Arular

Not for me. Some fun sounds, some decent beats. Made a mediocre hook out of the gorgeous song 'Sunshower'. So much of MIA's delivery sounds like a nursery rhyme. If you like that jive, fine. I don't. There's an annoying whoop sound she does a few times, which I'd prefer I never heard in the first place. Lukewarm crap.

Weird!

Bleh. Some of the beats were alright, but it didn't feel like much of substance. Lot of repeating lyrics and just seemed lazy. 2/5

This one's a non stop attack of catchy eclectic sample based hip hop insanity. I always like Galang but had't listened to the rest of this album at all, really not my cup of tea, I'm far too old. Also somehow seems a bit too clever and knowing. Good to listen to stuff that's not in your normal listening scope, but this album is quite a lot and by about song 28 I was really hoping it would finish soon.

I like be it one very much bit this is not as good and very mainstream leaning.

Album is fine but too bad M.I.A is an alt right anti Vaxxer conspiracy theorist now

Meh

Klingt alles gleich.

The music is more interesting than a lot of other rap/hip hop albums from this time, but the lyrics just seemed repetitive for the most part

ze kan wel geinige beats produceren maar het is na een tijdje vervelend

Höh tää oli vaikuttava vielä 10 vuotta sitten, mutta eipä ole mielestäni oikein kestänyt aikaa. Harmi. Nyt kiinnostaa, onko Kalalle käynyt sama.

Not for me

I have the same feelings about this album when compared to Kala, and it's just more of the same.

The beats were good, her voice is good, the lyrics are good, but this album just had too much going on for me to enjoy it. I might come back to it and change my mind because I do love politically charged music but for now I'm not a huge fan

Didn't really enjoy this. Interesting clash of styles (a bit world music, hip hop, reggaeton, others) but won't be listening again

Lots of uninteresting and repetitive drum beats with meaningless and lazy lyrics. Mediocre at best

12/05/23 2:00 S Tier————————— A Tier————————— B Tier————————— Amazon Bucky Done Gun Sunshowers Bingo 10 Dollar URAQT Galant Fire, Fire Hombre C Tier————————— MIA Pull Up the People One for the Head - Skit Dash the Curry - Skit D Tier————————— Banana - Skit

Better was to come from M.I.A.

The shock on my face when paper planes wasn’t on this one. Didn’t do much for me and seemed like a lot of loose ideas for songs

I’ll tell you what. The beats they were cool they were focused and creative some songs had a strong pov that I thought was important. I personally enjoyed URAQT and dash the curry. Personally as interesting as I found the album I didn’t love it the production is (again) cool but at the end of the day didn’t do it for me the B man needs some paper planes I’m SORRY! Anyways I am very happy they threw this at us something I would’ve never seen to be on this list -B

Like many, I first heard M.I.A. through her hit song Paper Planes. I loved it. It had such a great groove and was unlike anything I'd heard before. So I tried to listen to more by her, and it just didn't work for me. I want to like her, but something about the way she does her raps, like a kid on a playground taunting another kid by repeating little phrases over and over, just rubs me the wrong way. I think she's talented, but it's just not for me. 2 stars.

Wasn’t so into this. She’s out here now selling 5G tin hats now

Este no es el disco de M.I.A. que hay que escuchar. Es Kala o Matangi. Aunque sea su primer trabajo y lo mismo impresionó no explotó hasta más tarde, al menos en mi opinión. En este disco se ve por donde iría luego pero poco más.

2/5. I actually like some M.I.A. songs that are not on this album, but I believe she was still finding her footing and making a name for herself here.

It was okay

Why are there 2 MIA albums on this list?

Did not like

That's a 'no' for me. It's way to unorganized. The flow is not there in my opinion. 2/5 is gentle.

Didn't listen to too much but really not my style

Here's a vital lesson in musicianship: don't be a vocalist if your voice is annoying. (M.I.A.'s voice is annoying.) She does this sudden upward rise at the end of some notes (a la Freddie Mercury, early-mid-80s) which just doesn't work with her voice at all. The backing instrumentals add very little to the experience other than being repetitive and rhythmically (fairly) simple. The electric sounds create this unsatisfying liminal feel that makes it difficult to really get into the music. Many of those sounds are piercing "whines" or monotonous synths. Not ideal. Since every other aspect is poor, the lyrics must be the intended focal point. And, for what it's worth, the lyrics are actually really badass - when they're not a little goofy ("Quit bending all my fingo/Quit beating me like you're Ringo/You wanna go/You wanna win a war/Like PLO, I don't surrendo"). But that's the thing - I place lyrics very low down on my priority list in music. Arular just doesn't sound good, so I'm judging it accordingly. That being said, it doesn't exactly sound bad. I could imagine this coming on in a supermarket or movie and I wouldn't give it much mind. 2/5

Ambitious first album

ME wanta 10 dolla fa haven ta heer dis.

Klarte faktisk høre gjennom dette, ikke min stil i det hele tatt doe

Not my taste.

Not my bag fam

More interesting than enjoyable. There's not really a song on it that you want to replay / repeat. Nothing really too challenging, but I didn't enjoy it either.

I’ve don’t think I’ve heard of MIA before. At least, the name doesn’t ring a bell. The alcove cover seems a bit all over the place, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect here. Hopefully it will be good, but I’ve genuinely no idea. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Fire Fire I can appreciate how some people might like this, but it’s really just not my thing. It is like a poppy reggae R&B vibe with really British vocals over it. Fire Fire was probably the catchiest song here, but it’ll still be a stretch to say that I enjoyed it. It’s the kind of music that I wouldn’t turn off if it came on the radio, but I would find myself looking forward to it ending. It’s just not the kinda music that floats my boat unfortunately.

This passed some time, but largely sucked

kesti hetken tajuta että kyseesså paljon heikompaa ku edellinen albumi tältä. vaikka tämähän kronologisesti eka...ylläpitö hassuttelee, jälkeempää albumia tarjotaan ensimmäisenä heh...hullut kahelit siellä ruudun toisessa päässä... mutta joo oma saundi löytynyt jo tässä mutta ei musiikkia vielä osata tehdä bingo

Interesting mix of genres, rap,reggae, and edm, overall it all sounded the same throughout. Not sure why it's on the list, maybe it was groundbreaking at the time? It was ok.

Groovy

Not bad for a once througher.

meh

Litt masete

Pull Up the People - 6/10 Bucky Done Gun - 7.5/10 Sunshowers - 7/10 Fire, Fire - 7/10 Dash the Curry - 6.5/10 Amazon - 7.5/10 Bingo - 7/10 Hombre - 7/10 One for the Head - 6/10 10 Dollar - 7/10 U.R.A.Q.T - 7/10 Galang - 7/10 M.I.A - 7/10 TOTAL - 89.5/130

I didn’t expect this to be a political album, but I guess it is (should've realised with the name M.I.A) It doesn’t work with the sample heavy hip hoppy music. A very awkward clash of styles thats not for me 2/5.

Awful, annoying as hell.

Not a fan of this one really.

It was unnoteworthy. I tried to like it but I didn't. It was relatively short. I really only know Paper Planes and that song was not on this.

Was surprised to see one M.I.A album on the list, never mind two. Meh not surprised if this is removed in later iterations of the book.

overall, i found myself impressed but not intrigued. m.i.a. is definitely not your typical artist and there were some cool or unusual elements, like incorporating world music with hip hop and paying homage to her heritage. in a genre dominated by men and pointedly not those of indian heritage, m.i.a. carved quite a spot for herself in her debut album.

I'm not a huge fan of hip hop, and I didn't absolutely love this. That said, I appreciated M.I.A.'s take on hip hop here. The first time I ever hear M.I.A., I remember thinking "wow, this is definitely an alternative form of hip-hop". That thought holds up all these years later on this album. Her style is highly influenced by electronica and world sounds, and she does a good job at making those work. Overall, I really loved the style. The execution here is a little bit lackluster for me, though. This (or at least something of hers) definitely deserves a spot on this project for being a part of pioneering this sound, though. Probably around a 2.5 for me, but not wowed enough to round up.

Esperava mais volúpia nos ritmos e batidas.

Nothing special, and this isn't even the album with Paper Planes on it!

Not my jam

I should like this more, but the overall effect was a bit grating and repetitive

meh album 2.0.

Pfffff, i did it, made it to the end. Not for me.

I like her follow up quite a bit (rated it as 5 stars some time ago) but just like 18 years ago, her debut album is still a hard listen - there are some nice beats but the songs are less catchy and get on one's nerves very quickly.

Didn't vibe with this one.

Hip hop

Kinda timely to get a female-fronted rap album with ‘Banana’ as the first track given all the Lizzo allegations that just came out. Alas, this album isn’t nearly as entertaining as any celebrity drama. Flat, repetitive, and with some disappointingly weak songwriting from M.I.A. that grates with its constant turn to schoolyard-chant style verses. The skits aren’t even skits, just half-formed musical interludes that offer no connective tissue or further meaning to the album. A bit of wasted spot here if you ask me, especially given the much stronger LP from this artist I got much earlier on in the project.

M.I.A again. It's not bad per se, just not really for me.

This debut LP is more raw and less varied than the other MIA we received. I'm surprised they would offer up 2 MIA records.

When Maya Arulpragasam (MIA) came out with her second album, Paper Planes it got raves by many critics but I found it virtually unlistenable due to her singing style and the abrasive percussion. And that was perhaps her biggest hit. So not surprisingly I'm not a fan of Arular, her debut album.

Recommended for someone who wants to know what $10 get you. Also for people who need to hear a song that samples Sanford & Son before they die.

Ik word hier onrustig van.

The most garage band sounding ass piece of shit I’ve listened to in a long while. How In the hell is this on the list? Mix that with her annoying vocal deliveries and you’re in for 40 minutes of hell.

This was album was designed to piss me off. Skits, annoying vocals, questionable beats. And it doesn’t even have “Paper Planes” as compensation. 1/5

ну и херня

She nearly got a 2 and then I thought what has someone got to do to get a 1?? Was pretty annoying to be honest. If Paper Planes was on then it might have gained an extra star.

Great if your a 15 year old female chav! Just not my vibe

noise pollution

I have never heard music so annoying. I could be mistaken, but I believe the Geneva Conventions banned the usage of these synthesizers for being too inhumane to subject POWs to. M.I.A. has such obnoxious vocals. Apparently the lyrics are politically conscious, but I had no clue. I’m sure I’d agree with the messages, but my ears barely processed any of the crap being funneled into them. The only lyrics that stuck out to me were the words to the chorus of “U.R.A.Q.T” because of how stupid they were. This album is universally praised based on what I read on Wikipedia, but I do not get it. 1/5

I’d love to separate the art from the artist but she’s way too Trumpy for me to ignore

Rubbish!

Not giving this B the time of day or my streams. IYKYK.

My brain can’t process this music.

1.5

the type of music that plays when you leave fifa on for 3 hours

pass

Sucks

not to my tastes, but as far as rap goes, its kinda basic. nothing really memorable either way

Really struggled on this one, when I'm not into the music I don't want to go into the lyrics, therefore I kind of slacked... This felt like 1 very long song. Cover : Like the collage and influences !

Not for me

Meh! Not my cup of tea. Bit dull.

rap, electr. dance, RnB, 2005 -> 1

1 - TERRIBLE

This is garbage. Please God, make it stop!!!!!!

No. Just no

Holy shit this is annoying. I'm starting to think that Paper Planes is entirely carried by the sample of Straight To Hell.

Previously rated: #217 - Kala (1/5) ************************** Album #1,089 (FINAL ALBUM!) I really despised the first album from her on this list. It was too long ago to remember why. Please let this be better. Oh, boy, now I remember. Aggressively in your face with her annoying vocals aaaahhhh-AAHHHHH and mind-numbing repetitiveness. The music is mostly annoying too with their loud BAAAAAHHHHHHHHHs and OOOOOOOOMMMs (I don't know how else to describe them). I kinda liked the Sanford and Son sample on U.R.A.Q.T. though. I'm glad Quincy Jones got a credit -- I checked. Didn't like the lyrics. British rap (if that's what this is) always sounds bad. Best track: Bingo

How

I'm not even going to describe how much I hated this.

Pitchfork wankery

Die ersten Takte ertönen. Was ist zu hören. Geräusche vom Schrottplatz. Dazu furchtbares Gestottere! Meine Fresse!

Absolute garbage. Simplistic, repetitive noise. No idea why this is a must listen to, it does nothing worthwhile, and brings no enjoyable listening experience.

This just shows my age. Just didn't like this album, listened through and let's just say it isn't for me, and leave it at that. Because if not, say what an extremely repetitive mess, both rhythmically and lyrically, like what everyone with no talent made when that app was on the 1st ipads, garageband i think.. song development and transition is non existent. Lot of spin about crossing geographical boundaries n all. Sure, thought was being generous at 2 but this is 1 Star

Not my cup of tea

Trying so hard to be cool and edgy is neither cool nor edgy. Everything is crisp, too crisp, it sounds like it was mixed for cheap earbuds or car speakers, to punch through mid speakers, but i'm listening on normal headphones, so the a sit through of the entire album is just punishment. So, hate the music genre, hate the production & hate the content. I easily prefer absolute silence over this assault on the intellect and the senses.

se me borró todo el review lcdll Album olvidable, el ultimo tema safa despues es el mismo tema 13 veces

This subgenre (whatever it falls under) of electronic music is already not my thing, and this album takes that to the extreme. I wish there was some kind of redeeming quality I could find from it, but I just couldn't find any. The music is repetitive and annoying, and for being electronic music, I never even found the beat catchy at any point. It just consistently sounds like audio vomit with nothing even really tying it all together. And I really don't like the way she sings. It's just as obnoxious as the music to me, so I guess at least that's all consistent. And speaking of consistency, there isn't very much variation between songs, it's all very samey. It's a shame, since so many people seem to like it, but this album's a hard no for me. Favorite Song: None

Repetitive childish nonsense

Didn't even make through the second track, grating as hell

I'm impressed! Impressed that an artist can keep such an annoying sing-song/ playground voice going for an entire (over-long) album. It shows a level of dedication indeed. The closest thing I can think of to this is Missy Elliot. I'm not a big fan of Missy, and I'm definitely not a fan in the slightest of MIA. There's little distinction between tracks, other than some strange gaps with a few seconds of total silence, randomly inserted here and there. It's almost like the first track is just extended and ran for the entire 41 minutes. Even the skits sound like they merge into one continuous and awful song. Boom, bap, annoying sing-song vocals, it just keeps going, almost like this was designed to wear me down with its awfulness. The only positive I can see is that anyone listening to this can see how easy it is to make music, even if you have zero musical talent. I don't mark artists down for being trashy people, but once I saw this artist was an anti-vax, Trump supporter I had to briefly reflect on my one star review. But nope, this would be one star even if MIA didn't have awful political views. Total dogshit album.

Seemed interminable.

BEURK !

The electronic instrumental sounds good, but overall it doesn't turn out to be anything special. Rate 2/10

I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that I'm just not cut out for this album a day thing. I thought it was going to be an adventure. I thought I was going to find gem after hidden gem that I'd never heard before and be adding songs to my playlist left, right and centre. Instead, it turns out that I'm just being exposed to unlistenable shite like this. I mean, listen to songs like 10 Dollar or URAQT and tell me it isn't actively annoying to listen to. It's just in irritating repetitive noise. This is album 491 and it's another one - and yes, I sound like my grandad - where I'm not entirely sure it strictly classifies as music. God help me, the last few albums have been hip hop, country & western, shoegaze, whatever Malcolm McLaren is classed as, hip hop (again, so much hip hop) and Captain Fucking Beefheart. I might be about to throw the towel in. I get that this isn't supposed to be the best 1000 albums ever made, but I at least thought they'd be interesting.

Hip Hop, 59 eme album =>1/5

Really? This is on the 1001 albums list? It doesn't have a good first impression. What would you even call this, rap? Spoken word? And it has early 2000s production written all over it, and not in a good way. Maybe this album goes hard in the club? But I'm not really a club person. And if I wanted club bangers from this era, I'd prefer Rihanna or 50 Cent. I guess Amazon is good. And Hombre is okay. I like U.R.A.Q.T. in theory, but the song structure feels all wrong. I'd actually heard Galang before, its okay. But overall, this album isn't for me. actually I don't even know who its for, do people actually enjoy this style of music?

Honestly I didn't think it was creative enough. Even though I listened to it all the way through it was boring and repetitive. Wasn't a fan.

Removed Album #23 (List: https://pastebin.com/cSThNiK9) Cool, another snubbed album. I already know this is going to be hip-hop, though I could probably gleam it from the cover, too. I've been working my way through every hip-hop album on the list that I haven't listened to yet, of which this is listed as such. What brand of hip-hop album this could be is up in the air, however. Is it gonna have more of an African influence? Fascinating. I was fistbumping after predicting the African element in the intro only to be immediately slammed by the electronic sound on the remainder of this album. The instrumentals are decent. I dig this off-kilter, electronic sound. The percussion is especially interesting at the beginning of the album. I'm not sure how it was produced - it sounds like a real instrument that was distorted in the mastering process. The harsh synthesisers in the background are also okay. I like their jittery flow. The vocals suck complete dick, however. I could never get a feel for them. The ethnic-sounding parts are dull and lackadaisical, whereas the cockney-voiced sections are jarring for obvious reasons. I'm typically unbothered by vocals, but I was accosted by the ones on here for nearly the entire runtime. I just couldn't get into 'em. Overall, I thought this was pretty suckin', though I can respect the short runtime. So, why was this album removed? To the book we go. This was in the first edition and was removed from the 2008 revision, where it was replaced with her second album, Kala. I guess the reason is pretty self-evident, then. She's only deserving of one book entry and her second album is the superior showing. But was it ever worthy of inclusion in the first place? To the actual entry we go. The entry compares her to Peaches, whom I'm surprised doesn't have an entry. MIA was backed by the frontwoman of Elastica - another surprise crossover. Drew a lot of attention on the industry side of music. A lot of samples. "Witty choruses" - I'd venture to disagree. To-the-point. Wikipedia says that this album was well-received by critics, was a Mercury Prize nominee, had moderate chart success and was an influence to Thom Yorke of all people. I mean, the album's shit, though it seems to have earned it's fair share of accolades. I cosign this inclusion.

Her whole thing is African drum beats which is good if you're into that.

I have no idea what this is going to be like. Banana (Skit) - 1/10. Repetitive and not enjoyable. Pull Up the People - 2/10. Not my style of music. Electronica under repetitive, hard to understand hip-hop. Bucky Done Gun - 4/10. Better than the first two tracks. Still not my taste. Sunshowers - 4/10. About the same. Fire, Fire - 2/10. I like this less than the last track. Dash the Curry (Skit) - 2/10. Not a fan. Amazon - 3/10. Unpleasantly repetitive and unbalanced in the mix. Bingo - 3/10. I just don't like it. Hombre - 3/10. Not a fan. One for the Head (Skit) - 2/10. Haven't liked the shorts. 10 Dollar - 3/10. This is a track on this album. U. R. A. Q. T. - 4/10. One of the better tracks on the album. Not terribly good, but better than most. Galang - 2/10. Not a fan. M. I. A. - 4/10. Solid lyrics. Not my style, but the message is there. Overall Rating - 1.39/5 (2.79/10). Not a style I particularly like.

not good! it's rare that an album makes me audibly laugh out loud yet the fucking horns on "bucky done gun" had me dying. this album feels... almost good? like with a lot of changes i think i might enjoy it? but the vocals feel grating, every song feels the same, and the heavy electronic drums just feel droning. an unfortunate 41 minutes i cannot get back.

Shit

Português: meu ouvido não é penico! / Inglês: my ear is not a toilet! / Espanhol: ¡mi oído no es un orinal! / Francês: mon oreille n’est pas un pot de chambre ! / Alemão: mein Ohr ist kein Nachttopf! / Italiano: il mio orecchio non è un vaso da notte! / Russo: моё ухо — не ночной горшок! / Árabe: أذني ليست مرحاضًا! / Chinês (mandarim): 我的耳朵不是马桶！ / Japonês: 私の耳は便器じゃない！ / Coreano: 내 귀는 변기가 아니다! / Hindi: मेरा कान शौचालय नहीं है! / Turco: kulağım tuvalet değil! / Holandês: mijn oor is geen toilet! / Polonês: moje ucho to nie nocnik!

Not a rap fan

Truly excreable? Apologies for spelling. I imagine some coked up record executive thought this was a good idea.

Banana Skit n/a Pull Up the People 1.6 Bucky Done Gun 1.8 Fire Fire 1.4 Freedom Skit n/a Amazon 1.5 Bingo 1.2 Hombre 1.4 One for the Head Skit n/a 10 Dollar 1.5 Sunshowers 1.3 Galang 1.4 M.I.A. 1.2 Score: 1.43

No, just fuck no.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, uh, uh, hey, hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey, hey, uh, uh, hey, hey, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey, hey, uh, uh, hey, hey, hey, hey Hey, hey, hey, hey, uh, uh, hey, hey, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh, hey, hey" Your honor, the prosecution rests. ONE STAR

Not my jam…..

452/1001 🤦‍♂️ 🌗🌑🌑🌑🌑

this is so far from me than i’ll ever get 😅 only way i have made it through is background music for minecraft. ⭐️

WHY? Utter rubbish

I have to presume this album was made by people whose only fleeting contact with the concept of music was reading a reference to it in a book - probably a book with large font and lots of pictures. I don’t know how else to explain such lyrical genius such as “hey hey hey uh uh uh” or “galang a lang a lang lang” or my personal favourite “da dang duh duh da dang”.

I don't understand how M.I.A has managed to sneak two albums onto the list, but I think she deserves credit for that. Unfortunately for her, she gets no credit for the “music” would give zero stars if I could

Nope.

omg I hated this so much, I'm sorry. I did listen to "Paper Planes" after (which I heard before but didn't realize it was her, and I do like that song), but this album felt like a teenage girl making songs in her room which were about as good as the songs I'd make in my room when I was a kid. Seriously, the cantankerous bitch in me feels she got an easy pass on that album because she's a minority and female and it was a sort of "fresh voice" kind of thing--I dunno. Not impressed.

Nope.

Absolutely not for me. Sounds like random noises at times. 1.5/5

Not quite my thing but very cool vibe

Nope. Nope. Nope.

It’s somehow monotonous while also being quite varied in its flavours of rubbishness. It is short and no track is too long and I appreciated that, if nothing else. The creative influences do not lead to anything genuinely interesting for me, but quite aware I’m a few steps removed from the target audience. I know many others will have a different take (beyond this 1001 group) but I’d be grateful if this is the last M.I.A on the 1001, please and thank you.

I listened. And listened. Credit where it’s due. Not sure when I’ll receive my medal? OBE for services to music, perhaps? It’s like listening to a foreign singer trying to break into the English music market, using words out of context, incorrectly, or just outright making them up. Immature nonsense that similarly comes from my young kids. My kids drive me mad by the way and less endearing than say baby babble. Maybe Shakira could get involved (another well-known artist with a limited grasp of the English language). They could collaborate on their “Le-do-lo-le-lo-le” — you know, “my breasts are small and humble” and all that jazz. Get a child on a keyboard and boom — another entry sorted for 1002. How. Baa, naa, naaaaaaah. NO!!!

I tried hard to be open minded after the listening to Kala some weeks ago... I took a deep breath, started listening and the first song sounded like it was written and performed by a special needs Tellytubby. At 36 seconds, this was my second favourite track on the album. If you really want to lose some brain cells, do as I did, get the lyrics and read along. I kept an eye out for a particularly stupid verse to include in this review but there are so many laughably terrible ones I couldn't possibly pick one. The majority of it is utter nonsense: "My mum plays bingo, I'm watching Pingu, gimme that thang, yo. This is my gecko" (In case you go looking, I made that one up). I don't know what the process is for inclusion on this list, but I can only assume that someone was trolling when they managed to sneak not just one, but two M.I.A albums on this list. Fair play to you, you got us.

I didn't like it.

non mi è piaciuto, non nel mio genere, lei brava ma musica stile africano un po’ elettronica

not my style of music.

I was trapped in a plane for 2 hours and I just downloaded this album to hear it during the flight, what a f*ng nightmare

In a nutshell: ambitious and haphazard passion project number 1. Overall: 1/10

I can’t imagine this was popular or influential enough to justify including two of her albums in this list.

This was so not my jam.

This was stupid.

1/10

I don’t know who this album is for. Nothing stood out at all to me, just felt bland

Garbage

NOPE

i saw another review that said "in your face, a difficult but wonderful listen" and i agree with two thirds of that statement ...

Dang, this is some hot garbage. Like the other M.I.A. album, I can imagine how some people whose tastes are veeery different from me might enjoy this one. But it's absolutely unlistenable to me. Have to give up half-way through, because this playing in the background is making me angry.

Not my cup of tea

This is terrible. After reading Wikipedia, I get it. Give an amateur a drum machine and this is what you get. I can't point to a single thing I like here.

Wow! This is shit. Baby rattle noises mixed with an annoying voice repeating lines of text over and over. Truly headache inducing crap. This album actively fights its way in to the top worst albums I have heard on this platform. 1/10

Over her. 1.

15/06/2025 Words cannot describe how much I hate this and her music.

Every vocal part sounds like a 5-year-old chanting during a game of hopscotch. Repetitive and childlike. She does an affected rise in pitch at the end of each phrase. After 5 minutes of it, I want to die. There are some interesting electronic textures, but they go nowhere. Every song feels like the dentist drill.

Suggest to rather hear her song Paper planes which is a mash up of Clash «Straight to hell» that is good tune

Tidvis lyttbart, men også enkelte låter som ble irriterende og repeterende.

Berk. Nul. Rébarbatif.

Dire. Just noise

This is #day304 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… I shouldn't forget to clean my ears very thoroughly after this. Like with her previous album, which I got on my #day255, this is a 1 out of 5. This time around, though, my last song on the tracklist was the 4th one. Anyway, you absolutely mustn't hear this before you die. Looking forward to #day305.

We let people get away with murder just cuz we like their accent.

No hate to M.I.A. but this was simply buns, had to split up listening to save my sanity

No idea what MIA was going for, maybe 2 or 3 songs were even listenable

Ass

Unlistenable...

1 - Mierda de Hip Hop

I really hated this

Went in open minded , resulted in loosing brain cells. I listened to Ms Dynamite a few weeks ago and I'm embarrassed for her that MIA is even remotely similar in genre and origin

Jestas! Aika Deuandra Brown vibat saan tästä. Ei ole omaa genreä.

Literal shit

Ugh

Who the hell did this influence other than everyone to turn the channel when they came on the radio?

This was a tough one because I hated it but I also really hated it.

Nope

I would give this a real review if she wasn't a weird anti-vaxxer

Why does she get two mentions on this list, exactly? This one is arguably worse than the last because it doesn't have paper planes which is her sole banger - the rest is mash.

I gave myself a pass after the first 2 songs... its a no for me.

This was such a terrible fucking album. I couldn't listen to any one song all the way through. I need a palate cleanser and legitimately something for my newly developed headache. I can't say enough bad things about this. While AWFUL, still not as bad as Velvet Underground 1. Whatever. Skits are lame 2. Absolutely not 3. No 4. No 5. Better than previous songs. Still not good 6. What? Useless 7. Boring AND bad 8. Not sure how this song can be monotone and boring with so much going on. But it is! 9. These songs sound like that song the Italian musician made to sound like English but was just nonsense 10. OK..? 11. No 12. Best part of this album so far is the Sanford and Son theme song sample. Bad otherwise 13. I'm developing a headache 14. Finally done. I feel like Frodo after having dropped the ring into Mount Doom.

Oh wow, the second album from this band on the list? What a treat. If you’ve ever wondered what pure, raw shit sounds like, look no further.

Junk. Didn't even have the plane song.

This was, somehow, worse than the other M.I.A. album we had to listen to. How in the world does this artist get multiple albums on the list?

Awful

nosy hip hop video game

I only really know M.I.A from Paper Planes, which seems to have dropped a few years later in her career. She seems to have become a bit controversal over the past few years, though her music, at least her early work is still getting praise online. Hope it lives up to the hype. Banana - Skit Definitely a start to the album. Seems to have some decent production. Just not what I was expected. NA/5 Pull Up The People Crunchy electronics. Mixed really loudly. Not in love with that hook. I like the experimental beat. Starts a bit rough but improves throughout the track. Okay performance. Average. 2.5/5 Bucky Done Gun Kinda goofy. Terrible trumpet sample. Abdolutely hate the hook. Obnoxious. Her performance on the verse is so low energy, I think she sounds uninterested in her own song. Rhythm at least saves the track slightly. Kinda hate it. 1.5/5 Sunshowers I really can't stand this production. I find her flow quite irritating. I don't like the hook. By the numbers performance. Disappointing. 1.5/5 Fire, Fire The beat is fine. Has a bit better energy to it. Like how rhytmic it is. The electronic "crashes" sort of overpower everything else. Repetitive, annoying. Doesn't really go anywhere. Did not like. 2/5 Dash the Curry - Skit Okay, that exists. NA/5 Amazon Again the production sucks. Terribly balanced, the mix just does not sound good. It's a shame because I think the vocal performance is pretty good. She shows a decent amount of songwriting ability. Fairly impressed with the verses. Okay hook, decently catchy. Could be a decent song but the production ruins it. 2.5/5 Bingo Steel drums suck. No this isn't good, I need to try really hard to find anything to enjoy here. Maybe there are some parts that are cleverly written, but I just can't vibe with the production and I find her sort of unlikable. Turn it off. 1/5 Hombre Sounds large. Appreciate the creative instumentation. Otherwise I kinda dislike everything else I'm hearing. The post chorus instrumental part kinda works. Not for me. 1.5/5 One for the Head Nokia ringtone type beat. NA/5 10 Dollar Promising start. For once I like the production. I don't mind her performance here. She has some charisma and sounds like she's having fun. The lyrics are questionable. Feels problematic. Don't like. 2/5 U.R.A.Q.T I feel like I've given up at this point. This is clearly not for me. This song just comes across as annoying, can't find anything positive to say. Turn it off. 1/5 Galang More of the same. Repetive. Obnoxious production. Not my thing. She is at least having fun. Like how it ends, sort of melodic. Do not like. 2/5 M.I.A Politcal song. It feels slightly confused never really landing anywhere. Has some decent bars, but repeats messaging we've heard time and time again, often executed better. The oppressed rise up, well maybe someday. Ourside of that pretty standard. Average. 2.5/5 Kinda hated that to be honest. Really don't see the appeal. Horrible production, unlikeable performances, and annoying hooks. At least most songs only had one of those at a time. Obviously I'm not the target audience for this, and I'm guessing people from similar backgrounds to M.I.A herself would find things in there that I'd completely overlook. I don't have much positive to say. Honestly had high expectations so I might've let my disappointment colour my reaction. Really didn't have a good time listening. 1.5/5 leaning towards a 1, though subject to rise upon relisten.

1. banana - 1 2. people - 0 3. gun - 1.5 4. zun - 1 5. fire - 1.5 6. curry - 0 7. amazon - 1 8. bingo - 0 9. hombre - 1.5 10. head - 0 11. dollar - 1.5 12. uraq - 0 13. galang - 1.5 14. mia - 1.5

Stylish well produced stuff. I just happened to hate almost every second of this listening exercise.

And once again we are in the zone that is out of my interest. Listening this album through was not very easy or enjoyable.

Gar nicht meins

WTAF on legs was that. Truly a dreadful, incoherent mess. Album 999 & definitely one of the 10 worst.

1 Катастрофа

this was tolerable on the beginning but as i got to the last few songs i couldnt stand it anymore, this album sucks man, how is this here?

oh ffs! There is zero, and I mean ZERO reason for MIA to take up TWO spots on this list.

Slightly less unpleasant than her other album on this list. Which means... She has TWO albums on this list. Why?!? Deduct one star because....down with that sort of thing!

Just not my thing.

After having some more 'deserving' albums popping up here recently the question has to be, what's this one doing on here? Undeserving in my opinion. Didn't get it, didn't like it

Not a fan of this album. I'll admit to steering away from rap. I can't follow the lyris, as they are often disjointed. The beat and melodies in this album are too simple to be interesting.

Not for me

headache inducing

Utter gibberish.

Crap

Nope

Oh no..

Not in my edition of the book! 2005. 1 star. Hip-hop/rap with a sarf Landan accent. Unbearable. I get the impression she is on the list because she is female, black and British.

A hodgepodge of noise as heard through one end of pvc pipe. Once I've heard all 1001 of these "must hear" albums, I'm going to go back and see how many were actually worth my time. Zero stars

K.I.A. Reminds me of being sat on a bus where some obnoxious teens are playing their crappy music through their phone.

O.B.N.O.X.I.O.U.S.

If I wanted to listen to an angry Londoner shout over dial-up Internet sounds I'd go and listen to, well, I don't actually know because recording and releasing something like that would be mental. I had the other (because for some reason there are two albums on the list) M.I.A album a while ago, and it got 1 star. This album is worse.

I was going to give it 2 stars on the grounds that you can actually listen to it but halfway through I made my mind up. If just for the sheer audacity of being on this list it's not worthy of 2 stars but nobody can in all conscious listen to this all the way through without screaming into the void. It's an album so transparent you can see straight through to the lazy drum machine programming that sits behind every tuneless yelp of this samey, boring, unmusical piece of rubbish. Make it stop.

I wouldn’t buy it. I wouldn’t even steal it on Napster.

Surprised this amateurish debut made the list.

This is horrible

я сейчас мужественно пролистаю все песни и попробую найти то, что мне нравится ... я нашла полтора песни, которые смогла дослушать. абсолютно не мое

My day is ruined and it isn't even 6am

It was terrible

Is this electronic music or hip hop? Either way, it is not good. I guess this is dance music but it's hard to imagine anyone actually dancing to it. I get why a music critic would put this on a list like this, but it's almost unlistenable. Steel drum is a hard instrument to effectively integrate into popular music. It feels like this a forced combination of world music, electronic and hip hop. This manages to be dissonant and repetitive at the same time. Galang is the hit from this album and is definitely the best track. I did not even notice the difference between Galang and M.I.A, when the album ended I was surprised.

Absolute drivel start to finish. Was painful waiting for it to end. Why dud I promised myself to listen yo every album start yo finish. This is a waste of electrons on a computer somewhere.

This album is not for me, I found myself not enjoying the album much at all, the lyrics are extremely repetitive, however the music itself can be interesting at times.

Very simple

A cool sound that's repeated through the whole album thus making it boring. She's anti vax and a 5G conspiracy whack job though. So the max number of stars is 1.

All Terrible

Shame her stance on vaccines made her unlistenable to me. This shit slaps.

Unlistenable garbage. I had to stop the belligerent assault of sonic crap on my ears halfway through, couldn't finish it. Everything about it is dissonant and unharmonious in the most obnoxious way. Hates it!

Tried but I couldn't make it through this album. Way to monotonous and annoying

I found M.I.A annoying and overrated before I heard this album and my opinion remains unchanged. Wow this was unbearable. It begins with an annoying skit in the beginning before several terrible songs play in sequence. The only respite was "Bingo" and the novelty of "U.R.A.Q.T." utilizing a sample of the Sanford and Son theme song but I would never choose to lsiten to these songs again. This honestly felt a lot like noise and frankly made me anxious to listen to this. I'd imagine this is on here for its fusion of world music and hip-hop but I do not think either of these styles is particularly well executed.I wanted to compare this to Yoko Ono's music for some of its more avant garde characteristics, but that would be unfair to Yoko.

Pass

This is not a genre I have any desire to listen to though I found the final track to be tolerable at least. Still 1 star or F for me.

I have to say, its a very different album compared to my first 70+ or so ive had on here. Some interesting sounds and samples or used. But it just isnt my cup of tea musically.

Unimpressed

The fact she’s got two albums on here really shows the British bias. The girl had 1 hit

This one is just bad. 'Provocative lyrics' or not it's not worth burning one's ears with.

Uh

Not my cup of tea. More of a Hip Hop person...

A shitty person made a shitty album. Big surprise.

genuinely could not listen to this i kept skipping and then gave up 1/5

too percussive

1.5

Meh

eh…

This is a waist of vinyl/CD/memory on any device. What a piece of crap,

Simply no -1/5

No

I don't care for this.

I cannot stand the beats in background. It feels like I'm listening to a bunch of electricity. If I wanted to listen to this album, I may as well go to the local science center and put my ear next to the electric ball. Vocals are not for me either. For me, this album has 0 redeeming qualities. My first 1/5

Hated this.

Would never put this album on again! Paper planes seems to be their only good hit

I only know her through the cash register song, which is pretty good. This album is not. This is unintelligible, repetitive, and the music/beats are not appealing at all. Fav tracks: N/A

This project has some very interesting ideas and was highly influential on artists in the internet age. Why does it suck so bad?

Not music, so bad couldn’t finish it.

Hard to get into anything outside of 'Paper Planes'

Annoying is the correct word for MIA. The lyrics just aren't there. Been a hip hop fan for decades, but this is just bad.

Well, succeeded in one thing: most boring one of the 500 in the list so far.

Not a good album in the slightest. Seemed like the artist just picked random phrases to sing over random beats with the most random noises played over it. Would never recommend

This sounds overwhelmingly like the sort of skipping songs that primary school kids used to sing. In isolation some of the tunes aren’t entirely horrendous. Put together, however, this is, I’m afraid, one of the worst things I’ve listened to for a while. It might even be worse than Thriller, and I really hate Thriller with a passion. Whoever categorised this as World music is having a laugh. This is firmly routed in Saaarf London primary schools.

I mean Paper Planes is a banger but damn I don’t vibe with this album

They put this on the list over Graduation?!

Annoying noise, can’t keep up with her admittedly great famous single.

That one is good but otherwise oof

Je suis extrêmement confuse par cet album. Qu'est ce que je viens d'écouter ??

This sounds like a teenager who recorded herself with a Casio keyboard.

The musical equivalent of heart palpitations.

Trash

not for me

omg I hated this so much, I'm sorry. I did listen to \"Paper Planes\" after (which I heard before but didn't realize it was her, and I do like that song), but this album felt like a teenage girl making songs in her room which were about as good as the songs I'd make in my room when I was a kid. Seriously, the cantankerous bitch in me feels she got an easy pass on that album because she's a minority and female and it was a sort of \"fresh voice\" kind of thing--I dunno. Not impressed.

uhhh idk not for me

"Most sparkling debut since Madonna." Madonna is overrated shit, this is unlistenable shit. Fair call.

Schrecklich. Gefällt mir garnicht. 2.7/10

was looking forward to this as I liked what I heard from MIA before specifically "Paper Planes" and her feature on "FRANCHISE", but man this was a painful listen, couldn't finish the album.

Takes every wrong turn. I could probably come up with something more melodic by smashing my head on a piano. DNF

耳は燃えている あまり良い火ではない......

did not finish, style is too experimental for my tastes. an album i'd need to come back to when in the mood for it, i only like a few singles from M.I.A. and they aren't in this album

Horrible. This album is terrible and completely undeserving of any recognition. Shrill, British, female recording artists must have a special place in Robert Dimery's heart as there is nothing remotely redeeming about this atrocity. Something, something British bias and this album doesn't even have this one hit wonder's one hit...

A little repetitive for my taste.

I bet...if you played this for a baby...they'd cry waaaah waaaah 😭

Oh no. List what were you thinking adding these. oh god please no. If I wanted to give myself aids I would have taken a different route, but listening to this album in its entirety gave me aids. So I guess I have aids now

Trash. Offended my musical soul

Oh god this is terrible

Worst one yet

This is very personal taste but do not like the rap style. It sounds whiney and she often go out of key or bend on places that feels wierd. The beats are bland and sometimes annoying. Not an album for me.

Couldn't get through this album. Just when part of a song starts to get catchy, a cacophony of dissonant samples and effects are mashed into your eardrums. On the plus side you get a bit of a break with the skits.

This genre isn’t mine.

Quite exhausting to listen to. Not getting it at all. On track 5 and I am knackered. No sign of any tunes yet. Now giving me a headache. Will not be listening to this again. This one's for the kids. My brain is not wired for this.

Did not like

So wierd i dont like it

ugh, another album of hers? Ok, whatever. Ok, it's awful. 1/5.

Nee, dit werkt echt niet voor mij.

The entire time listening to this album I had that annoyed Clint Eastwood look on my face.