Despite being M.I.A.’s pal, Loveridge proves surprisingly willing to let the artist contradict and undermine herself even in her adolescent quest for self-definition.

M.I.A. might be joyful but it doesn't mean she's lost her critical eye.

[xrr rating=3.5/5]Much as I miss the tactile pleasure of dropping a needle on a spinning black disc or even loading up a CD player, more modern methods of sampling new music can yield revelatory results. My review copy of M.I.A.’s new album, Matangi, arrived as a batch of audio files. As I loaded them one by one into iTunes, I …

Five years is an eternity in the life of a record. When coming up with this feature, the question the Spectrum Culture staff pondered was this: “How well do these albums play NOW!” Not five years ago, but how have they aged in our memories. While some acclaimed albums of ’07 remain strong on our list, some critically-lauded ones didn’t …

25) M.I.A. – “Bad Girls” [Interscope] Originally released by M.I.A. as a 2:13 worldbeat experiment on 2010’s Vicki Leekx mixtape, the extended edit of “Bad Girls” blends the jovial tenacity of the younger performer with the alternative pop sheen the songstress has cultivated in the interim 13 months. True, the song centers on M.I.A. getting banged in the front seat …

It’s been an interesting year for M.I.A. (aka Maya Arulpragasam). She is no longer the scrappy underdog behind Arular and Kala who can play small clubs and eat a slice of pizza without being recognized. Instead, M.I.A. is now an international star who must fight truffle oil-flavored backlash and heightened expectations. And, for the first time, she’s dealing with an …

M.I.A. /\/\ /\ Y /\ Rating: 3.5/5.0 Label: N.E.E.T./XL Recordings/Interscope Maya Arulpragasam could easily be her generation’s most polarizing artist. I know people who refuse to listen to her, people who’ve chalked up interest in her amongst indie music types (read: mainly white kids) as the same kind of empty cultural tourism that made Slumdog Millionaire a bunch of money …