After months flying through space, the bad press meteor that is M.I.A. finally crashed on Earth as /\/\/\Y/\ (Maya), her first new album since 2007’s Kala, came out this week. But, instead of making a mind-blowing follow-up, and proving she has some substance beyond her frustrating public image, M.I.A. released a mess — an atonal collection of unpolished half-ideas that do little to push her forward artistically.
     M.I.A. has always been kind of controversial. She’s outspoken about her relatively radical (and sometimes misinformed) political views, feelings about other, more mainstream, artists, and her own musical abilities. So yeah, she’s annoying. With a new record, though, M.I.A. has a platform, the only one that really matters, to show the world what she’s all about. And what does she do? Releases a song called “Teqkilla”, a messy party jam with the chorus, “I got sticky sticky icky icky weed/I got a shot of tequila in me.”

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Buy this album at iTunes.