to a lot as a kid, and Gorilla Vs. Bear has an MP3 of the original track, which is from the 1982 Bollywood flick Disco Dancer.