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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Arular is the sort of record that gets people talking. The debut full-length by Maya Arulpragasam, a refugee of Sri Lankan heritage who settled in London, attended Saint Martin's art school, and designed sleeves for Elastica, it's already set a few dancefloors on fire and stirred up no small amount of controversy in the process. In brief summary: its name is a reference to her father, an active member of the Sri Lankan guerrilla movement Tamil Tigers, a militancy which extends to the album within: "I got the bombs to make you blow", she sings on "Pull Out The People". Still, whatever you make of the ideology, there's no doubting the excellent tunes: self-penned on a basic groovebox and fleshed out with help from producers like Pulp's Steve Mackay and Richard X, the likes of "Bucky Done Gun" and "Galang" dice together all manner of global styles – hip-hop, Bhangra, Jamaican dancehall – and top it off with unmistakable, multi-cultural London sass. Best of all is "Hombre", a come-hither number that should get the boys trembling at the knees: "Excuse me little hombre/ Take my number, call me/ I can get squeaky so/ You can come and oil me" --Louis Pattison
Product Description
CD
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By mister joe
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
this album was like being hit over the head with a bat.but in a good way.mia is a very,very talented performer who oozes charisma,confidence.it embarrasses me to gush like this as normally im a hip,postmodern twit but i love this record.if you have ears buy this record.if u dont like it give it to someone else then resign yourself to the fact you have no discernible taste and should be listening to kings of leon.this is vibrant,creative music made by a fiercely creative individual.this girl is one sassy sexy chick who leaves most other female performers on the side of a road with a satchel on,their thumb out hitch hiking to modicum-of-talentsville.forgive me for my apalling attempt of analogy.just click add to basket.Presidential Suite/Switched on Gonzo
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
OK, so taste is taste, but i'm amazed at all the negative reviews for one of the freshest, most original, and goddammit brilliant records of recent years. If you like the sound of a Missy Elliot without the #@!&$ ballads and a London emigre slant then this is for you. Arular is, quite frankly, the Nuts!
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I Can't Believe the review below me, surely the vocals are absolutely and totally catchy and fresh and only add to the eclectic soundscapes diplo puts up.
I thought this was amazing and totally original.
Its up to you to make your own opinion though
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By "kerblamo"
Format:Audio CD
maybe globalisation isn't so bad after all. here we have a sri-lankan born refugee living in britain, playing cut & paste with modern society, picking and choosing genres and countries of music and toying with the very essence of their sounds. it's plastic, colourful and beautiful in an indescribable way, when i heard that m.i.a. had been a visual artist before pursuing a career in music i wasn't in the least bit surprised; arular is an aural sketchbook, a rich, worldly melting-pot of modern music drawing from dancehall, hip-hop, bhangra and electro. being the postmodern fusion that it is, arular is full of contradictions, east meets west, a party record with a socio-political conscience, and strangest of all, this record is completely out of touch with what's happening in music today, yet at the same time this record is so undeniably 21st century. wether this is the future of music or merely an underground oddity i do not know, but i am certain that it will make your ears happy.
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. G. Aku
Format:Audio CD
Now I never thought I would give M.I.A 5 stars. I saw her first video being played in TopShop ages ago and thought what the hells this. It wasnt the song, it was me thinking theres this south asian girl acting all ghetto and not doing a good job about it...how wrong was I. Like a car wreck I kept watching and thought hang on Im liking this. I looked into and no one knew anything about it or her. I searched the net and started getting snippets of her work. I got my hands on the Galang and Sunshowers single and was hooked. Here was a girl that was flipping out tracks that were something different...no rules no process just music, beats and vocals laid down in such a random way but working on so many levels. Cut a long story short at first listen a lot of people are not gonna know whats hit em but all Ill say is let it M.I.A hit you and let her sound infiltrate you. There is nothing like this out there and trust me its the most refreshing thing out there. This is nothing like Missy Elliots stuff but we all remember when she blew up loads of people didnt know what to make of her well M.I.A is gonna do the same thing.
Beautiful, random, crazy, colourful, heavy b-lines, tropical, ethnic, western, re-inventing, smooth, new, fresh, cool, hot, spicy, electronic, funky... all words that I can use to describe the album and what Ive gathered of M.I.A her as well.
A must for the adventurous of you and anyone whos looking for something new.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It is hard to imagine how marvellous this music is. It is extremely hot just as the look of Maya itself. I firmly convinced that this music speaks louder than even the most persuasive words of one`s recommendation so I am helpless in expressing what I feel when I put it into my CD player. It`s like somebody would try to verbally describe the music of erich zann from Lovecraft`s story. Task highly improbable.
By Stijn
Format:Audio CD
Well i haven't had so much listeningsessions yet , but it's a good album and it's harsh , hard , il like but sometimes it's to hard for me, should give it some more listens perhaps?
By DDGH
Format:MP3 Download
I have loved Bucky Done Gun and Galang so I was interested in this album. I finally recieved it and immediately gave it a listen, and it was brilliant! I'm not sure what to say about it review wise, but every track stood out and there is not a track I could not see as a single. Well, maybe not the skits on the album but they are addictive and fun. Definetly my favourite M.I.A. album and one of my favourite albums ever. My favourite tracks are Pull Up The People, Bucky Done Gun, Fire Fire, Amazon, 10 Dollar and Galang. That's a lot of favourite tracks but the album is just that good!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece flawlessly presented on vinyl
Despite this being an electronic album it sounds very good on vinyl, preferable to cd.
There's not much to be said about the album that hasn't already been said, except for if... Read more
There's not much to be said about the album that hasn't already been said, except for if... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Ø. Hjartnes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very very good!
This is the sound of the 21st century. This is the sound of globalisation (and proof that that needn't necessarily be a dirty word! Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2007 by AD
3.0 out of 5 stars
Keep the vocals, put some attitude in the beats
Some seem to like the beats on this album but not the vocals, I am the opposite. While I really like her delivery, the beats seem really wet to me. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2007 by Captain H
3.0 out of 5 stars
Innovative and Interesting
[...]--there's really no reason to attack the woman's accent because you find it too "upper middle class," for example. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2007 by anju
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hard to warm to
I wanted to like this album but it is so difficult. I actually gave the CD to my sister & she is pretty open-minded when it comes to music. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2006
1.0 out of 5 stars
bloody awful
sounds like a third world elementary school class on a field trip to a crack factory. if this music is so revolutionary and worldly.
Published on 4 Jan 2006
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not much cop really.
I bought this a good while back, listened to it a bit, and then wondered whether it would grow on me. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2005 by T. J. Stickland
1.0 out of 5 stars
unlistenable
I read somewhere that she was upset that she missed out on the mercury prize and she felt kind of cheated because her music was the only 'original' thing in the... Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2005 by M. Robbins
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