Album of the Year

Yeah, I Figured's Album of the Week - M I A's Kala

Tough pickings this week as a mudslide of high quality product has covered the musical landscape over the past few months. Do we anoint the massively supreme return to form of the Chemical Brother's We are the Night? Wait we already did, but it's so good an extension is certainly not out of the question.

How about some middle of the summer gems that for some reason or another have yet to find electronic ink on this sight. Albums like the long suffering and finally resurrected first album from pop stalwarts, Metric. Grow Up and Blow Away is truly one of the great sugar coated easygoing pop albums that will favorably linger before loosing its taste.

Speaking of Metric, lead singer Emily Haines has released a 6 song companion piece to her masterful debut, Knives Don't Have Your Back, entitled, What is Free to a Good Home? A question I constantly apply to the validity of this here site. Now I've got the perfect soundtrack to help facilitate those deep, dark thoughts.

The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs have also issued a EP to tide fans over until their next. Is Is, is a return to the band's original performance sound - unstructured heavy hitting rock fests led by the piercing pleas of the incomparable Karen O.

The funky sounds of soul are alive and reinvigorated by way of two modern classics, both of which have been supplying Brits with pulse pounding, booty shaking, dancefloor sweat fests for the better part of a year. Mark Ronson's Version, finally got a stateside release for its trumpet fueled reinterpretations of mostly British indie rock standards. Track 6, 'Apply Some Pressure' deserves special mention. This song really puts a smile on my face and hope in my broken heart.

Not to be outdone is Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigator's Keep Reachin Up. Originally released in 2006, this swingin, soulful album is light in length, but heavy in uplift and finally gets shelf space in America. BUY THIS ALBUM! This CD added actual pep to the step of our very own, Hennessy - a man that has always walked a straight line. No further proof needed for the necessity of this instant classic.

Elsewhere, Hip Hop heads are rejoicing in the trifecta of new releases by Common, Aesop Rock, and Kanye West. Arguments can be made that each album bests any of these MC's past accomplishments.

Common's Finding Forever is less a follow-up to Be, but rather an extension. The former's soul sampled sounds are elevated to new heights. Some of the lyrics are less than forgiveable, but overall Common's insightful commentary is spot on. And the production is off the hook.

Aesop's None Shall Pass, is easily the most accessible album he's manufactured to date. I popped this baby in and was immediately overtaken by head-noddin and shoulder poppin. Dude's album is killer.

And what can be said about Kanye West that hasn't already been said by Kanye West? Nothing, except Graduation is a flat out masterpiece. Throw that shit up there with The White Album and all those 70's landmarks J Dot raves about that I ignorantly tune out.

Now, as deserving as any of the above mentioned albums are for selection as Album of the Week, I'm compelled to bestow that honor on legend in the making MIA and her collection of world weary beats, rhythms, and rhymes, Kala. Named after her mother, each track is a total MILF of bang'n, blood soaked, diatribes directed at earbuds of all ages from New York to New Guinea. Don't sleep on this one. The hype is for real. The praise is rightfully so. Albums of such eclectic outreach like Kala don't come along often. We are a damn fools if this album doesn't occupy at least 2 hours of weekly spins...for the rest of our pathetic, wretched, collective lives.

Thanks for reading boys and boys, now get to listening!

(Editor's note: After review, I realized no pandering was made to lone YITS contributor, Treatbox. Well, Kala did inspire the Mij to get up off his RFTC ass and shuffle his feet and pump his fists. This newly created dance can only be described as an indecent mix of Raging Bull shadowboxing sprinkled with Elaine Benes gyrations. Its a sight to behold and an image that will forever haunt the halls of 5 Rudi Circle.)